I hurt myself today. But unlike the Johnny Cash song "Hurt," I didn't do it to see if I felt pain, I did it because I stupidly tried to catch a falling bowl near a sink, and when the bowl split into several pieces I was still holding the jagged end, thus allowing for a laceration of the skin right under the skin. It wasn't bad, stung for a little bit but I was fine with the sight of my own blood, whereas MJ the nurse kept making disgusted noises about the blood splurging out, claiming that it was "unexpected" blood so it wasn't like what she's used to at the hospital. Within about 15 minutes of putting on a bandaid, though, the bleeding had stopped, the pain subsided, and I was back to normal. Funny how it works. I didn't know this before, but the bleedings stops because of platelets in the blood, which arrive at the laceration site and clump up to form a clot that helps stop bleeding. Not everyone is as lucky as I am, with my Wolverine-like abilities to heal quickly; lot of people need platelets. (OH NO THIS IS ANOTHER POST WHERE BOBBY BRAGS ABOUT DONATING BLOOD?) Yup, but platelets are actually cool and interesting, and takes quite a while to get out of my system, so I get to boast about it! And also apparently there's the most desperate need right now for platelets, due to winter vacation and lack of donations (I can attest to this, my local Red Cross was totally empty on December 29) but hospitals need the most right now due to surgeries to begin the year right now, no kids in school for blood drives or workers in offices (not that there are many workers in offices right now anyway).
Due to me signing up for Amazon Prime to get the free shipping for holiday season, MJ and I have started watching a little show that comes up on Jeopardy all the time with Rachel Brosnahan, Tony Shalhoub, and Alex Borstein: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It deserves the hype; MJ likes it for the scenes of Paris, high class New York in the 50's, the upbeat music, (did I mention that it's set in New York, MJ's favorite city?) It explores what the U.S. was like in the U.S. (seems like it smelled like urine even more than it does now in the big cities), a time before cell phones, internet, and air conditioning in every home; what a time to be alive. In many ways it reminds me that our current society in 2024 is probably the best that humankind has ever had it, despite all the ongoing wars, bedbugs in Paris right ahead of the Olympics, social unrest, Harvard president stepping down for plagiarism, existental environmental risks, social media making everyone stupid, fake news and conspiracies, polarizing leaders, comedians falling flat at the Golden Globes (Jo Koy), and so many others, we would still live in 2024 than the 1950s, or the 1940s, or the 1850s, or the 1500s, or ever. If everyone who ever existed was given all the information about which time in history they'd want to live in up to 2024, I bet most would want to live from 2000-2024, with a parabola rising up from 2000 up to 2024, when everything has become so easy it actually makes life a little worse, because shows like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are SO accessible (click of a few buttons) that you don't feel compelled to watch it, despite it being one of the best shows on TV (recently cancelled, but not for lack of quality. Also the standup comedy is good, I like rooting for the heroine Mrs. Maisel, and plenty of smart dialogue.
Yea and that laceration I just got, if I had gotten them earlier in history? Probably my powers of healing would have allowed me to get by, but definitely higher risk of it getting infected, no ready band-aids available (invented 1920), and if I had hemophilia I'd have a big problem, especially since platelet donations weren't available until roughly early 1910's neither. Donate blood and platelets! We have the technology.
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