Sunday, March 16, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History-March 16, 2014 St. Urho's Day


Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 16, 2014:  One day to St. Patrick's Day. Kudos to an improbable upset by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the WAC finals this Saturday. Brackets are picked to today to officially kick off March Madness. Slow day for holidays as the whole planet is washing and pressing their green attire and getting ready to put the corned beef and cabbage in the Crock Pot.
            1. Book Smugglers' Day--celebrated in Lithuania to honor the Lithuanian resistance that smuggled in books written in Lithuanian and Latin to fight the Russification of the country (same process that is going on as we speak today in the Crimea).
           2. St. Urho's  Day--honoring the fight of the Finnish Saint of Grasshoppers by dressing in purple and green and hopping around while yelling "Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiten"  (grasshopper, grasshopper, scoot). I kid you not! 
           3. Goddard Day--commemorating the first liquid fueled rocket flight attaining a height of 184 feet by American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard  on this day in 1926 at Auburn, Mass.
           4. National Chocolate Week (3/16-3/22--here is another holiday celebration one can really get their teeth into and thoroughly enjoy!
 On this day in:
              a. 1958 Ford produced its 50 millionth car, a Thunderbird, followed ten years later on same date by General Motors producing its 100 millionth car, a Toronado.
              b. in 1995, in a classic "better late than never," Mississippi bacame the last state to ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery which was ratified and became part of the Constitution in 1865.
              c. in 1972 in response to their opposition to the Vietnam War especially the song "Give Peace a Chance" sung at anti-war rallies, Nixon ordered the INS to serve John Lennon and Yoko Ono with deportation papers which failed effort caused a furor in the artistic community and among  the youth of the day.
Why college basketball is so exciting to watch and inspire: "If the NBA was on channel five and a bunch of frogs making love were on channel four, I’d watch the frogs, even if they were coming in fuzzy.” Bobby Knight legendary former basketball coach of Indiana. How right he is.  Good luck to the Cal Poly Mustangs in the Dance.
   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 Pac 12 basketball tournament;Jolly's upset win over Sink in the House's 13th District of Florida this Tuesday; USS Coronado doing a little whale watching of Dana Point; China's red line on war in Korea; De Blasio's payback to his union contributors by attacking charter schools; 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 to join numerous other comments on news events always in rhyme of course.
©March 16, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com  www.twitter.com/alaskanpoet  Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times  Ridley's Believe It Or Not  www.facebook.com/Alaskanpoet  www.linkedin.com/in/octechlaw
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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