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Posted

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/03/health/james-harrison-blood-donor-death-scli-intl/index.html

RIP to James Harrison, the man who saved 2 million babies.

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I don't have this, but I'm O-Neg and CMV-Neg (universal for neo-natal emergencies.) I learned about this guy when I found out I had some pretty special blood (7% of pop has O-Neg, and 15% are CMV-neg, so I'm in the 1%). He hasn't been able to give in a bit, but he made a huge impact.

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Posted

This is an odd one for me.  Going back to the 1990s, when the internet was much more sparsely occupied and still primarily text based, I knew a guy named RalphE.  He was a bit older than me, very gay and quite successful.  He was charming, witty, engaging and prone to making bad decisions then doubling down on them repeatedly.  He had his own vocabulary.  When giving directions (he helped me drive through Boston, which is no mean feat) he'd say "go gayly forward" because telling someone to "go straight" went against his principles.  He walked a delicate line of being just a tad condescending but having enough charm and empathy to always pull it off.  I remember him telling me "I don't know how you silly hets (heterosexuals) manage without us (gay people.)"  Ralph was always strong in his professional life, but in his personal one he was always getting out of or freshly into some disaster.  I observed him spend every cent he made (which was quite a few, most of the time) on some hot young European guy who was clearly only in it for the money.  I lost contact with him not quite 20 years ago, but I'd occasionally hear about him from a mutual friend. 

Today I heard from her that Ralph was gunned down after withdrawing cash from an ATM in the Philippines(!)  There's an obituary page up.  As per usual, I'm the last to learn of such things.  I have mixed feelings.  Ralph lived life more intensely than most folks, and got a lot out of it.  I always got the feeling he wasn't entirely sure what he was chasing, but the passion with which he went after things was a force to be reckoned with.

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