Dead Pool 14th June 2015

What a week! It seemed like there was a mass extinction of celebrities, but for us here at Dead Pool Towers, the only death that mattered was Christopher Lee. Many of you had him listed, but strangely none of you saw fit to declare him a Cert, which is usually a sign of a well loved celebrity.

So, 57 points are awarded thusly: Luke, Ashley, Liz, Julie, Kirsty, Paul G, & Nickie, well done to all of you, especially those of you who have scored for the first time this year.

This week I’ve taken the liberty of adding the lists to the email so you can refresh your memory on who you and everyone else has on their lists of doom. After all, its been over six months and I bet you’re wondering why you’re still part of this abominable endeavour.

So take a quick look, correct me if I’ve gone wrong or missed a death and remember that there’s months to go yet, so if like me you’ve yet to score, all is not lost, who knows what will happen! Maybe a plane crash at the Oscars….

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Vincent Bugliosi, 80, American attorney and author (Helter Skelter), cancer.
• Ronnie Gilbert, 88, American singer-songwriter (The Weavers) and actress (Running on Empty).
• Sir Christopher Lee, 93, British actor, voice artist, and singer (Dracula, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars), heart failure.
• James Last, 86, German composer and big band leader.
• Robert Chartoff, 81, American film producer (Rocky, Raging Bull, Ender’s Game), Oscar winner (1977), pancreatic cancer.
• Igor Kostin, 78, Romanian-born Ukrainian photographer, took first pictures of Chernobyl disaster, traffic collision.
• Ron Moody, 91, British actor (Oliver!, The Animals of Farthing Wood, EastEnders).
• Dusty Rhodes, 69, American Hall of Fame professional wrestler (NWA, WCW, WWE).

In Other News 

The Foo Fighters have cancelled two gigs after frontman Dave Grohl sustained “at least one fracture” when he fell off the stage during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band were two songs into their set at the Ullevi stadium when Grohl went to jump on a ramp but missed and fell into the security area. “I think I just broke my leg,” the singer told the crowd as he lay on the ground. “I’m going to go to hospital. I’m going to fix my leg. And then I’m going to come back.” Eyewitnesses told the media that the band continued the concert, playing cover versions whilst Grohl sought medical attention. A fan said, “He reappeared after an hour to continue the concert, sitting in a chair with his leg bandaged. It was surreal to see him perform on stage with a medic holding his leg. The crowd was just amazed that he was carrying on. He was just phenomenal. I can’t see how he will make the next gig in Holland but then he’s more of a man than I am so I wouldn’t put it past him.”

This year has seen several musicians injured on stage. Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine broke her foot leaping off stage at the Coachella Music Festival in April, while U2 guitarist The Edge misjudged his step and fell off the stage during the opening night of the band’s Innocence and Experience tour. Madonna also fell off stage during a live performance at the Brit Awards. The pop star continued her performance, but said she suffered “a little bit of whiplash”. It’s a perilous old game being a musician these days!

The former England and Tottenham striker Jimmy Greaves has left hospital just over a month after suffering a severe stroke. The 75-year-old was admitted into intensive care on 3 May but his friend and agent Terry Baker has now confirmed Greaves “has left hospital and entered a rehabilitation unit for the next few weeks”. Baker added in a statement on Facebook: “He has improved considerably but there is still a very long way to go.” Which suggests that Greavesy is now struggling with soup and incapable of wiping his own arse.

Paul Gascoigne has revealed that he is “happy in life” in a Radio 5 interview. Gascoigne, 48, knew something was wrong during his playing days and spoke of his relief at finally being diagnosed as an alcoholic and admits that he’s spent £300,000 on rehab clinics. Although he still manages to go on a bender now and again, he denied that he’s a piss addled sot and the media has totally blown up the whole situation. He still reckons he’s the best footballer ever to have played for England, which may be true, but is a sad statement about English football. 2/1 he dies during a xmas binge of sadness.

A Spanish bullfighter gored in the testicles by a bull he was fighting has left hospital. Marco Galan underwent surgery after Sunday’s incident where he was lifted into the air after black fighting bull thrust its left horn into his groin. The infirmary said in its medical report that he had suffered a “bull horn wound in the scrotum which caused bruising and evisceration of the left testicle”. Sadly the brutal bastard will survive, unlike the poor bull. At least he managed to get some kind of restitution before he was killed for ‘entertainment’.

And finally, if you think you’re having a bad day, think about this poor fucker who has survived after being stung up to 1,000 times by tens of thousands of bees near Kingman in north-western Arizona after he disturbed a large hive in a shed in his backyard. “The number of bees in the shed was unbelievable,” a spokesman said. “The deputy who arrived said it was it was like something you’d see in the movies. It was just amazing.” Authorities said the man was working on the property when he was stung and ran to his vehicle, getting help from two passersby who were also stung. A beekeeper called to the scene was also stung 23 times. He told authorities it would probably take several days to fully contain the bees. A particular strain of bee has been menacing people and animals in Arizona in recent weeks, with some being hurt badly enough to require a hospital stay. Nature is finally turning on us!

On This Day

• 1404 – Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allies himself with the French against King Henry IV of England.
• 1777 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
• 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.
• 1789 – Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
• 1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables”.
• 1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
• 1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
• 1962 – The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
• 1966 – The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.
• 1967 – The People’s Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb.
• 1982 – Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces.
• 2002 – Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Deaths

• 1927 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author (b. 1859)
• 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist (b. 1857)
• 1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish-English engineer (b. 1888)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Jones (75), Liam Neeson (53), Bear Grylls (41), Bill Hader (37), Michael Cera (27), Anna Kournikova (34), Jerry Stiller (88), Nancy Sinatra (75), Griffin Dunne (60), Kayne West (38), Barbara Bush (90), Michael J. Fox (54), Johnny Depp (52), Natalie Portman (34), Elizabeth Hurley (50), Gene Wilder (81), Hugh Laurie (56), Shia LeBeouf (29), George H. W. Bush (91), Malcolm McDowell (72), Tim Allen (62), Ally Sheedy (53), Steve-O (41),

Next Week peeps!