Though many donors have responded to this emergency, the amount of blood needed to rebuild the supply far outweighs donations.

There is now no back-up to the supply that the hospitals have on hand. We have issued virtually all of the blood on our shelves, and urge healthy individuals to donate blood now.

We are now at a point where patients across the county are at risk. There is no safety net.

We can't emphasize enough how dangerous this shortage has become. We are fortunate that there weren't more serious injuries in the sign collapse on Interstate 805 yesterday, and that blood was not needed.

One day it hit me: Truest friends, God bless their hearts, could not care less. They love you, they're pleased you're getting married and, ultimately, they don't give a fig how you get it done.

No one uses a ribbon typewriter any more, but your final draft is not the time to try to wring a few more sheets out of your inkjet cartridge.