Dead Pool 15th January 2017

Afternoon minions, we start with a rather controversial happening. Our current Angel of    Death, Laura, has on her list a nice chap called Christopher Wilkins, he was executed this week in Texas. Unfortunately for Laura, he has not cropped up on the Wiki listing, maybe because he’s not famous or his crimes heinous enough. So as a death, he’s been disallowed. 0 Points. More of a kick in the teeth for Wilkins than Laura I feel. Laura shouldn’t feel bad though, she still guessed the first death, again, just didn’t score, so she is the lass to beat still!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Pioneer Cabin Tree, c.1000, American giant sequoia tree, storm damage.
• Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 82, Iranian politician, President (1989–1997).
• Peter Sarstedt, 75, English singer-songwriter (“Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?“), progressive supranuclear palsy.
• Buddy Greco, 90, American jazz and pop singer, actor (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) and pianist.
• Clare Hollingworth, 105, British journalist (The Daily Telegraph), broke news of German invasion of Poland.
• Tony Booth, 83, British poster artist (The Beatles), cancer.
• Brian Fletcher, 69, British jockey, winner of the Grand National (1968, 1973, 1974), cancer.
• Victor Lownes, 88, American businessman (Playboy). 
• Tommy Allsup, 85, American rockabilly and swing guitarist.
• William Peter Blatty, 89, American novelist (The Exorcist, Legion) and screenwriter (A Shot in the Dark), multiple myeloma.
• Larry Steinbachek, 56, English keyboardist (Bronski Beat), cancer.
• Graham Taylor, 72, English football player and manager (Watford, Aston Villa, national team), heart attack.
• Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, 86, English photographer and filmmaker.
• Dick Gautier, 85, American actor (Get Smart, Transformers, Bye Bye Birdie).
• Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud, 80, Saudi royal and businessman.
• Zhou Youguang, 111, Chinese linguist and supercentenarian.

In Other News 

The Queen has made her first public appearance of 2017 after ill-health affected her during the festive season. She attended the morning church service at St Mary Magdalene in Sandringham, Norfolk, on Sunday. There were concerns about the monarch’s health after she missed services on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, which she normally attends with other members of the royal family. Buckingham Palace said she was “recuperating” from a heavy cold. The Queen, dressed in blue, arrived with Prince Philip at about 11:00 GMT in a maroon Bentley. Shortly after, she was joined by other members of the royal family, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as the Middleton family. They stayed at the church for an hour, before being driven back to their estate at 12:00 GMT. The last time the Queen was seen in public was at an investiture, during which actor Eddie Redmayne was awarded an OBE, maybe it was all his fault and he’s heading the the Tower of London as we speak.

The actor who played Damien Thorn in the 1970s horror film The Omen punched two cyclists in a road-rage attack and has been given a suspended prison sentence – on Friday the 13th. Harvey Spencer Stephens, 46, lashed out at two riders and damaged one of their cycling helmets after getting out of his car after a dispute. He pleaded guilty to two counts of ABH and one of causing criminal damage following the attack. Maidstone crown court heard that father-of-two Stephens was “red-faced and angry” when he confronted the cyclists, knocking one of them unconscious after driving up behind them. Prosecutor Kieran Brand said Stephens repeatedly used his horn when riders Mark Richardson and Alex Manley, who were out cycling separately, were side-by-side on the road as one overtook the other. Richardson responded by flicking his middle finger at Stephens, who then accelerated heavily before overtaking the pair and pulling over. Brand said Stephens punched Richardson, knocking him unconscious, which prompted Manley to intervene. Stephens responded by asking Manley: “You want some do you?” before punching him twice in the face, causing him to fall on his back with his bicycle still between his legs. Stephens held Manley down and punched him six or seven times, inflicting dental injuries and damaging his helmet. Let this be a warning to all cyclists, the Devil is after you!

A Serbian man is being hailed a miracle survivor after he spent two-and-a-half days stuck down a well in temperatures well below freezing. Jezdimir Milic left home on Friday morning to buy groceries ahead of Orthodox Christmas the next day, but failed to come home. He was found some 52 hours later, on Sunday afternoon, trapped down a well while temperatures reached -20C (-4F). Mr Milic was discovered by neighbour Goran Markovic, who says Mr Milic’s poor sight probably explains how he did  not see the five-metre-deep (16-foot) well and fell into it. Mr Markovic said he discovered Mr Milic when he noticed a bag of groceries sitting by the well, in a wooded area close to their village of Smoljinac. “Attracted by the unusual sight, I walked over to the bag in which there was a bottle of red wine, a few bottles of beer and some corn flour,” Mr Markovic told news organisation RTS. “At that moment I remembered that there was talk in the village about a disappeared person named Jezdimir. Then I heard some cries and looked into the well and I saw, at the bottom, someone sitting with their hands and feet close to their chest.” He then notified a local vet, who summoned police. The fire service eventually got Mr Milic out. As well as hypothermia, he is being treated for bruises and abrasions consistent with a fall from height.

On This Day

• 1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.
• 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.
• 1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.
• 1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
• 2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopaedia, goes online.
• 2009 – Captain Sully (Chesley Sullenberger) emergency landed a US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River saving all 155 passengers after the plane collided with birds few minutes after take-off.

Deaths

• 1987 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1904)
• 1996 – Minnesota Fats, American billiards player (b. 1913)
• 2011 – Susannah York, English actress and activist (b. 1939)
• 2014 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (b. 1944)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Zayn Malik (24), Jason Bateman (48), Liam Hemsworth (27), Kate Middleton (35), Faye Dunaway (76), Howard Stern (63), Rod Stewart (72), Kirsty Alley (66), George Foreman (68), Amanda Peet (46), Mary J. Blige (46), Rush Limbaugh (66), Pat Benatar (64), Joely Richardson (52), Evan Handler (56), Mel C. (43), Pixie Lott (26), Carl Weathers (69) and Shirley Bassey (80).

And Finally…

This took the top Darwin Award in 1994. A Polish farmer, Krystof Azninski, who “staked a strong claim to being Europe’s most macho man by cutting off his own head.” Azninski and his friends, in an inebriated state, decided it was good idea to  engage in a little competition of who was the most masculine. It is strange how these things escalate. First, they striped off naked. Second, they hit each other with frozen turnips. But things turned decidedly bizarre -and deadly when one of them cut off his own foot with a chainsaw. Azninski decided to top this by literally sawing off his own head! One of the men was quoted as saying: “It’s funny, because when he was young he put on his sister’s underwear. But he died like a man.”

Next week peeps!