Dead Pool 28th July 2024

Alas no points scored this week, however we have plenty to read, especially the story of a Great White Shark Attack, which we in the UK might have to deal with soon enough. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Evelyn Thomas, 70, American singer (“High Energy“). 
• Lucía Chacón Hechavarría, 112, Cuban supercentenarian. 
• Duke Fakir, 88, American singer (Four Tops), heart failure. 
• John Mayall, 90, English musician (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) and songwriter (“I’m Your Witchdoctor“, “Crawling Up a Hill“). 
• Louis van Schoor, 72, South African serial killer, complications from sepsis. 
• Roberta Taylor, 76, English actress (EastEnders, The Bill) and author, pneumonia. 
• Ysanne Churchman, 99, English actress (The Archers). 
• Janet Andrewartha, 72, Australian actress (Neighbours, Prisoner, Fake). 

In Other News

The severed leg of a 23-year-old Australian surfer who was attacked by a great white shark off the mid-north coast of New South Wales has washed up on the beach, police said. Kai McKenzie was attacked by a shark at North Shore Beach at Port Macquarie on Tuesday morning around 11am local time and remained in critical condition. The surfer managed to catch a wave to the shore where bystanders helped treat him after the attack. An off-duty police officer, who was walking his dog on the beach, used his dog’s leash as a tourniquet around his wound in an attempt to stem the bleeding before paramedics arrived at the scene. Mr McKenzie was taken to Macquarie base hospital and later flown to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle where he remained in a stable but critical condition. The severed leg that washed up on the beach was placed on ice and taken to the hospital about 200km away from the place where the attack occurred. However, doctors will assess whether the leg can be reattached. Shark biologists from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development reviewed photographs of the incident and identified the shark as a great white approximately 3m in length. “He saw the shark,” Kirran Mowbray, a NSW ambulance worker said. “He was able to fight it off. He was very courageous. He turned around and caught a wave into shore. The only person that saw the shark was the young man himself. He was quite calm. He was able to talk with us. He was completely with it,” he added. Images from the scene showed Mr McKenzie’s surfboard with a chunk bitten off by the shark from its tail.  

Disgraced movie mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has been hospitalised with Covid-19 and pneumonia in both lungs just days after he appeared at a court hearing in New York over his retrial on rape and sexual assault charges. The Hollywood movie producer was transferred from the notorious Rikers Island jail complex in New York to a secure ward at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Wednesday. “Mr Weinstein tested positive for COVID and contracted double pneumonia in his lungs,” his publicist Juda Engelmayer said in a statement on Thursday. Weinstein was first transferred to the hospital’s prison ward late on Wednesday night before being sent to the Manhattan hospital. There, Weinstein is also being treated for a “myriad of health conditions” including diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and fluid on his heart and lungs, his publicist said. “We continue to express our gratitude to the officers, doctors and nurses in the city’s corrections and public hospital systems who saw to it that Mr. Weinstein was immediately transferred to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward,” he added. This marks Weinstein’s second stint at the hospital since he was returned to Rikers Island in April for legal proceedings related to his rape case.  

Three members of gospel group The Nelons have been killed in tragic plane crash. The group is formed of Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Clark, and Kelly’s daughters Amber Nelon Kistler and Autumn Nelon Streetman. Kelly, Jason and Amber were amongst those killed in the accident, with Amber’s husband Nathan Kistler, and three friends also dead.  They were travelling to the Gaither Homecoming Cruise when the plane crashed over a remote area of northeastern Wyoming. There were no survivors. Autumn, who wasn’t on the plane released a statement on Saturday to announce the sad news. She wrote: ‘As many of you have heard by now, my father and mother, Jason and Kelly Nelon Clark, along with my sister, Amber, and brother-in-law, Nathan, as well as our dear friends Melodi Hodges, Larry, and Melissa Haynie, were involved in a tragic plane crash on Friday.  ‘Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark. We appreciate your continued prayers, love, and support as we navigate the coming days.’ 

Earlier this month, Stevie Nicks canceled a solo concert in  Glasgow, Scotland. At the time, she blamed it on a leg injury that required surgery. Now, Nicks is revealing her condition was much more serious, requiring hospitalisation for the 76-year-old singer. Nicks’ health crisis forced her to abruptly postpone her July 6th Glasgow show and her July 9th Manchester show. The initial announcement downplayed things. “Due to a recent leg injury requiring a minor surgical procedure that will need a few days of recovery time, Stevie Nicks’ scheduled performances in Glasgow Saturday 6th July and Manchester Tuesday 9th July have been postponed,” Glasgow venue OVO Hydro posted Twitter. During the rescheduled Glasgow show on July 24th, Nicks told the crowd what actually occurred. “I don’t know what happened. I just got this weird infection, and it just went crazy,” she told the crowd at the concert. The musician said that she was staying in a “fabulous castle” in Glasgow for her concert. “We get here days early because we want to be here for a few days,” she said. “I finally just looked at my assistant – it was like two in the morning – and I said, ‘I think we need to go to emergency’. She looked at me and I said, ‘I’m not kidding! I think we need to go to the hospital. And so our butler – this wonderful man – throws us in his BMW Sedan, which is so great, and off we sped through the night to a hospital.” The singer said she spent two days in the hospital, before she returned to the castle and decided to cancel the Glasgow show. “I’ve been fighting this for this whole thing,” she told her fans. “This whole tour I’ve been fighting what started here. And I would be damned if I wasn’t coming back here,” she said.  

Sir Geoffrey Boycott has been rushed to hospital with pneumonia after suffering a setback in his recovery from cancer surgery. The national cricket icon, 83, went under the knife this week after revealing he had been diagnosed with throat cancer for a second time. His family issued an update on social media, telling fans that Boycott had successfully undergone a three-hour operation. However, a new statement on Sunday afternoon revealed that Boycott’s health has now “taken a turn for the worse.” After returning home from his cancer surgery, the former batsman was struck down with pneumonia. He is “unable to eat or drink” as a result of the illness. Boycott is now back in hospital “on oxygen and a feeding tube.” The full statement from daughter Emma read: “Thank you all for the well wishes, we’ve been blown away by the sheer number of them! Unfortunately things have taken a turn for the worse and my Father has developed pneumonia and is unable to eat or drink so is back in hospital on oxygen and a feeding tube for the foreseeable.” The update on Boycott’s health comes after he revealed his second cancer diagnosis at the start of July. He said at the time: “In the last few weeks I have had an MRI Scan, CT Scan, a PET Scan and two biopsies and it has now been confirmed I have throat cancer and will require an operation. From past experience I realise that to overcome cancer a second time I will need excellent medical treatment and quite a bit of luck and even if the operation is successful every cancer patient knows they have to live with the possibility of it returning. So I will just get on with it and hope for the best.” 

On This Day

• 1540 – Henry VIII of England marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
• 1883 – A moderate earthquake measuring magnitude 4.3–5.2 strikes the Italian island of Ischia, killing over 2,300 people. 
• 1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattens Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.

Deaths

• 1655 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet and playwright (b. 1619).
• 1750 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German organist and composer (b. 1685).
• 2021 – Dusty Hill, American musician (b. 1949).
• 2022 – Bernard Cribbins, British actor (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Hannah Waddingham (50), Anya Chalotra (29), Elizabeth Berkley (52), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (54), Taylor Schilling (40), Donnie Yen (61), Jason Statham (57), Kate Beckinsale (51), Sandra Bullock (60), Kevin Spacey (65), Helen Mirren (79), Nana Visitor (67), Eve Myles (46), Mick Jagger (81), Matt LeBlanc (57), D.B. Woodside (55), Iman (69), Jennifer Lopez (55), Anna Paquin (42), Elisabeth Moss (42), Summer Glau (43), Lynda Carter (73), Danny Dyer (47), Kathryn Hahn (51), Ronny Cox (86), Daniel Radcliffe (35), Woody Harrelson (63), Charisma Carpenter (54), Rhys Ifans (57), Willem Dafoe (70), Selena Gomez (32), Terence Stamp (86), Danny Glover (78), and Bonnie Langford (60).