Ridley's Believe It Or Not--This Day In History

Sunday, July 26, 2020

July 26, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not Esperanto Dayve

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not July 26, 2020

CV World: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 252,714 new cases (a 1.57% increase compared to a 1.84% increase yesterday) to bring the total exceeding 16 million to 16,329,461 cases, 5,691,787 of which are active, 10,637,694 of which have been closed with 9,987,260 recoveries (93.89% compared to yesterday’s 93.84%) and 650,434 deaths (6.11% compared to yesterday’s 6.16%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

CV USA: New cases of 62,603 with total cases surging to over 4 million of 4,345,380 (a 1.46% increase compared to yesterday’s 1.95% increase) with 2,123,243 active cases of which 18,984 (19,069 yesterday) are in serious or critical condition a welcome drop, and 2,222,037 closures, 149,605 of which have been deaths (6.73% compared to yesterday’s 6.81%) and 2,072,532 of which have been recoveries (93.27% compared to yesterday’s 93.19%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed his order sending CV positive patients on May 10 but remain higher than the world probably due to idiots like Cuomo sending positive CV patients into nursing homes to infect the residents and staff who then die and accounted for some 40% of our deaths with 53,694,636 tests (so much for Biden’s claim of lack of testing by Trump and implications Trump is slowing testing to hide CV increases).

Non CV News: John Lewis’ casket atop a wagon was towed across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to Montgomery where it now lies in state at the State Capitol; Joe Biden merits his nickname “Hidin’ Biden” as he refuses to come out of his basement physically or on line to do an interview with Chris Wallace (more likely than not he is terrified of revealing his fading mental capabilities); every time Pelosi opens her Botox infused mouth she cannot refrain from divisive over the top rhetoric--this time nick naming Trump “Mr. Make It Worse” (when will this divisive hack realize that continuing ad hominem attacks are totally anti-productive and demean the role of the Speaker of the House); Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind has died at the age of 104 in Paris; in yet another example of how the CV pandemic has frayed our civility, a woman is captured on video spraying with pepper spray a man walking a dog for not wearing a mask, an act which pales by comparison to what happened at a Dallas sports bar called the Knockout where a men refused entrance because the place was at capacity returned to his car and came back with an assault rifle wounding 3 patrons inside but when he went to the back of the building he was met by armed patrons who started shooting at him and he fled; in Louisville 2 armed militia groups the white The Three Percenters faced off with the black Not F---ing Around Coalition but with police helicopters and armed police monitoring carefully, the protest was peaceful albeit scary to see such heavily armed militia in public:

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of July 24, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 27 to 2,224, of whom 394 have died (so much for the defund the police movement and for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order and a complete dereliction of duty by Mayor Lightfoot other than swearing at people outraged over the killings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 208 behind Chicago now at 186 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than shootings by police or random mass shootings?).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to All-4-One, the fact that if you can be pauciloquent and still get your point across, and a quote from Leo Tolstoy on Esperanto, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find 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. You need only contact me for details.

1. Esperanto Day—celebrating the creation of the auxiliary international language Esperanto by L.L. Zamenhof in Poland in 1887 believed today to be used by some 2,000,000 speakers.

2. Reek Sunday—commemorating on the last Sunday in July an annual day of pilgrimage in Ireland by climbing Ireland’ highest mountain Croagh Patrick where St. Patrick fasted for 40 days.

3. 1994 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1994 on this day on a run of 11 weeks was “I Swear” by All-4-One in their first number 1 song. Here is recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25rL-ooWICU . This Antelope Valley band now in their late 40’s was formed in 1993 and still going strong today.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pauciloquent” which means speaking few words which is a great skill to get one’s point across in this hectic 24/7 world.

5. Gaffe Mentor for Biden--celebrating the birth on this day in 1903 of Senator Estes Kefauver who longed to be president but could not win the Democratic nomination; he was a lousy speaker and gaffer but personable and connected to his constituents. Sadly, he was a heavy smoker and drinker who could not quit either habit and died of a heart attack on August 10, 1963 at the age of 60.

On this day in:

a. 1948 President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military which unfortunately did not extend to the towns surrounding US Military Bases in the Jim Crow South.

b. 1956 in a you won’t play ball with me I will take my river and go home, Egyptian President Nasser after the World Bank refused to fund construction of the Aswan Dam, nationalized the Suez Canal provoking international condemnation.

c. 1977 the National Assembly of Quebec made French the official language of the province.

d. 1990 to the joy of handicapped people in the U.S., George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

e. 2016 Solar Impulse 2 became the first airplane powered by solar power to circumnavigate the world after making 12 stops and having to occasionally wait for better weather.

Reflections on Esperanto: “Six years ago I received an Esperanto grammar, vocabulary, and articles written in the language. After not more than two hours’ study I was able, if not to write the language, at any rate to read it freely…. I have often noted how men are brought into unfriendly relations merely through material hindrance to mutual comprehension. The learning and spreading of Esperanto is therefore undoubtedly a Christian movement, helping to create the Kingdom of God, which is the chief and only aim of human life.” Leo Tolstoy

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.

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Saturday, July 25, 2020

July 25. 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Hire a Veteran Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not July 25, 2020

CV World: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 289,826 new cases (a 1.84% increase compared to a .87% increase yesterday) to bring the total exceeding 16 million to 16,077,287 cases, 5,609,079 of which are active, 10,468,208 of which have been closed with 9,822,971 recoveries (93.84% compared to yesterday’s 93.77%) and 645,237 deaths (6.16% compared to yesterday’s 6.23%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

CV USA: New cases of 82,026 with total cases surging to over 4 million of 4,282,777 (a 1.95% increase compared to yesterday’s .74% increase) with 2,064,117 active cases of which 19,069 (19,171 yesterday) are in serious or critical condition a welcome drop rise, and 2,186,655 closures, 148,988 of which have been deaths (6.81% compared to yesterday’s 6.91%) and 2,037,677 of which have been recoveries (93.19% compared to yesterday’s 93.09%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed his order sending CV positive patients on May 10 but remain higher than the world probably due to idiots like Cuomo sending positive CV patients into nursing homes to infect the residents and staff who then die and accounted for some 40% of our deaths with 52,919,650 tests (so much for Biden’s claim of lack of testing by Trump and implications Trump is slowing testing to hide CV increases).

Non CV News: Regis Philbin noted TV personality and host of Live and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has died of natural causes at 88; the first day of a 6 day celebration opf life took place in his home town of Troy. Alabama with another service to be held this evening (Trump ignored Rep Bass’ admonition that he not say anything as he tweeted today that Lewis was a “Civil Rights hero.”; a locksmith pried open the doors of the Chinese consulate in Houston ordered closed due to espionage and IP theft; Trump has sent 100’s of federal agents to Chicago to protect federal property and assist the CPD fight the wave of black on black shootings and killings and some fruit as 3 have been arrested for federal firearms violations; a federal judge has wisely blocked the Seattle Council’s attempt to ban the use of riot gear by the SPD (otherwise cops are left with only batons and firearms to protect themselves from rioters’ dangerous or deadly force); in Louisville, a “protest” by a black militia group “Not F---ing Around” resulted in one of the “protesters” accidentally shooting 3 of his fellow protesters (when you are packing heat peaceful protest my ass that sounds like getting ready to riot); another rock legend Peter Green, the co-founder of Fleetwood Mac has died in his sleep at age 73; Eric Swalwell the most consistent liar in the House thought the disclosures of the FBI investigating Trump were perfectly justified because Trump’s “hope the Russians have Hillary’s deleted emails” proves he was asking for their help (not only a liar but totally delusional); still reeling from the Chinese love note of the CV pandemic, residents in Virginia and Utah have received unsolicited seed packages evidently from China which the Department of Agriculture has advised not to plant until the nature of the seed is identified (invasion of the invasive plants?); in a chilling reminder of how divisive we have degenerated into a noted black Trump and BLM supporter in Milwaukee Bernell Trammell was shot and killed in front of his store; Hurricane Hanna is expected to make landfall in Texas bringing massive amounts of rain and potential flooding (wonder if the boats of Confederate Navy will be welcome flying their Stars and Bars in rescuing flooded victims?).

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of July 24, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 20 to 2,197, of whom 393 have died (so much for the defund the police movement and for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order and a complete dereliction of duty by Mayor Lightfoot other than swearing at people outraged over the killings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 207 behind Chicago now at 186 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than shootings by police or random mass shootings?).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to UB40, the fact that if you are to own a boat you would not have Bligh like tendencies as a patroon, and a quote from Richard Nixon on Vietnamization, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find 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. You need only contact me for details.

1. National Hire a Veteran Day—created by Hire Our Heroes on June 5, 2017 and first celebrated on this day in 2017 to promote the hiring of veterans who bring unique managerial talent and skill sets to the private sector and employers should feel very good about themselves and given the amount of homelessness present among our vets a job is exactly the lifeline they need and could use.

2. Perthes Disease Awareness Day—celebrated on the last Saturday in July to create awareness of a rare disease that affects 1 out of 1200 children and causes a blockage of the blood vessels to the bone cells in the hip causing bone lose and requiring in many cases surgery preferably sooner than later as the disease progresses.

3. 1993 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1993 on this day on a run of 7 weeks was “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Here is recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajp0Uaw4rqo . This British pop and reggae band was formed in 1978 and is still active and was named after the form one needs to fill out to seek unemployment benefits in the U.K.

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “patroon” which means captain of the ship and when the ship is the ship of state, grave concerns over whether Biden is up to the task.

5. Tough Kid but Not Tough Enough--celebrating the birth on this day in 1982 of Brad Renfro who was living with his grandmother in a trailer park when he with no acting experience but exhibiting the nature of a “tough kid” the director wanted landed a starring role in The Client and went on to have roles in 21 feature films but struggled with drugs, alcohol and the law and overdosed on heroin and morphine on January 15, 2008 at the age of 25.

On this day in:

a. 1837 in London William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone made the first commercial demonstration of the telegraph and the world became yet another smaller place.

b. 1965 Bob Dylan switched to an electric guitar commencing a major shift in pop and rock music.

c. 1969 President Nixon declared the Nixon Doctrine requiring the citizens of Asian countries to be the first line of defense against Communists intrusion which led to the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War creating the beginning of the withdrawal of American forces.

d. 1994 in a better late than never moment, Jordan and Israel signed the Washington Declaration which ended the formal state of war that existed between the 2 countries since 1948.

e. 2010 WikiLeaks published classified documents, some of which were leaked by Chelsea Manning, about the U.S. military’s role in Afghanistan in one of the largest leaks of classified military information ever.

Reflections on Vietnamization: “Tonight I can report that Vietnamization has succeeded. Because of the increased strength of the South Vietnamese, because of the success of the Cambodian operation, because of the achievements of the South Vietnamese operation in Laos, I am announcing an increase in the rate of American withdrawals. Between May 1 and December 1 of this year, 100,000 more American troops will be brought home from South Vietnam.” Richard Nixon– Televised address to nation, April 7, 1971 Sadly not a realistic statement as after signing of the Paris Peace Accords on January 27, 1973, in a little over 2 years South Vietnam fell to the North on April 15, 1975 with a resigned Richard Nixon no longer president to see the failure of Vietnamization.

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Friday, July 24, 2020

July 24, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not National Drive Thru Dayd Dr

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not July 24, 2020

CV World: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 135,563 new cases (a .87% increase compared to a 2.26% increase yesterday) to bring the total nearing 16 million to 15,787,461 cases, 5,525,700 of which are active, 10,261,761 of which have been closed with 9,622,749 recoveries (93.77% compared to yesterday’s 93.74%) and 639,012 deaths (6.23% compared to yesterday’s 6.26%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

CV USA: New cases of 30,760 with total cases surging to over 4 million of 4,200,751 (a .74% increase compared to yesterday’s 2.39% increase) with 2,064,117 active cases of which 19,171(19,155 yesterday) are in serious or critical condition a continuing troublesome rise, and 2,136,634 closures, 147,713 of which have been deaths (6.91% compared to yesterday’s 6.93%) and 1,988,921 of which have been recoveries (93.09% compared to yesterday’s 93.07%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed his order sending CV positive patients on May 10 but remain higher than the world probably due to idiots like Cuomo sending positive CV patients into nursing homes to infect the residents and staff who then die and accounted for some 40% of our deaths with 51,923,782 tests (so much for Biden’s claim of lack of testing by Trump and implications Trump is slowing testing to hide CV increases).

Non CV News: Trump has signed 4 executive orders which should result in lower drug prices for American consumers; for the 57^th day in a row, rioters protested in Portland numbering this time 2,000 and joined by their spineless mayor who urged them to continue protest (aka riot) and posted their demands which included a 50% cut in the police budget and release of all protesters (despite appearing in solidarity with the rioters, Mayor Wheeler was shouted down and booed by the anarchist crowd); Mayor Lightfoot’s home was the site of a protest attacking her call with Trump concerning his plan to bring in 200 federal agents to help curb violence and shooting (why aren’t they protesting the ongoing massacre of blacks in black on black shootings has to be a mystery); at the Chinese consulate in Houston, the Chinese were burning papers as fast as they could most likely to try to conceal their ongoing potential espionage and IP theft; Nick Sandmann received a great 18^th birthday gift as WAPO aped CNN and settled his defamation lawsuit with terms not disclosed (as he tweeted 2 down and 4 to go Jack Dorsey founder of Twitter and one of the defendants which should be a wakeup call to advocacy MSM “journalists” that when you don’t have the Sullivan shield, you defame at your peril); Mayor Bowser of D.C. has just imposed a 14 day quarantine for anyone coming into D.C. from a CV “hot spot” but exempting those coming in for Maryland or Virginia or a member of Congress (since many of the lobbyist parasites who descend upon our government reside in Maryland and Virginia, not great to see they will be unhindered in spreading their havoc); Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner, another anti-law and order D.A. whose campaign was financed by George Soros, after slamming Trump for being “a wannabe fascist” has warned Trump he will arrest any federal agents sent to his city who arrest “protesters” (good luck on that Soros man); another victim of the counter culture war as A&E has lost half of its viewers as a result of its decision to drop Live PD ( should be a wakeup call to MSM that conservatives do spend money and refusing to support businesses that attack their beliefs and values is to be an expected consequence).

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of July 23, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 16 to 2,177, of whom 391 have died (so much for the defund the police movement and for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order and a complete dereliction of duty by Mayor Lightfoot other than swearing at people outraged over the killings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 206 behind Chicago now at 185 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than shootings by police or random mass shootings?).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to Sir Mix-a-Lot, the fact that if you are to experience pathopoeia you will be able to choose music as opposed to rhetoric, and a quote from Hulda Crooks on staying young, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find 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. You need only contact me for details.

1. National Drive Thru Day—created by Jack-In-The-Box in 2002 to honor all the restaurants that have followed the drive in aspect of eating out started in 1921 by Pig Stand restaurants at their location outside of Dallas on the highway to Ft. Worth where a server would take the order from the car and then bring it to the car and clip on a tray with the food ordered. Thank God time has allowed the improvement of the process along with the speed by having menus next to ordering microphones that lead to a pickup window so despite the shutdowns resulting from the CV pandemic, drive thru restaurants and banks have managed to stay open.

2. National Tequila Day—not sure who created or when this observance of a drink the majority of which alcohol must be made from the Agave Cactus or why this date as opposed to Cinco de Mayo but do know the best way to celebrate it is to consume it in a margarita or in a straight shot with lime and salt.

3. 1992 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1992 on this day on a run of 5 weeks was “Baby Got Back” a first number 1 song by Sir-Mix-a-Lot for his first and only number one song. Here is recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X53ZSxkQ3Ho .

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pathopoeia” which means excitation of passion by rhetoric or music.

5. Drugs Never Good at Ironing Out Problems--celebrating the birth on this day in 1978 of world renown professional surfer Andy Irons who won multiple surfing events, was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach and the only professional surfer to win all ASP surfing venues but sadly caught his last wave on November 2, 2020 due to a drug overdose.

On this day in:

a. 1929 The Kellogg-Briand Pact which had been signed by 31 nations including Japan and German and banned the use of war to settle or resolve any conflict or dispute went into effect and soon thereafter was signed by an additional 9 nations but as WWII showed not effective as war broke out in 1937 in Asia and 1939 in Europe.

b. 1974 in a the walls are closing in moment, SCOTUS unanimously ruled the President Nixon had to turn over to the Senate the tape recordings made in the Oval Office regarding the Watergate break in.

c. 1980 the Quietly Confident Quartet from Australia won the Gold Medal in 4X100 400 meter relay at the Moscow Summer Olympics, the first time the U.S. has not won the event because they were not there due to the U.S. Boycott due to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.

d. 1987 Hulda Crooks in a the higher you go the younger you feel moment became the oldest person at 91 to climb Japan’s highest mountain, Mt. Fuji.

e. 1998 Russell Eugene Weston, Jr. entered the Capitol armed with 38 revolver and shot and killed Officer Jacob Chestnut and entered Representative Tom Delay’s office as he was being fired at and chased by Officer MacMillan where he shot and killed Detective Gibson, who before he died shot Weston 4 times. Weston was declared unfit for trial and was sentenced to a mental institution where he is today.

Reflections on how to stay young by the oldest woman to climb Mt. Fuji: “Early to bed and early to rise. Out jogging about 5:30am. Jog a mile and walk it back briskly. It takes me 12 minutes to jog the mile and 15 minutes to walk it. Do some upper trunk exercises, work in the yard, and walk to the market, and work.” — Hulda Crooks describing life at 80

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July 23, 2020 Ridley's Believe It Or Not World’s Sjögren’s Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not July 23, 2020

CV World: The CV pandemic across the planet continues with 405,944 new cases (a 2.26% increase compared to a 2.26% increase yesterday) to bring the total nearing 16 million to 15,651,898 cases, 5,480,096 of which are active, 10,171,802 of which have been closed with 9,535,332 recoveries (93.74% compared to yesterday’s 93.67%) and 636,470 deaths (6.26% compared to yesterday’s 6.33%) to continue the trend of increased recovery percentages and decreased mortality percentages.

CV USA: New cases of 97,482 with total cases surging to over 4 million of 4,169,991 (a 2.39% increase compared to yesterday’s 2.73% increase) with 2,043,041 active cases of which 19,155 (16,729 yesterday and an alarming 14.5% increase) are in serious or critical condition, and 2,126,950 closures, 147,333 of which have been deaths (6.93% compared to yesterday’s 7.09%) and 1,979,617 of which have been recoveries (92.07% compared to yesterday’s 92.91%) (our death rate percentages continue to improve and are finally in single digits since Cuomo repealed his order sending CV positive patients on May 10 but remain higher than the world probably due to idiots like Cuomo sending positive CV patients into nursing homes to infect the residents and staff who then die and accounted for some 40% of our deaths with 51,552,175 tests (so much for Biden’s claim of lack of testing by Trump and implications Trump is slowing testing to hide CV increases).

Non CV News: Black radio host tells Biden to ”shut the eff up” over his claim that Trump is the first racist president (critics whose minds still work as opposed to Biden’s pointed out that 12 presidents had owned slaves and that Wilson and FDR might well be paragons of racism); hope Fauci is better plotting on how to fight the CV than he is on “shot putting” a baseball to open the truncated MLB season; after failing to quell 53 days of riots in Portland, pressure by Portland officials has resulted in the IG Michael Horowitz in conjunction with the IG of the DHS to open up an investigation of the federal agents deployed to Portland: AOC slams an apologetic Rep Yoho for calling her a "f---ing b---h," but lips are silent on Pelosi’s storm trooper and Clyburn’s Gestapo rants (hypocrisy always dilutes credibility of one’s outrage AOC); the surge in CV has also prompted a surge in online swinging with almost 725,000 swingers according to the App #Fun (wonder if each member of the threesome has negative test results card of recent vintage); Southwest Airlines and American Airlines will require all passengers over the age of 2 to wear a face mask as they imitate sardines in their crowded seats; Michael Cohen who violated the terms of his home arrest by dining at a pricey Manhattan restaurant and was then sent back to prison has convinced a federal judge that ordering him back was in retaliation for his wanting to write a book and ordered him to be returned back to his house on Friday (having money and the anti-Trump MSM on your side is a plus when dealing with the criminal justice system); another retailer is the victim of the CV pandemic, Acsena Retail Group which owns Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and Loft, has filed for Chapter XI Bankruptcy; John Lewis will become the second civilian to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda.

Chicago/Baltimore Gun Violence: In Chicago as of July 22, 2020, the number of shootings increased by 11 to 2,161, of whom 387 have died (so much for the defund the police movement and for the effectiveness of Chicago’s stay at home order and a complete dereliction of duty by Mayor Lightfoot other than swearing at people outraged over the killings); Baltimore with a fraction of Chicago’s population and hoping against all hopes that 2020 will not be a record in terms of deaths but now seems to be shooting less and killing less and is now 202 behind Chicago now at 185 murders (when will Chicago and Baltimore get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of people of color by people of color and when will the left focus on the problem of color on color shootings in Blue run cities which have been more deadly and more numerous than shootings by police or random mass shootings?).

As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, factoids of interest for this day in history, a musical link to EMF, the fact that you are not pathic, and a quote from Roger Craig on hitting against pitchers like Don Drysdale, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find 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. You need only contact me for details.

1. World’s Sjögren’s Day—commemorating since 2010 the work of Henrik Sjögren, a Swedish ophthalmologist who identified the autoimmune system disease best known for dry eyes and mouth and joint pain that bears his name and is suffered by some 4 million Americans.

2. National Yada, Yada, Yada Day—inspired by the 153^rd episode of Seinfeld which aired on April 24, 1997 and created by Michael W. Casby who on April 15, 2015 noted there was a Blah, Blah, Blah day and tweeted to Checkiday to name on July 23 Yada, Yada, Yada Day.

3. 1991 Number One Song— the number 1 song in 1991 on this day on a run of 1 week was “Unbelievable” a first number 1 song by EMF, an alternative British rock band formed in 1989, disbanded in 1997 to reform 3 times and is still active today. Here is recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5kr2OBhh4c .

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day is “pathic” which means passive which describes to a tee how Blue urban politicians view their black constituents when it comes time to vote.

5. Shutout King--celebrating the birth on this day in 1936 of noted Dodger pitcher and sportscaster Don Drysdale who was not afraid to hit a batter and often did, was good hitter for a pitcher (1965 he was the Dodgers only 300 hitter). He set the scoreless inning record at 58 2/3^rd the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in L.A. and his record of 6 consecutive complete game shutouts still stands. Sadly this talented pitcher and this poet’s hero when he was pitching in little league died from a heart attack on July 3^rd, 1993.

On this day in:

a. 1903 Ford Motor sold its first automobile.

b. 1962 Jackie Robinson became the first black player to be inducted to MLB Hall of Fame.

c. 1983 Air Canada Flight 143 from Montreal to Edmonton in a Boeing 767 after being incorrectly loaded with the proper amount of fuel, ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet midway into the flight but was fortunate enough to glide itself to a safe landing at Gimbli, Canada on an abandoned air force base converted to a race track.

d. 1999 Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on the 93^rd space shuttle mission with Eileen Collins being the first female commander.

e. 2018, in Attica, Greece wildfires killed 108 people, making it the deadliest fire in Greece history and the 2^nd deadliest after wildfires that killed 180 in Australia.

Reflections on facing pitchers like Don Drysdale: ““I personally think it’s too bad if a batter gets hit crowding the plate. I know that Don Drysdale, Larry Sherry and Stan Williams felt the same way when they pitched for the Dodgers in the late 1950s and early ’60s. That was the formula I was raised on. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a batter apologize for smashing a line drive off some part of a pitcher’s torso”
— Roger Craig, Inside Pitch

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