March 17, 2017 Ridley's Believe It Or Not St. Patrick's Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For March 17, 2017  The agony of the 19 remaining mushers on the Iditarod is almost over with 3 out from Safety including 63 year old DeeDee Jonrove  (48^th place) all of whom should be in Nome before noon. Three mushers have left White Mountain in the early morning darkness, leaving five behind still resting. Of the other remaining seven trailing mushers, two have left Elim, 123 miles from Nome and the remaining five are still resting there with Cindy Abbott in next to last place; Tillerson is not mincing words that the U.S. is putting all military options on the table with respect to curtailing North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, including one that is really frightening, the nuclear option (China hopefully is listening as their involvement on the civilized world’s side would shut down North Korea in a second and a unified Korea would mean millions upon millions of sales to them since the experience of the South would mean that the economy of the North would skyrocket creating millions of consumers who are no longer starving); Trump and Germany’s Merkel will be meeting in Washington today and holding a joint press conference; Blues are howling over Trump’s proposed cuts in discretionary spending and increased spending for the military and border security; how can the Secret Service protect the president when they are so careless that a laptop with floor plans on Trump Tower and files on the investigation of HRC’s private server was stolen from an agent’s car in New York; almost like a stuck record, the carnage in Chicago continues unabated with total shootings in 2017 through March 16 increasing to 627 and the death toll rising to 115 (God help those poor minorities being shot mostly by minorities when the weather gets warmer and the shooters’ aim gets really better and there is more daylight) and yet nothing, absolutely nothing, appears to be occurring to address this blight on blacks and minorities which is what racism from a black mayor really looks like;

    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Bruce Channel, factoids of interest for this day in history, a relevant quote from Katie Ledecky, while impressing your friends by using uncinate to describe someone’s epileptic seizure, 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.  Saint Patrick’s Day—hope you are wearing green today to celebrate and that you enjoy your corned beef and cabbage and Guinness.

2.  Submarine Day—celebrating the demonstration by John Phillip Holland of a submarine propelled by internal combustion on the surface and electric batteries while submerged on this day in 1898. The demonstration so impressed Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt that he recommended purchase of the submarine.   

3. 1962 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1962 on a run of 3 weeks in that position “Hey! Baby” by Bruce Channel.  Here is a recording of him performing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik9dxkKriV0  Check out the narrow tie and short haircut. He is still going strong at 76. 

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “uncinate” which bent at the tip like a hook and often used to describe an epileptic seizure.

5. Waves of Freedom Blow—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1997 of Katie Ledecky who when she finally leaves the pool will be known as the greatest female swimmer of all times and after one gold medal in the 2012 Olympics and four in the 2016 Olympics is now swimming for Stanford whose motto is “Winds of Freedom Blow.”

On this day in:                                                                                   

a. 1776 the British are forced to evacuate their forces from Boston after George Washington and Henry Knox place canons on the heights overlooking the town.      

b. 1941 the National Gallery of Art was opened by President Roosevelt.
c.  1958 the U.S. successfully launched Vanguard I, the first solar powered satellite into orbit (the first attempt sadly on national television rose to four feet off the ground and exploded.

d. 1992 a referendum in South Africa to end apartheid was approved by a vote of 62.7 % of the voters. 

e.  2003 in a real I told you so moment, Robin Cook, Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs resigned in protest over Britain’s joining the coalition to invade Iraq to remove Hussein over the nonexistent nuclear weapons.                                           

Reflections on how to succeed in life from today’s birthday girl: " People always ask, ‘Don’t you feel the pressure?’ And I really don’t feel it. I’ve just always set goals. When I was a kid, I would write them down, and I would work toward them, and that’s still pretty much what I do.” Wise words indeed for a recipe to succeed in life or in a swimming pool. 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.

© March 17, 2017, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

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