Highly appropriate that today is the Winter Solstice that marks the first
day of winter and the shortest day in the year as 26 states are facing chilling
storms that will raise havoc with Christmas travel place a huge demand on
heating supplies. While the days and nights may not get immediately warmer as after
today, we start on the celestial trek to spring at least the light each day
will stay longer and on another minor symbolic note, today is also Hump Day
heading to the weekend after its end. I
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Ridley’s Believe It Or Not December 21, 2022
Noted Holiday: National Homeless
Persons Memorial Day, created by the National Coalition for the
Homeless and first observed on this day in 1990 to promote awareness of the
growing problem of homelessness affecting single adults, families and single
parents with children. Visit almost any city or large town in this nation and
you will be greeted with homeless encampments and tent cities that seem to defy
reduction at a time when policies hinder the development of cheap housing and
federal and state dollars are too often being directed toward the problem of illegal
aliens without shelter. Karen Bass, the newly elected mayor of L.A. has
declared homelessness to be a state of emergency and those of us living in Southern
California wish her nothing but success.
Word of the Day: The
word of the day is “acoria” which means a pathologically huge appetite which
may be a plus for those aspiring to be Champion Sumo wrestlers but a curse to
anyone concerned about their health.
Number 1 Song of the Day: The
number 1 song on this day in 1998 was “I’m Your Angel” by R. Kelly and Céline Dion on a run of 4 weeks to share with 15 other songs
achieving number 1 status while 10 acts achieved their first number 1
song. Here is a music video of R. Kelly and Céline Dion Thomas performing “I’M Your Angel”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PlrjTLQego
Noted
Birthdays: Emmanuel Macron, born on this day in 1977, the President
of France since 2017 and for a brief time in his political career a Socialist but
who founded the centrist party En Marche. He married his high school
teacher who is 24 years his senior who has three children and who has been very
influential in his political career.
Notable Events that occurred on
December 21
1. 1913—To
the joy of future cruciverbalists everywhere, Arthur Wynne published “word-cross”,
the world’s first crossword puzzle in the New York Herald.
2. 1919—Anarchist and creator of Mother
Earth Emma Goldman was deported to the Soviet Union where she became
disillusioned to the Soviets’ crackdown of dissident voices and fled the
country to live in England, France, and Canada and to travel to Spain to
support the anarchists against invading Franco forces. Fully disillusioned with
Communism, she died in Toronto, Canada on May 14, 1940.
3. 1968—In preparation
for a landing on the Moon, Apollo 8 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center
to orbit the Moon ten times, photographing potential landing sites before
returning to Earth.
4. 1995—The
city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli control to Palestinian control.
5. 2004—A suicide bomber detonated his
suicide vest at a U.S. Forward Operating Base at Mosul, Iraq, killing 14 American
soldiers, 4 U.S. citizen Haliburton employees and 4 Iraqi soldiers while
wounding 72 individuals, 51 of whom were U.S. soldiers.
Quote of the Day: Sherrilyn Kenyon, a prolific American writer with over 70 million books sold worldwide:
“Not everyone who’s homeless is a drug-addict or in need of mental health care.
Some are normal people who have been knocked down, and it can happen to you
too. Not all of us made bad life choices.” Wise observation especially when
many financial advisers believe that a large majority of Americans are one
paycheck away from disaster.
Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
Poems on events of the day
Commissioned unique poems
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