May 16, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not International Day of Light

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 16, 2021
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  163 million at 163,583,358 cases (163,016,995 yesterday), 18,188,946 of which are active, 145,394,412 closed with 142,004,239 recoveries (97.67% and 97.66% yesterday ,and 3,390,173 deaths (2.33% and 2.34 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
      CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,701,226 (33,650,248 yesterday) with 5,993,687 active cases of which 7,999 (8,293) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .13% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 21,272), 27,707,359 closed, with 599,982 deaths (2.17% and 2.19% yesterday) and with 27,107,377 recoveries (97.83% and 97.81% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .16%’ lower than the world rate.
         Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1804 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.46% of its closed cases have died (3027), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2499), Belgium (2122), Italy (2056), Brazil (2037) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1975), Poland (1895)and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and slightly better than Spain (1696), Mexico (1694), Portugal (1672), France (1646), Romania (1544), Argentina (1542), Chile (1445), Sweden (1406) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1232), and Bolivia (1139.
        Tests: We have now conducted 465,995,777 tests (now at 1,400,687/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,242,205/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,478,248M.
       CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has moved up to 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1694/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     12,184     433Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   137,449     593Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,389     336 Deaths/M   

      US Vaccinations: As of 5/16/2021 273.5 million doses and finally after a third day dropping a small increase to 1.98 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now back to some 4 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 35,114,892 total doses have been given (79.4% of doses received to equal the U.S. average of 79.4%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has not moved from 27^th out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 38.4% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 37.1% has  moved  down from 23^rd tied with Alaska to 24^th among the 50 states.  A long way to go to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
        Non CV News: As Israel is being subjected to Hamas rockets in a deadly massive rain, CNN proves once again its acronym is not misnamed as freelance CNN poster Adeel Raza’s pro Hitler vitriolic anti-Semite tweets have surfaced; Sanders a frequent critic of Israel is demanding foreign aid including the moneys spent of Iron Dome which has been intercepting 90% of the rockets aimed into Israel (as the Squad pipes in castigating Israel for defending itself a Jewish voter voting Blue in 2022 should be a highly endangered species); the CDC’s latest flipflop on mask wearing for fully vaccinated people which came without any waring or advance preparation has the nation’s largest nursing union up in arms and the public somewhat confused and skeptical that the person on the honor system not wearing a mask has been fully vaccinated; for Cuomo, whose office is scandal central and facing criminal probes, impeachment rumblings and growing demands that he resign the flip flop is probably manna from Heaven distracting and deflecting the wrath targeted against him; the NYC Subways continue to be a dangerous place to be as 3 more riders were viciously assaulted while the transit district’s please for more transit officers addressed to Mayor De Blasio fall on deaf ears; the hope of Bill and Melinda Gates for an amicable divorce may be facing some issues as reports continue to leak out on Bill Gates behavior during their marriage that are not complimentary and reveal his pursuing other women working for Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation during their marriage; it looks like the censorship excesses of Twitter is not just confined to the U.S. as a conservative politician in Spain was banned for 12 hours for “hate speech” by tweeting that men cannot get pregnant because they “lack a uterus and eggs” (the idiots at Twitter writing the algorithms must believe that the movie Junior was more than just a movie and that transgender women who identify as men can still keep their female organs and bear children); Young Kim, a newly elected Korean-American Red in the House has visited the border to see firsthand the chaos of the surge in illegals that Biden and his  Blues have ignored and had choice words for the Where’s Waldo czar who has been MIA for 53 days “Get Your Butt Down There!”; leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal what the teachers’ unions are teaching our children to our dismay and disgust which should create more charter schools:                                                     

       Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 14, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1236 persons shot of whom 212 have died.
        As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “This Is How We Do It“ by Montel Jordan, the fact that you were able to practice retrenchment during the pandemic and a quote from Space Shuttle Commander Bob Crippen on the Columbia,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Please contact me for details on the pricing.

           1. International Day of Light— created by UNESCO on September 16, 2016 and celebrated since May 16, 2018 on that date, which is the anniversary of the first successful use of a laser on May 16, 1960 by Theodore Maiman, to promote the use of light in art, science, the economy, culture and all aspects of our society where light is present.
            2. Stepmother’s Day—created in 2000 by 9 year old Lizzie Capuzzi to honor her stepmother Joyce and who sent a letter to Senator Santorum indicating stepmothers should be honored which the Senator placed in the Congressional Record. Being a stepmother is a difficult position to step into and those children who have been blessed with loving and caring ones are very lucky indeed.

 3.  1995 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1995 was “This Is How We Do It” by Montel Jordan on a run of 7 weeks non continuous in that position to join 11 other songs reaching number 1 and 4 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Montell Jordan of ”This Is How We Do It”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc Montell Jordan was a successful singer and sex icon who left the music business in 2010 to become the pastor of the Victory World Church in Atlanta, Georgia.               
            4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “retrenchment” which means the cutting of costs or expenditures in time of economic difficulty a skill which Biden is totally incapable of grasping as trillions in federal dollars will soon send inflation through the roof.
            5.  Depression Trumps Even the Enforcers—celebrating the birth on this day in 1984 of Rick Rypien, who played for the NHL for 6 seasons and who despite his size was a fierce hitter and enforcer but could not body check successfully depression that he suffered for 10 years even after taking 2 periods of absence to try to treat it and after signing as a free agent with the Winnipeg for $700,000 on July 1, 2011, committed suicide on August 15, 2011.
         On this day in
         a. 1929 the first Academy Awards Ceremony took place at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
         b. 1988 the U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop in a report announced that nicotine from cigarettes had the same addictive quality as heroin and cocaine although many smokers would claim from experience the addictive qualities were much worse.
         c. 1991 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address a Joint Session of Congress.
         d. 2005 in a what took you so long moment, Kuwait in a 35-23 vote in its National Assembly voted to allow women’s suffrage.
         e. 2011 the Space Shuttle Endeavor was launched on its 25^th and last mission and the penultimate one for the Space Shuttle Program.
        Reflections on the Space Shuttle: “This vehicle is performing like a champ. I’ve got a super spaceship under me.” Bob Crippen, STS-1 astronaut,

regarding the Space Shuttle Columbia, 12 April 1981. Sadly, that designation was retired on February 1, 2003 when the Columbia disintegrated on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all 7 aboard.
           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  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© May 16, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

May 15, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Armed Forces Day

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 15, 2021
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  163 million at 163,016,995 cases (162,438,045 yesterday), 18,571,576 of which are active, 144,449,415 closed with 141,066,160 recoveries (97.66% and 97.66% yesterday ,and 3,379,259 deaths (2.34% and 2.34 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
       CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,650,248 (33,650,248 yesterday) with 6,686,374 active cases of which 8,293 (8,411) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .12% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 20,978), 27,401,349 closed, with 599,685 deaths (2.19% and 2.19% yesterday) and with 26,801,684 recoveries (97.81% and 97.81% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .15%’ lower than the world rate.
        Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1803 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.49% of its closed cases have died (3020), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2498), Belgium (2120), Italy (2055), Brazil (2024) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1966), Poland (1894)and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and slightly better than Spain (1696), Mexico (1692), Portugal (1672), France (1644), Romania (1542), Argentina (1533), Chile (1440), Sweden (1406) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1232), and Bolivia (1139.                      Tests: We have now conducted 464,963,608 tests (now at 1,397,607,193/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,240,940/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,478,284/M.
         CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has moved up to 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1692/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     12,709     432Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   136,770     591Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,315     335 Deaths/M   

        US Vaccinations: As of 5/15/2021 270.8 million doses and finally after a third day of previous increases dropping for the third day to 1.93 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now back to some 4 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 34,715,312 total doses have been given (78.5% of doses received now less than the U.S. average of 78.6%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved down p from 26^th tied with Maryland to 27^th   out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 37.7% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 36.7% has  moved  up  from 24^th tied with Ohio to 23^rd tied with Alaska among the 50 states.  A long way to go to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
        Non CV News: India, the Bengal Tiger who escaped on Sunday and has been the  object of a massive search in Houston, has been recovered uninjured and from the video clip seems to be overjoyed https://www.foxnews.com/us/houston-tiger-found-safe-after-terrorizing-neighborhoodhavtfodday and band As Police Week comes to an end and police shot and killed in the line of duty for the period ending May 15 total 23 up 28% over the same period last year Biden panders to the left and BLM that minority communities are distrustful and fearful of police (what they should fear is the wave of black on black shootings and killings in urban killing zones like Chicago which I tally daily and over 95% of the deaths are blacks shooting blacks); our once independent and objective and respected FBI has finally reversed its inane conclusion the attack on Red members practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball game was a “suicide by cop” event and called it what it was “a domestic terrorist attack” in which the terrorist was an avowed leftist; while Israel seems to be bending over backwards as it warned occupants of the office building housing journalists that was also suspected of storing weapons for Hamas to evacuate which they did before it was destroyed, no such niceties observe by Hamas launching massive numbers of rockets against civilians in Israel which fortunately most are destroyed in flight by Israel’s Iron Dome; Biden belatedly has called Hamas’ leader and Israeli leader Netanyahu to reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself but calling for a cease fire and economic aid to Palestinians; when more than ever the nation is looking for compromise from the Swamp to get things done and issues resolved, AOC ranks as the least bipartisan Blue in the House; a professor at St. John’s, the daughter of Holocaust Survivors was fired for reading a passage with the N-word from Mark Twain’s novel Puddin’head Wilson which focused on the absurdity of slavery and racism (academic freedom no longer exists unless one is espousing tenets of the left); Biden doled out another incentive to illegals to come here reversing Trump’s executive order barring immigrants who cannot afford to pay for health care; California is facing severe drought conditions but the water situation on the California Oregon border now catastrophic as many farmers are having their irrigated water cut off (time to consider building solar and wind powered desalinization plants?);  Jimmy Inn, the Stockton police officer killed in a shootout with Lance Lowe, a parole who was released in April of last year after being sentenced to 5 years in 2018 for armed robbery with a gun, has left a wife, a 7 month old son and 2 step children, and 2 stepchildren, age 12 and 14.
         Leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal the dangers and mistake of exchanging failed and weak policies for aggressive and egotistical behavior:                                                                                          

        Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 14, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1215 persons shot of whom 211 have died.
         As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “The Sign“ by the Ace of Base , the fact that you have achieved retiracy and a quote from Mark Gottdiener on Las Vegas,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
       1. Armed Forces Day—created by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson on August 31, 1949 to celebrate those serving in all branches of our Armed Forces and first celebrated on May 20, 1950 and since then on the 3^rd Saturday in May.
       2. HG Awareness Day—created by the HER Foundation in May 15, 2012 to promote awareness of Hyperemesis Gravidarum (morning sickness) that affects most pregnant women but can be serious and life threatening in some cases.
         3. 1994 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1994 was “The Sign” by Ace of  ase on a run of 6 weeks non continuous in that position to join 9 other songs reaching number 1 and 5 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Ace of Base of “The Sign”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqu132vTl5Y Ace of Base was a Swedish group of 3 Berggren siblings   and Ulf Ekberg formed in 1990 and largely inactive since 2012 but never formerly disbanded.
        4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “retiracy” which means having sufficient means or property to be able to retire which many young people graduating from college with a huge amount of debt and degrees that are useless in finding good paying jobs are going to have difficulty in achieving.
         5.  Never Too Late to Sing—celebrating the birth on this day in 1942 of noted actress, singer/ songwriter K.T. Oslin who achieved commercial success singing at age 45 and semi-retired in 2001 to later be afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease in 2015 to move into an assisted living facility and die from COVID-19 on December 21, 2020 a week after being diagnosed with the disease.
         On this day in
         a. 1905 Las Vegas was founded in Nevada to ultimately grow into the gambling Mecca of the United States.
         b. 1963 the last Mercury spacecraft was launched into orbit with Gordon Cooper who became the last American astronaut to enter space by himself.
       c. 1988 after 8 years of aping the United States’ experience in South Vietnam, the Soviet Union call it quits and began to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan due in large part to the Stingers provided to the insurgents by the U.S. that were causing Soviet Hind helicopters to drop like flies.
      d. 2008 California became the second state to legalize same sex marriages after Massachusetts.
         e. 2010 Jessica Watson, age 16 became the youngest person to sail around the world non assisted, nonstop and solo in a journey that started on October 18, 2009 from Sydney, Australia and end in Sydney on May 15, 2010, 3 days before her 17^th birthday.

          Reflections on Las Vegas: “In the fledgling days of the town, the notorious Block 16 was set aside for card games and prostitution. Sin and commerce have marched hand-in-hand ever since, but this alliance made Las Vegas no more atypical than any other American city of the time. The difference is that Las Vegas extolled with pride what other places sought to hide. To the commonplace culture of heavily populated cities and industrial towns that made up the urban fabric of the country, Las Vegas alone stood as the behavioral "Other," a land where the "victimless" crimes of sex, drink, and gambling were not only condoned, but celebrated.” Mark Gottdiener, noted urban sociologist.
           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  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© May 15, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare

May 14, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Shades Day

 

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 14, 2021
        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  162 million at 162,438,045 cases (161,830,354 yesterday), 17,751,570 of which are active, 143,617,340 closed with 140,248,379 recoveries (97.65% and 97.65% yesterday ,and 3,368,961 deaths (2.35% and 2.35 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
       CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,650,248 (33,608,310 yesterday) with 6,350,239 active cases of which 8,411 (8,647) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now down to .14% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 20,860), 27,299,919 closed, with 599,109 deaths (2.19% and 2.20% yesterday) and with 26,700,810 recoveries (97.81% and 97.80% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .16%’ lower than the world rate.
         Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1801 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.60% of its closed cases have died (3013), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2491), Belgium (2118), Italy (2052), Brazil (2023) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru (1957), Poland (1886)and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and slightly better than Spain (1696), Mexico (1690), Portugal (1671), France (1643), Romania (1538), Argentina (1520), Chile (1436), Sweden (1406) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1232), and Bolivia (1135).                      Tests: We have now conducted 463,820,352 tests (now at 1,394,193/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,233,951/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,478,319/M.
          CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has moved up to 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1690/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     12,869     431Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   135,837     587Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,319     334 Deaths/M   

         US Vaccinations: As of 5/14/2021 268.4 million doses and finally after a third day of increases dropping for the second day to 1.95 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now back to some 4 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 34,319,950 total doses have been given (78.0% of doses received now less than the U.S. average of 78.5%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved up from 26^th tied with Maryland to 30^th  out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 37.1% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 36.2% has  moved  up  from 25^th  to 24^th tied with Ohio among the 50 states.  A long way to go to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
         Non CV News: As another example of why we need term limits at the federal level to prevent the establishment of an aristocratic ruling class, Maxine Waters has been demanding air marshals be on her flights even the flight to Minneapolis to present at the Chauvin verdict pulling air marshals away from flights deemed high risk (sadly this tyrant is alone as more and more members of Congress are demanding Marshals on board making commercial air travel for them more like a concierge service); on the anniversary of Israel’s creation in 1948, the nation looks headed for war against Hamas as it calls up now 9,000 reservists and rockets continue to be launched against it (the progressive side of the Blues is condemning Israel and the BLM shows its true Marxist colors by standing with the Palestinians); rising star in the Reds Elise Stefanick was elected by the Reds to replace an ousted Liz Cheney pledging unity in the party and a goal to regain the House in 2022; a fully vaccinated Bill Maher has tested positive for CV, is asymptomatic, and “is feeling fine” (hopefully he is also unable to spread the virus which would likely imperil the push to get more people vaccinated); the CDC hopefully in its last flip flop has indicated that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks indoors or outdoors or heed social distancing as some critics of Biden allege the change is due to the need to distract attention from the growing number of crises the administration seems incapable of handling from the border surge to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware to looming Israeli Hamas armed conflict; concerned over the barrier to going back to work that the enhanced unemployment compensation is creating, 16 states will be terminating those benefits this summer as businesses are complaining they can’t find workers to fill vacant jobs; NYC continues to spiral downward in terms of public safety with the latest being a spree of stabbings on the subway system and instead of more uniformed officers, DeBlasio’s latest brilliant idea is to  of have municipal workers use a buddy system when using the subways.
        Medina Spirit, the winner of the Kentucky Derby whose disqualification is still up in the air, has been cleared to run in the Preakness; former MLB player Johnny Damon who was arrested for a DUI with a BAT of .3% has cut a deal with prosecutors in Florida to avoid jail time with community service and a donation to charity; (had he been arrested in Boston given his role in bring the Red Sox a World Series Championship the police would have probably issued a warning and then driven him home); even though it may be hard to link Biden to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware, leave it to the political cartoonist to gauge the public’s thinking of who to blame:                                                              

          Where’s Waldo, who has not been to the border,  has border state mayors and governors and the Border Patrol rightfully feeling abandoned and mystified as to what if anything she has in mind to address the crisis other than the platitude “address the root causes” has higher negatives than positives which should surprise no one.
         Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 13, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1189 persons shot of whom 206 have died.
             As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “Freak Me” by Silk , the fact that you want resipiscence from the Progressives in the Blues and a quote from Burt Rutan on the Space Lab and space travel.  secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
           1. Underground America Day—created by architect Malcom Wells in 1974 to promote the idea of creating housing underground which some 6,000 Americans have followed and who died in 2009 and who true to the holiday he created is probably now buried permanently 6 feet underground.
         2. Shades Day—created in 2016 by the Family Holiday Association, a UK charity helping cope with issues such as disability, severe and sudden illness, bereavement, mental health issues and domestic violence and founded on the on the belief that holidays are a lifeline, not a luxury with many of their donated holidays at the beach which usually will involve the need for wearing shades.
          3.  1993 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1993 was “Freak Me” by Silk on a run of 2 weeks in that position to join 10 other songs reaching number 1 and 5 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Silk of “Freak Me”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6XUsow4Vg Silk was formed as a quintet in Atlanta, Georgia and after a one year hiatus in 2002 is still performing today, having released 7 albums.

         4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “resipiscence” which means to return to a sane, sound, or correct view or position, something Reds are waiting with bated breath to see from the Squad but sadly probably never will.

         5.  Queen for a Day King for Life—celebrating the birth on this day in 1996 of Blake Brockington who was born female but came out as a transgender male and became the first transgender in a North Carolina High School to be crowned a prom king but ended up committing suicide on March 23, 2015 at age 18.

         On this day in
         a. 1878 in a “you have to be kidding me” moment, in Salem, Massachusetts, Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused fellow adherent Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his “mesmeric” powers. Fortunately, the judge quickly dismissed the case which gives it the distinction of the last attempted witchcraft trial in the United States.
         b. 1943 a Japanese submarine torpedoed and sunk the Australian Hospital Ship the AHS Centaur, off the coast of Queensland, killing all but 64 of the 334 patients, staff and crew aboard.
         c.  1955 the Soviet Union and 7 Eastern Europe Communist Countries signed a mutual defense pact to counter NATO.
         d. 1973 Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched and was occupied by 3 different crews for a total of about 24 weeks until 1974 and since the Shuttle was not yet available to reboost its orbit higher, the orbit decayed and ended up disintegrating over the Indian Ocean on July 11, 1979.
         e. 1988 on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, Larry Mahoney, DUI driver driving the wrong way ran head on into a church youth group bus carrying 67 people, killing 27 and injuring 34. Mahoney was tried for multiple counts of manslaughter, convicted, and served 9 ½ years in prison.
         Reflections on Skylab and missed opportunities: “By 1973, we had a space station, the Skylab, and we had multiple probes going up to planets. So, all this wonderful stuff happened in 10 to 15 years. About that time, there should have been enormous initiatives to make it affordable for people to fly in space, not just a handful of trained NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts.” Burt Rutan, noted aerospace engineer and designer.

        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  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© May 14, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

May 13, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Limerick Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 13, 2021

        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues to infect in the new year with cases now over  161 million at 161,630,003 cases (160,728,143 yesterday), 18,807,251 of which are active, 142,822,752 closed with 139,469,400 recoveries (97.65% and 97.65% yesterday ,and 3,353,352 deaths (2.35% and 2.35 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
         CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,608,310 (33,554,277 yesterday) with 6,359,031 active cases of which 8,647 (8,775) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now still at .14% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 20,624), 27,249,239 closed, with 598,212 deaths (2.20% and 2.20% yesterday) and with 26,651,027 recoveries (97.80% and 97.80% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .15% lower than the world rate after the world’s spike in improvement.
         Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1798 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.60% of its closed cases have died (3005), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2484), Belgium (2117), Italy (2049), Brazil (2002) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru 1945, and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and Poland (1878)  and slightly better than Spain (1695), Mexico (1688), Portugal (1671), France (1640), Romania (1532), Argentina (1510), Chile (1429), Sweden (1405) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,   Switzerland (1232),and Bolivia (1130).
          Tests: We have now conducted 462,339,914 tests (now at 1,389,765/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,226,562/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,478,354/M.
           CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has moved up to 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1688/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     12,648     429Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   134,952     583Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,324     334 Deaths/M   

        US Vaccinations: As of 5/13/2021 264.7 million doses and finally after a third day of increases dropping to 2.16 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now decreased to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 33,817,290 total doses have been given (78.3% of doses received now less than the U.S. average of 78.5%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved up from 27^th tied with Indiana to 26^th tied with Maryland out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 36.2% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 35.4% has not moved  up  from 25^th among the 50 states.  A long way to go to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
         Non CV News: Biden refused to admit whether Colonial Pipeline paid the ransomware hackers “DarkSide” it ransom but several sources were saying the company paid $4-$5 million to get and an encryption key to unlock its computer systems which means if our vaunted FBI cannot bring these extorters and our vaunted high tech social media and computer giants cannot prevent such ransomware attacks in the future, this may be the new business normal (like businesses paying small amount to dismiss ADA noncompliance litigation filed to terrorize small businesses); Cuomo’s arrogance and egoism should no longer amaze us as he now claims that making a woman feel “uncomfortable” is not harassment (what cave has this idiot been hiding in the last few years?); leave it to the political cartoonist to reveal the Squad’s true feelings about Israel trying to defend itself:

             Harris’ niece is aping so many relatives of  leaders in high places in embarrassing them as this leftist rants about terrorism being practiced upon the Palestinians by the Israelis; maybe a coincidence of the revelation that Bitcoin was used to pay the ransomware in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack but new that the FBI and the DOJ have joined the investigation of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange; in another State Street Bank of Boston was slapped by the DOJ with a $115 million fine for 7 years of defrauding customers $215 million.    
           Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through   May   12, 2021, gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1182 persons shot of whom 206 have died.
           As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “Jump" by Kris Kross, the fact that you resile from the rants of AOC and a quote  from Richelle E. Goodrich on leprechauns,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
           1. National Leprechaun Day—this seems like a holiday in which the creators had too much Guinness or Bushmills to drink and slept through days preceding March 17 to name a day—even today a great character chasing a pot of gold to if Irish and if not would claim to be on March 17 to commemorate.
           2. International Hummus Day—celebrating that tasty snack or spread of pureed chickpeas with one’s favorited spices and juices to go with pita or naan bread and eaten since the 13^th Century in the Middle East.
           3.  1992 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1992 was “Jump” by Kris Kross on a run of 8 weeks in that position to join 11 other songs reaching number 1 and 7 other acts achieving their first number 1 song. Here is a video recording by Kris Kross of “Jump”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=010KyIQjkTk Kris Kross was a rapper duo of 12 year old and 13 year old rappers Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly”  and Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith who were the youngest rappers ever to hit the charts as number one and released 3 studio albums but was dissolved when Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly died from a drug overdose on May 1, 2013 at the age of 34. 
          4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “resile” which means to recoil which probably describes the reactions of many listening to the rants of the Squad.
          5.  Win a Seat and Die—celebrating the birth on this day in 1941 of up-and-coming singer Richie Valens who after a concert with Buddy Holly and A.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson won a coin toss to board Holly’s chartered plane leaving in winter weather to the next concert and then to die at age 17 on February 3, 1959 with all aboard in a day that would be forever known as the “Day the Music Died.”
         On this day in
         a. 1917 3 children reported seeing the apparition of the Lady of Fatima at Fatima, Portugal.
         b. 1958 Ben Cardin became the first and only person to circumnavigate the Earth by sea and by land solo in a journey that took 10 years to complete.
         c.  1995 Alison Hargreaves, a 33 year old mother, became the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without the aid of supplemental oxygen or a Sherpa and later on August 13, 1995 doing what she loved to do died during her descent from the summit of K-2.
         d. 1998 race riots began in Jakarta against businesses owned by persons of Chinese descent.
         e. 2013 “Physician” Richard Gosnell was found guilty of murdering 3 babies born during failed abortions and other abortion related crimes and is not rotting at age 80 in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.
        Reflections on a world full of leprechauns: “Imagine if we were all magical leprechauns, and every wish ever made on a four-leaf clover obliged us to help others obtain their wishes. Now imagine if people simply lived like this were true.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
        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  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© May 13, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift

 

May 12, 2021 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Limerick Day

 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not May 12, 2021

        CV World Cases: The CV pandemic across the planet continues the new year with cases now over  160 million at 160,728,143 cases (160,239,675 yesterday), 18,886,090 of which are active, 141,842,053 closed with 138,504,423 recoveries (97.65% and 97.64% yesterday ,and 3,337,760 deaths (2.35% and 2.36 % yesterday) to continue the slow trend of increased cases with increased recovery percentages and decreased death percentage with some plateaus, dips, and rises.
      CV USA Cases: Total cases now over 33 million at 33,554,277 (33,543,575 yesterday) with 6,398,606 active cases of which 8,775 (8,791) yesterday and 8,599 on 3/25/2021) (now still at .14% of active cases and now another blip down to decrease the number of serious or critical cases to increase the reduction from the 29,271 peak on 12/31/2020 to 20,496), 27,155,671 closed, with 597,052 deaths (2.20% and 2.20% yesterday) and with 26,558,619 recoveries (97.80% and 97.80% yesterday). Our death rate percentage continues to slowly improve and after many months is now .15% lower than the world rate after the world’s spike in improvement.
        Standing: On a deaths per million population measurement on a steady climb to 1795 the U.S. ranks behind Hungary the new number 1 which has had a huge continuing surge in deaths with the increase barely slowing down and 4.65% of its closed cases have died (2997), aping Hungary in terms of increase in deaths Bulgaria (2478), Belgium (2115), Italy (2046), Brazil (1991) which has been hit with a rapid rise in deaths and cases and passed us, Peru 1939, and the UK (1872) which had passed us despite leading world in testing and now has new deaths barely increasing),  and Poland (1869)  and slightly better than Spain (1694), Mexico (1686), Portugal (1671), France (1635), Romania (1528), Argentina (1500),  Sweden (1405) that never closed its economy down like we did but has recently been experiencing a steady rise in  deaths,  Chile (1422), Switzerland (1231),and Bolivia (1123).
         Tests: We have now conducted 460,458,760 tests (now at 1,384,132/M) compared to number 2 now France at 1,217,432/M) as we are conducting more tests in number and on a per capital basis for all nations (other than those nations that contain small populations like Bahrain, Denmark, Israel, Malta, Singapore and UAE) other than the U.K. which remains as king of the mountain with respect to tests at 2,459,940/M.
       CV Open Gate: Lost in the pronouncements by Biden and his lackeys that there is no crisis of illegals surging across the border is that fact that COVID-19 is alive and well and spreading in the Northern Triangle and Mexico which has moved up to 11^th on my list of deaths from the pandemic at 1686/M and the 3 countries in the Northern Triangle in terms of active cases and deaths per million are as follows even though the data may be suspect as underreported (regardless of number we need no more cases):

                   Guatemala:  Activecases:     12,687     427Deaths/M
                   Honduras:     Activecases:   134,356     577Deaths/M
                   El Salvador:   Active cases:     2,291     333 Deaths/M   

       US Vaccinations: As of 5/12/2021 263.1 million doses and finally after days of dropping a third day of increases to 2.20 million per day in the last week sounds impressive but if the rate does not increase it will take us now decreased to some 3 months to have 75% of the population vaccinated which many believe is necessary to develop herd immunity. In California 33,632,769 total doses have been given (78.2% of doses received now less than the U.S. average of 78.8%), but even with the pressure of a recall to be scheduled this fall which hopefully end Newsom’s term, California has moved down from 25^th tied with Illinois to 27^th tied with Indiana out of the 50 states in terms of the percentage of doses administered as a percentage of doses delivered to the states and at 35.8% of its population fully vaccinated compared to the U.S. average of 35.1% has moved slight up  from 26^th  to 25^th among the 50 states.  A long way to go to get herd immunity in terms of getting vaccines received into arms and the percentage of the population fully vaccinated compared to other states which means a great reason to recall this inept and hypocritical governor.
        Non CV News: The Reds said “By By” to Liz Cheney  in her leadership position     and now watch the MSM go into a lather touting the split in the Republican Party speculating how divisive Cheney will be and what she will do to oppose Trump supported candidates (by so doing they will carry water for the Blues anxious to downplay the growing takeover of the Blues by the likes of AOC and the Squad); Colonial Pipeline is back in business just in time as service stations were running out of fuel in the areas it served as very long lines were the order of the day and tempers fraying (in a why didn’t we do this earlier it seems that Colonial has been seeking a cyber security manager for two months and has not filled the position); even more frightening is that some chatter indicating that the “DarkSide” emboldened by their crippling of Colonial views that attack as only the tip of the iceberg; Biden once again reveals to the press howling questions at him today after a meeting between him and Where’s Waldo and Republican leaders, that he is not supposed to answer questions from the press leading us to wonder when this puppet will reveal who is pulling his strings (my guess its Pelosi, Sanders, Warren and Schumer with a lot of noise from the Squad—God help us); the Oklahoma City School Board unanimously objected to Oklahoma’s law that bans the teaching of critical race theory with its commands that whites should feel guilt over past acts of his or her race and the meritocracy  or hard work ethics are racist (do not be surprised if this gang of 8 is recalled or at least booted out in their next election); Hamas is launching rockets from Gaza left and right into Jerusalem forcing Israelis to hunker down in bomb shelters while Israeli jets bomb suspected launch sites and too many on the left are on anti-Semite condemnations; the George Floyd death to Minneapolis is the gift that keeps on giving  as after a wrongful death settlement payment to his family of $28 million, the city is now shelling out $35 million in workers’ comp claims to the 200 or so officers who retired from the force due to riot caused injury and PTS.
      After the viral photos of the two nonagenarian Carters and the Bidens  made  the rounds with the Carters looking like white pygmies and the Bidens like Giants, leave it to the political cartoonist put comparison of the two presidencies in terms of historical rating in the proper perspective:                                                                

       Chicago Gun Violence: Hey Jackass.com is back to show that through May 11, 2021,  gun violence involving mostly persons of color shooting mostly persons of color in Chicago is alive and well with 1160 persons shot of whom 203 have died.
         As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a video musical link to “Joyride” by Roxette , the fact that you are ready, willing and able to repugn what you hear coming from the left and a quote from Bernie Morris on limericks to go with an original one by the Alaskanpoet created on this National Limerick Day,  secure in the knowledge that if you want to send a gift for any memorable events like Father’s Day, 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. Please contact me for details on the pricing.
      1. National Limerick Day—celebrating that 5 lined poem with the aa/bb/a rhyme scheme and often humorous and ribald to first appear in 1820 and celebrated on this day as it is the anniversary of the birth of Edward Lear, noted limerick poet and artist, in 1812:
         There once was a man named Joe Biden
         Who did not campaign in person but stayed in hidin’
         At 78 turning 79 this fall, memory and stamina is fading fast
         With his VP chomping at the bit knowing he may not last
         Dementia is a terrible way to as his gap from reality widens
         © May 12, 2021 The Alaskanpoet
        2. National Donate One Day of Wages to Charity—celebrated on the second Wednesday of May as a one time and painless way to donate to your favorite whose recipients of its largesse given the pandemic could more than ever need its donations.
        3.  1991 Number 1 Song USA—the number 1 song in 1991 was “Joyride” by Roxette on a run of 1 week in that position to join 24 other songs reaching number 1 as 14 acts  achieved their first number 1 status. Here is a video recording by Roxette “Joyride”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCorJG9mubk Roxette was a Swedish duo of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle who formed the duo in 1986 and had great success in Sweden and the U.S. but took a hiatus when Fredriksson was diagnosed with brain cancer which she fought until the duo reunited in 2009 until she died from it on December 9, 2019.
       4.  Word of the Day—the word of the day is “repugn” which means to fight against or oppose which the Reds are trying to do in spades to Biden’s agenda.
        5.  Dodge One Bullet Only to Be Felled by the Other—celebrating the birth on this day in 1936 of noted news anchor, journalist and late night talk show host Tom Snyder who was a heavy smoker even on air but gave it up in 2000 only to come down with leukemia and die from it on July 29, 2007 at age 71.
         On this day in
        a. 1846 the Donner Party heading for California departed from Independence, Missouri to be trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains by snow to endure death and cannibalism before being rescued.
     b. 1949 the Soviet Union finally threw in the towel on its illegal Berlin Blockade thwarted by  the Berlin Airlift that kept the city alive and ended it.
       c.  1982 while visiting  the Shrine  of  the Virgin Mary  at Fatima, Portugal, security guards thwarted an attack of Pope Paul II by Ajuan Maria Fernández y Krohn, a priest, with bayonet. After being blessed by the Pope he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to 6 years but released after serving 3 years.
        d. 2002 former President Jimmy Carter  went to  Cuba to  start a five   day  visit with Fidel Castro.
      e. 2017 the Wanna-Cry 4 day worldwide cyber ransomware attack infected 400,000 computers including those of the U.K. National Health Service and Telefonica which attack was believed to have been started by the Lazurus Group a hacking group with ties to North Korea.
       Reflections to the limerick in poetry: “It pains me to see how modern society has totally corrupted the limerick and given it the reputation of lewdness which, in turn, has morally barred our children from even taking a peek into this wonderful form of fun and rhythm. I think Edward Lear would turn in his grave if he knew that. I have therefore decided to reinvent the limerick as it was originally intended: to poke fun, irreverence, just plain daftness, or erroneous behaviour.”― Bernie Morris, An A-Z of Looney Limericks
        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  Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day in History.

© May 12, 2021 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire
Poet Extraordinaire, Beyond Compare
A Unique Gift, All Recipients a Lasting Gift