Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History March 11, 2014 Lithuanian Re-establishment of Independence Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 11, 2014:  Another day in the creeping shadows of St. Patrick's Day.  Found these worthy holidays and can report in one of the closest Iditarods, 26 year old Dallas Seavey with a 16 minute lead over Aliy Zirkle coming out of Safety, AK with only 7 dogs left beat Aliy Zirkle into Nome by 2 minutes, 22 seconds. His father Mitch was on the course a couple hours back and will, unless scratched finish third. If he were to echo his father's 2004 Iditarod winning words, "It has been a tough race. If you actually think this is fun, you have a problem."
           1. Johnny Appleseed Day--celebrating that early American nurseryman and missionary John Chapman aka Johnny Appleseed who brought tree nurseries to the Midwest. Not that you need an excuse  given the properties of an apple, but a good day given the bumper crop this year to enjoy one of the many kinds of apples plentiful in the markets today.
           2. World Plumbing Day--celebrating the importance of plumbing for sanitary benefits and comfort and why plumbers and garbage men will become the new salaried elite.  
           3. Organize Your Home Office Day--since more of us are working at home or looking for that elusive job from home in this lousy recovery, good time to organize the home office to be more efficient.
           4. Lithuanian Re-establishment of Independence Day--celebrating independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, but given the activities in Ukraine and Putin's desire for more territory, this holiday celebration could be the last one for a while.
On this day in:
              a. 1892 in a fitting tribute to March Madness, the first public basketball game (hard to recognize as such with 9 players on a side, no dribbling, one point goals, peach baskets instead of nets, soccer balls used and  jump ball after each goal) was held in Springfield, Mass. between the faculty and students of Springfield College with students winning 5-1.
              b. 1958 in what could only be described as a major "oops" moment, a U.S. Air Force B-47 on a mock bombing flight to England during the height of the Cold War accidentally dropped a 26 kiloton nuclear bomb (twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima) on rural Mars Bluff, South Carolina which created a 35 foot deep crater, killing a few chickens.  Fortunately, the plutonium core had been removed and was stored separately on the plane and only the explosives used to cause fission of the plutonium core detonated; hence no radiation and you can visit the site, off of I-95.
              c. 1999 Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ--$30 billion market cap today.
A thought for the day on nuclear weapons, especially as the countries like Iran are determined to acquire them: "The only people who should be allowed to govern countries with nuclear weapons are mothers, those who are still breast-feeding their babies." Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese citizen who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb attacks in the closing days of WWII.

   Please enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for an original poem to honor Cindy Abbott, a half blind 54 year old mother suffering from a rare disease who competed in last year's Iditarod until forced out with a broken pelvis after 600 miles; an original poem on Bode Miller and the human spirit; an original poem for Cupid on Valentine's Day; an original poem to honor Cory Remsburg to join a great collection of my poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for poems on De Blasio’s idiocy in closing a Harlem Success Academy charter school in New York City;  Rutgers' faculty despicable attempt to ban Condi Rice from being a commencement speaker; the holiday creep of St. Patrick's Day; the crash of a Malaysian Air flight; Obama's need for vacation time as Ukraine crisis unfolds; Newport Beach's assault on recovery homes, including the Ohio House; food fight between Issa and Cummings as Lerner takes the 5th again; Sally Jewell, Department of Interior, telling the residents of King Cove, Alaska to take a hike in placing wildlife over their lives; on students protesting Keystone XL as the world's largest oil producer militarily occupies the Crimea: the banning the wearing of the American flag on Cinco de Mayo; Putin winning the Great Game against Obama; Obama need for fund raising trumping Russian moves into Crimea; Potomac fever infecting the Governors’ Conference to join numerous other comments on news events always in rhyme of course.

©March 11, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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