Monday, March 31, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History-March 30, 2014 Doctors' Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 30, 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 trouncing Penn State to advance 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. National Doctors' Day--celebrating the contributions of our overworked, overregulated and overindebted physicians who are probably wondering if just leaving med school, how they will service under Obamacare their crushing student debt from college and med school.
              2. National Week of the Ocean 3/30-4/4 --observing the interdependence of humantiy with the oceans of the world and the need to protect them; highly appropriate as in light of the Fligh 370 disaster we are being made painfully aware how even remote bodies of water like the Indian Ocean are huge salt water trash dumps.
              3. I Am In Control Day--celebrating one of life's great illusions and made famouse by Alexander Haig as Secretary of State uttering that fateful remark to national media following President Reagan being shot on March 30, 1981.
              4. National Pencil Day--celebrating that great writing instrument fading into oblivion due to claculators and computers but still needed to play a round of golf.  
              5. National Turkey Neck Soup Day--another great holiday to sink your teeth into or rather dip your soup spoon into, but totally perplexed why not celebrated the day after Thanksgiving.
           On this day in:
               a. 1867 the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million ($114 million in 2014 dollars or a little over two days of the value of the oil delivered to Valdez) in a transaction known as Seward's Folly.
               b. 1870 the XV Amendment to the Constitution is passed prohibiting voter discrimination based on race.
               c. 1964 the show Jeopardy then hosted by Art Fleming made its first appearance of TV; still running today and has to be on anyone's bucket list to be a contestant.
 As we approach the new frontier of Obamacare and its impact on doctors' abilities to treat their patients, a reflective thought:  "Each patient carries his own doctor inside him.” Norman Cousins, author of  Anatomy of an Illness, peace advocate and editor for many years of the Saturday Reiviw of Literature       
   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 30, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 
 
 

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