Sunday, May 10, 2020

May 10, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Mother's Day


Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For May 10, 2020 The CV pandemic across the planet crosses the 4,000,000 mark in cases with 78,946 new cases  (a 1.93% increase compared to a 2.43% increase yesterday) to bring the total to 4,174,075  cases, 2,421,702  of  which  are active, 1,752,373 of which have been closed with 1,468,789  recoveries (83.82% compared to  yesterday’s 83.63%) and 283,584   deaths (16.18%  compared to yesterday’s 16.37%); in the U.S. which has the dubious distinction of leading the world in total cases with new cases of 20,564  have brought total cases to 1,365,247  (a 1.53 % increase compared to yesterday’s 2.19% increase)  with 1,043,690 active cases and 321,557 closures, 80,715 of which have been deaths (25.1% compared to  yesterday’s 25.25%) and 240,842 of which  have been recoveries (74.9%  compared to yesterday’s 74.75%), while total testing has increased to 9,376,795,  an increase of 488,465  from yesterday (closing in on the 500,000 per day threshold); under pressure due to massive nursing home deaths due to Cuomo’s misguided directive to require nursing homes to accept positive tested patients from hospitals was finally reversed but not before the death of some 5,000 patients; Cuomo and De Blasio are taking a lot of scorn for trying to tax the 21,000 volunteers from across the nation who came to New York and New York City to do yeoman’s duty to fight the pandemic; only a complete egotistical narcissist like Obama who was part of the effort to destroy Flynn to preserve his delusional legacy that he destroyed Al-Qaeda by killing Osama would charge that AG Barr violated the rule of law by dropping charges against Flynn; don’t hold your breath but there seems to be movement that the Blue supermajority California controlled legislature may investigate Newsom’s fishy Chinese mask deal; in Chicago, as of May 9, 2020, 876 shootings of whom 163 have died (so much for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order); 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 still 58 behind Chicago with 105 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 Avril Ligne, the fact that you do not use ostrichism in your affairs and a quote by Frank Boccia on Hamburger Hill, 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. Mother’s Day—celebrated first by Anna Jarvis to honor her mother in Grafton, West Virginia on this day in 1908 at the St. Andrew’s Memorial Church; normally a big day for retailers for Mother’s Day gifts especially flowers but may not be the case this year with most of the country’s business shut down.
2Golden Spike Day—celebrating the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike by California Governor and future co-founder of Stanford at Promontory Point in Utah in 1869 to complete the First Transcontinental Railroad.
3. 2007 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 2007 on this day on a run of 1 week in the position “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne for her first number one song. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg59q4puhmg This French-Canadian born singer/songwriter and actress is a vegan and has been infected with Lyme’s Disease but still on a roll performing.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “ostrichism” which means an unwillingness to face unpleasant facts a character trait exhibited by most of our politicians be they Red or Blue.
5. Nothing More Vicious Than Heroincelebrating the birth on this day in 1957 of English bassist and singer John Simon Ritchie better known to his fans as Sid Vicious and a member of the Sex Pistols who died of a heroin dose on February 2, 1979 at the age of 21.
 On this day in:               
 a. 1954 Bill Haley and the Comet‘s “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock and roll song to reach Number One on the charts.
 b. 1969 the 10 day assault on Hill 937 which would become known as Hamburger Hill began in the battle of Dong Ap Bia which cost 72 killed and 400 wounded only to be abandoned shortly thereafter.
 c. 1975 SONY introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder which ultimately lost out to the VHS format.
 d. 1993 a fire occurred at the Kader Toy Factory in Thailand, killing 188 workers and injuring 500 to become the world’s worst factory fire.
 e. 2013 rising from the ashes of 9/11 One World Trade Center was topped off to become the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Reflections on the Battle for Hamburger Hill: “The old refrain is that there are no atheists in foxholes. That's nonsense. They are there by the millions. There is little in combat that will lead one to look upon the Creator with favor. What can't be there, instead, is the individualist, the selfish, the self-consumed, the self-centered, the aloof loner. Such a man cannot long survive. The terror of combat cannot be described by fear of death. There are worse things. The world can suddenly become a very cold place...He needs warmth, a fire, to survive: His discipline, his training, his duty, honor and country, his family, and ultimately the very oak of his manhood are thrown into the blaze, but they are not enough to save him. At the end, he needs the warmth of his comrades. Otherwise, all he will have with which to face the cold dark will be his own spent soul.”― Frank Boccia, The Crouching Beast: A United States Army Lieutenant’s Account of the Battle for Hamburger Hill, May 1969
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.             
© May 10, 2020 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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