Sunday, April 14, 2019

April 13, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Thomas Jefferson Day


Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For April 13, 2019 The Blues are coming off the rails in their mantra of investigate not legislate in their demand for 6 years of tax returns of Trump, which Trump has demanded the IRS not deliver setting up a nasty court fight (legislation provides that the Chairman of the House Ways and Means can demand release but able minds question whether what looks like and smells like a fishing expedition can be so used; Trump is going to call the Blues’ pro illegal alien immigration bluff by releasing illegals into Sanctuary Cities causing the Blues to go ballistic and exposing their hypocrisy on their stance; the Masters facing a weather storm disaster will tee off earlier in the final round tomorrow to beat the expected bad storm and Tiger is in the hunt two shots back; workers who are forced to smile at customers and clients like health care workers, food service workers, or teachers to repress negative feelings are more likely to drink more heavily after work; a Houston driver was arrested and charged by police with toll road avoidance of almost $5,500 in tolls by having a flipper that flipped his license when going through a toll booth so the camera was unable to read his plates; Olivia Jade ensnared in the college admissions scandal revealed that she may not be college material as her trademark application for her cosmetics line was rejected by the PTO for spelling and punctuation errors; the cassowary is living up to its reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous birds when it killed its owner in Florida when he fell over  near the bird; on the agriculture front, some scientists are promoting the use of perennials like Kernza and clover to reduce soil loss and carbon dioxide emissions; on the sports front the fast growing game of Quidditch which is a combination of elements of rugby, dodgeball and basketball is facing concerns due to a growing concern over injuries like concussions; broken bones and ligament damage; as Chinese hacking and theft of intellectual property continues unabated, costing us close to $57 billion a year, new evidence is that the culprits are often the victims themselves; as of April 12, 2019, 542 people have been shot in Chicago of whom 98 have died (what makes the Smollett case so frustrating is that it forced the city of Chicago to allocate scarce detective resources when in only 9% of the shootings resulting in murder have a suspect being charged this year).
       As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Falco, factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that your goals are realistic not Panglossian, and  a relevant quote from Thomas Jefferson on friendship, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like college graduations, 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. Thomas Jefferson Day—celebrating the birthday on the day in 1743 of one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote his own epitaph detailing what he wanted to be remembered for:  "HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA."
2. Scrabble Day— commemorating the birth on this day of Scrabble inventor Alfred Butts who after losing his job during the Great Depression invented the popular board game of Scrabble, still popular today and a great way to learn new words.
3. 1986 Number One Song—the number one song on this day in 1986 on a run of 3 weeks in that position was “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco. Here is a recording of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA. He was the only singer to have a number one song in German and sadly while making a comeback was killed in a automobile accident in the Dominican Republic.
4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day as we move from words beginning with “o” to words beginning with “p” is “Panglossian” which means overly optimistic which often describes politicians’ claims to be able to reduce our spending and national debt.
5. Up in Smoke  celebrating the birthday on this day in 1949 of noted British-American journalist, essayist and author of numerous books Christopher Hitchens, whose prolific pen due to a lifetime of smoking and drinking since being a teen was put down for good on December 15, 2011 due to cancer.
       On this day in:                                        
a. 1919 Socialist Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was sent to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for speaking out against the draft in World War I.    
b. 1964 Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar for Best Actor his role in Lilies of the Field.
c. 1976 the US Treasury reintroduced the $2 bill on the 233rd anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth.
d. 1987 China and Portugal signed an agreement returning the Island of Macau to China in 1999.
e. 1997 Tiger Woods in winning his first of 4 Masters became the youngest golfer to win a Masters and in the final on Sunday is only 2 strokes behind the leader.   
        A Jeffersonian reflection on how to end the pervasive gridlock in the Swamp: I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson If only the partisan politicians would listen and shed the Trump Derangement Syndrome of investigate not legislate, we might be able to solve some our major troubling issues that we sent our representatives to the Swamp to try to solve.
         Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to   www.Alaskanpoethistory.blogspot.com for just This Day in History.
© April 13, 2019  Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

No comments:

Post a Comment