Pwer* (for Power*)

I've blogged about the Powerpuff Girls and the power of squirrels, but never both together in the same posting. The other night I caught an episode of PPG called "Stray Bullet" in which Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup discover a baby squirrel who's been mauled by a mean old owl and then take it home to nurse it back to health. He/she (they can't decide whether to name the patient Lady Josephine, Miss Fluffy, or Bruce) soon recovers and, in fact, develops superpowers of its own, thanks to Bubbles slipping it a bit of Chemical X. The squirrel is then deemed an honorary Powerpuff Girl and given the "B-name" Bullet. But here's the cool thing: it's a red squirrel, despite the fact that the story takes place in "Townsville, U.S.A." (In some cultures, redheads are thought to have supernatural powers, yet the beleaguered red squirrels in Europe seem to be losing the battle.) Later the Powerpuff Girls watch a TV documentary about the "clever and endearing forest squirrel." (The squirrel is gray.) "A highly intelligent creature, known for its charm and resourcefulness, the common North American tree squirrel is a natural acrobat..." The girls object: "That's nothing! Bullet can jump miles further than that! Of course she can! Bullet can fly, silly! Bullet's the best super-squirrel in the whole wide world! No, Bullet's the best any kind of squirrel in the whole wide world! No, Bullet's the best any kind of animal in the whole wide world..." Bring your own superpowers to bear on our typo of the day, which was was found nine times in OhioLINK (all legitimate) and 272 times in WorldCat (a mixed bag).

("Cycling Squirrels? Someone has adapted the warning sign for the West Yorkshire Cycleway, except that red squirrels no longer occur in this area." February 17, 1991, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid