November 4, 2017 Ridley's Believe It Or Not King Tut Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For November 4, 2017 Trump is off to Asia for 11 days at a very important juncture in our history involving trade and the North Korea nuclear program (thank God we have a forceful leader as opposed to the wimp that used to occupy the Oval office or the person who lost who would have had the North Koreans licking their chops with glee over the fact they had bamboozled her husband for eight years starting in 1993); Mark Unergrove’s latest book The Last Republicans reveals that George H. W. Bush voted for HJC and considers Trump a blowhard and a poor leader (advice to Trump—ignore the comments and please do not respond); today marks Antifa’s attempt to bring down Trump presidency with violent protests scheduled across the nation which should be met by police with massive arrests and bail in the thousands for each violent thug; the JFK files recently released show a concerted effort by J. Edgar Hoover to smear Martin Luther King, Jr. with a dossier detailing alleged affairs, orgies and the fathering of a child and remind us once again of the need to remain vigilant over the activities of the FBI especially when run by a spineless director like Comey reporting to a highly politicized DOJ under Lynch (at least his wife is no longer with us); on the sex front another teacher in Florida has been arrested for having sex with a minor; on the DUI front in Florida 53 year old Donna Bryne with a blood alcohol reading of .161 was arrested by police on a busy highway for riding a horse and failing to protect the animal (has to be a first for Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History); in yet another reminder that the Middle East is a dangerous place the Saudis intercepted a ballistic missile from Yemen heading in the direction of the International Airport at Riyadh; almost like a stuck record or a gruesome  remake of Groundhog Day, Chicago style,  the carnage in Chicago continued unabated with total shootings in 2017 through November 3 increasing to 3176 and the death toll increasing to 552 (although a rarity occurred on November 2 when no one died) and still 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 relevant quote from David Brooks on the Iranian hostage crisis, a music link to Elton John, factoids of interest for this day in history, while hoping that your gym work out you visit the modern day equivalent of a laconicum, while secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like birthday, 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. National Book Lovers Day—observed on the first Saturday in November whether your book be hard cover, paperback or electronic especially nice if it is raining or snowing outside like it is in the Pacific Northwest today as Stanford travels to Pullman to play the Cougars this afternoon.

2. King Tut Day—celebrating the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter on this day in 1922.

3. 1997 Number One Song—the number one song in 1997 on a run of 14 weeks in that position was “Candle In the Wind 1997” by Elton John. Here is a recording of the song to enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0PKcKbjlKg

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “laconicum” which describes the dry sauna used in Roman times.   

5. Take Your Mask and Disappear—celebrating or bemoaning depending on your point of view the birth on this day in 1960 of Kathy Griffin the female comedian equivalent of Don Rickles and a major Trump hater infamous for holding up a blood stained Trump head like an ISIS trophy.

On this day in:                                                                                   

a. 1847 to the joy of future surgical patients, doctor Sir James Young Simpson discovered the much needed   anesthetic properties of chloroform.                                                     b. 1924 in a breaking the glass ceiling moment Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female to be elected governor of any state.

c. 1952 the United States created the National Security Agency.

d. 1956 Soviet troops and tanks entered Hungary to crush the Hungarian Revolution which had started on October 23 of the same year and killed thousands of civilians in the process and resulted in a quarter million Hungarians fleeing the country.

e. 1979 Iranian students seized the American Embassy in Tehran and held 52 American diplomats and citizens for 444 days while a feckless Jimmy Carter did nothing but complain and launch an ill-fated rescue mission Operation Eagle Claw on April 24, 1980 that resulted in the death of 8 Americans and the loss of two helicopters in the deserts of Iran.

Reflections on the symbolism of the Iranian hostage crisis which faded in the 12 years of Republican rule only to reappear on the election of Barack Obama but hopefully to continue to fade under President Trump: “Everybody is comparing the oil spill to Hurricane Katrina, but the real parallel could be the Iranian hostage crisis. In the late 1970s, the hostage crisis became a symbol of America's inability to take decisive action in the face of pervasive problems. In the same way, the uncontrolled oil plume could become the objective correlative of the country's inability to govern itself.” David Brooks, noted  conservative political, cultural, and social science columnist for the New York Times.
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.

© November 4, 2017, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

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