March 21, 2023 Ridley's Believe It or Not

 

After being shut down for most of the COVID-19 Pandemic and having to rely on online classes only which in the elementary and middle school level were devasting to students’ educational progress, the Los Angeles School District’s shutdown started today more severe that that during the pandemic as no online classes will be offered. The virus causing this shutdown is linked to humans like COVID-19 we now believe with a high degree of certainty was engineered from the Wuhan Lab, and those humans marching to the drum of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff. The strike is for 3 days and parents without childcare options or the ability to enroll in private schools not affected are going to be scrambling be able to work at home during the next 3 or longer days (the 1 silver lining in the CAVID-19 pandemic is that many companies have instituted work at home rather than being laid off). On a lighter note, Jimmy Garoppolo, formerly the QB for the 49’s in 2022 until being injured after 11 games has signed a 3 year deal with the Las Vegas Raiders for $72 million with a bonus not from the team but from the Chicken Ranch Brothel in Las Vegas where 2 workers there have promised him “free sex” for life (the amateur nature of collegiate sports already shattered by NIL purists 1 hopes that college recruiters do not figure out a way to use NIL incentives to attract star high school athletes to their schools especially UNLV). It is now past lunch and so far president Trump has not been indicted in what will be a historic moment with far reaching consequences for him and for the nation. I hope  you missed Ridley's Believe It Or Not these last few weeks and that you find Ridley's Believe It Or Not worth your time reading and if not please respond with an “Unsubscribe”.                               

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not March 21, 2023
          Noted Holidays: World Poetry Day: On a day in which 22 holidays exist some most worthy, like World Down Syndrome Day or International Day for the Elimination of Discrimination and others like Slytherin Pride, your Alaskanpoet selected World Poetry Day created by the UNESCO on November 3, 1999 establishing March 21 as World Poetry “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard.”
The length of prose increased by the minutiae can easily put you to sleep

Whereas poetry appealing to the heart can easily sweep you off your feet
To drive one to the polls to elect or induced by fears or smears to defeat
Platforms in prose with cross references and footnotes send the intent far too deep
But poetry enables the speaker to sally forth to the speaker’s goals obtain
If set to music tapping your feet, clapping your hands, urge to act not restrained
No wonder Andrew Cuomo’s father whose commencement this Trustee had to endure
Remembered only briefly then flushed out from the neurons as the easiest cure
Bur Mario will always be remembered for this winning  command
To be followed by our candidates without millions to spend across the land
“Campaign in poetry, rule in prose”
If prose is not doublespeak, compromise chances can flow
If it is, greater chances of gridlock
Where needed solutions are blocked
© 3/21/2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
          Word of the Day:  The word of the day is “alexia” which means the inability to read which if “barely” in front of it, sadly describes the literacy of large segments and maybe majorities of our kids in urban schools.
          Number 1 Song: The number 1 song on this day in 1946 was “ Let It Snow, Let It Snow” by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra with Vaughn Monroe and the Norton Sisters on a run of 5 weeks  to share with 14 other songs that achieved number 1 status. Here is Vaugh Monroe and His Orchestra with Vaughn Monroe and the Norton
Sisters performing “Let It Snow, Let It Snow” a song with many residents in the mountains of California already under massive snow drifts would not want to hear:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-0bhji_w4o
           March 21 Famous Birthdays: Timothy Dalton, noted British actor born on this day in 1946 at Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire, who is best remembered for his role as James Bond, in the 15^th and 16^th James Bond movies, Living Daylights and License to Kill   and was under contract to perform in a 3^rd James Bond film which was in preproduction in 1990 but was ensnared in a legal dispute between  UA/MGM and Eon Production and Dalton in 1994 decided it was time to move on. He has never been married but had several long relationships, 1 of which was with Vanessa Redgrave and he briefly dated Whoopi Goldberg.
           March 21 Notable Events
           1.     1952—Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
           2.     1980--In response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, President
Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.              3.     1999—Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first 2 men to circumnavigate nonstop the Earth in hot air balloon departing from Château-d'Œx, Switzerland on March 1 and landing in Egypt after voyage of  45,755 km (28,431 miles) from whence they had departed 19 day, 3 hours and 47 minutes after they had taken off.
           4.     2000—Pope John Paul II, made the first visit as a Pope to Israel.
           5.     2006—The social media giant Twitter was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams to grow into a social media giant which many conservative politicians and pundits blasted for Twitter’s censoring of tweets or banning their  accounts which protests have largely disappeared after Elon Musk acquired the company. 
           Famous Quote on Notable Events Or Persons:
           Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, talking in 1998: “We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would...That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap ... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union Its Vietnam War.’”
            Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan (Northern Alliance) in 2002: "Had it not been for the jihad, the whole world would still be in the Communist grip. The Berlin Wall fell because of the wounds which we inflicted on the Soviet Union, and the inspiration we gave all oppressed people. We broke the Soviet Union up into fifteen parts. We liberated people from Communism. Jihad led to a free world. We saved the world because Communism met its grave here in Afghanistan!"   

© 3/21/2023 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
Poems on events of the day
Commissioned unique poems