Dead Pool 29th October 2017

Welcome once again to a pointless edition of The Dead Pool. Only two months left to go, it’s still too close to call at the top end of the table. Luckily I bumped into the top two contenders last night and both have agreed, that in the unlikely event of a draw, the winner will be decided by a ‘gin-off’, rules to be made up at the time. Wont that be fun 😀

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Rosemary Leach, 81, English actress (A Room with a View, The Roads to Freedom, The Plague Dogs).
• George Young, 70, Scottish-born Australian musician (The Easybeats), songwriter (“Friday on My Mind”, “Love Is in the Air”), and producer (AC/DC).
• Fats Domino, 89, American Hall of Fame pianist and singer-songwriter (“Blueberry Hill”, “Ain’t That a Shame”, “I’m Walkin'”).
• Robert Guillaume, 89, American actor and singer (Benson, The Lion King, Sports Night), Emmy winner (1979, 1985), prostate cancer.
• John Mollo, 86, British costume designer (Star Wars, Alien, Gandhi), Oscar winner (1977, 1982), complications from vascular dementia.

In Other News

Robbie Williams has said he cancelled a recent tour due to “very worrying” test results that saw him admitted to an intensive care unit. Williams, who released his album Heavy  Entertainment Show last year, cancelled three gigs in Russia in September 2017. He has since uploaded a video to YouTube where he explained that the cancellations were due to an illness. “I’ve been recovering from an illness now for the last five weeks,” he said in the video. “Unfortunately that illness kicked in just at the end of my tour, a tour which was going so well. Then I got some test results. They were very worrying and I ended up in ICU, so I couldn’t go. “I haven’t pulled out of a tour for bad health since 1998 so you know if I can’t do it then there’s something going on that I just can’t do.” Williams said his recovery had led to him becoming vegan and take up pilates: “I do yoga every day and have a really big burger on a Sunday,” So, not quite vegan then….. “I’m not feeling 100 per cent but I’m getting there, and I know I’m going to be better than ever,” he said.

The UK’s top civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, has been receiving treatment for cancer. The Cabinet Office said Sir Jeremy, who has been cabinet secretary since 2012, was diagnosed in June. In a statement, it said the 55-year old had received treatment over the summer and the early autumn which “went well”. Sir Jeremy, it added, had continued his “normal duties” during this period with the full support of his doctors and remained “totally focused” on doing so. As cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, Sir Jeremy is responsible for advising the prime minister and cabinet on the business of government, including the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The Cabinet Office said it would be making no further comment on “this private matter”. Sir Jeremy, who is sometimes characterised in the media as the most powerful figure in the British government, has worked closely with four prime ministers during a 25-year career in Whitehall.

Remember old King Bhumibol Adulyadej who died just over a year ago? Well, after a year of mourning, and I do mean mourning, Thailand basically shut down, no colour TV allowed, everyone had to wear dark colours or the fashion police really would put you in jail, no fun was allowed to be had upon pain of death. Children were literally not allowed to play!!! Anyhow, the old chap has finally been cremated and the new king has picked out parts of his father’s remains so they could be enshrined as relics. The new monarch Maha Vajiralongkorn presided over the burning of his father’s remains in a golden crematorium at a late-night ceremony in Bangkok, as part a spectacular five-day funeral. After bathing the charred bones, he placed them into golden urns in preparation for blessings by monks. Then he lead a procession of the ashes through the streets of Thailand’s capital. Bhumibol’s remains have now been transferred to spiritually significant locations for Buddhist rites that will prepare them to be enshrined on the final day of an elaborate funeral that has transfixed the nation. Personally, when you find me dead in my chair, half eaten by the cat, a bin liner will do, then just leave me out for the dustmen.

On This Day

• 1618 – English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.
• 1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of ’29 or “Black Tuesday”, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.
• 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
• 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

Deaths

• 1618 – Walter Raleigh, English admiral, explorer, and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey (b. 1554)
• 2011 – Jimmy Savile, English radio and television host, lover of children (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Gwendoline Christie (39), Julia Roberts (50), Joaquin Phoenix (43), Matt Smith (35), Annie Potts (65), John Cleese (78), Robert Picardo (64), Kelly Osbourne (33), Seth MacFarlane (44), Cary Elwes (55), Jon Heder (40), Keith Urban (50), Hillary Clinton (70), Katy Perry (33), Nancy Cartwright (60), Kevin Kline (70), F. Murray Abraham (78), Emilia Clarke (31), Ryan Reynolds (41), Sam Raimi (58), Ang Lee (63), ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (58) and Cat Deeley (41).