June 1, 2016 Ridley's Believe It Or Not International Parents' Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For June 1, 2016 Finally only 233 days to endure President Obama’s pathetic lame duck term. Political theater in really high gear with Hillary watching Sanders surge leaves New Jersey in a panic mode but until holding two fund raising events raking in several million dollars in a and heads back to California and Sanders hot on the campaign trail with four events today; Trump blasts the media at his news conference and provided evidence of almost $6 million raised for veteran groups (Clinton and her Foundation $0) and heads to California to hold rallies and divert attention from Clinton and Sanders; in a you have to be kidding moment Billie Kristol is looking at National Review staff writer William French to run as an independent candidate (great way to sell subscriptions but a total waste of campaign donations if anyone would be dumb enough to contribute); Obama is chomping at the bit to campaign for Hillary which is good as it will keep him away from his job killing executive pen and remind voters that four years of Hillary is four more years of Obama and the worst recovery in modern times and finally the most troubling poll of all that was just released revealing that even if she is indicted which she should be, 71% of democratic voters would still vote for Hillary. 

As always I trust your Wednesday is off to a great start and that you will enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Ricky Nelson, factoids of interest, a relevant quote from Azriel Johnson,  while  looking forward to enjoying  a slice of hazelnut cake (killer recipe below), blessed with a positive attitude and  secure in  the knowledge that, if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like FATHERS’ DAY, GRADUATIONS, 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. International Parents’ Day—created by the UN to acknowledge the important contribution of parents to the welfare of children, who are recognized on the same day with International Children’s Day; for reasons that escape me in the U.S. Parents’ Day is observed since 1994 on the fourth Sunday in July. If your parents are still alive and you want to be more of a global citizen and don’t want to wait until July 24, call or visit them today and thank them for all they did for you in your upbringing and adult life.   

2. World Milk Day—created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN in 2001 to recognize the importance of and contribution to our nutritional well being of milk.   

3. 1961 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1961 on a run of two weeks in that position Travelin’ Man by the Ricky Nelson.  Here’s a link to Ricky Nelson looking very young and sporting a natty bow tie performing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0janfcZ8LUw

4. National Hazelnut (Filbert) Cake Day—celebrating a cake that will disappear very quickly; here is a recipe for a chocolate hazelnut cake complete with a video of the instructions for those of you who might be culinary challenged: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chocolate-hazelnut-cakes-107559  Bon appétit!   

5. Never Let Youth Hold You Back—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1979 in Stockholm of Marcus Persson who starting writing computer code when he was 8, never finished high school but created a game Minecraft, and founded a company called Mojang which he sold to Microsoft for $2.8 billion—not bad for a high school drop out.

On this day in:

a. 1495 a monk, John Cor, to the joy of future lovers of Scotch, recorded the first distilled batch of Scotch.   

b. 1660 in what has to be a complete failure of tolerance and a reason why our First Amendment is so precious,  Mary Dyer, a Quaker, was hanged for violating numerous times Massachusetts’ law banning Quakers from entering the colony. 

c. 1916 Louis Brandeis became the first Jewish justice of SCOTUS.                    d. 2009 General Motors filed for bankruptcy under Chapter XI—the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

e. 2012 President Obama ordered covert cyber attacks with Stuxnet, a computer virus, against computers at Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz aimed at disrupting the uranium enrichment program and deterring Israel from launching convention bombing attacks on the facility.  

    Reflections being a stepparent: “Step parents are not around to replace a biological parent, rather to augment a child’s life experience.” Azriel Johnson, noted author and poet and founder of Writing Knights Press As a person who was fortunate enough to have had his life augmented by a stepfather, I can affirm the veracity of that observation.    

 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.

© june 1, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 
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