Ridley's Believe It Or Not This Day In History March 29, 2014 Earth Hour

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mridley@octechlaw.com

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 29, 2014:  Today is the day in March Madness when we waved goodbye to the last of the PAC 12 Sweet Sixteen, Arizona, to be eliminated; however on the distaff side the PAC 12 lives on with Stanford meeting Penn State at 1:30 p.m. to see if the Cardinal advances to the Elite 8. If you can do without boring dunks, women's basketball has its moments.  Managed to find these great holidays, most likely not known to many, to go with the factoids and quote.

              1. Knights of Columbus Founder's Day--celebrating the largest Catholic lay organization with over 1.7 million members founded by Father Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882 in New Haven, Connecticut and recognizing the billions of dollars and hours of service donated to charity since its founding.

              2.  Earth Hour--celebrated between 8:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. by turning off all non essential electric uses--imagine what this planet would look like to the astronauts on the ISS if all lights were off.

              3. National Mom and Pop Business Owner's Day--celebrating the bedrocks of our economy and with increased government regulation and taxes, definitely an endangered species.
              4. Day Niagara Falls Ran Dry --celebrating March 29, 1848 the day that ice blockage stopped the flow of water to the Falls and shut it down for almost 30 hours.  Day marked by low key celebrations and mostly confined to huge parties on the Maids of the Mist. 
           On this day in:

               a. 1961 the XXIII Amendment to the Constitution was ratified allowing residents in Washington D.C. to vote in Presidential elections which means that any Democratic candidate already has a three electoral vote head start.

               b. 1962 Jack Paar made his last appearance as host of the Tonight Show after being the host for 5 years; his protest over censors banning his joke on water closets may have hastened his exit.

               c. 2004  in a blow for lungs everywhere and an attempt to stench the increase in lung cancer, Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in all work places, including pubs.    The Irish Monks saved Western Civilization not to have it smoke itself to a premature death: "Because of secondhand smoke, we've already banned smoking in restaurants and bars, public buildings, trains, planes, buses, taxis, many parks. And the list goes on, including the chamber that we're now sitting in. It is, however, legal to strap your kids in the back seat of your car and smoke them like bacon." Jim Thompson, Oregon State Representative in favor of banning smoking when children are present in a car.   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 29, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet