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 Protection—celebrating 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
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare
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