Ridley's
Believe It Or Not—May 2, 2014: As always, after some searching, I found
these holidays worthy of mention or celebrating in culinary fashion, to go with
the factoids and quote to enjoy as you are preparing to start the weekend and are spiritually refreshed by your
observance of National Day of Prayer yesterday.
1. International
Space Day –always celebrated on the first Friday in May and started by
Lockheed Martin Corporation in 1997 to encourage American students to get
involved in math and science—which, holidays like this notwithstanding, we as a
nation are not doing very well in enrolling students in math and science.
2. Scurvy Awareness Day—promoting the consumption
of Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables to
prevent this disfiguring and deadly disease, the bane of early sailors and why the
English are often referred to as Limeys and Germans as Krauts.
3.
National Truffle Day—celebrating that delicious
chocolate confection first introduced to the general public by Antoine Dufour at the Presat Truffle Shop
in London in 1902; unlike the truffle that grows wild, you do not need a pig to
find these, only a credit card or cash.
4. International
Tuba Day—created by Joel Day in 1979 to honor tubists and their contribution
to music—oompah!
5. Word
Tuna Day—celebrating this wild species, although this former seiner
would prefer wild salmon caught in Alaska any day of the week—more omega fish
oil for the heart and a lot less mercury.
On this day
in:
a. 1885 the magazine Good Housekeeping
was first published.
b. 1952 the world’s first
airliner the De Havilland Comet I made its maiden flight from London to Johannesburg.
c. 2000 President Clinton announced that accurate GPS would no longer be
restricted to use by the U.S. military, thereby sparing men all over this
nation the embarrassment of getting lost while not asking their wife for
directions.
Since scurvy with the advent of Vitamin C pills and its
addition to most drinks, here’s another meaning which given the mess in D.C. is
appropriate: “Honorable, adj.:
Afflicted with an impediment in one's reach. In legislative bodies, it is
customary to mention all members as honorable; as, "the honorable
gentleman is a scurvy cur." Ambrose Bierce, noted 19th
American satirist who would be having a field day if he were alive today.
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 2014 Boston Marathon; 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;
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 just released nonredacted Benghazi
emails; Kerry’s apartheid characterization of Israel; Obama’s admission that he
does not know whether new “sanctions” will work against Putin; the scandal of
vets dying in Phoenix while waiting to see a doctor; Blues in Illinois caught
in questionable procedures and forced to rescind $100 million to Obama
Presidential Library; coffee as the new wonder drug to curtail Type II
Diabetes; the futility of aiding Ukraine
with MRE’s to join numerous other comments on news events always in rhyme of
course.
©May 2, 2014
Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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