Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History-0 Day-March 5, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not--March 5, 2014:  Another day in the creeping shadows of St. Patrick's Day.  Until some holidays worthy of noting surface, this site is going to the dogs, so I may be listing checkpoint results on the Iditarod, the Last Great Race on Earth.  Hope you enjoy the holidays, factoids and quote for the day and if you are over 63 or know someone who is, do or urge them to do a "Lindner" and go to the gym today.

           1. O Day--celebrating the mushers led by 64 year old Sonny Lindner with a 1hr 50 min lead going through the Iditarod checkpoint at Ophir, Alaska, population 0.  Now a ghost town; it took its name in 1908 from a nearby placer creek, one of a dozen streams in Alaska to be named by Bible-reading prospectors, for the lost country of Ophir, the source of King Solomon’s gold.
           2. World Ice Sculpture Championships--being held for two weeks in Fairbanks, Alaska which is basking in a balmy 11 degrees as a high temp with light snow.     
           3. Multiple Personalities Day--here is a holiday you use to get in touch with your inner self or selves. Not sure where it came from, but you don't have to have too many celebrants with multiple personalities to fill up a room.

           On this day in:

              a. 1946 Winston Churchill at a speech in Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri coined the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the activities in Eastern Europe of our erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union. Sadly in redoing his Georgia and Ukraine dachas, Putin seems to have taken a like for new curtains, with iron being a first choice.

              b. 1975 the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club was held in Gordon French's garage in Menlo Park to review the MITS Altair microcomputer which inspired Steven Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple to design the Apple 1.

              c. 1982 Blues Brother, Animal House star and SNL comedian John Belushi died of a drug overdose in the Hotel Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles way too early at the age of 33.

Russian Politics 101: if you are going to switch offices, make sure your replacement if named Putin agrees on TV, Facebook, and Twitter  to be bound by your positions: "I don't want to live in a militarized country behind an iron curtain. It's boring. Been there and seen the movie. I've done that." Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and former President, an office now held by Vladimir Putin. If I were Dmitry, I would try to purge this quote and failing that book the next plane to the U.S. for asylum for me and my family, secure in the knowledge Obama would never trade me for Snowden and like Alexander Kerensky of old, Stanford University or the Hoover Institution would welcome me with open arms.

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 Bode Miller and the human spirit just posted; an original poem for Cupid on Valentine's Day; an original poem to honor Cory Remsburg, and original poem to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Just posted for your enjoyment on Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times poems on 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; the Cal Ripken, Jr. equivalent in the House, John Dingell after almost 60 years announcing his retirement; FCC plan to investigate diversity of news coverage to the great concern of the media (now shelved due to outrage in the media); Nebraska judge saving Obama by enjoining Keystone XL;  Kerry calling global warming the new weapon of mass destruction; chaos in the Ukraine; OC Sheriff's Deputies getting paid for donning and doffing their uniforms;  Chairman of OC Board of Supervisors double dipping to join numerous other comments on news events always in rhyme of course.

©March 5, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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