Ridley's Believe It Or Not March 18 History National Biodiesel Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—March 18, 2015 Trust your St. Patrick’s Day was blessed with shamrocks and good blarney. Dallas Seavey crossed the Nome finish line early this morning ahead of his father Mitch Seavey who left the Safety checkpoint 22 miles away from Nome 1 hour and 13 minutes after Dallas mushed into Nome. Jessie Royer and Aliy Zirkle are in fourth and fifth place two and one half minutes apart after leaving White Mountain 77 miles from Nome. DeeDee Jonrove, the youthful 61 year old who has raced the Iditarod 33 times has climbed up to 29^th and is in Koyuk and Cindy Abbott moved up to 69^th and has left Nulato 393 miles from Nome. Talk about one happy musher and two very happy dogs! Dallas because he has won this race three out of the last four years and for enduring temperatures of as low as -50 below and on the trail for 8 days 18 hours 13 minutes 6 seconds, he will win $70,000 and a new truck valued at $40,000; the dogs happy because no more sleeping on straw in the cold. As to the rest of the mushers still on the course one can only imagine the perseverance in takes to continue and be able to look in the mirror and smile—“I raced in the Last Great Race on Earth and finished!”

                                                             

As always, I  hope you enjoy the holidays and observances, factoids of interest, music video, and a relevant quote  and a relevant quote from Neville Chamberlain, enjoying some lacy oatmeal cookies, blessed  with a positive attitude even though you know you will have to wade through tons of spam in your inbox, and secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable event like birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
       1. Oil Expropriation Day (Mexico)—celebrating the expropriation by Mexico in 1938 of all mineral and petroleum reserves found in Mexico and the nationalization of all companies engaged in the production and refining of petroleum.
       2. National Biodiesel Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1858 of Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine and a great visionary who believe his diesels could be powered by fuel from vegetable oil.
      3. 1985 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song on this day in 1985, as part of a 3 week run Can’t Fight This Feeling by REO Speedwagon, an American rock ‘n roll band formed in 1967 that sold over 40 million records but whose success faded in the 90’s. Here is a link to the song being performed by the band. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xv5uft_reo-speedwagon-can-t-fight-this-feeling_music
      4. National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day—not sure this highly evolved omnivore knows the difference between an oatmeal cookie and a lacy oatmeal cookie but the photos on the internet looked inviting.

      5. Peace In Our Time Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1869 of Neville who appeased Hitler by forcing the Czechs to cede over to Germany the Sudetenland so Germany could protect the ethnic Germans there (Ukraine and Crimea have a similar ring with Putin playing Hitler).                                                                                                          

On this day in
     a. 1850 American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
     b. 1937 the Pedaliante, the first human powered aircraft flew a distance of one kilometer, leaving one very tired pilot gasping for breath.
     c. 1965 Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space, exiting from his orbiting Voskhod 2 spacecraft for 12 minutes.
    d. 1968 the U.S. Congress voted to end the requirement of a gold reserve to back U.S. currency.                                                           
     e. 1974 to the relief of American, European and Japanese motorists, OPEC ended its 5 month oil embargo; another stark reminder of why we need Keystone XL.
Déjà vu words that if our current president spoke with a British accent would be even more of a chilling reminder of the consequences of appeasement: “However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbours, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account.” Neville Chamberlain We in the Middle East and around the world are reaping the seeds of American withdrawal and lack of leadership planted by this administration.

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