Sunday, August 10, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not August 10 History National S'Mores Day



Ridley's Believe It Or Not—August 10, 2014:  As the weekend comes to a close, hope you enjoy the holidays posted, along with the factoids and quote from Ruth Asawa (talk about a positive attitude in the face of adversity) with a smile on your face, a Duran Duran song on your iPod,  a happy attitude and a plate of s’mores.
           1. International Biodiesel Day—celebrating the transesterfication of plants into diesel since 1853 as a means to free users from petroleum.
           2. National S’Mores Day celebrating that simple treat appearing in the Girl Scout Handbook in 1927 and featured this morning on Fox News—graham crackers, chocolate bars and toasted marshmallows.
           3. National Duran Duran Appreciation Day---celebrating one of the iconic bands of the 80’s who pushed video music to its limits—great songs as long as you do not have to decipher the lyrics.  
           4. National You Don’t Have To Own A Car To Want A Fender--celebrating the birthday on this day of Leo Fender the maker of the legendary Fender Guitars, guitar of choice of most musicians.
          5. National Hoover Day--celebrating not one of the iconic vacuum cleaners but the birthday on this day in 1874 of Herbert Hoover former President and namesake for one of the great scholarly institutions and public policy think tanks of the world—the Hoover Institution located at Stanford University.
On this day in
             a. 1978 three members of the Ulrich family are killed in a Ford Pinto leading to a flood of lawsuits and millions upon millions of dollars of judgments resulting from Ford’s failure to spend $11 per car to prevent the exploding gas tank problem—a precursor to the problems facing GM in the ignition switch problem fixable for less than a dollar—When will they ever learn?
             b. 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 attempting to right one of the great stains on this nation’s history the internment of its Japanese-American citizens during World War II by paying survivors or relatives $20,000 each.  
             c. 1995 Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people including children and injured over 680. McVeigh was executed and Nichols is serving a life without possibility of parole sentence.      
Why finding a positive attitude in a sea of negative chaos is so important: “Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be whom I am today had it not been for the internment, and I like who I am/” Ruth Asawa, noted Japanese-American artist a sculptor known in San Francisco as the “fountain lady” who passed away in 2013 Great words to live by!               
Please enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for comments on important and breaking news events that should be of interest.
© August 10, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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