January 29 History Free Thinkers Day

Ridley's Believe It Or Not—January 29, 2015:    Trust your Thursday is off to a great start and your squares selected in the office Super Bowl pool will prove to be winners. As always, I  hope you enjoy the holidays and observances, factoids and a relevant quote from Thomas Paine,  with a smile on your face, enjoying a bowl of corn chips, blessed with a positive attitude even though you know you will have to wade through tons of spam in your inbox, and secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for a memorable event like Valentines’ Day soon approaching, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient.  You need only contact me for details.
       1. Free Thinkers Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1737 of Thomas Paine author of Common Sense, The Age of Reason, and The Rights of Man and a key architect in creating the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution.
       2. Seeing Eye Dog—commemorating the founding of the nation’s seeing eye dog training school on this day in 1929 and the accomplishments of the thousands of seeing eye dogs who brought the gift of mobility to blind persons.
       3. 1998 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song on this day in 1998 as part of a 2 week run Together Again by Janet Jackson, who has sold over 140 million records but may be best remembered for her “clothing failure” during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVIII.
        4. National Corn Chip Day—good reason to buy some corn chips today first marketed by Fritos in 1961 and the perfect holder for salsa and guacamole.
        5. O Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1960 of Oprah Winfrey, the first black female billionaire who is reported to be worth north of $2 billion.
 On this day in
     a. 1936 the first five players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and  Walter Johnson were announced.
      b. 1963 the first  17 inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including such notables as  Sammy Baugh, Harold “Red” Grange, George Halas, Earl “Curly” Lambeau, Tim Mara, Bronco Nagurski, Ernie Nevers (great Stanford fullback) and Jim Thorpe, were announced.
      c. 1967 in the ultimate high of the hippie era the Mantra-Rock took place in San Francisco featuring Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and poet Alan Ginsburg.
      d. 2002 in his State of the Union Address President George W. Bush named North Korea, Iran and Iraq as sponsors of terrorism and referred to them as an Axis of Evil.   
      e. 2005 for the first time since 1949 commercial air service was restored between China and Taiwan.      
Reflections on reason from the pen of Thomas Paine: “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead” Thomas Paine. Sadly, in D.C. we see too much wasted medicine and not a lot of reason and compromise.

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© January 29, 2015 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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