Ridley's
Believe It Or Not--April 16, 2014:
Kudos for surviving another Tax Day. As
always, after some searching, I found
these holidays, some unknown but worthy of mention or celebrating in a culinary
fashion, to go with the factoids and quote to
enjoy.
1. World Voice Day—first
observed in 1999 to honor the phenomenon of the human voice, even the hot air and
sound bites coming out of the Beltway.
2. Emancipation Day—celebrated in
D.C. since 2005 to honor President Lincoln’s freeing of some 3100 enslaved
residents in the District of Columbia on this day in 1862—a veritable trial run
to the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
3. National Bookmobile
Day—honoring
the libraries on wheels that come to you to spread literacy and knowledge; the
Good Literacy Man trumps the Good Humor Truck any day of the week.
4. Save the Elephants
Day—started in
2012 to create awareness of the need not to save the Reds but rather on a more
serious note, real elephants who are in grave danger from habitat loss and
poaching due to demand for their ivory. Of all animals, their young are most
like ours in terms of maturity—18 years.
5. National Baked Ham
with Pineapple Day/National Eggs Benedict Day—what a great twofer of culinary taste,
although as we near Easter, celebrating this day and yesterday’s holiday means
a lot of ham in a week.
On this day in:
a. 1746 in a bad day for the Highlanders in Scotland,
Scottish forces were thoroughly defeated in the Battle of Culloden leading to
a banning of Scots and their traditions in the Highlands of Scotland.
b. 1962 Walter Cronkite takes
over as anchorman on CBS Evening News to become the “most trusted man in
America,” an accolade not to come anywhere close to any of the media today, man
or women.
c. 2012 in a truth is stranger than
fiction moment, the Pulitzer Prizes were announced, but no award for fiction, an absence
that had not occurred since 1977.
An interesting and valid observation on Save
the Elephants Day: “But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that
there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up
ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures
their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.” Lawrence Anthony, legendary conservationist
and author of The Elephant Whisperer who died in 2012 and whose death
prompted a vigil at his home for several days by a herd of wild elephants he
had saved years ago—elephants not only “never forget” they also mourn—tragic they
are killed for their ivory.
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
stupidity of Caprock Academy trying to ban a nine year old for shaving her head
to provide support for her 11 year old friend undergoing chemo; Putin pulling
the Moscow broadcast plug on Voice of America; Congressman McAllister on camera
kissing passionately his female staffer; the death of Pastor Fred Phelps,
founder of the Westboro Baptist Church; Obama's "sanctions" compared
to Rolling Thunder 49 years ago; 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.
©April 16, 2014
Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
www.twitter.com/alaskanpoet
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