February 25, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Mardi Gras

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For February 25, 2020 Bob Iger has stepped down as CEO of Disney after an incredible run; Jim Acosta cannot help himself and made a fool of himself trying to attack Trump during his press conference (this biased reporter always trying to make a press conference about himself really gives journalism a bad name and reputation); Justice Sotomajor in a blistering dissent over SCOTUS’ curbing of nationwide injunctions attacked judges appointed by Trump as being biased toward him which resulted in a scorn of criticism (if SCOTUS degenerates into a swamp of biased judges the rule of law which most of us believe in will be severely threatened); AOC’s days of self-promotion may be numbered as the New York Post reported that her district may redistricted out of existence (could not think of a more fitting oblivion for this idiot); Joe Biden’s firewall in South Carolina may be on its last brick as Sanders continues to surge in the polls and more troubling to Biden among black voters continues to surge (tonight’s debate could be make or break for Biden and the second tier candidates except Bloomberg who with the amount of money he has committed to spend will be in the race until the Democratic Convention but for his sake hopefully he will not make a fool of himself repeat of his last performance); as Bernie gets more cocky over his chances his past praises of authoritative socialist or communist regimes like Castro are coming out (great fireworks on The View as clueless Behar and McCain got into a snit fit over Castro’s literacy program in Cuba); Trey Gowdy is in the news urging U.S Intel to stop briefing lying, leaking Adam Schiff; on the coronavirus front over 80,000 cases with new cases spiking in Italy and Iran (as an example that the virus picks no favorites, Iran’s top official charged with fighting the virus has been infected); in Chicago, as of February 24, 2020, 318 people have been shot of whom 61 have died; Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths has fallen 14 behind Chicago with 47 murders by shootings (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than random mass shootings?).

    As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Patti Page,  the fact that you can obvert from difficult situations that may confront you,  a relevant quote by Mark Tweain on Mardi Gras,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, college 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. IHOP® National Pancake Day®—celebrating at IHOPs a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes at participating IGHOP locations.

2. Mardi Gras—celebrating the ending of a great Carnival party with a blow-out party to start the beginning of Lent the next day.

3. 1951 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1951 on this day on a run of 9 weeks in the position was “Tennessee Waltz” by Patti Page.  Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44B6B1OycgI. A heavy smoker starting in 1942, she managed to quit the habit later in life and have more than 30 years of life cigarette free but died at age 85 on January 1, 2013 of heart and lung problems.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “obvert” which means to turn or alter which describes what Joe Biden must do in his collapsing campaign if he has any chance at all for the nomination. 

5. Leave the Driving to Me—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1961 of noted NASCAR racer David Allison who crashed his helicopter on July 12, 1993 while trying to land it at the infield of the Talledega Super Speedway and never regained consciousness and died the next morning.

On this day in:               

     a. 1933 The USS Ranger was launched by the U.S. Navy, its first ship to be designed from the  keel up as an aircraft carrier.

     b. 1956 Nikita Khrushchev in a speech, The Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, denounced the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.

     c. 1987 Southern Methodist University’s football team received the death penalty from the NCAA and was banned from all competition during the 1987 season.                                            

d. 1991 the Warsaw Pact was abolished.

e. 1994 Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, killing 29 and wounding 129 before being beaten to death by the survivors.

Reflections on Mardi Gras: “"It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans." — Mark Twain Having been in all 50 states and one trip to Mardi Gras, I agree completely with Twain’s 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.             

          © February 25, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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