Sunday, March 23, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--This Day In History-March 24, 2014 World Tuberculosis Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 24, 2014:  Another full day of March Madness. Kudos to Stanford in moving to the Sweet 16 by knocking off Kansas, to UCLA in blowing out the Lumberjacks, and the Wildcats trouncing the Zags, giving the PAC 12 three slots. Managed to find these holidays of dubious note to go with the factoids and quote.
              1. World Tuberculosis Day--commemorating this day in 1884 when Doctor Robert Koch announced to the world that he discovered the cause of tuberculosis, tuberculin bacillus, which still kills over 1.7 million people annually mostly in Third World countries.
              2. National Meatless Week 3/24-3/30--observing this is getting easier as the price of meat is soaring in the supermarkets; nothing like more vegetables to lower the fat and line the pocket.
              3. National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day--definitely another holiday to sink your teeth into combination of iron and chocolate hard to beat.
              On this day in:
               a. 1955 the first seagoing drilling rig was put into service.
               b. 1962 on live TV Benny "Kid" Paret was knocked unconscious in a boxing match by Emile Griffith, dying 10 days later.
               c. 1989 the Exxon Valdez ran  aground in Prince William Sound after leaving Valdez spilling 240,000 barrels of oil into important fishing and scenic grounds.        
 Hard for us to imagine today the extent of TB deaths and suffering over a hundred years ago: “What ever happened to the good old days: you know, dirty attics, tuberculosis, and general all around suffering." Arnold Wesker, noted British playwright of the 20th Century.
   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 poems on the Mustangs going to the Dance with a losing record; 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; on Bode Miller and the human spirit; for Cupid on Valentine's Day; 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 the death of Pastor Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church; Obama's "sanctions" compared to Rolling Thunder 49 years ago:  Mustangs advance in the Dance to await the Shockers; Russian Roulette with Putin; EPA's war against a Wyoming family; on Jolly's upset win over Sink in the House's 13th District of Florida; 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; Newport Beach's assault on recovery homes, including the Ohio House; 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 24, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment