Dead Pool 12th November 2017

Welcome peeps, another week flies by, alas no points to be awarded. I was asked the question a couple of weeks ago, who has scored the most on our little Dead Pool. Well, since we changed over to the current scoring format, I can now reveal that our top scorer of all time is Laura from 2016 with an astounding 654 points. That year she correctly guessed her Cert and Woman, and also got the first death of the year. A few of her chosen were rather young to die as well. So that’s the benchmark people! Also, some of you may be wondering who has guessed the most deaths in a year, well, this achievement has been broken this year, Martin now holds this record with seven deaths out of a possible thirteen. Also a claim to fame, the only person to have correctly guessed a Maverick is Stu back in 2014, although listing the third heaviest man of all time was a tiny bit outside the brief of a Maverick.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Karin Dor, 79, German actress (You Only Live Twice, Topaz).
• Roy Halladay, 40, American baseball player (Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies), Cy Young Award winner (2003, 2010), plane crash.
• Carl Sargeant, 49, Welsh politician, AM (since 2003).
• John Hillerman, 84, American actor (Magnum, P.I., Chinatown, Blazing Saddles), Emmy winner (1987).
• Chuck Mosley, 57, American singer (Faith No More, Bad Brains) and songwriter (“We Care a Lot”), complications from alcoholism.
• Antonio Carluccio, 80, Italian chef, restaurateur and television presenter (Two Greedy Italians), fall.
• Shyla Stylez, 35, Canadian pornographic actress.

In Other News 

As reported a few weeks ago on The Dead Pool, the chances of us all dying of The Black Death has just been upped a notch as Malawi has been put on high alert over fears the plague, which has killed at least 140 people in Madagascar, could hit the East African country. It is now the tenth nation in Africa to be put on alert over concerns surrounding the Black Death, which was behind one of the devastating pandemics in history, wiping out a third of Medieval Europe in the 1300s. South Africa, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, La Reunion and Mayotte, Kenya, Ethiopia and Comoros have all been warned to prepare for a potential outbreak of the deadly disease. The plague has swept across the island nation since late summer, moving beyond the areas where it traditionally occurs, with at least 2,034 suspected or confirmed cases reported between 1 August to 8 November, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO has pledge £3.8m to fight the disease and prepare surrounding countries for potential spread, but it says it could take months to bring the outbreak under control.

And because it’s a very slow news week, have a comic instead.

On This Day

• 1912 – The frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
• 1970 – The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous “exploding whale” incident.
• 1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

Deaths

• 1035 – Cnut the Great, Danish-English king (b. 985)
• 1981 – William Holden, American actor (b. 1918)
• 1990 – Eve Arden, American actress and comedian (b. 1908)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Leonardo DiCaprio (43), Demi Moore (55), Stanley Tucci (57), Calista Flockhart (53), June Whitfield (92), Hugh Bonneville (54), Roland Emmerich (62), Tracy Morgan (49), Neil Gaiman (57), Ennio Morricone (88), Lou Ferrigno (66), Tony Slattery (58), Gretchen Mol (45), Tara Reid (42), Matthew Rhys (43), Richard Curtis (61), Gordon Ramsay (51), Lorde (21), Joni Mitchell (74), Emma Stone (29), Sally Field (71), Ethan Hawke (47), Thandie Newton (45), Rebecca Romijn (45), Lori Singer (60), Maria Shriver (62), Nigel Havers (66), Famke Janssen (53), Tilda Swinton (57), Robert Patrick (59), Sam Rockwell (49), Tatum O’Neal (54), Elke Sommer (77), Tamzin Outhwaite (47), Armin Shimerman (68), Art Garfunkel (76) and Chris Addison (46).