3/22/2026

Sunday, March 22, 2026

1349 Black Death Massacre: Townspeople of Fulda, Landgraviate of Hesse massacred Jews, blaming them for the Black Death; part of many pogroms across Western Europe

1965 US confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong

1972 In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the US Supreme Court ruled that unmarried people have the same right to contraception as married people

2004 Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of Hamas, and bodyguards were killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles

2019 Special Council Robert Mueller submited his findings on the 2016 election to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General William Barr

2022 Microplastics were found in human blood for first time through new research 

2025. More than 100,000 Israelis gather in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities in Israel to demonstrate and demand a deal for the Israeli government and Hamas to release all hostages. The protesters also accuse the Israeli government of working against its people, calling for a right of rebellion and new elections.

The view from my chair at 4 in the morning, though the photo shows the night sky brighter than it is.

In bed at 8:40, awakened sometime after 9 by Nurse Vina to flush my IV and take my vitals, woke up around 3:10 for a pit stop and feeling pretty much awake, stayed up recalling that last night I had another awakening around 3:30 for ''the vitals.  Sure enough, at 3:20 Shontae, the night CNA showed up and took my vitals.  160/74???  I went to bed last night and woke up thinking of the Irving Berlin's song Count Your Blessings.  Bing Crosby sang it in the movie White Christmas in 1954 when I was 13:

When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small

I think of when I had none at all

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads

And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

If you're worried and you can't sleep

Just count your blessings instead of sheep

And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings

The movie was/is a schmaltzy story about Army buddies in WWII and show business, but it starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Lynn and closed with der Bingle and the cast singing the title song which of course has become an American classic.  I guess Count Your Blessings has become a minor classic in its own right, since it debuted when I was 13 and I still remember it almost 72 years later. . . .  I turned the lights out at 4:10 and tried and failed to fall back to sleep so I got up again at 4:40, expecting another visit aroound 5:30 to "take your vitals."  I'm wondering whether that last reading of 160/74 is good news or bad news and wondering too how my heart rate is doing.  Am I recovering from the beta blocker??? . . . Vina arrived at 5:45 with my omeprazole and took my dailly weight at 208.8.  Is this becoming a problem?  It's getting higher, but is it from fluid retention?  

    I saw the doc this morning and she says my heart rate is steadying in the 50s which should be acceptable.  She'll talk with the cardiologist tomorrow and expects me to be discharged tomorrow.  On the other hand, when the nurses take my "vitals," as one just did at 12:15 p.m., it was at 34.  I'm wondering what the telemetric record shows in terms of progress since Thursday night when I got hooked up.

Great visit from Micaela this afternoon with a long, great conversation.