Ridley's
Believe It Or Not--April 22, 2014:
It was fitting that Meb Keflezighi, a devout Christian from Eritrea, graduate of UCLA and
naturalized American citizen, won the men’s Boston Marathon yesterday and even
more fitting that his racing bib had the three names of the innocents killed at
race end last year and the name of the Boston cop allegedly killed by one of
the bombers—Martin, Sean,
Krystle, and Lingzi. If you closed your eyes as
he came across the finish line you could almost hear the words of the first
marathoner Pheidippides running in 490 B.C. to announce to the Athenians their
victory over the Persians—“Joy is to you, we
have won.” Every runner and spectator and first responder
at Boston was a winner yesterday. Kudos to Meb Keflezighi and to Boston Strong.
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. Earth Day—celebrated since 1970 to promote environmental protection;
unfortunately often without given recognition of the need for economic growth
and security.
2. International Mother Earth
Day--proclaimed by the General Assembly and celebrated since 2009 to
celebrate the interdependence of all humans and other species with Planet Earth.
3. National Poetry Month—this
is an observance given the power of poetry to move, inspire, encourage, emote,
etc. that should be celebrated daily; apologies for not picking this holiday up
to post on April 1.
4. In God We Trust Day—celebrating the
date April 22, 1864 when “In God We Trust” was authorized by Congress to be
placed on U.S. coins—sadly given the current trends, not sure how long we may
observe this day.
5. National Jelly Bean Day—how good can it be celebrating the
day with a handful of colorful and tasty jelly beans—no wonder Ronald Reagan
was such a popular President.
On this day in:
a. 1915 chlorine gas was first used in the
Battle of Ypres (news out of Syria is that almost 100 years later still in use
with deadly, crippling effect).
b. 1977 fiber optic cable was first
used to carry telephone traffic.
c. 1993 Version 1.0 of the Mosaic
Web Browser, so very critical in popularizing the World Wide Web was released.
To race in a marathon is to learn skills
applicable in life: “To
be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month or even one
year -- but for a lifetime." Frank
Shorter, winner of four Boston Marathons.
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 22, 2014
Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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