Every boy of a certain age knows those words. It's when things got serious and Ben Grimm AKA The Thing would put his special skills to use. Grimm, of course, was one of The Fantastic Four, the comic book brain child of Stanley Lieber, who had his own nom de plume. Stan Lee became known as “the” comic book guy. Lee died yesterday at the age of 95. He was the editor in chief of Marvel Comics when it was just a small part of a larger publishing house. But it was his gifted imagination along with guys like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and his brother Larry Lieber, who gave us the likes of The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Black Panther, Ant-Man, the X-Men and of course, Spiderman. Spiderman was my go-to superhero when I was a kid. The comic books I read at the barber shop, or the back of the Wausau News Agency downtown were mostly not of the super-hero variety. Two of my faves were Army themed. Sgt Rock leading a platoon of Allied grunts vs the Nazi's. And the Haunted Tank…an excellent bunch of stories about an American tank crew fighting the Germans inside a Sherman tank haunted by the ghost of Confederate cavalry general Jeb Stuart. Those, along with the Archie comic book series made up much of my reading in those days. With the exception of Spiderman. To me, he seemed more relatable than any of the other Marvel heroes. Lee, started his career in the early 40's and his first comic book work came in a Captain America adventure in 1941. His first creation was the Destroyer later that year. He, later that year became editor of the company at the age of 19 and stayed in that position until 1972 when he became publisher. In the late 50's, DC Comics revived the super-hero genre and started giving the heroes some flaws. Lee, at the suggestiuon of his wife, decided to try that route. He started writing characters that had bad days, tempers, fits of depression, and other everyday problems. And the other thing was, they all shared the same universe, which of course has led to the blockbuster Avenger movies of today. His stories dealt with all kinds of adult topics including drug use and the racism of the time period leading to characters like Robbie Robertson, Falcon and Black Panther…some of the first African-American characters in the comics. He later came to play various cameo roles in both the comic books and the movies. I would imagine most of you reading this have been touched by Stan Lee in some way. Even if you werent a heavy consumer of comic books, you probably have seen the movies or tv shows, or at least know of the famous characters he created. He made comic books cool….and if that's not his epitaph, it should be.
Speaking of cartoons ( if you can call it that) Walt Disney's “Fantasia” debuted on this date in 1940. It, of course, had a revival in the late 60's as college students celebrated it's “far-out” look.
Early start for the Badger/Xaiver hoops game tonight…pre game at 4:30 on WSAU.
Also, the high school girls basketball season gets underway tonight. My first broadcast of the winter season will be Thursday as the Wausau East girls play at Mosinee. You can hear the East broadcasts, as always on Foxsports Radio AM1390 & FM 93.9 and as podcasts archived at everythinglumberjacks.com
The NRA told doctors to “stay in their lane” when it came to talking about gun control. As you might expect, it didn't go well. Here is one response from a group of health care providers:
Some positives from last weeks election. The US just elected 9 new scientists to Congress, including an ocean expert and a bio-chemist. The members of the current Congress include one physicist, one micro-biologist, one chemist as well as eight engineers and one mathematician. There are also three nurses and 15 doctors. The new members ran with the help of a non-profit PAC called 314 Action which is dedicated to recruiting, training and funding scientists and health-care workers who want to run for political office. The thinking was that since Congress often deals with alot of complex issues like climate change and healthcare, the country should have more professionals in place who really understand those issues. Seems logical to me.
Quotes Of The Day
“Those 5000 troops sitting on the border waiting for a few bedraggled migrants to show up a month from now coould be digging fire lines and helping to evacuate people from California instead”-Clara Jeffrey
“1,747,742 votes for Democrats in North Carolina = 3 Congressional seats. 1,638,684 votes for Republicans =10 Congressional seats. This is wrong.”-Henry Lister
“I'm far less interested in stories about which Dems plan to run for President in 2020 than in those Dems explaining what they're doing NOW to stop a lawless president. It's a BAD Look to have stories written about your political ambitions at a time when US politics is collapsing.”-Seth Abrahmson
“Trumps European Vacation was as bad as the movie. He wimped out of honoring our fallen troops because of misting. He moped around his motel room and insulted fire victims. And he was scorched by the French President. This is not winning. This is a national embarrassment.”- Rep Eric Swalwell
“Trump likes to throw Twitter bombs that explode in concentric circles of offensiveness. He delivers speeches that contain insults and falsehoods…But on a trip to Europe, he hardly said a word–and he still managed to outrage at almost every turn.”-Dan Eggen
“Trump doesn't visit American soldiers abroad. Not when they're alive. Not when they're dead.”-David Corn
“I have a son who fought in Iraq in 110 degree heat w/50 pounds of gear. an older brother who rescued people in the squalls of biiter cold on the deck of a Coast Guard cutter on Lake Superior, a younger brother who guarded embassy in sand storms in Kuwait; and Trump can't go out in the rain?”-Matthew Dowd
“Just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom among even Democrats, was that crossing the NRA was political suicide. No one believes it anymore.”-Paul Waldman
“Stop re-enacting your father's coldness toward you. You're not Fred Trump and we aren't 10 year old you. Stop it, you shitty shitty person. Feign humanity.”-Sarah Silverman
“Injustice of those in prison fighting wildfires in California isn't just their $1 per hour paycheck. Once released, they can't get hired as firefighters. People spend years saving lives while incarcerated then struggle to find a place to do the same work when free.”-Scott Hechinger
“You can't divide the country up into sections…and you can't encourage people's prejudices. You have to appeal to people's best instincts, not their worst ones.”- Harry S. Truman
Songs Of The Day (yesterday was Neil Young's 73rd birthday)
