Dead Pool 8th October 2017

Firstly, apologies to Martin, I missed that he had Tony Booth last week, so he’s had points awarded posthumously and now heads the leader board!!! I also took the time to go through everyones lists and found the following misses. Sarai got Jean E. Sammet back in May, 61 points. Laura got Irwin Corey back in February, 48 points. So, we’re pretty much all up to date, even with the most obscure of names.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

  • Tom Petty, 66, American Hall of Fame musician (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys) and voice actor (King of the Hill), heart attack.
  • Rodney Bickerstaffe, 72, British trade unionist, General Secretary of NUPE (1982–1993) and UNISON (1996–2001).
  • Liam Cosgrave, 97, Irish politician, Taoiseach (1973–1977)
  • Terry Downes, 81, British boxer, world champion (1961–1962) and actor (The Fearless Vampire Killers, Caravaggio).
  • Ralphie May, 45, American comedian.

In Other News

Swedish model, Arvida Byström, says she’s received rape and death threats after posing for an advert with hairy legs. The 26-year-old featured in an Adidas campaign promoting a new brand of trainers. She received dozens of abusive messages after the advert was released on YouTube. In an Instagram post, which is getting more and more attention, she says she was also threatened with rape in direct messages on social media. She said: “My photo from the @adidasoriginals superstar campaign got a lot of nasty comments last week.” As well as being a model, Arvida is a photographer and is well known for posing with her body hair on show. Adidas says she “questions femininity and gender standards using so-called ‘girly’ aesthetics”. In a statement, Adidas said it’s “honoured to work with creators like Arvida for their creativity, diversity and unique ideas.”

An investigation has been launched by Indiana State Police after an officer shot at a man they believed to be a gunman but was actually an actor in a film. The man in question – Jim Duff – was playing a robber in scenes filming in the city of Crawfordsville. Local police are said to have been responding to a report of a possible robbery at a brewery last week when Sgt. Matt Schroeter encountered the actor wearing a ski mask carrying what they believed to be was a gun. Duff was backing out of the brewery when police ordered him to drop the weapon. However, Duff – caught off guard – turned and an officer fired a shot, missing him. State police confirmed Duff had then dropped the gun, pulled off his mask and told authorities they were on a film set. The film’s production company Montgomery County Movies – who had failed to notify police a robbery scene was being filmed – accepted responsibility for the misunderstanding. Duff was arrested but then released after police could confirm that he was working on the film.

And finally, one for the runners who like to wear Nike apparel. In the 1980s, Nike was locked in an epic war with Reebok for control of the sneaker market. In response, Nike engaged Portland advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy to create a new campaign that would broaden its appeal. The one thing that came to mind was an event that happened around 10 years earlier. A man named Gary Gilmore received mainstream media attention after murdering two men in separate incidents in Utah. Gilmore, then 35, had endured a troubled upbringing and spent half his life in prison for a series of violent crimes including armed robbery. He’d been released from an Indiana prison and moved to live with a distant cousin in Utah in an attempt to turn his life around. But he quickly returned to his previous lifestyle and, in July 1976, robbed and murdered gas station employee Max Jensen, and then killed motel manager Bennie Bushnell the following evening. Gilmore was quickly caught, convicted and sentenced to death. Instead of trying to fight for his life, he appeared to welcome the verdict and chose to be shot by a firing squad instead of being hung. Capital punishment was suspended in the US from 1972 to 1976, so there was high interest in Gilmore’s case. So, after a last meal of steak, potatoes, milk and coffee — of which he only consumed the milk and coffee — Gilmore was put in front of the firing squad on January 17th 1977. When asked if he had any last words, Gilmore famously said: “Let’s do it!” It was a line that stuck with Wieden, and for some reason came to him as he sat trying to finalise the Nike campaign in 1988. “I remember when I read that I was like, ‘That’s amazing — how, in the face of that much uncertainty, do you push through that?’ I didn’t like the ‘let’s’ thing, I just changed that because otherwise I would have to give him credit, now I don’t really have to.” The “Just Do It” tagline first appeared in a 1988 commercial featuring 80-year-old runner Walt Stack and was wildly successful. So, the next time you slip on those trainers, remember you owe it all to a murderer!

On This Day

  • 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
  • 1952 – The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash kills 112 people.
  • 2005 – The 7.6 Mw Kashmir earthquake strikes with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 86,000–87,351 people dead, 69,000–75,266 injured, and 2.8 million homeless.
  • 2014 – First person in US diagnosed with Ebola dies.

Deaths

  • 1793 – John Hancock, American merchant and politician, 1st Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1737)
  • 1967 – Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1883)
  • 2015 – Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter (b. 1951)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Simon Cowell (58), Tim Minchin (42), Alesha Dixon (39), Ioan Gruffudd (44), Elisabeth Shue (54), Britt Ekland (75), Kate Winslet (42), Guy Pearce (50), Jesse Eisenberg (34), Karen Allen (66), Clive Barker (65), Neil deGrasse Tyson (59), Bob Geldof (66), Melissa Benoist (29), Dakota Johnson (28), Liev Schreiber (50), Susan Sarandon (71), Alicia Silverstone (41), Christoph Waltz (61), Sarah Lancashire (52), Denis Villeneuve (50), Lena Headey (44), Neve Campbell (44), Seann William Scott (41), Clive Owen (53), Gwen Stefani (48), Greg Proops (58), Lorraine Bracco (63), Avery Brooks (69), Sting (66), Tiffany (46), Julie Andrews (82), Zach Galifianakis (48) and Randy Quaid (67).

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