August 21, 2016 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Poets' Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For August 21, 2016 Only 79 waning days to go for Trump to pivot before we elect a new president and 258 days since Hillary has held a formal press conference (where is the outrage of the press?); in the photo op department, Trump just crushed Hillary and Obama by in the aftermath of the flooding devastation flying to Louisiana and with Pence unloading needed food supplies while Obama is as usual playing golf and Hillary was “resting” but with enough to fly 20 miles in a private jet (typical hypocrisy on carbon footprints) to one of two fund raisers; in addition to the phrase “Mr. Brexit,” watch for “what do you have to lose,” to appeal to African American voters whose only value to the Blues has been their vote and then quickly abandoned; another great reminder that the world under Obama has gone to a hell in a hand basket, a suicide ISIS bombing at a wedding in Turkey killed 51 and wounded almost 70 (what is really chilling is that the suicide bomber was believed to be a 12 year old boy); Turkey is ramping up its calls to extradite the Muslim cleric Gullen who represents exactly the form of Islam in terms of tolerance we need to have in dealing with radical Islam; the nanny state epitomized by Obamacare with its 10 percent tax on tanning salons has passed the 10,000 mark in terms salons that have closed their doors; and more cases of Zika reported in Florida—we are running out of time here while the Blues in the Senate blocked a House funding bill.

        On the sports front, Brazil won the gold in men’s soccer; the American men play today for the gold in basketball and try to duplicate what the American women did (thank God for Title IX); the U.S. leads with 116 medals as the Olympics come to an end.   

         As Trump is becoming more presidential, going to www.lyingcrookedhillary.com is a great way to start your day along of course with www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com and reading Clinton Cash would be a great read to understand the quid pro quo mentality of the Clintons.

       As always, I hope  you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Frankie Valli, factoids of interest,  relevant quotes from Salman Rushdie, Plato, and Allen Ginsberg, while looking forward to enjoying a tasty pecan torte, blessed with a positive attitude and  secure in  the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events 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. Poet’s Day—this is one the Alaskanpoet’s favorite observances and it should be yours to whether writing a poem, reading one or better yet going to one of the many poems on www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com and enjoying it—writers of prose merely write but poets  write with special powers of imagination or expression.    

2. Senior Citizens Day—created by Presidential Proclamation in 1988 to honor the accomplishments of our senior citizens who although they may be entering the winters of their lives in terms of willingness to experiment and deal with life are in the early summers.           

3. 1978 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1978 on a run of two weeks in that position “Grease” by Frankie Valli. Here is a link to Frankie Valli’s recording of “Grease.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVB3vHjKhs Looks like a skinny young Sylvester Stallone does he not?  

4. National Pecan Torte Day—celebrating another great way to end a meal with a great desert.    
5. It’s All In The Name—celebrating the birth of John Graham Mellor on this day in 1952 who discovered his talent as a musician and changed his name to Joe Strummer to highlight his guitar playing abilities and formed the British punk rock band The Clash but strummed his last tune at the age of 50 due to a heart attack from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.            

On this day in:

a. 1883 in a good things come out of tragedies, an F-5 tornado destroyed about a third of Rochester, Minnesota where Doctor Mayo and his family resided. With the help of other doctors and the Sisters of St. Mary, Mayo set up a temporary hospital to treat the injured which evolved over time to become the Mayo Clinic considered by many to be the number one hospital in the world.       

b. 1988 William Burroughs received a patent for his successful adding machine.       

c. 1957 the Soviets successfully tested their S-7 Semyorka missile, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile which was used to put Sputnik into orbit on October 4, 1957.

d. 1967 James Anderson, Jr. was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for throwing himself on top of a grenade to save his fellow Marines; he became the first African American Marine to be so honored.        

e. 2013 after Obama had drawn a red line in the sand if Syria used chemical weapons in its civil war, Assad called his bluff and Syrian war planes dropped canisters of sarin nerve gas killing almost 300 defenseless civilians in the Ghoula suburb of Damascus.       

Reflections on what a poet might be: “A poet's work . . . to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.” Salman Rushdie

“Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.” Aristotle

“Poets are damned… but see with the eyes of angels.” Allen Ginsberg  Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day In History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© August 21, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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