Ramblin' with Roger

J is for James Harrison, blood donor

Doctors were struggling with cases of a potentially fatal condition called Rh incompatibility

On one of those less-than-reliable news feeds that accompany some websites, I found a mention of a “super” blood donor.

It turns out, though, that Australian blood donor James Harrison has saved 2 million babies.

“James Harrison was born on 27 December 1936. At the age of 14, he underwent major chest surgery, requiring 13 litres (3.4 US gallons) of blood. After surgery, he was in the hospital for three months. Realizing the blood had saved his life, he made a pledge to start donating blood as soon as he turned eighteen, the then-required age.”

From NPR:
“Doctors were struggling with cases of a potentially fatal condition called Rh incompatibility, also known as rhesus isoimmunization or Rh disease. It occurs when a pregnant woman has an Rh-negative blood type but the fetus she’s carrying is Rh-positive.

“In some pregnant women, Rh disease causes their antibodies to attack the fetus’s red blood cells. Scientists needed a way to turn this reaction off, and in Harrison’s blood, they found it: a rare antibody known as Rh (D) immune globulin or anti-D.

“Doctors believe Harrison has anti-D because of the blood he received at age 14. And so Harrison became the first anti-D donor in Australia — and the most prolific.”

There are many iterations of the story, from CNN to Medical Daily when one Googles James Harrison blood donor.

He, with over 1000 donations of blood plasma, averages one donation every three weeks. He makes my 150 or so donations, mostly whole blood, seem like a piker’s effort.

ABC Wednesday – Round 18

Pie, and the love thereof

Apple pie in the sky as dreamer.

I am on the record, stating my great preference for pie over cake. Pie, as a form, is more flexible than cake, as it can be savory (chicken pot pie, e.g.) or sweet.

Picking this totally random day, here are some of my favorite songs about pie.

American Pie- Don McLean. Also the name of a series of movies about libidinous teenagers.

Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie – Jay & The Techniques. I remember that game. This 1966 song I’m fairly sure one of my sisters owned, perhaps on the album. “Marry you so you don’t roam.” What a controlling guy.

Custard Pie -Led Zeppelin. I was shocked, SHOCKED to find out that this song from Physical Graffiti might be about…something else. Would Zeppelin actually use food items as metaphors for sex?

Flaming Pie – Paul McCartney. The album’s title track about how John Lennon named the Beatles.

Honey Pie – the Beatles. This doesn’t talk about food at all, but is rather a term of endearment. What IS it with Macca and pie?

I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) – Four Tops. More affectionate use of the term.

Sweet Potato Pie – Ray Charles. From the Genius Loves Company album (2004), this track features James Taylor, who had written and performed the song for his Never Die Young album (1988).

High Hopes – Frank Sinatra. Specifically: “He’s got high, apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes.” Apple pie in the sky as dreamer.

Lots of pie songs out there in a simple Google search. Here’s one list .

Movie review- Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Some guy I follow on Facebook gave out a big reveal from The Force Awakens in late January. Ticked me off,

I said it’d be a cold day in February before I’d bother to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Well, the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend started out at 10 degrees F (-12C) and DROPPED during the day. Then there was the wind, which made it considerably worse.

This was the opportunity for the Daughter to see her first Star Wars film, at the nearby Madison Theatre. She’s actually a better gauge of this film than I, although she seemed to know plot points and background better than her mother, who had seen the original trilogy. I too saw the first three, which is now the middle three, though not in many years. I may have seen the original film on video once subsequently, but probably not the others.

I also saw the first prequel, which bored me silly, a greater sin to me than whether Jar Jar Binks was a stereotype. It kept me from seeing #2 or #3, and I’m unfamiliar with the various items in the interregnum, such as Clone Wars.

Some guy I follow on Facebook gave out a big reveal from The Force Awakens in late January, assuming, incorrectly, that anyone who was going to see this film had already done so. Ticked me off, and ruined some of the suspense.

For me, the fact that the leads, Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn, with the help of Oscar Isaac as Poe, held my interest until Han Solo and Chewbacca show up; that’s not much of a spoiler, as they appear in the trailer, and the poster. And they were well-developed characters in their own right.

The geek controversy over the black stormtrooper – aren’t they all replicants, or something, blah, blah – I found…[yawn]…sorry, what was I about to say? Oh, that those folks stressed about a female lead are just…hmm. Anyway, whatever. I did like Oscar Issac, whose character was SO depressing in Inside Llewyn Davis.

How do I feel about the politics of J.J. Abrams’ essentially a variation on the original theme, designed to make lots of money for Disney, especially with the next episode nicely set up? At some level, I suppose I’m a tad bothered by it. But it’s a tsunami. In its ninth week, it’s still the seventh leading film for the weekend. It cost $200 million but grossed $900 million domestically, and over $1.1 BILLION in the foreign market.

More to the point, I got sufficiently sucked up in the story to want to see the next chapter.

Mom and dad’s anniversary – would’ve been #66

They look SO young. And happy.

As usual, the youngest of the three Green children, the one who lives in the parents’ home, is pouring through old pictures, uncovering ones that, if I had ever seen, are lost to my memory.

An astonishingly large number of the photos in her possession was taken in the backyard of 13 Maple Street, Binghamton, NY, the home of my maternal grandmother, Gertrude Williams, and her sister, Adenia Yates. My mom grew up there, and my sisters and I went there every lunchtime during the school year.

The house was tiny, the backyard puny. Yet there are several pictures of well over a dozen people in that postage stamp yard.

This is my mom-to-be, Gertrude Elizabeth Williams, who later went by Trudy because she hated her first name. My father-in-waiting, Leslie Harold Green, and Trudy met at that house, when he brought flowers to 13 Maple Street, in Binghamton’s more northerly First Ward, instead of 13 Maple Avenue, on the city’s South Side.

I’m just guessing they’re not married yet, because they look SO young. And happy.

And Les has this smug look that I’m told his future mother-in-law simply did not like. I think Trudy found it appealing after being under the thumb of her mother and aunt, and for much of her life, by her grandmother and uncle.

Music Throwback Saturday: I’ll Be Good To You

I was in a doctor’s office back in October 2015 which played surprisingly good, and eclectic, music.

Back in 1989, I picked up this album produced by Quincy Jones, called Back on the Block. “The album features legendary musicians and singers from across three generations, including Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul, Ice-T, Big Daddy Kane, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Barry White, Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Al B. Sure!, James Ingram, and El DeBarge.”

The album went to #9 on the Billboard album charts and was so eclectic that it hit #1 on both the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.

The first single of the collection was I’ll Be Good To You, featuring Ray Charles and Chaka Khan. It was a hit, #18 on the US pop charts, and #1 for two weeks on the rhythm and blues charts in 1990.

I was in a doctor’s office back in October 2015 which played surprisingly good, and eclectic music. I hear I’ll be Good To You, but it’s surely not the Quincy version. It turns out that it was by The Brothers Johnson, who I’ve mentioned on this blog before.

How did I miss this version, written by the Brothers Johnson (George and Louis) and Sonora Sam, and produced by Quincy? It got up to #3 for three weeks in 1976, as well as #1 on the r&b charts.

I’ll Be Good To You:
Quincy Jones, Ray Charles & Chaka Khan

The Brothers Johnson
The Brothers Johnson
The Brothers Johnson on Midnight Special

Quincy Jones turns 83 on March 14.

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