March 30, 2016 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Doctors Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For March 30, 2016. Only 296 days to go in President Obama’s pathetic lame duck term but fortunately March Madness is in full swing for both men and women and the Pac 12 has two teams in the Women’s Final Four. Great political theater as the Red candidates are backing off pledge to support the nominee and Clinton appears to be dodging Sanders’ request for a debate prior to New York primary and for the first time in decades the California primary might count for both Reds and Blues/ As always, I hope  you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, music links to Les Baxter and Celine Dion, factoids of interest, a  relevant quote from Doctor Jim Lee while looking forward to a large bowl of turkey neck soup, blessed with a positive attitude and  secure in  the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like birthdays, weddings, or  anniversaries, 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. National Doctors Day—celebrating the contributions of doctors to our health especially those just graduating from medical schools burdened with astronomical debt and facing a hostile reimbursement environment created by insurance companies, Obamacare and relentless cutbacks in Medicare reimbursements.

2. National Pencil Day—celebrating the issuance of a U.S. Patent on this day in 1858 for a wooden pencil—where would golfers be without it, especially one with an eraser.                       

3. 1956 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1956 on a run of four weeks in that position The Poor People Of Paris by Les Baxter. Here is a link to Les Baxter performing The Poor People Of Paris:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkYWXAN_W5g No vocals but a catchy tune although might have been hard to dance to.

4. National Turkey Neck Soup Day—celebrating a great soup that realistically should be celebrated the Friday following Thanksgiving.   

5. My Heart Will Go On In Eight Languages—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1968 of iconic singer Celine Dion who has an incredible voice that has resulted in over 200 million records being sold and who also sings in 8 different languages. She is noted for singing the theme song for the movie Titanic. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bcxw2_titanic-theme-song-my-heart-will-go-on-celine-dion-hd_music

On this day in:

a. 1842 ether was used for the first time in a surgery performed by Dr. Crawford Long who used it to successfully remove a tumor from the neck of a patient—can you possibly imagine how painful it would have been to be opened up and operated on while fully awake?      

b. 1867 in the bargain of all times, Alaska was purchased from Russia for the bargain basement price of $7.2 million which is the value of 9 hours of oil flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.        

c. 1964 Jeopardy! hosted by Art Fleming aired for the first time on TV; the program is still going strong. 

d. 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest in Washington, D.C. by David Hinckley; he came very close to dying and some feel that the trauma was a factor in his developing Alzheimer’s disease later in his life.     

e. 2016 French President Hollande announced that he was dropping his plans to amend the Constitution to strip French citizenship of dual citizenship citizens convicted of terrorist acts.   

Reflections on becoming a doctor: “The downside to becoming a doctor, I think, is it's a very long process; four years of medical school, three years of internship, two years of residency, umpteen years of specialization, and then finally you get to be what you have trained almost all your life for.” Jim Lee, M.D. affiliated with Kaiser Permanente and the co-creator of Doctor Online.

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© March 30, 2016 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 
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