Thursday, March 19, 2020

March 19, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Meatout Day


Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For March 19, 2020 Governor Newsom of California has just issued a “stay at home” order for all of California; as more people in the U.S. are being tested infections soar as more ventilators are being made available to hospitals, people are being urged to delay elective surgery to free up hospital beds that made be needed for C0VID-19 patients, Congress appears to be getting its act together moving stimulus packages forward to help workers who have been forced to stay home as their employers have been forced to close or reduce hours with concerns over increasing the national debt on hiatus as the economy faces meltdown from the effects of this virus; on the Blue political front now there are only two as Tulsi Gabbard has thrown in the towel and announced her support for Joe Biden while Sanders is still weighing in on continuing his campaign which without rallies and Biden’s lead in delegates will be most difficult; the warning over the need for social distances seems to have been totally ignored in Florida on Spring Break with scenes of packed young people enjoying themselves and consuming vast quantities of alcohol which will soon end as the Governor of Florida has announced the party is over; China has morphed from the sinister ground zero of COVID-19 in Wuhan and hiding the virus in its early stages to the “leader” in the fight as if you believe its data, the number of cases has plateaued; the Senator Cotton and Representative Gallagher have introduced a bill to reduce U.S. dependence on pharmaceutical products from China (after veiled threats by China to embargo drugs as a result of American criticism of the Chinese role in the COVID-19 virus, a well-needed step);  during a time in which it was almost impossible to be tested for the coronavirus, celebrities who were able to be tested have been facing backlash over perceived double standards in medical care; a new study emanating from China has indicated that almost half of the coronavirus patients admitted to hospitals in Wuhan were admitted with complaints of  diarrhea, vomiting or abdominal pains; Trump announced that a drug used to treat malaria and severe arthritis has been cleared by the FDA for testing as a drug to treat the COVID-19 virus (the fact that it is widely used in Africa to treat malaria when there are few cases their yet of COVID-19 should provide some hope; hard to believe but Rep Ilhan Omar has actually praised President Trump for his response to the coronavirus outbreak (how refreshing would it be if other Blues, including members of the Squad follow suit as we try to face this pandemic with a unified voice and effort; in Chicago, as of March 18. 2020, 454 people have been shot of whom 84 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 22 behind Chicago with 62 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 the Beatles,  the fact that you use oligosyllables when you want to get your point across, a quote by Prince Andrew on his service in the Falklands War,  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. Return of the Swallows Day (San Juan Capistrano)—celebrating the return of the swallows from their migration from Argentina.  
2. Great American Meatout Day—celebrated since 1985 to promote a vegetarian diet for one day and given the growth of meat free dishes that taste exactly like meat from companies like Beyond Meat probably much easier for carnivores to observe.
3. 1965 Number 1 Number One Song— the number one song in 1965 on this day on a run of 2 weeks in the position was “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles.  Here is a recording of the song https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&p=eight+days+a+week+beatles#action=view&id=1&vid=5a9e632b9578a1faee22b7de0b91ec69.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “oligosyllable” which means a word of few syllables which are appreciated when one does not what to hear long winded orations by those speaking above their audience.
5. Being a Terrible Is No Protectioncelebrating the birth on this day in March, 1962 of Puerto Rican MLB Ivan Calderon Perez although an All Star was known as “Ivan the Terrible” who on December 27, 2003 in a bar in Loiza, Puerto Rico was shot dead in the back multiple times in a murder that has never been solved.
On this day in:               
     a. 1965 exactly 102 years after being scuttled and burned on its maiden voyage to avoid capture by Union forces blockading Charleston Harbor, the CSS Georgiana was discovered by underwater archaeologist F. Lee Spence in shallow water in the harbor.
      b. 1966 the Texas Western Miners Basketball Team defeated the University of Kentucky in the NCAA Championship Game to become the first team with an all black starting lineup to do so.
      c. 1979 in a move which did not lighten up the boredom on the House floor, the House of Representatives began broadcasting its proceedings on C-Span.
 d. 1982 Argentine forces landed on South Georgia Island in the Falkland Islands which led to a war with Great Britain which they would lose.
 e. 1987 TV Evangelist Jim Bakker resigned as head of the PTL Club over a brewing sex scandal involving him and a church secretary and turned the ministry over to Jerry Falwell. He returned to TV Ministry but was tried and convicted of fraud and served 5 years  of an 8 years sentence but evidently did not learn his lesson as he has been recently arrested by the State of Missouri for selling fake coronavirus cures.
Reflections on the Falklands War: “When the question arose whether I, as a member of the royal family, should take part in active combat in the Falklands, there was no question in her mind, and it only took her two days to sort the issue. Prince Andrew who served during the war as a helicopter co-pilot on the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible.  
 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.             
          © March 19, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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