Dead Pool 30th October 2016

Another week passes and so do a few celebrities. Alas no points to award and with little over two months left to go things are still tight at the top of the leader board. Maybe some of you realise now how hard it is to have a successful list. A lot of research and time can be spent finalising a winning list, so as I said, with little over two months to go, get yourself researching for 2017!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Sheri S. Tepper, 87, American science fiction author.
• Pete Burns, 57, English singer-songwriter (Dead or Alive), cardiac arrest.
• Jimmy Perry, 93, English actor and screenwriter (Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi!).
• Bobby Vee, 73, American pop singer (“Rubber Ball“, “Take Good Care of My Baby“, “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes“) and actor, Alzheimer’s disease.
• Takahito, Prince Mikasa, 100, Japanese royal, cardiac arrest.

 In Other News

Rick Parfitt has quit Status Quo after 50 years following his recent heart attack. The 68-year-old ‘died’ for several minutes after suffering a huge heart attack in Turkey in June, and it’s now been confirmed that he has stopped touring on health grounds. The Rocking All Over The World guitarist will be replaced by Ritchie Malone for the band’s current arena tour. In an statement, the band said: ‘Status Quo today confirm that Rick Parfitt will indeed, as previously reported, step back from his regular touring commitments with the band.  This is for reasons of health, following his recent heart attack. ‘Status Quo would, however, like to make it completely clear that – contrary to some inaccurate reports this week – Rick’s connection with and within the band of course remains intact and that he will continue to be involved with future non-touring commercial activities of the band.’ In an interview with Classic Rock, he said: ‘I do wish Richie Malone all the best. He’s a fucking good little player and it must be all of his dreams come true.’

Bad news if you’re a Catholic, the ashes of the cremated cannot be kept at home, scattered or divided among family members, the Vatican has announced in new guidelines. The two-page instruction by the Vatican’s department on doctrine said ashes of the dead must be kept in “sacred places” such as cemeteries. It also stressed that the Roman Catholic Church still preferred burials over cremations. The Vatican allowed cremation in 1963 but has always frowned on the practice, they much rather you rot instead. The Vatican said it was issuing the new guidelines to counter “new ideas contrary to the Church’s faith”. The guidelines reiterated that Catholics who chose to be cremated “for reasons contrary to the Christian faith” must be denied a Christian funeral. Nice bunch of people these Catholics.

And finally, in what can be classed as a Darwinian moment, a US college student has crashed into a police car while taking a topless selfie behind the wheel, say officials. Miranda Rader, 19, rear-ended the patrol vehicle while sending nude photos to her boyfriend through the social media app Snapchat. The accident on Wednesday in Bryan, about 100 miles (160km) north of Houston, caused the airbag to deploy. The Texas A&M University student also had an open bottle of wine in a cup holder by her, according to police. The officer whose car had been hit approached Ms Rader to find she had an “unclasped brassiere” and was trying to put on her blouse. The arresting officer wrote in an affidavit: “I asked her why she was not dressed while driving and she stated she was taking a Snapchat photo to send to her boyfriend while she was at a red light.” She was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and released from jail on Thursday morning on a $2,000 (£1,600) bail bond. No one was injured in the incident.

On This Day

• 1925 – John Logie Baird creates Britain’s first television transmitter.
• 1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells‘s The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.
• 1944 – Anne and Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they die from disease the following year, shortly before the end of WWII.
• 1960 – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
• 1961 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 50 megatons of yield, it remains the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.
• 1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali wins by KO in the eighth round, regaining the title of World Heavyweight Champion and causing Foreman´s first professional defeat.

Deaths

• 1979 – Barnes Wallis, English scientist and engineer, invented the Bouncing bomb (b. 1887)
• 2015 – Al Molinaro, American actor (b. 1919)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ang Lee (62), Weird Al Yankovic (57), Cat Deeley (40), Ryan Reynolds (40), Bill Wyman (80), F. Murray Abraham (77), Kevin Kline (69), Tila Tequila (35), Nancy Cartwright (59), Katy Perry (32), Wayne Rooney (31), Cary Elwes (54), Seth McFarlane (43), Jon Heder (39), Hillary Clinton (69), John Cleese (77), Simon LeBon (58), Kelly Osbourne (32), Charlie Daniels (80), Annie Potts (64), Julia Roberts (49), Joaquin Phoenix (42), Bill Gates (61), Kate Jackson (68), Dan Castellaneta (59), Rufus Sewell (49) and Winona Ryder (45).

The Last Word

“Yes, a bullet-proof vest.” – James W. Rodgers

• Asked if he has any last requests before facing a firing squad.

Next week peeps!