Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For March 28, 2020 We all know the
rich are weathering the coronavirus differently than we mere mortals but David
Geffen, the founder of Dreamworks takes the cake for posting an Instagram of
self quarantine on his $590 million yacht anchored off a tropical paradise; as
coronavirus cases continue to soar, President Trump is considering a lock down
of highly infected portions of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut for some period
of time to flatten the curve of infections (not sure if he has the power to do
that or whether state governors would have the power to ban residents from
quarantined states); as cases worldwide in Europe and the U.S. continue to soar
and the NYPD has 10% of its officers under quarantine, a glimmer of hope that
the increase in deaths in Italy over the last 24 hours slowed; Cuomo after
complaining of a lack of ventilators and having egg of his face after some
4,000 were found in a warehouse was backpedaling trying to explain that they
were being stored as a normal procedure until they were needed; the UN whose
headquarters are in NYC has donated 250,000 masks to NYC for use by its first
responders and health care workers; whether because of the spring break
ignorance of social isolation or the exodus of New Yorkers fearful of the virus
and/or fed up with high, oppressive tax rates, Florida has become the new
hotspot for the virus with 863 new cases in the last 24 hours bringing the
number of infections to 3763 and the dubious distinction of being the 4th
most infected state; if we didn’t have enough to worry about the virus, news of
the first human to pet cat transmission of the virus came out; as restrictions
on travel in Wuhan are being eased reports that may lead credence to belief that
China has concealed the number of actual deaths as reports of vast quantities
of urns being delivered to the funeral homes in the city; on the royal coronavirus
front, 86 year old Spanish Princess Maria Teresa has died from the virus and
with Prince Charles of England testing positive Queen Elizabeth II and Prince
Phillip have cancelled a number of public events and moved temporarily into
Windsor Castle; Scrooge has come early to a Texas company in Austin that has
notified its employees that it will deduct the stimulus checks they are going
to receive from their paychecks (who ever came up with this idea at this
unnamed company should be polishing up his or her resume and looking for work);
Trump has signed an executive order authorizing call up of certain retired army
personnel and units to fight the coronavirus; in Chicago, as of March 27, 2020,
500 people have been shot of whom 87 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 is 22 behind Chicago with 65 murders (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 Janis Joplin, the fact hopefully events are not producing
oneirodynas, a quote by Adam Hochschild on the Spanish 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. Earth Hour—created in 2007 by the WWF
International and celebrated on the last Saturday in March by turning off you
lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. local time to show solidarity with the inhabitants of this planet.
2. National Hot Tub Day—not sure who created this
or when but given all the concern over the COVID-19 virus and social isolation
closing health clubs and spas, a perfect day to fire up your hot tub if lucky
enough to have one and climb into it and let the warm water and pulsating jets
wash your worries away.
3. 1971 Number 1 Number One Song— the
number one song in 1971 on this day on a run of 2 weeks in the position was “Me
and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin. 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=janis+joplin+me+and+bobby+mcgee#id=0&vid=a23b22239888e631db506952e3fa0686&action=clickhttps://www.youtube.com/watch? Sadly,
she could not successfully battle her heavy drinking and heroin addiction and
overdosed on October 4, 11970 at the age of 27.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “oneirodyna”
which means a nightmare which is what this pandemic is giving the world as we
speak and hope it will soon be over.
5. Wasted
Rose Garden—celebrating or bemoaning the birth on this day in March, 1986 of
Bowe Bergdahl who walked off his post in Afghanistan on June 28, 2009, was
captured by the Taliban and held until being exchanged in a prisoner swap for 5
Taliban leaders on May 31, 2014, and later faced court martial for desertion
and after lengthy delays pled guilty and was sentenced on November 3, 2017 to
be dishonorably discharged, fined $10, 00O and reduced in rank to private with
no prison time.
On this day
in:
a. 1939
Generalissimo Franco after a three year siege conquered Madrid, bringing a
victorious end to the Spanish Civil War by the Nationalists.
b. 1959 the People’s Republic of China dissolved the government of
Tibet.
c.
1978 in the case of Stump v. Sparkman SCOTUS
handed down a decision affirming judicial immunity in a case involving the
involuntary sterilization of a minor African-American.
d. 1979 a coolant leak at a
nuclear reactor power generating station at Three Mile Island led to a partial meltdown
of the reactor.
e. 1990 President George H.W.
Bush posthumously awarded Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
Reflections on the
Spanish Civil War: “Even Hemingway, perhaps the most intentionally
non-political of American writers, became passionately partisan during the
Spanish Civil War.” Adam Hochschild,noted American writer and historian.
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 28, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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