Friday, April 25, 2014

Ridley's Believe It Or Not-This Day In History--April 25, 2014-Red Hat Society Day


Ridley's Believe It Or Not--April 25, 2014:   Today is National Zucchini Bread Day mentioned here as I ran out of space below.  As always, after some searching, I found these holidays, some unknown but worthy of mention or celebrating with a red hat, to go with the factoids and quote to enjoy.
            1. DNA Day –celebrating this day in 1953 when Watson and Frick published in Nature the sequence of DNA and the same day in 2003 that the Human Genome Project was pronounced essentially complete.
             2. Parent Alienation Awareness Day—observed since 2006 in a growing number of countries and States, but not the biggest divorce maker of them all California nor the United States, to create an awareness of the really dark side unfortunately of too many divorces in which one parent tries to alienate the children of the marriage from the other—parents at absolutely their worst behavior.
              3. International Malaria Awareness Day—proposed by President George W. Bush in 2007 to support and encourage programs to eradicate malaria, especially in Africa where it kills a million people a year.
              4. Red Hat Society Day—celebrating the founding of this woman’s social group with over 40,000 chapters by artist Susan Cooper here in Orange County California at a tea party held on this day in 1998 with the women in attendance all wearing red hats---so if you see a women wearing a red hat today, she is likely a member, not out seeking support for Republican causes.
              5. National Arbor Day—first celebrated in 1872 in Nebraska and now yearly worldwide on the last Friday in April; good day to plant a tree, but if in California try to plant one that is not a big user of water given our drought.
On this day in:
                a. 1859 construction on the Suez Canal was commenced.
                b. 1959 hundred year later, the St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean was opened to traffic.
                c. 1960 the US nuclear powered submarine Triton completed the first circumnavigation of the world completely submerged—so much for the phrase “Join the Navy and see the world.”
Maybe it is his atonement for no longer supporting Windows XP, but Bill Gates should be applauded for the work of his foundation especially on this day: “There will be statues of Bill Gates across the Third World. There's a reasonable shot that - because of his money - we will cure malaria.” Malcolm Gladwell, noted Canadian writer, journalist, and author of David and Goliath.
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 futility of aiding Ukraine with MRE’s; the cowardice of the Korean ferry boat captain abandoning his ship while over 300 students were being drowned; the Overland Park shootings; 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; 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 25, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 

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