Saturday, March 28, 2020

March 28, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Earth Hour


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 Gardencelebrating 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
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare
The Perfect Gift,
All Recipients to Receive a Lasting Lift

No comments:

Post a Comment