October 13, 2017 Ridley's Believe It Or Not English Language Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For October 13, 2017  Fires continue to rage in the Northern California wine country with the death toll rising to 31 with hundreds missing; President Trump will be halting payments to insurance companies as Obamacare continues to implode with premiums and deductibles soaring through the roof (the gravest threat to our republic is the fact that because of partisanship, Congress has become useless in addressing the issues that face us, forcing an imperial president by executive action to get anything accomplished); it looks like Harvey Weinstein is not the only one with a reptilian brain out of control as a former Playmate of the Month Carrie Stevens has alleged that Oliver Stone at a public party grabbed her breast and honked it like a horn; President Trump signals intent to decertify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal pushed through by Obama and Kerry as a 54 page reports released by an Iranian resistance group in Iran revealed the existence of several clandestine sites under the control of the military where work on nuclear weapons development is continuing full steam; almost a stuck record or a gruesome  remake of Groundhog Day, Chicago style,  the carnage in Chicago continued unabated with total shootings in 2017 through October 12 increasing to 2993 (look to that number this weekend to soar past 3,000) and the death toll rising to 517 while nothing is being done to hinder or prevent the killings of minorities by minorities.

    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Queen, factoids of interest for this day in history, hoping that your day is free of triskaidekaphobia, a relevant quote from Lenny Bruce on liberals, 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. English Language Day—commemorating a language spoken by over two billion people with non native speakers outnumbering natives and a vibrant language that adds thousands upon thousands of words each year. 

2. International Plain Language Day—an observance promoting the use of plain, easily understood language in business and relations and in a perfect world in the political and regulatory environment an absence of gobbledygook which is a goal rarely reached reading the Internal Revenue Code or in listening to the pronouncements of the head of the Federal Reserve. 

3. 1980 Number One Song—the number one song in 1980 on a run of three weeks was “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of for this Friday the 13^th is “triskaidekaphobia” which means a fear the number 13.   

5. Freedom of Speech Can Be Hilarious—celebrating the birth on this day in 1925 of Leonard Schneider better known to his fans and prosecutors hell bent on prosecuting him for obscenity in his comic acts as Lenny Bruce. A navy vet in World War II, he was arrested many times for obscenity charges in his stand up comic routines and struggled with addiction to die of a morphine overdose on August 3, 1966.

On this day in:                                                                                   

a. 1775 the Continental Congress authorized the establishment of the Continental Navy only to disband it two years after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1883 ending the Revolutionary War. 

b. 1792 the cornerstone for the Executive Mansion (the White House) was laid. 

c. 1845 a majority of voters in Texas approved a constitution which when approved by the U,S, Congress made Texas a  state of the United States.   

d. 1903 the Boston Red Sox defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series.  

e. 1983 Ameritech Communications now AT&T installed the first cellular network in the U.S. in Chicago and peace and quiet as we used to know it disappeared and the art of conversation due to the smart phones that followed with texting abilities went into a steep decline.       

Reflections on why Hillary was destined to lose from a comedian made before she had graduated from college: “The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.” Lenny Bruce Listening to the rants fo Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren and Gloomer Schumer, Lenny was right on,
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.                                                                                       © October `13, 2017, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

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