Dead Pool 29th May 2016

Alas no points this week, although I could have sworn that one of you had Burt Kwouk, perhaps it was last year! So the league table remains the same for the time being. I’m rather hesitant to send out the flying monkeys, it seems rather greedy after so many stars have died of late, so for the time being we’ll just coast along with the ‘B’ List celebrities.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Lewis Fiander, 78, Australian actor, stroke.
• Buck Kartalian, 93, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Cool Hand Luke, The Rock).
• Burt Kwouk, 85, British actor (The Pink Panther, Last of the Summer Wine, Goldfinger).
• Nancy Dow, 79, American actress (The Ice House) and model, mother of Jennifer Aniston.
• Peggy Spencer, 95, British dancer.
• Angela Paton, 86, American actress (Groundhog Day, American Wedding, Lolita), heart attack.

In Other News

Calvin Harris says he feels “lucky and grateful” following his car accident last week. Last Friday, Harris, who was travelling as a passenger in a Cadillac, was involved in a collision on the way to a Los Angeles airport. He was hospitalised and has been resting on doctor’s orders since. Harris, who is the highest earning DJ in the world, was forced to cancel a number of gigs and appearances following the crash. On Thursday, a statement on his Facebook page announced he would not be performing at his Las Vegas residency on Friday night as he is still “recovering from the injuries sustained in the car accident”. On Friday, Harris returned to Twitter saying he was felt “lucky and grateful”. He also thanked fans for their well-wishes and apologised for the cancelled concerts. Following the crash, a Los Angeles police department spokesperson said a Volkswagen Beetle had collided with Harris’ vehicle. “In the other vehicle a juvenile was ejected from the vehicle for not wearing a seatbelt and suffered a broken pelvis.” According to reports from celebrity gossip site TMZ, the driver was a 16-year-old girl. Following the crash, a spokesperson for Harris, whose real name is Adam Wiles, said he had “sustained a number of injuries” from the “serious collision”.

The former BBC presenter Sian Williams has revealed she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Speaking to Woman & Home magazine, Williams explained how she felt the chances of her having breast cancer were so “improbable” that she went to get the results from a mammogram alone, despite having a family history of cancer. The 5 News at 5 anchor said: “The week after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought I was healthy. I did all the right things – I was a green tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner. “My aunt died of breast cancer, and I’d lost my mum to liver and bowel cancer – and I gradually began to realise how bewildered and scared I was.” Williams described how the shock of her diagnosis impacted upon her relationship with her husband, saying she was “horrible” to him at times as she struggled to discuss her fears.

Gordon Downie, the lead singer of Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In news that has devastated fans, The Hip confirmed Downie, 52, was diagnosed with cancer in December. A founding member, Downie has performed with The Hip for over three decades and released three solo albums. The band told their fans in a Facebook post, in which they also announced plans to tour again in his honour. “A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him. “So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours… We’ve decided to do another one. This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

The Scottish do-gooder nurse who survived  Ebola has said she has been left with permanent weakness in her leg and will probably never run again. Pauline Cafferkey, 40, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was hospitalised three times, at great expense to the NHS, after contracting the virus while working in Sierra Leone in 2014. She told BBC Radio Scotland that she was now “Ebola negative” and her health had come on “leaps and bounds”. But she said there were long-term issues, such as numbness and dizziness. Speaking on Radio Scotland’s Stephen Jardine programme, Ms Cafferkey revealed that her case was the highest viral load of Ebola ever recorded in a survivor. However, she added: “I’ve still got swelling at the base of my spine, which is very painful and dizziness – my balance isn’t too good.” Paying tribute to her medical team, she added: “Although I am negative Ebola, I still have some remnants there as a result of it. But on the other hand, I am alive and I have received the best care in the world, *for free*.”

And finally, a Thai man is recovering in hospital after a 3m (10ft) python emerged from a squat toilet and sank its teeth into his penis. Attaporn Boonmakchuay said the python was “yanking very hard” as he and his wife tried to wrestle it off. Doctors said Mr Attaporn, who lost a lot of blood in the ordeal, was making a good recovery. Workers dismantled the toilet and extracted the python which had slithered through domestic plumbing. It was released back into the wild. The incident happened as Mr Attaporn, 38, went to the toilet at his home in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, before leaving for work on Wednesday. As he used the toilet he said he suddenly felt a sharp pain. “I felt as though my penis had been severed. The snake was yanking very hard,” he said,  according to the Bangkok Post. As the python tried to pull him down, he called for his wife and neighbours to help him, the post reported. Mr Attaporn told Thai TV that his wife tied a rope around the snake and he prised its jaws open before passing out. Thai media published images of Mr Attaporn’s blood-spattered toilet. Doctors said Mr Attaporn was recovering well. “He has a really good attitude… even though his own wife and children were in shock. He’s been smiling and giving interviews all day from his bed,” said Chularat Hospital director Dr Chutima Pincharoen. Mr Attaporn said he planned to replace the squat toilet with a sitting one.

On This Day

• 1913 – Igor Stravinsky‘s ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.
• 1919 – Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
• 1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra record Irving Berlin‘s “White Christmas“, the best-selling single in history.
• 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay’s (adopted) 39th birthday.
• 1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
• 1988 – The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Deaths

• 1951 – Fanny Brice, American singer and comedian (b. 1891)
• 1997 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Gods and Monsters) (b. 1966)
• 2010 – Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1936)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Morrissey (57), Naomi Campbell (46), Ginnifer Goodwin (38), Joan Collins (83), Marvin Hagler (62), Tommy Chong (78), Bob Dylan (75), Priscilla Presley (71), Jim Broadbent (67), John C. Reilly (51), Eric Cantona (50), Ian McKellan (77), Frank Oz (72), Mike Myers (53), Anne Heche (47), Stevie Nicks (68), Bobcat Goldthwait (54), Lenny Kravitz (52), Helena Bonham Carter (50), Louis Gossett Jr. (80), Sioxsie Sioux (58), Paul Bettany (44), Denise Van Outen (42), Jamie Oliver (41), Gladys Knight (72) and Kylie Minogue (48).

The Last Word

General John Sedgwick (1813-1864) – “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”.

Next week peeps!

29th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd May 2016

Another week flies by, another Dead Pool newsletter lands in your inbox. Alas no points, although one of our members came close with Ian Watkins, had she dropped the ’s’ in the name she would have scored points, but we all knew she meant the paedophile from The Lost Prophets, not the New Zealand actor…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Roberds, 52, Canadian actor (The New Addams Family, Elf, Hot Tub Time Machine).
• Ian Watkin, 76, New Zealand actor (Braindead, Sleeping Dogs)
• John Berry, 52, American musician (Beastie Boys), frontal lobe dementia.
• Alan Young, 96, English-born Canadian-American actor (Mister Ed, The Time Machine, DuckTales). 
• Nick Menza, 51, American drummer (Megadeth), heart failure.

In Other News

Former France winger David Ginola is recovering in hospital in Monaco after a quadruple heart bypass operation. The 49-year-old former Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton player, who retired in 2002, collapsed in the south of  France on Thursday. His surgeon, speaking with authority of the family, told the media that Ginola was “extremely lucky” to be alive. “David played a sort of charity football match. All of a sudden he collapsed and people thought it was a joke but after one or two minutes they realised it was serious,” said Gilles Dreyfus, professor of cardiac surgery at the Monaco Heart Centre. “Fortunately there was one person who had been trained in CPR, because otherwise he would have been brain dead. They then called the emergency services, who arrived eight minutes later with him in cardiac arrest. “They arrived with him in cardiac arrest, he was shocked four times on site, they were able to restore a normal heart rhythm and within 10 minutes a helicopter arrived to transfer him to Monaco Heart Centre. The decision to transfer him to the operating theatre was made and he immediately underwent a quadruple heart bypass, which was very straightforward although difficult. “It was a sequence of events that at every stage went absolutely fine, that is why he is here today. Luckier you can’t be. It’s an unbelievable story.”

Sinéad O’Connor has been found safe, local police have confirmed, after a desperate hunt was launched to find the Irish singer when she disappeared on Sunday from a suburb of Chicago. News that she had not been seen since early on Sunday morning immediately sparked alarm as reports emerged on Monday that authorities were concerned for her health. Police in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette released a statement on Monday in which they said they were “seeking to check the wellbeing” of the 49-year-old. The singer has opened up about her struggles with suicidal thoughts in the past. In 2007, she told Oprah Winfrey that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday. In recent weeks, she became embroiled in controversy after the death of Prince, who wrote her breakthrough hit Nothing Compares 2 U. The talkshow host Arsenio Hall filed a $5m lawsuit against O’Connor after she posted on Facebook to allege that Hall had given Prince drugs “over the decades”.

TV star Tim Healy is recovering in hospital after being taken ill during the filming of the ITV show Benidorm. He was flown to Manchester from Spain on Saturday after his condition improved enough to allow him to travel. The media reported that Healy was taken ill almost a month ago and had been fighting for his life. An ITV spokesman said the 64-year-old was “feeling much better” and that filming of the show had been “adjusted to accommodate Tim’s absence”. It is understood his former wife Denise Welch flew to Spain at one point to visit him in hospital, where his wife Joan has been by his side. Healy, who was born in Newcastle and found fame in the 1980s’ show Auf Wiedersehen Pet, has played the cross-dressing character Les/Lesley in Benidorm since 2010.

And finally, Chinese officials have issued an angry denial following claims the country has been marinating human  cadavers, putting them in cans and then selling them in African supermarkets. The outlandish rumour appears to have been started on Facebook, where a post featuring grisly images, supposedly of human meat being processed, went viral earlier this month. The post was picked up by Zambia’s Daily Post, among others, which published a report saying: “One cannot deny the possibilities (sic) of this being true since we all know that the Asians are among the largest population in the entire world. “Since China is so overpopulated to a point where there is no space to spit, what do they do with the dead bodies of the Chinese? Well the answer might be that they are shipping the bodies to Africa in the form of canned meat, and they make a profit during the process.” Yang Youming, China’s ambassador to Zambia, released a statement saying: “Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a rumor, claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa. This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification which is absolutely unacceptable to us,” he said in a statement. “We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act.” Zambia’s Deputy Defense Minister Christopher Mulenga has pledged that the government will launch investigations into the reports.

On This Day

• 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1762 – Trevi Fountain in Rome is officially completed and inaugurated by Pope Clemens XIII.
• 1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.
• 1888 – Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers.
• 1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.

Deaths

• 1802 – Martha Washington, American wife of George Washington, 1st First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)
• 1885 – Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1802)
• 2013 – Lee Rigby, English soldier and drummer (b. 1987)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brian Eno (68), Zara Phillips (35), Pierce Brosnan (63), Debra Winger (61), Janet Jackson (50), Gabriella Sabatini (46), Bill Paxton (61), Enya (55), Jordan Knight (46), Sugar Ray Leonard (60), Chow Yun Fat (61), Tina Fey (46), Pete Townshend (71), Grace Jones (68), Cher (70), Judge Reinhold (59) and Mr. T (64).

The Last Word

Don’t die like I did. – George Best  d. 2005

Next week peeps!

22nd May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 15th May 2016

Sorry for the lateness of this edition of the Dead Pool, life got in the way. However, we have points to award, so let’s get on with it! Seeing all of you had Susannah Mushatt Jones as a Cert or a Woman, you all score 134 points! Congratulations to Stu, Julie, Lee, Paul C and Dave! It’s certainly upset the leader board somewhat!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• William Schallert, 93, American actor (The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, In the Heat of the Night), President of SAG (1979–1981).
• Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116, American supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person.
• Tony Barrow, 80, British press officer (The Beatles).

In Other News

Anthony Kiedis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, has been hospitalised, with the band cancelling a concert at the last minute. Flea, the band’s bassist, took the stage  in Irvine, California to announce that the band would be unable to perform. “Anthony is on his way to the hospital right now, and we’re unable to play this evening,” he said. “We are devastated about it, we are really sad. We love you so much, we live to rock.” “Unfortunately there’s a medical thing that happened and he needed to deal with it,” he added. A representative for KROQ, the Los Angeles radio station hosting the concert, told Billboard that Kiedis was suffering from extreme stomach pain. Kiedis, 53, is a founding member of the band, which formed in 1983 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Sheridan Smith has pulled out of her third consecutive performance of the West End musical Funny Girl after saying she is not strong enough. Her leading role as Fanny Brice will be played by her understudy, Natasha  Barnes, leaving it uncertain whether Smith will continue for the remaining five-month run. Smith, 34, first missed a performance on Monday night after responding angrily to suggestions in the press that she had been a sore loser at the Baftas for missing out on the best actress award for her role as the cancer blogger Lisa Lynch in The C Word. Shortly before her performance on Tuesday, the Savoy theatre again stated that Barnes would play Brice because of the “indisposition” of Smith, and then repeated the same announcement on Wednesday afternoon. Smith’s representative has not confirmed when she will return to the stage. The producers of Funny Girl said in a statement that Smith was going through a difficult time.

And finally, the benefits of special diets for athletes have been well documented, but Serena Williams may have taken things too far on Wednesday when she decided to sample her pet dog’s dinner. Williams is playing in the Italian Open, and her hotel had prepared a special menu for her Yorkshire terrier, Chip, including a tempting salmon and rice dish. The world No1 sampled some of it, telling fans on Snapchat: “I ate a spoonful. Don’t judge me.” Williams’s verdict? It tasted “a little bit like a house-cleaner thing.” That was followed by an urgent trip to the bathroom a few hours later. “I don’t think it’s consumable for humans. They should have wrote that,” noted Williams. The incident did little to slow down Williams once she played Christina McHale in the third round in Rome: she won 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. Chip’s thoughts on the matter were not available at the time of publication.

On This Day

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
• 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
• 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.
• 1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.
• 1940 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
• 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Deaths

• Nobody of any importance!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Rosario Dawson (37), Billy Joel (67), Bono (56), Linda Evangelista (51), Emilio Estevez (54), Gabriel Byrne (66), Jason Biggs (38), Malin Akerman (38), Stephen Baldwin (50), Ving Rhames (57), Harvey Keitel (77), Stevie Wonder (66), Stephen Colbert (52), Robert Pattinson (30), Dennis Rodman (55), Samantha Morton (39), George Lucas (72), Tim Roth (55), Cate Blanchett (47) and Mark Zuckerberg (32).

The Last Word

Am I dying or is this my birthday? – When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside. – Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

Next week peeps!

15th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th May 2016

Another week, a few more deaths. Alas we’re back to scraping the bottom of the barrel for names we barely recognise. However, plenty to read as these celebrities seem to be very fond of doing silly things.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jonathan Cainer, 58, British astrologer (Daily Mail), heart failure.
• Kristian Ealey, 38, British actor (Brookside, Hollyoaks).
• Frank Levingston, 110, American supercentenarian, nation’s oldest World War II veteran.
• Matt Irwin, 36, British photographer.
• Margot Honecker, 89, East German politician, Minister of People’s Education (1963–1989), First Lady (1976–1989).
• Rickey Smith, 36, American singer and talent show contestant (American Idol), traffic collision.

In Other News

Little Richard has denied claims that he is “clinging to life”. According to his attorney, William Sobel, who has represented him for 30 years, reports of the singer’s poor health are untrue. “I just spoke to him today,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He said, ‘You know, I want you to talk to the press because I’m really annoyed this thing started on Facebook. Not only is my family not gathering around me because I’m ill, but I’m still singing. I don’t perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I’m healthy.’” Rumours concerning the 83-year-old rock’n’roll legend’s health were reported by several sources earlier this week, following Bootsy Collins’ seemingly misinformed message on Facebook: “A friend, a legend & some say the true King of Rock & Roll,” he wrote. “Lil-Richard needs our love & understanding right now. He is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up.” Although Little Richard continues to sing, he avoids the spotlight and hasn’t performed live in two years. “He had hip surgery,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He’s 83. I don’t know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumours, I wanted to tell you that he’s vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he’s still very active in a daily routine. I used to represent Prince and he just engaged me in all kinds of Prince conversations, calling him a ‘creative genius’.”

Several weeks ago production on the third Maze Runner film, The Death Cure, was shut down when star Dylan O’Brien was injured on set. Now, a new report says his injuries were worse than originally thought and the film has been postponed indefinitely. “His injuries are very serious and he needs more time to recover,” O’Brien’s publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story. Fox released the following statement as well: The resumption of principal photography on Maze Runner: The Death Cure has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries. We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible. According to the report, on March 18 O’Brien suffered a “concussion, facial fracture and lacerations” when a stunt in which the actor was on top of a moving vehicle went wrong.

Janet Jackson is pregnant with her first child, according to reports in the US. The singer, who will turn 50 in May, put all tour plans on hold for the foreseeable future earlier this year in order to start a family. The singer embarked on her year-long Unbreakable World Tour – her first in four years – last August, but missed shows due to medical reasons since October. Jackson had to deny rumours that she had throat cancer after worrying fans with an update on Christmas Eve saying that she needed surgery. A video posted on her Twitter account last month explained that she was “planning a family” with husband Wissam Al Mana, who she married secretly in 2012.

The former child star of ’80s film Flight of the Navigator has been charged with bank robbery in Canada. Deleriyes Joe Cramer, who was known as Joey Cramer when he starred in the 1986 movie, was arrested in Gibsons, British Columbia. The robbery took place in nearby Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a statement saying the 42-year-old had been charged with four offences relating to the bank robbery. Cramer, who lives in Gibsons, was in a number of films as a child actor, including Runaway with Tom Selleck and The Clan of Cave Bear with Darryl Hannah. His biggest film was the box office hit Flight of the Navigator, in which Cramer played the lead character David Freeman. He was nominated for the Young Artist Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 1987. Police say a disguise was used in the bank robbery. They have requested anyone with additional information, including information about a man purchasing or discarding a disguise involving a shoulder-length wig, bandana, and dark jacket with a reddish design on the back, to contact Sunshine Coast police. Cramer is facing charges including robbery, disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence, failure to stop for a police officer and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Italian composer Ennio Morricone has cancelled concerts in Rome because of health concerns. The 87-year-old has shelved three performances due to two collapsed vertebrae, according to Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra. The Oscar winner was due to perform with Santa Cecilia and its chorus. Later European concerts will still go ahead, Morricone’s spokeswoman said. Morricone, who has 500 film credits to this name, won his first competitive Oscar this year for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He had previously received an honorary Oscar in 2007.

On This Day

• 1429 – Joan of Arc lift the Siege of Orleans turning the tides of the Hundred Years’ War.
• 1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.
• 1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.
• 1945 – World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
• 1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

Deaths

• 1903 – Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor (b. 1848)
• 1982 – Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (b. 1950)
• 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, American author and screenwriter (b. 1907)
• 1994 – George Peppard, American actor and producer (b. 1928)
• 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Wes Anderson (47), Dwayne “The Rock’ Johnson (44), David Beckham (41), Ellie Kemper (36), Lily Allen (31), Frankie Valli (82), Christina Hendricks (41), Will Arnett (46), Michael Palin (73), Richard E. Grant (59), Henry Cavill (33), Adele (28), George Clooney (55) and Traci Lords (48).

The Last Word

“Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrows paper? ‘French Fries!’” – James French, convicted murderer, as he was being strapped into the electric chair.  d.1966

Next week peeps!

8th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st May 2016

Not a lot to report upon this week, after all, we have been spoiled recently with deaths so it’s impossible to keep the ball rolling unless one of us cheats and decides to kill off some names. So a quick and easy newsletter for you to digest.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Billy Paul, 81, American R&B singer (“Me and Mrs. Jones“), pancreatic cancer.
• Papa Wemba, 66, Congolese singer, seizure.
• Mark Farmer, 53, British actor (Grange Hill, Minder, Johnny Jarvis), cancer.
• Jenny Diski, 68, English writer (Nothing Natural, Rainforest, London Review of Books), lung cancer.
• Barry Howard, 78, English actor (Hi-de-Hi!), blood cancer.

In Other News

The wildlife presenter Chris Packham has spoken of having twice been on the brink of trying to take his own life during severe bouts of depression. Packham, 54, revealed he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in his 20s, and described his thoughts as a “great, hopeless vacuum”. The naturalist, who presents the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch programmes, unsurprisingly spoke of his difficulties in an interview with the Times marking the release of his memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar. He said: “I have been severely depressed, yes. I nearly killed myself twice.” One crisis came in 2003, he said, but he “didn’t have enough drugs to be sure it would work. I wouldn’t want to make a bad job of suicide”. He chose not to go through with it because he did not want to leave behind his two dogs or hurt his family, he said. Packham, who lives in the New Forest and is in a relationship with the owner of Isle of Wight zoo, Charlotte Corney, said he had no friends but was close to an ex-partner and her daughter.

Glenn Close, the Hollywood actress, has  battled back from a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised to make a triumphant return to Sunset Boulevard. Close, who had to pull out of four shows last week, spent three days in hospital and was placed on an intravenous drip after falling ill, it has emerged. Fans had been told she was “indisposed”, leading to fears for her health after nearly a month in the gruelling stage role. A spokesman for the English National Opera (ENO) later clarified Close was “unwell”, as fans who had already bought tickets seeing her alternate, Ria Jones, instead. It has now been confirmed the actress was in fact struck down by a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised. Close, who is making her West End debut in the role at the age of 69, was finally compelled to rest under doctors order last Thursday.

On This Day

• 1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.
• 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
• 1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1948 – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.
• 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
• 1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
• 2011 – Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May 2nd.

Deaths

• 1873 – David Livingstone, Scottish-English missionary and explorer (b. 1813)
• 1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer and academic (b. 1841)
• 1945 – Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
• 1994 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
• 2011 – Henry Cooper, English soldier and boxer (b. 1934)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Shirley MacLaine (82), Djimon Hounsou (52), Al Pacino (76), Bjorn Ulvaeus (71), Hank Azaria (52), Renee Zellweger (47), Joan Chen (55), Jet Li (53), Kevin James (51), Channing Tatum (36), Jay Leno (66), Jessica Alba (35), Mary McDonnell (64), Penelope Cruz (42), Jerry Seinfeld (62), Daniel Day-Lewis (59), Michelle Pfeiffer (58), Uma Thurman (46), Willie Nelson (83), Burt Young (76) and Kirsten Dunst (34).

The Last Word

I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring. – Richard Feynman, physicist, d. 1988

Next week peeps!

1st May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th April 2016

Yet another brutal week, 2016 is seemingly turning out to be a celebrity cull-fest, or is it? Read the article below. So, no points this week, unsurprisingly really as nobody should have listed Prince or Victoria Wood, both were taken away from us far too early. Lots to read today, so lets get on with it!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Morag Siller, 46, British actress (Emmerdale, Memphis Belle, Casualty), breast cancer.
• Rod Daniel, 73, American film director (Teen Wolf, K-9, WKRP in Cincinnati).
• Kit West, 79, British special effects artist (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dragonheart, Enemy at the Gates), Oscar winner (1982).
• Doris Roberts, 90, American actress (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele, Christmas Vacation).
• Chyna, 46, American professional wrestler (WWF) and actress (1 Night in China, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cougar Club).
• Scott Nimerfro, 54, American writer and producer (Hannibal, Once Upon a Time, X-Men), cancer.
• Guy Hamilton, 93, French-born British film director (James Bond franchise, Battle of Britain, Evil Under the Sun).
• Victoria Wood, 62, British comedian and actress (New Faces, Victoria Wood As Seen on TV, Dinnerladies), cancer.
• Prince, 57, American musician (“Purple Rain“, “Little Red Corvette“) and actor, Oscar (1984) and Grammy winner (1984, 1986, 2004, 2007).

 In Other News

Fidel Castro has made what is likely to be his final speech to Cuba’s Congress, telling the assembled politicians that he would die soon but that the revolution’s ideals would live on. The 89-year-old spoke after his brother Raul, 84, was re-elected as head of the Communist party – a position the younger Castro has said he will hold until retiring in 2018. And Fidel Castro said the time was approaching for a younger generation to take over. His declaration appeared to be less of an announcement that he was dying – he has been suffering from intestinal problems since the early 2000s – than a statement of obvious fact. “I’ll be 90 years old soon,” he said. “Soon I’ll be like all the others.” All we can say at Dead Pool Towers is HURRY UP!!

The last surviving chimpanzee from the PG Tips adverts has died aged 48. Twycross Zoo said that Choppers, the remaining character from the “tea chimps”, was put down by staff after she began to display signs of heart and liver failure. Known for her performances as Ada in the PG Tips commercials, which ran from the 1960s though until 1980, Choppers became the last surviving member of the troop after her cohabitant at the zoo, Louis, died in 2014. The chimpanzees also appeared in a number of children’s shows, including Tiswas and Blue Peter. They were often dressed up in clothes and filmed acting out messy tea parties, with lip-syncing voice-overs recorded by the likes of actor Peter Sellers and comedian Bob Monkhouse. While the commercials proved popular with TV audiences, Twycross Zoo ended its advertising agreement in the 1980s over concerns of animal cruelty. Animal experts at the zoo later admitted that the use of the apes was wrong, but chimpanzees from abroad continued to appear in tea adverts up until 2003. Choppers was taken in by Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire, after being brought to Britain by a couple who had rescued her from poaches in Liberia. Although she spent her twilight years in a shared enclosure with other chimps, she was known to prefer solitude, often shunning other apes in favour of human company. Choppers made her final TV performance in January last year, when she featured in a Channel 5 documentary looking back on the “tea chimps” and their lives in commercials.

Paul Gascoigne has insisted he is back to his “best” after suffering another relapse in his battle with alcoholism that saw him pictured with a cut and bloodied face. The former England footballer, who has had a drink problem for more than 20 years, claimed to have suffered a “two-day blip” in his ongoing struggle. The 48-year-old was last month photographed clutching a bottle of gin and being escorted by a police officer in his home town of Poole, Dorset. And more pictures later emerged of the ex-Tottenham player with a bloodied face, showing cuts and bruising to his nose, lip and forehead. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Gascoigne said that he was doing “all right” and had been clean for 11 months. Speaking openly to show presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Gascoigne was smartly dressed, with Morgan telling him: “You look good, mate.” Shrugging off his recent relapse as nothing more than a “blip”, the 48-year-old said he had been sober for months and was “back to my best”. However, he admitted that he only realised the seriousness of his recent relapse after seeing stories in the newspapers. Asked by Morgan if he felt it was right for people to compare him to George Best – the footballer who died in November 2005 after suffering from alcoholism for most of his adult life – Gascoigne said: “He’s passed away, I’m not, I’m still here.

Glenn Close has pulled out of a performance of Sunset Boulevard over ill health. Close, 69 – who plays Norma Desmond in the West End musical – was replaced by Ria Jones for the performance. The news was announced on Twitter by the English National Opera just hours before the show was due to start at the London Coliseum. Close returned to the role of Desmond earlier this month, marking 20 years since she first played the character. Speaking about the role she said: “She is one of the great parts ever written for a woman, it is infinite in the possibility of exploration and I feel totally new in this role, I feel like I’ve never done it before except I’m wearing these old clothes.” No news on what was actually wrong with Close though…

And finally, in a slight over-reaction, a furious gran has been spared jail for attacking her husband of 50 years with a meat hammer after catching him watching pornography. Lynda Holmes, 70, repeatedly bashed 78-year-old Gordon Holmes over the head at their Lancashire home after she thought he was trying to destroy the material. Burnley Crown Court heard how Mr Holmes ran out into the street bleeding and told neighbours his wife had gone ‘mad’. When police asked Mrs Holmes what happened she said: “I caught him with porn. He tried to get rid of it. I’ve seen red and attacked him. I wanted to kill him. “He hasn’t touched me for over 10 years and now he’s watching porn. How dare he? How do I go about getting 10 years of my life back?” Mr Holmes told police that he feels ‘partly responsible because of his selfishness’ by playing in a band, playing golf and ‘spending considerable time away from home and not supporting his wife’. Grandmother-of-three Mrs Holmes pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm at the couple’s home on Hornby Street in Oswaldtwistle. She was given a 10 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months.

On This Day

• 1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
• 1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
• 1923 – In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud’s theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
• 1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night presented by Patrick Moore
• 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
• 1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Deaths

• 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English journalist and spy (b. 1660)
• 1974 – Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (b. 1895)
• 1986 – Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward VIII (b. 1896)
• 2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sean Bean (57), Jennifer Garner (44), Rooney Mara (31), Victoria Beckham (42), Conan O’Brien (54), Andy Serkis (52), George Takei (79), Ryan O’Neal (75), Jessica Lange (67), Carmen Electra (44), Iggy Pop (69), The Queen (90), Andre MacDowell (58), James McAvoy (37), Charles Grodin (81), Tony Danza (65), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (50), Jack Nicholson (79), Glen Campbell (80), John Waters (70), Lee Majors (70) and Michael Moore (62).

Why are so many celebrities dying in 2016?  

It certainly seems the case. The death of the musician Prince, at the age of 57, just a day after Victoria Wood died from cancer, aged 62, has shocked their millions of fans. But it also appears to prove that 2016 is cursed in some way.  The two entertainers are the latest in a long line of celebrities to die in 2016, following Ronnie Corbett, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Sir Terry Wogan, Harper Lee, David Gest, Garry Shandling, Johan Cruyff among others.

But is it true? Are more celebrities dying than normal?

Theory 1: More people are dying

This would seem highly unlikely, unless there was a flu epidemic or a particularly harsh winter, which often causes spikes in mortality rates. According to the Office for National Statistics, which measures all the deaths registered in England and Wales on a weekly basis, 156,041 people have died between the start of this year up until the week ending April 8th. This is indeed slightly higher – just over 3 per cent – than the average over the last five years, which is 151,801. But a spokesman for the ONS says: “This is within the bounds of normal variance.”

Indeed, Wikipedia lists all the deaths of people who merit a Wiki entry. These people include celebrities, as well as far less famous people, such as academics and clergymen. Between January 1st and April 21st this year, there have been 2,109 deaths listed. Last year in the same period there were, in fact, more: 2,202 – despite there being being one fewer days because 2015 was not a leap year.

Theory 2: Celebrities are cursed

This might be possible, bearing in mind that some of the people who have died were counter culture figures of the 1960s and 1970s, who epitomised the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle of that era: David Bowie, who supposedly spent a year surviving on nothing more than cocaine, milk and red peppers; Howard Marks, the drugs dealer; Keith Emerson, one of the founding members of progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer; and Paul Kantner, the co-founder of Jefferson Airplane and prolific user of LSD. Andrew Brown, the Telegraph obituaries editor, says: “It’s possible there are more pop stars coming into their 60s and 70s. Even if they corrected their lifestyles in later life, years of hard living might have made them more vulnerable to death now.” There was even an Australian academic study in 2014, which looked at 13,000 different rock and pop stars, and found that on average they die 25 years younger than average.

Theory 3: There’s been a strange statistical blip

It is dubious there has been a glut of celebrity deaths, it’s a couple of strangely busy weeks – Bowie died the same week as Alan Rickman; Gary Shandling and Johan Cruyff both died on March 24th; Ronnie Corbett died on the same day as Dame Zaha Hadid a week later – has skewed our perception. It should even itself out later this year.

Theory 4: The bar for ‘celebrity’ has been lowered

This is possible. David Gest famous for being the fourth husband of Liza Minelli and a contestant on I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, merited a 1,120-word obituary in the Telegraph. Though this newspaper’s obituary page has always revelled in celebrating quirky lives, it’s fair to say he would not have appeared a decade or so ago. Jade Goody, who died from cervical cancer in 2009 at the age of 27 – after forging a remarkable career as the archetypal modern reality television star – did have a Telegraph obituary, but it was decided by the editor at the time not to run it in the newspaper. But Gest is about the only one of 2016’s celebrity deaths to fit this category.

Theory 5: There are just more celebrities per head of population

The pop music boom of the 1960s and the arrival of television in people’s sitting rooms from the mid-50s onwards has increased massively the pool of household names. In the era of just three TV channels the likes of unassuming, bank-manager lookalike Cliff Michelmore became woven into families’ weekly lives. The Paul Daniels magic show regularly attracted viewing figures of 15 million; the Two Ronnies hit 18 million viewers in 1980 – giving these light entertainment stars a recognition factor that would be impossible in the period before television and celebrity magazines. It would also be far more difficult to replicate in today’s era of countless terrestrial channels, Netflix and iPlayer and YouTube, which has spawned thousands of “celebrities” but few genuine household names, known and loved by two or even three generations in the way that Victoria Wood, Prince or Ronnie Corbett were. BBC Radio 4’s excellent More or Less programme, which looks at statistics behind the headlines, examined the theory that more celebrities had died this year than normal. Nick Serpell, BBC’s obituary editor, calculated that in the period January to March the corporation had run 24 obituaries on its radio stations and online, double the figure for the same period in 2015. There had been 5 in 2012, 8, in 2013 and 11 in 2014. Mr Serpell told the programme: “All these people, and the rise and growth of celebrity if you like, are reaching that period in their seventies and eighties where they are going to start to die and I think that is what’s causing this.”

Theory 6: Social media amplifies the deaths

This is a popular theory. In the old days, a celebrity death was announced on the radio, or in the obituary section. We digested the news in private. Now, within seconds of the news breaking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter is deluged with #RIP and other hashtags as we try to out-bid each other in our public statements of grief. Also, we are now more aware of the demise of celebrities with whom we have no affinity, be they a footballer, an American stand up or British television presenter. It is possible, as a result, that we now have a greater appetite for reading about the deaths of famous people. Facebook, in particular, seems to particularly encourage users to post clips or quotes of their favourite stars – a chance to wallow in a bit of childhood nostalgia. In some ways, we have all become citizen obituary writers.

So, what’s the reason for all the deaths?

The theory that there are just more celebrities – per 1,000 head of population – combined with the fact that many had a terribly unhealthy lifestyle is the most compelling reason why so many have died in recent months. This will be of no comfort to their millions of fans.

The Last Word

Go on, get out – last words are for fools who haven’t said enough. – To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity. – Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883

Next week peeps!

24th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th April 2016

Another week and yet more unforeseen deaths! Alas, no points for anyone, and a surprisingly high count of Welsh people amongst the deceased. I’ll not prattle on, lets get to it as there’s lots to read this week.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Howard Marks, 70, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer and legalisation campaigner, colorectal cancer.
• David Gest, 62, American TV producer (Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special) and reality show contestant (I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!).
• Anne Jackson, 90, American actress (The Shining, Folks!, Dirty Dingus Magee).
• Balls Mahoney, 44, American professional wrestler (ECW, WWE, SMW).
• Sir Arnold Wesker, 83, British playwright.
• Gareth Thomas, 71, Welsh actor (Blake’s 7, Children of the Stones, Star Maidens), heart failure.
• Gwyn Thomas, 79, Welsh poet and academic, National Poet (2006–2008).
• Martin Fitzmaurice, 75, English darts personality. “Are you ready? Ladies and Gentlemen… Let’s… Play…. Darts”.
• Phil Sayer, 62, British voice artist, the voice of British Railway stations and the voice of the London Underground saying to passengers “Please mind the gap”, esophageal cancer.
• Melinda Rose, Lady Woodward (Linda), 75, wife of Tom Jones, cancer. Not listed on Wiki as a notable death.

In Other News

Sir Bruce Forsyth will miss the funeral of his friend Ronnie Corbett because he is  too unwell to attend, his manager has confirmed. Corbett, who died aged 85 earlier this month, will be laid to rest on Monday. The veteran entertainer was expected to attend the service but has opted to remain at his Surrey home while he recovers from keyhole surgery. Forsyth, 88, suffered a fall last October, causing a swelling of the main blood vessel from his heart, which required him to have surgery on the abdominal aortic aneurysm. Following the operation last year, which was a “complete success”, his manager, Ian Wilson, told the media that Forsyth was “two or three weeks away” from being “out and about”. LIES!!!! Corbett’s funeral, which is by invitation only, will take place at St John the Evangelist Church, Shirley, followed by a short service at Croydon crematorium.

Singer Prince has been released from a US hospital after he was admitted with the flu following an emergency plane landing. A representative for the singer told the media that Prince had performed in Atlanta on Thursday despite not feeling well from the flu, and felt worse after boarding a plane following his concert. The plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, where the singer was treated and released at a local hospital. He then got back on the plane and returned home.  Seems a bit extreme for a bit of a sniffle, typically overblown from a drama queen of his stature! The 57-year-old singer then cancelled two show due to having the sniffles.

James Taylor, the Nottinghamshire and England batsman, described his world as having been turned “upside down” following his retirement from cricket because of a serious heart condition. The 26-year-old, capped 34 times and part of the Test side who won in South Africa over the winter, will undergo an operation in Nottingham this week to have a defibrillator fitted, having been diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. The condition, which medical experts have said is similar to that of the former Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed during a match at White Hart Lane in 2012, means the batsman is coming to terms with the fact he can no longer play professional sport. Taylor wrote on Twitter: “Safe to say this has been the toughest week of my life! My world is upside down. But I’m here to stay and I’m battling on!” He hopes…

It’s all kicking off in the West Midlands! A vigil has appeared in the middle of a Leamington Spa street in honour of some crushed chocolate digestive biscuits. Daffodils, a candle and a RIP note have been placed next to the fallen treats, left by digestive sympathisers, just days after the end to the great biscuit shortage of 2016 was announced. Warwick university students Hugh Osborn and James Taylor posted the shocking images online, with hundreds of Twitter users sharing the photos. Sadly, the vigil has since disappeared.

On This Day

• 1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as the start of the book’s pilgrimage to Canterbury.
• 1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident
• 1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day. And they’re worried about a couple of muslims nowadays… 
• 1937 – Daffy Duck‘s first appearance, in Porky’s Duck Hunt.
• 1951 – The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom’s first National Park.
• 1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
• 1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
• 1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People’s Bureau (Embassy) in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
• 2014 – NASA‘s Kepler confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.

Deaths

• 1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, publisher, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (b. 1706)
• 1960 – Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1938)
• 1998 – Linda McCartney, American singer, photographer, and activist (b. 1941)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Haley Joel Osment (28), Steven Seagal (64), Joss Stone (29), Andy Garcia (60), Claire Danes (37), Ed O’Neill (70), Saoirse Ronan (22), Al Green (70), Paul Sorvino (76), Loretta Lynn (84), Adrien Brody (43), Anthony Michael Hall (48), Robert Carlyle (55), Sarah Michelle Gellar (39), Julie Christie (76), Emma Thompson (57), Emma Watson (26), Seth Rogan (34), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (69), ex-Pope Benedict (89), Ellen Barkin (62), Martin Lawrence (51), and Lukas Haas (40).

Is there a London 2012 Olympics ‘curse’? By Laura Gray 

It’s been reported that 18 athletes who competed in the 2012 London Olympics have died since the Games. French-language media have begun talking about a “curse”, but is there any justification for this? It seems the first mention of “the terrible curse of the London Olympic Games” was made in November last year, when the French TV channel BFMTV reported the death of the Belarusian sprinter Yuliya Balykina. Balykina, who competed in the 2012 Games in both the 100m and 4x100m relay, was found dead and covered in plastic in a forest outside the Belarusian capital, Minsk. A 28-year-old man was charged with her murder.

“La malediction olympique” cropped up again last month, after Australian rower Sarah Tait – a silver-medallist at the London Olympics – died from cervical cancer. “Sarah Tait is just the latest in a very long list of top athletes who have died after taking part in the London Olympic Games,” wrote Gilles Festor in Le Figaro on 5th March.

“This Olympic ‘curse’ has now claimed 18 victims.” But why was it in France that this idea took hold? Maybe because of the shocking deaths of two French Olympians on 9th March 2015, says Paula Kennedy, who monitors European media for the BBC.

Swimmer Camille Muffat and boxer Alexis Vastine were among 10 people killed when two helicopters collided in Argentina, during the filming of a TV survival show, Dropped, where celebrities are dropped in rough terrain and left to find food and shelter. The story had considerable impact in France. “The sudden death of our fellow French nationals is a cause of immense sadness,” said French President Francois Hollande in a statement.

All the athletes who have known to have died after competing in the 2012 Olympics are listed at the bottom of the story.

It sounds like a lot – 18 young athletes dying in four years – but is it really, when you consider that 10,568 people took part in the Games? Based on crude mortality rates “you would expect 7.89 people in 1,000 to die,” says Rob Mastrodomenico, a sports statistician at Global Sports Statistics. So in a group of 10,568 people one could expect about 333 to die over a four-year period, he says. However, Olympic athletes are young – they have an average age of 26. Taking this into account, we should expect approximately seven deaths a year, says Mastrodomenico, or 28 deaths in four years. So the figure of 18 deaths over four years does not seem quite so out of the ordinary – and definitely not the sign of a “curse”.

London Olympians who have died 

• Keitani Graham, Micronesian wrestler (heart attack)
• Burry Stander, South African mountain biker (hit by vehicle while training)
• Andrew Simpson, British sailor (sailing accident)
• Elena Ivashchenko, Russian judoka (suicide)
• Billy Ward, Australian boxer (suicide)
• Abdelrahman el-Trabily, Egyptian wrestler (shot dead)
• Jakkrit Panichpatikum, Thai shooter (shot dead)
• Christian Lopez, Guatemalan weightlifter (pneumonia)
• Besik Kudukhov, Russian wrestler (car accident)
• Elena Baltacha, British tennis player (liver cancer)
• Camille Muffat, French swimmer (helicopter crash)
• Alexis Vastine, French boxer (helicopter crash)
• Daundre Barnaby, Canadian 400m runner (missing at sea)
• Trevor Moore, American sailor (missing at sea)
• Yuliya Balykina, Belarusian sprinter (murdered)
• Laurent Vidal, French triathlete (heart attack)
• Arnold Peralta, Honduran soccer player (shot dead)
• Sarah Tait, Australian rower (cervical cancer)

The Last Word

That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted. – Lou Costello, comedian, d. March 3, 1959

Next week peeps!

17th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th April 2016

We have to start this weeks edition with a bow towards Nick M, who scores 57 points with the death of Erik Bauersfeld, talk about obscure or what! Who would have guessed that the voice of Admiral Ackbar in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi would have croaked it this year!!! I’d also like to highlight the death of actress Amber Rayne, nobody sent a klaxon, even though she’d starred in over 500 films, perhaps none of you have seen any… Sadly it is thought she died at the age of 31 due to an accidental overdose after her favourite horse died, apparently she was making a name for herself in the dressage world. On another note, Hugh Hefner’s envious younger brother has died, so there is hope for Hugh to cark it sometime, immortality doesn’t run in the family.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Amber Rayne, 31, American pornographic actress.
• Erik Bauersfeld, 93, American radio dramatist (KPFA) and voice actor (Star Wars, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Crimson Peak).
• Joe Medicine Crow, 102, American Crow historian.
• Irma Bule, 29, Indonesian pop singer, snake bite.
• Merle Haggard, 79, American singer-songwriter (“Okie from Muskogee“, “The Fightin’ Side of Me“, “Carolyn“), Grammy winner (1984, 1998, 1999), complications from pneumonia.
• Rachel Johnson, 93, Scottish woman, last native of St. Kilda.

In Other News

Dead Pool favourite, Charlie Sheen, is facing a police investigation over claims he made threats against an ex-girlfriend, who is suing him for assault and battery. The National Enquirer and RadarOnline reported a 35-minute recording, apparently of the actor, making threats about former porn star Scottine Ross. Ms Ross has taken legal action against Sheen, claiming he physically abused her and had sex with her without disclosing his HIV positive status. Sheen has not commented on the reports. In a televised interview in November 2015, Sheen said he had been diagnosed with HIV four years earlier. The former star admitted his history of drink and drug abuse was a “bad decision” but said it was “impossible” he would have passed HIV on to anyone else. In December, Ms Ross – who was engaged to Sheen in 2014 before the relationship was broken off – filed a legal action against him accusing him of “physical, psychological and emotional abuse”.

Talking of Dead Pool stalwarts, Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance, speaking to schoolchildren about his brother’s late wife and revolutionary figure Vilma Espin. The 89-year-old former president regularly writes reflections in the state media and meets with dignitaries but seldom appears in public. His last appearance at a public event was in July 2015. Wearing a white sports jacket and speaking in a scratchy voice, Castro told a room of students and teachers that Espin would be happy to see the fruits of her sacrifice at schools like theirs. Thursday’s appearance came on what would have been her 86th birthday. The revolutionary leader did not make any remarks about last month’s visit to Cuba by president Barack Obama in televised portions of the visit aired on Cuban state news media. Castro wrote a 1,500-word essay in response to Obama’s trip in his only statement about the US leader’s visit to date, reminding Cubans about a long history of US aggression against the island and stating: “we don’t need the empire to give us any presents.” Castro stepped aside in 2006 after suffering a serious illness and officially retired two years later, but his presence still casts a long shadow on Cuban government and society.

The boxer Nick Blackwell has woken from an induced coma, a week after collapsing following a domestic title fight against Chris Eubank Jr. The middleweight fighter regained consciousness on Saturday and a day later was well enough to begin talking to family and friends at his bedside, his promoters said on Monday.  Blackwell was placed in a coma after being stretchered from the ring at Wembley’s SSE Arena following his defeat to Eubank on 26th March. The fight had been stopped in the 10th round after the doctor decided he could not see from his heavily swollen left eye. In a statement, Hennessy Sports said the boxer had not been as badly injured as early reports suggested. Rather than suffering bleeding to the brain, “his bleed was outside the brain – on the skull, in fact – and was minor enough for there to be no need to operate,” it said. Speaking to reporters last week, Eubank Jr said he had realised his opponent was in trouble and reduced the ferocity of his punches after his father, who was in his corner during the bout, warned him that Blackwell could be seriously hurt.

In the first of two Darwinian award stories, two boys were taken to hospital after receiving neck wounds during an opening night performance of Sweeney Todd at a school in Auckland, New Zealand. If you don’t know, the musical features a barber who murders his customers by slitting their throats and selling their remains to a pie shop. One of the boys, both aged 16, was more seriously hurt but Auckland Hospital said both were in a stable condition. The head of the private college, Steve Cole told TVNZ, that it was an “unfortunate and isolated incident” involving “a prop that was covered in all sorts of duct tape and silver paper.” The razor did not have a sharp edge and it had been used numerous times in rehearsals, he said. The school has postponed Thursday’s performance of the play, and said the boys were expected to be discharged from hospital on Thursday. Cole admitted that, “in hindsight”, it might have been better to use a plastic prop. No shit Sherlock!!

An Indonesian singer has died after she was bitten by a cobra that was being used as a prop in her performance. Irma Bule was bitten by the cobra on her thigh during a performance in a village in Karawang, West Java in Indonesia on Sunday. An eyewitness told Indonesian news that the 29-year-old singer was bitten after she stepped on the cobra’s tail during her second song. It is believed that the singer thought the cobra was defanged, so she refused any help for the bite and continued to sing. Forty five minutes later and still performing, she began vomiting and having seizures. The singer was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Bule, who frequently performed with snakes and cobras, was a singer of Dangdut music, a genre of popular music based on traditional Indonesian folk music. Lydia Apririasari of the Tulala Snake Research Center told Rappler that dancing with snakes is very common in Indonesian villages. In the past, Bule has also used boa constrictors and pythons in her live shows.

On This Day

• 837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth at a distance equal to 0.0342 AU.
• 1710 – The Statute of Anne, the first law regulating copyright, comes into force in Great Britain.
• 1815 – The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth’s climate for the next two years.
• 1858 – After the original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonnes bell for the Palace of Westminster had cracked during testing, it is recast into the current 13.76 tonnes bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
• 1912 – RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England on her maiden and only voyage.
• 1970 – Paul McCartney announces that he is leaving The Beatles for personal and professional reasons.
• 1998 – Northern Ireland peace deal reached (Good Friday Agreement).

Deaths

• 1954 – Auguste Lumière, French director and producer (b. 1862)
• 1966 – Evelyn Waugh, English soldier, novelist, journalist and critic (b. 1903)
• 1991 – Kevin Peter Hall, American actor (b. 1955)
• 1992 – Sam Kinison, American comedian and actor (b. 1953)
• 2014 – Sue Townsend, English author and playwright (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Richie Benaud, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1930)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Alec Baldwin (58), Eddie Murphy (55), Leona Lewis (31), Amanda Bynes (30), Robert Downey Jr. (51), David Blaine (43), Pharrell Williams (43), Colin Powell (79), John Ratzenberger (69), Paul Rudd (47), Zack Braff (41), John Oates (67), Francis Ford Coppola (77), Jackie Chan (62), Russell Crowe (52), Robin Wright (50), Patricia Arquette (48), Julian Lennon (53), Hugh Hefner (90), Jenna Jameson (42), Dennis Quaid (62) and Kirsten Stewart (26).

The Last Word

I am about to – or I am going to – die: either expression is correct. – Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian, d. 1702

Next week peeps!

10th April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd April 2016

Nil points to award this week, mainly because most of the celebrity deaths last week were very unexpected. We’re only into April and we seem to have lost a host of popular names already this year, but our problem is, we never list people we actually like, so all those points go begging! Perhaps the key to winning is to be cruel.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Terry Brain, 60, English animator (The Trap Door), cancer.
• Jim Harrison, 78, American author and screenwriter (Legends of the Fall, Wolf).
• Patty Duke, 69, American actress (The Miracle Worker, The Patty Duke Show, Valley of the Dolls), Oscar winner (1962), sepsis.
• Ronnie Corbett, 85, British comedian (The Two Ronnies, The Frost Report) and actor (Casino Royale).
• Dame Zaha Hadid, 65, Iraqi-born British architect, heart attack.
• Douglas Wilmer, 96, English actor (Sherlock Holmes, Octopussy, Jason and the Argonauts).
• Denise Robertson, 83, British writer and television broadcaster (This Morning), pancreatic cancer.
• Cesare Maldini, 84, Italian football player and manager.

In Other News

Supermodel Janice Dickinson, who is currently fighting a legal battle against Bill Cosby over comments made regarding an alleged sexual assault, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Dickinson discovered what she described as a  pea-sized lump in her breast at a routine doctor’s appointment on 12th March. Following a biopsy and mammogram, she was told that she had a non-invasive ductal carcinoma – a common form of breast cancer which usually responds well to treatment. She will undergo surgery to remove the lump, as well as radiotherapy. “Initially when the doctor found the lump it hurt, it became quite painful when you touch it, that’s the point when I knew this is serious, when the doctor touched this little lump in my right breast, about the size of a pea, and I went bingo, I have cancer,” “I’m going to get through this,” she added. “I’m going to be just fine, kiddo.” “‘Don’t feel sorry for me, this is not a pity party,” she said. “I’m Janice Dickinson and I’m gonna stick around for a long, long time. You ain’t getting rid of me yet.” Dickinson, who is 61, is often described as being the world’s first supermodel – a term she claims to have invented. She was a judge on America’s Next Top Model, and owned her own modelling agency, the Janice Dickinson Modelling Agency, about which there was a reality TV show. Unsurprisingly, her cancer treatment will also be followed by cameras; a reality TV show called The Doctors will follow her through every step of her treatment.

The band Little Mix have been forced to cancel their Belfast gigs after singer Jesy Nelson became unwell. The girl band was due to play a matinee and evening show at the SSE Arena on Thursday. The cancellation was announced just minutes after the doors opened for the afternoon performance. Fans were later informed by text message that the show would not be going ahead as scheduled. Thousands of 5-8 year olds complained profusely at how the cancellation was handled. “I’m really, really annoyed. Once again they’ve waited until we got here to tell us it was cancelled,” said Tracy, “and I’m really worried the band will re-schedule for an afternoon when were back at school and mum’s back at work!” “It’s not been handled very well,” she said. “There’s absolute bedlam down here now. Surely they could have informed us before we all landed at the place? This was minutes before the show was due to begin.” The local council is somewhat relieved as the River Legan was a tad low, now it’s full of the tears of toddlers.

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos has been charged with drink driving after she allegedly crashed her Ferrari in north London. The former X Factor star’s car collided with a Saab outside Southgate Tube station. The singer was also charged with dangerous driving, a Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed. A conviction for drink driving could see the former N-Dubz singer banned from driving for up to a year, while a conviction for dangerous driving would result in an obligatory ban of one year. The crash took place at a roundabout outside the tube station shortly before midnight. Officers were called and Ms Contostavlos was breathalysed at the scene. The singer was arrested and held in custody before being released on bail pending further enquiries. Ms Contostavlos had taken possession of the sports car just days before the incident.

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed the results of his “most dangerous stunt” ever: a bloodied nose and blackened face. The former Top Gear host, who is currently filming his new Amazon Prime motoring show, told fans he was attempting a death-defying feat on Thursday night. He wrote: “Tomorrow morning, I’m doing the most dangerous stunt I’ve ever attempted. This may well be a goodbye.” Clarkson, 55, was clearly not joking. He shared a photograph with his 6 million Twitter followers on Friday evening showing blood dripping from his nose. In response to one fan, who accused him of using makeup to create the effect, he wrote: “You’re going to feel silly when you see the show. It so isn’t make-up.”

On This Day

• 1882 – American Old West: Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
• 1888 – The first of eleven unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs.
• 1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality.
• 1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.
• 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
• 2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer.

Deaths

• 1882 – Jesse James, American criminal (b. 1847)
• 1897 – Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (b. 1833)
• 1991 – Graham Greene, English author, playwright, and critic (b. 1904)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Quentin Tarantino (53), Mariah Carey (46), Jessie J (28), Lady Gaga (30), Dianne Wiest (68), Vince Vaughn (46), Julia Stiles (35), Brendan Gleeson (61), Christopher Lambert (59), Elle McPherson (52), Lucy Lawless (48), Eric Idle (73), Eric Clapton (71), Robbie Coltrane (66), MC Hammer (54), Piers Morgan (51), Christopher Walken (73), Ewan McGregor (45), Al Gore (68), Debbie Reynolds (84), Jimmy Cliff (68), Susan Boyle (55), Linda Hunt (71), Emmylou Harris (69) and Michael Fassbender (39).

The Last Word

Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something. – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, d. 1923

Next week peeps!

3rd April 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 27th March 2016

Welcome all to a not-so-special Easter edition of the Dead Pool where we will not be mentioning eggs nor the death some chap called Jesus, who just happened to start some kind of vicious religion that we’re all still reeling from over two thousand years later. Lets begin by awarding some points to Wombat, 82 of them to be precise! Well done for guessing that cancer riddled Johan Cruyff would bite the bullet in 2016. I was rather surprised that only one of us had him, but it is a cruel game after all.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Rob Ford, 46, Canadian politician, Mayor of Toronto (2010–2014), liposarcoma.
• Rita Gam, 88, American actress (The Thief, Klute, No Exit) and filmmaker, respiratory failure.
• Johan Cruyff, 68, Dutch football player and manager (AFC Ajax, FC Barcelona, national team), lung cancer.
• Garry Shandling, 66, American comedian, actor and writer (The Larry Sanders Show, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), heart attack.

In Other News

Hugh Jackman, the Australian actor, rescued his son and another man when they got caught in strong currents on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Saturday. Without any thought of self-preservation, Jackman, who starred in the X-Men films as Wolverine, became a real-life hero when he pulled the pair to safety, then beckoned other swimmers to shore, away from a rip current flowing out to sea. Television footage broadcast by the Nine Network shows Jackman linking hands with a man and pulling him from a fast-flowing channel on to a sandbar, where the water is shallow. Lynzey Murphy told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper that surf conditions changed quickly, but that Jackman stayed calm. “When we got in the water 20 minutes earlier it was fine. Then the water just came up suddenly,” she said. “Hugh just pulled them calmly on to the sandbar. He then said: ‘All right, we are going to walk towards the flags.’” A lifeguard told the paper that the beach was later closed because of dangerous surf.

The British boxer Nick Blackwell is in an induced coma after suffering a bleed on the brain following a domestic title fight defeat on Saturday night. The referee stopped the largely one-sided fight against Chris Eubank Jr in the 10th round after Blackwell, who had taken heavy punishment in most rounds, was deemed unable to continue by a doctor, due to swelling over his left eye. Shortly after the bout, for Blackwell’s British middleweight title, which was televised live on Channel 5, the 25-year-old, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, collapsed and had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher with oxygen. After the fight, Eubank said: “I was hitting him with some big shots and the referee saw fit to let the fight go on. Looking back now, maybe he should have stopped it earlier.” Eubank’s father, Chris Eubank Sr, who was in his son’s corner for the bout, said the incident brought back painful memories of his world title fight with Michael Watson in 1991, which left his opponent with severe brain injuries. Watson nearly died as a result of injuries sustained in the fight and the incident forced the BBBC to boost safety at bouts to ensure that boxers who suffer such injuries get speedy assistance, including oxygen. Eubank Sr said he was banging on the canvas during the Blackwell fight urging the referee to stop it, but the referee didn’t understand him.

Eddie Izzard has completed 27 marathons in as many days for Sport Relief. But can his body recover from such a feat? The numbers are astonishing. In 27 days, Eddie Izzard ran or walked 707.4 miles (1,138 km) around South Africa, often in extreme heat, at the age of 54. On the last day, because of earlier disruption, he did a double marathon to ensure he reached his target. The comedian’s exertions for Sport Relief have raised more than £1.35m. But now, as the elation of completing his task recedes and he continues to deal with media interest in his achievement, Izzard must begin his recovery. “I can’t stand upright,” Izzard said, after he crossed the line in Pretoria, sipping from a bottle of champagne. “I have a huge blister and I’m exhausted.” Izzard has risked severe damage to the knee ligaments and there’s a strong likelihood of “massive muscle damage”, says Peter Jones, head of Staffordshire University’s school for psychology, sport and exercise. The immune system will be suppressed during the initial recovery, leading to a greater risk of infection. Izzard’s recovery should take about a month and involve plenty of low-impact, low-intensity training, such as swimming, plus stretching exercises. “What he’s done is a little bit extreme, I guess,” says Jones,” but he should be back to normal after a few weeks, so long as he hasn’t done any major damage to his body.” Many athletes report having “the blues” after completing a huge goal, such as a marathon or a triathlon. “It’s that Neil Armstrong thing, once you’ve been to the moon everything else is really dull, isn’t it?

Good Morning Britain was taken off-air on Friday as a result of a fire at the ITV building. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) confirmed that 50 people had been evacuated from the studios on London’s Southbank after a blaze began in the first floor of the building. Four fire engines and 21 firefighters were sent to tackle the “small fire” and the LFB confirmed on their Twitter account that there were “thankfully no injuries and everyone out safely”. In a statement, LFB said: “Part of a post room on the first floor was damaged by fire. Around 50 people evacuated the building before the Brigade arrived. The fire meant that Good Morning Britain was taken off air. GMB presenter Ben Shephard tweeted that it was unlikely the show would return to the air that morning as the cast and crew took refuge in a nearby restaurant that opened early to accommodate them. He tweeted: “Outlook for getting back on air not great.”

A fan at Adele’s Glasgow concert has been injured by a falling chain that possibly came from a lighting rig overhead. The singer was performing her sell-out tour at the SSE Hydro on Friday night when a chain that was part of the production came down. The injured spectator was taken to hospital and Adele, who was apparently unaware of the incident at the time, later tweeted her apologies and promised it would not happen again. A spokeswoman for the venue told the media: “A chain belonging to the production came down and hit one person who was taken to hospital as a precaution’. All we can think of at Dead Pool Towers, is where one badly fitted chain falls, many more are capable of doing so too. Adele is scheduled to perform a second show at the 13,000-capacity arena on Saturday, let’s see if she survives!

In a surprise move sure to sadden Beliebers, Justin Bieber has cancelled all meet-and-greets with his fans on his current Purpose worldwide tour. The pop star made the announcement on his Instagram, explaining that the interactions leave him “feeling so drained and filled with so much of other people’s spiritual energy that I end up so drained and unhappy”. His company indicated that Bieber’s decision to cut back on fan face-time has less to do with keeping the musician’s spirits afloat, and more with maintaining his safety. According to TMZ, that show occurred on Monday night, when a “potentially dangerous fan” got within 10 feet of Bieber during a backstage meet-and-greet. The fan in question was allegedly on the “watch list” for Bieber’s security team. The site also reports that Bieber has had his hair pulled and clothes ripped following intimate paid encounters, and that he contracted the flu from one sickly fan.

On This Day

• 1625 – Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.
• 1871 – The first international rugby football match, when Scotland defeats England in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
• 1881 – Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of teetotalism by The Salvation Army.
• 1886 – Famous Apache warrior, Geronimo, surrenders to the U.S. Army, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.
• 1915 – Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
• 1977 – Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the worst aviation accident in history.
• 1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

Deaths

• 1923 – James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist (b. 1842)
• 1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1934)
• 1972 – M. C. Escher, Dutch illustrator (b. 1898)
• 1991 – Ralph Bates, English actor (b. 1940)
• 2000 – Ian Dury, English singer-songwriter and actor (The Blockheads) (b. 1942)
• 2002 – Dudley Moore, English actor (b. 1935)
• 2002 – Billy Wilder, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1906)

Last Week’s Birthdays

The Queen (90), William Hurt (66), Spike Lee (59), Theresa Russell (59), Holly Hunter (58), David Thewlis (53), Timothy Dalton (70), Gary Oldman (58), Rosie O’Donnell (71), William Shatner (85), Matthew Modine (57), Reese Witherspoon (40), Chaka Khan (63), Amanda Plummer (59), Damon Albarn (48), Perez Hilton (38), Kelly LeBrock (56), Jim Parsons (43), Alyson Hannigan (42), Jessica Chastain (39), Tommy Hilfiger (65), Aretha Franklin (74), Elton John (69), Sarah Jessica Parker (51), Melanie Blatt (41), Keira Knightley (31), Alan Arkin (82), James Caan (76), Steven Tyler (68), Martin Short (66) and Larry Page (43).

The Last Word

“Let’s cool it brothers . . .”

Spoken to his assassins, three men who shot him 16 times.
– Malcolm X, Black leader, d. 1966

Next week peeps!

27th March 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 20th March 2016

Firstly, apologies for being missing in action last week, I was brought low by a kidney stone, which is as painful as pushing a child out your foof I’ve been told. However my ruined innards have recovered and I feel much better than Paul Daniels does right now! Fear not, your points are still safe and valid, and as luck would have it, we have some to disperse. Debbie R, Martin G, Jemma L, Nicola R, Julie K all score 56 points for the death of Nancy Reagan last week, but Lukasz B scores a mighty 156 points for listing her as his Woman. Well done all of you!!

So, onwards to a double-bubble of deathly fun!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Joan Bates, 86, British Sealandic princess.
• Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, 81, English composer and conductor, Master of the Queen’s Music (2004–2014), leukaemia.
• Sylvia Anderson, 88, British television producer and voice actress (Thunderbirds).
• Cliff Michelmore, 96, British television presenter and producer.
• Frank Sinatra, Jr., 72, American singer (That Face!) and actor (Hollywood Homicide), heart attack.
• Paul Daniels, 77, British magician (The Paul Daniels Magic Show), brain tumour.
• Larry Drake, 66, American actor (L.A. Law, Johnny Bravo, Darkman), Emmy Award winner (1988, 1989).
• Joe Santos, 84, American actor (The Rockford Files, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Last Boy Scout), heart attack.
• Tray Walker, 23, American football player (Baltimore Ravens), dirt bike collision.

Last week

• Ray Tomlinson, 74, American computer programmer, invented system to send first email and assigned use of @ sign, heart attack.
• Nancy Reagan, 94, American First Lady (1981–1989) and actress (Hellcats of the Navy, Donovan’s Brain, The Next Voice You Hear…), heart failure.
• Richard Davalos, 85, American actor (Cool Hand Luke, East of Eden, Kelly’s Heroes).
• Sir George Martin, 90, British Hall of Fame record producer (The Beatles), composer, arranger and engineer, six-time Grammy Award winner.
• Sir Ken Adam, 95, German-born British production designer (Dr. Strangelove, James Bond, The Madness of King George), Oscar winner (1975, 1994).
• Keith Emerson, 71, English progressive rock and rock keyboardist (The Nice; Emerson, Lake & Palmer), suicide by gunshot.

In Other News

Bill Wyman, the former bassist of the Rolling Stones, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 79-year-old musician, who joined the rock band in late 1962, is expected to make a full recovery. A spokesman said: “He is undergoing treatment and is expected to make a full recovery as it was caught in the early stages. The Wyman family has asked for their privacy during this time.” Born William Perks in south-east London in October 1936, Wyman joined the Rolling Stones shortly after the band’s formation when they were beginning to play small gigs around the capital. At 25, he was the oldest member of the group, and though he was unkindly dubbed “the boring one”, he and drummer Charlie Watts provided one of the tightest rhythmical backings in rock music, including on hits such as Paint it Black and Gimme Shelter. Wyman and his wife were pictured at the wedding of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, the former wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, at St Bride’s church in London’s Fleet Street. In photographs, he showed no apparent signs of illness and mingled with other guests. Wyman is not the first band member to be diagnosed with cancer, in 2004 Watts underwent two operations to rid himself of the disease.

One of the Hatton Garden heist ringleaders has had a stroke and is being tested for suspected cancer, a court has heard. Brian Reader, 77, who was known by his fellow gang members as the Guvnor or Master, was “an extremely ill man” who was blind in one eye and hard of hearing, his defence barrister, James Scobie QC, told Woolwich crown court at the start of a three-day sentencing hearing. Reader, the oldest of the seven men convicted of the multimillion-pound burglary in London’s diamond district, had returned to Belmarsh prison’s hospital wing after a period in the critical care unit of Woolwich hospital after a stroke, Scobie said. He was unable to attend court for sentencing on Monday. Scobie said Reader had fallen over twice “ultimately ending up in critical care in Woolwich hospital having had a stroke”. He said he had visited Reader and found him unable to communicate, adding: “There were nine officers there, six armed with machine guns and three in his room, which doesn’t help recovery. “He has a history of prostate cancer, which may return. He has a mass in his face being tested for possible cancer. He has had a stroke and is blind in one eye.”

Dylan O’Brien, the lead star of the Maze Runner teen film franchise, has been injured on the set of The Death Cure. The 24-year-old actor, also known for his role in MTV’s Teen Wolf, was hit by a car while filming an action sequence. According to Variety, he may have suffered multiple broken bones in the accident. O’Brien is currently at a local hospital in British Columbia, where the film was shooting, undergoing recovery. Production has shut down in the interim on what will be the third film in the dystopian YA franchise, which is due for release next February. O’Brien stars as Thomas in the Maze Runner franchise, based on the popular book series by James Dashner. The 2014 original was a major hit in the US, grossing $102m. Its 2015 follow-up The Scorch Trials earned $82m domestically. “Our thoughts go out to Dylan for a full and speedy recovery,” a Fox representative said in a statement.

Sarah Palin’s husband Todd has been seriously injured in a snowmobile accident, it emerged on Monday. The former Alaska governor canceled a planned campaign appearance with Donald Trump on Monday morning, the Trump campaign announced. However, a non-caring Palin appeared at an afternoon rally in Tampa, Florida, where she told the crowd that her husband was in intensive care. A previous Trump campaign statement had said that Palin was returning to Alaska “to be with her husband and looks forward to being back on the campaign trail soon”. Apparently, Todd Palin, 51, is a champion snow machine, or snowmobile, racer.

Fantasy author George RR Martin was moved to reassure his fans that rumours buzzing around the web that he had died following the passing of The Beatles producer George Martin had panicked come hasty readers. As tributes poured in for producer Martin, who died aged 90 last week, some readers mistakenly believed that Martin, author of the Game of Thrones novels, was no more. But writing on his blog, the novelist told his fans that he was “not dead yet”. “While it is strangely moving to realise that so many people around the world care so deeply about my life and death, I have to go with Mark Twain and insist that the rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” he wrote, referring to the novelist’s comment to a reporter in 1897 following rumours that he had died. Martin the author said that the Beatles producer would be missed. “I never met Sir George (I did meet Paul McCartney once, for about a minute, while waiting for the valet to bring my rental car up at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills), but like many millions of others, I loved the Beatles, and Martin’s contribution to their music is worthy of recognition and honour,” wrote Martin. “As for me, I am still here, still writing, still editing, still going to movies and reading books, and I expect to hang around for quite a while yet, thank you very much. But thank you all for caring.”

And finally, a great-granddad from Derbyshire is set to become the oldest person in the world to get a tattoo to celebrate his 104th birthday. Chesterfield resident Jack Reynolds appeared on Good Morning Britain, with host Susanna Reid describing him as her “all-time favourite guest”. The centenarian, who two years ago became the oldest person to complete the Ice Bucket Challenge, has also revealed where he would like to get it. “On my bum. I’d prefer to see it on my arm, but I’ve got skinny arms. I’ve got weights to try and make them bigger, but we’ll see,” he said. Asked if he was nervous about getting the tattoo done, he replied: “I’m a big strong lad – and I’ve have plenty of needles in me in my time, in various places.” The silver surfer’s daughter Jayne, who says Guinness World Records have confirmed it would be a new record, explained he is very much young at heart and an avid internet user who is active on Facebook. She told the Ilkeston Advertiser: “Dad wanted to do something to raise money for charity again and I suggested he have a tattoo which he agreed to. We all think it’s great. Asked what the secret to living a long life is, Mr Reynolds said it was a shot of whisky in the morning and another before going to bed. “Work hard, always smile, get plenty of fresh air and last but not least have a tot of Grouse whisky in your tea in the morning and a tot before bed,” he explained.

On This Day

• 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.
• 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
• 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.
• 1916 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
• 1974 – An unsuccessful attempt is made by a lone perpetrator to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
• 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq.

Deaths

• 1413 – Henry IV of England (b. 1367)
• 1726 – Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (b. 1642)
• 2013 – James Herbert, English author (b. 1943)

Last Week’s Birthdays

William H. Macy (66), Quincy Jones (83), Billy Crystal (68), Michael Caine (83), Judd Hirsch (81), Eva Longoria (41), Will.I.Am (41), Eric Estrada (67), Judah Friedlander (47), Patrick Duffy (67), Kurt Russell (65), Gary Sinise (61), Rob Lowe (52), Queen Latifah (46), Ursula Andress (80), Glenn Close (69) and Bruce Willis (61).

The Australian Woman Who Skinned and Cooked Her Partner 

The story of an Australian former abattoir worker who decapitated and skinned her de facto husband before trying to serve his flesh to his children is set to be told in a new film. Katherine Knight lived a seemingly ordinary life until the day she stabbed John Price 37 times and mutilated him in their home in Aberdeen, in New South Wales’s Hunter Valley, 16 years ago.

The Australian screenwriters Dane Millerd and Ross Murray have been enlisted to find a global audience for the tale of the 60-year-old, who was jailed for life for the killing. Millerd spent almost a decade trying to get the rights to the book, Blood Stains, by journalist Peter Lalor, which details the horrifying crime, and succeeded last year.

Price’s headless body was found by police in the home the couple shared on 1st  March 2000, a day after he was murdered. His skin was hanging from a butcher’s hook in the lounge room, his head was cooking in a stew on the stove, and slices of his buttocks had been cooked and served alongside vegetables and gravy in a meal intended for his adult children. Bloodstains showed Price had tried to escape the house, and had even been briefly successful, but was dragged back inside by Knight, who had a borderline personality disorder.

When Knight was sentenced in 2001, the supreme court justice, Barry O’Keefe, said: “The last minutes of his life must have been a time of abject terror for him, as they were a time of utter enjoyment for her.” Knight, the first Australian woman to receive a life-without-parole sentence, lost an appeal against the sentence in 2006.

The Last Word

I’m bored with it all. – Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965

Next week peeps!

20th March 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 6th March 2016

What’s all this? Points you say?? Indeed, there are points to be awarded with the sad demise of some cricket player we’ve never heard of at a youngish age. Laura, Paul, Liz and Wombat all score 97, however Lee scores 197 as he had him down as his Cert. Well done all, you’ve certainly shaken up the league table.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Antony Gibbs, 90, British film editor (Tom Jones, Fiddler on the Roof, Dune).
• George Kennedy, 91, American actor (Cool Hand Luke, The Naked Gun, Airport), Oscar winner (1968), heart disease.
• Alice Arlen, 75, American screenwriter (Silkwood, The Weight of Water).
• Gil Hill, 84, American police officer, actor (Beverly Hills Cop) and politician (Detroit City Council), pneumonia.
• Lee Reherman, 49, American actor (American Gladiators, Star Trek Into Darkness, Last Action Hero).
• Louise Rennison, 64, British author (Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging).
• Jim Kimsey, 76, American technology executive, co-founder and CEO of AOL, melanoma.
• Tony Warren, 79, English television screenwriter and producer (Coronation Street).
• Martin Crowe, 53, New Zealand cricketer (national team), lymphoma.
• Tony Dyson, 68, British film prop designer (R2-D2).
• Sarah Tait, 33, Australian rower, world champion (2005), Olympic silver medalist (2012), cervical cancer.
• Pat Conroy, 70, American author (The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), pancreatic cancer.
• Joey Feek, 40, American country singer (Joey + Rory), cervical cancer.

In Other News 

Paul Daniels has left hospital to spend his “final days” at home after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, his son has revealed. The entertainer is sticking to his belief that when “it’s your time it’s your time” as he spends his last days at home surrounded by his family, Martin Daniels told the Sunday Mirror. The 77-year-old fell at home and was taken to hospital suspected of suffering a stroke, although he was later diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, his son said. “There’s no treatment which can help him. Doctors haven’t said how many weeks or months he might have – and we haven’t asked. “He knows things are not in his hands now and we are living in the knowledge every day is a bonus. It is unbearably difficult. He has said before when ‘it’s your time it’s your time’ and that’s how he is trying to face up to things.” Daniels, who is said to be “lucid”, was at his Thames-side home surrounded by his family, said his son, adding that the support of his fans had given them “tremendous strength at what is a very difficult time”.

For those of you vaguely interested in that game called soccer, the Fourth official Kevin Friend collapsed and hit his head on a dugout during Tuesday’s Premier League game between Bournemouth and Southampton. Friend, who cut his face, was treated in the tunnel before being taken to hospital, where he stayed overnight. The incident happened as the first half came to an end at the Vitality Stadium. The start of the second half was delayed by five minutes as Friend was replaced by Dean Treleaven, a qualified referee who was watching the match. “I was on the bench and he came to us and he fell against the dugout, with his nose, and then fell to the ground,” said Saints boss Ronald Koeman. “For maybe five seconds, he was out of everything.” Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, whose side won 2-0, added: “I saw him collapse. I saw him very dazed and shaken.” Didn’t ask if he was ok though…

Pauline Cafferkey, the Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone in 2014, has been discharged from hospital after she was cleared of any complication related to the virus. She was admitted to the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead, north London, last week for the third time after developing a complication related to her previous infection. With relief and delight among her care team, I bet they didn’t want to catch her germs, she was discharged on Sunday and was expected to be on her way back home to Scotland, much to the horror of all kilt-wearing Brits! In a statement the hospital said that the public should not in any way be concerned about the spread of the virus because of the late complication. “We can confirm that Pauline is not infectious. The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic,” the hospital said. “So don’t get anywhere near Ebola Pauline, and don’t fuck her for fuck sake!” Cafferkey contracted Ebola while working for the Save the Children emergency treatment centre outside Freetown in Sierra Leone in December 2014. Since then she’s been a pain in the arse for the NHS and all who have to pay for her treatment.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has married actress-model Jerry Hall in London. This is Mr Murdoch’s fourth marriage and the first for Miss Hall, 59, after her 1992 Bali wedding to Sir Mick Jagger was later deemed legally void. Australian-born Mr Murdoch, 84, who now has US nationality, tweeted he was “the luckiest and happiest man in world”. The rest of the world laughed and saw the marriage for what it is, Hall looking to make a few billion quickly. The pair held a private ceremony of celebration on Saturday at London’s St Bride’s Church, in Fleet Street, which proclaims itself as the “spiritual home of the media”, or as we know it, “The Bed of Political Lies!” Mr Murdoch, whose family control 120 newspapers in five countries, split up with his third wife Wendi Deng in 2013 and is reportedly worth £7.7bn, making him the 77th richest person on the planet. Jerry Hall on the other hand has scraped a fortune of £7 million with her failed modelling career and association with Mick Jagger. Let’s see how long Murdoch lasts before he sips that poisoned tea!

On This Day

• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
• 1836 – Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo – After a thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured.
• 1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
• 1899 – Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
• 1912 – Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
• 1964 – Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gives boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.
• 1987 – The British ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds killing 193.

Deaths

• 1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist and poet (b. 1832)
• 1941 – Gutzon Borglum, Danish-American sculptor, designed Mount Rushmore (b. 1867)
• 1961 – George Formby, English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian (b. 1904)
• 1982 – Ayn Rand, Russian-American philosopher, author, and playwright (b. 1905)
• 2000 – John Colicos, Canadian actor (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

John Turturro (59),  Roger Daltrey (62), Ron Howard (62), Justin Bieber (22), Javier Bardem (47), Harry Belafonte (89), Daniel Craig (48), Bryce Dallas Howard (35), Jon Bon Jovi (54), Chris Martin (39), Miranda Richardson (58), Julie Bowen (46), Patsy Kensit (48) and Penn Jillette (61).

The Last Word

Go away. I’m all right. – H. G. Wells, novelist, d. 1946

Next week peeps!

6th March 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 28th February 2016

Not much to report this week, no points awarded due to a lack of notable deaths. However, plenty to read and comment upon if you wish.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Douglas Slocombe, 103, British cinematographer (Indiana Jones, The Lion in Winter, Jesus Christ Superstar), complications from a fall.
• Johnny Murphy, 72, Irish musician and actor (The Commitments, Into the West, Angela’s Ashes), respiratory failure.
• Ramón Castro Ruz, 91, Cuban farmer and quartermaster (Cuban Revolution).
• Tony Burton, 78, American actor (Rocky, Assault on Precinct 13, The Shining), pneumonia.
• Frank Kelly, 77, Irish actor (Father Ted, Emmerdale).

In Other News

The artist Yoko Ono, the widow of the late former Beatle, John Lennon, has been admitted to a New York-area hospital after complaining of severe flu-like symptoms, her West Coast-based spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said on Friday. But Mintz denied US media reports that Ono, 83, had suffered a possible stroke or heart attack. He said he understood she would be released from the hospital on Saturday. Ono, 83, was married to former Beatle John Lennon until he was murdered in 1980 outside New York’s Dakota Building, where she still lives. An ambulance was called to the building at 21:00 on Friday, a Fire Department spokesman said. Her son Sean Ono Lennon also tweeted that his mother was doing well. Ono, also an experimental musician and film-maker, was once described by Lennon as “the world’s most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name but nobody knows what she does.”

Golfer Jason Bohn is in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a mild heart attack during the second round of the Honda Classic in Florida. The 42-year-old American, a  two-times PGA Tour winner who is ranked 71 in the world, called for a doctor when he experienced chest pains after putting out on the 18th hole at PGA National. A report on pgatour.com said: “He was taken by ambulance to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, where tests revealed a mild heart attack. Bohn was in stable condition and will remain hospitalised overnight before undergoing more tests on Saturday. His wife was home in Atlanta but his in-laws joined him at the hospital, as did fellow player George McNeill, who said Bohn was “in good spirits”. Who knew that golf was so demanding!!

Benidorm institution Sticky Vicky has announced she is retiring after 35 years entertaining British tourists with her risqué magic show. The 72-year-old who has appeared in the hit ITV show named after the resort, was intending to return to the stage after a hip operation but decided to call it a day after being diagnosed with cancer. Grandmother Vicky, who used to perform a series of X-rated tricks in front of stupefied holidaymakers with ping-pong balls, razor blades and beer bottles, announced her decision on Facebook. ‘Just to let everyone know that the Legend Sticky Vicky Leyton and her real daughter Demaria Leyton have both retired from sexy magic shows. ‘Vicky at the age of nearly 73 has retired to spend more time with her family and her daughter has other projects that have nothing to do with sexy magic shows.’ She was once described by a guide to Benidorm as such a ‘must-see’ that leaving without experiencing her show would be like buying fish without chips or turning on the TV to see Ant without Dec.

Pauline Cafferkey, the do-gooder British nurse who contracted Ebola in west Africa, is being transferred to the specialist unit at the Royal Free hospital in London for the third time since her return. Cafferkey, 39, who is said to be in a stable condition, had been admitted to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University hospital but on Tuesday afternoon an RAF aircraft landed at Glasgow airport to transport her to London at a vast cost to the NHS. A spokesman for the Royal Free said: “We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey is being transferred to the Royal Free hospital due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus. She will now be treated by the hospital’s infectious diseases team under nationally agreed guidelines. Cafferkey was infected while working with victims of the virus in Sierra Leone in December 2014. She spent almost a month in an isolation unit at the Royal Free, where she was treated with a survivor’s plasma and an experimental antiviral drug. She fell ill again in October last year and was readmitted to the same hospital with meningitis caused by the lingering virus. After coming close to dying, she was discharged in November and transferred to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University hospital to continue her recovery before returning home to be forever known as the new Typhoid Mary.

On This Day

• 1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
• 1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
• 1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature.
• 1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
• 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
• 1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group’s leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
• 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.

Deaths

• 468 – Pope Hilarius
• 2011 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tyne Daly (70), Kelsey Grammar (61), Williams Baldwin (53), Jennifer Love Hewitt (37), Ellen Page (29), Jonathan Demme (72), Kyle MacLachlan (57), Jeri Ryan (48), Thomas Jane (47), Drew Barrymore (41), James Blunt (42), Peter Fonda (76), Kelly MacDonald (40), Dakota Fanning (22), Edward James Olmos (69), Billy Zane (50), Tia Leoni (50), Carrot Top (51), Sean Astin (45), Fats Domino (88), Michael Bolton (63) and Adam Baldwin (54).

The ‘Ghost Weddings’ of China

Grave robbers in rural China are stealing women’s corpses to feed a new demand for “ghost weddings”, an ancient ritual whereby elderly bachelors are given a “bride” to be buried with when they die. Under a rural tradition that began nearly 3,000 years ago, families in rural China consider it bad luck for a single man to pass into the afterlife without a female companion at his side. One way to prevent his spirit becoming restless is to provide a female corpse for him to be buried with. While the ghoulish practice has long been outlawed under communism, it has now revived as newly-wealthy country dwellers pay up to £10,000 per “bride”.

The village of Dongbao in China’s northern Shanxi province, which has suffered 15 corpse thefts in the last three years alone. At least 15 others have vanished from other hamlets across the region. “Who knows where they took my mother?” said Li Fucai, 53, standing over a tomb where his father now rests alone. “She is now ill-gotten gains for thieves.”

Ancestor worship is deeply-rooted in China, and many people will burn fake money and other tributes to the dead at this year’s annual Tomb Sweeping Festival in April. For those who have been the victims of grave robbers, the yearly festival visit to the family tombs can be a difficult one.

“My grandmother must now be wandering other villages, experiencing a painful afterlife,” said 43-year-old Jiang Chaohui, who also had the remains of his great aunt and great-grandmother stolen.

‘Ghost Weddings’ are said to date back to the 17th Century BC in China, and the superstition has persisted despite more than half a century of effort by the Communist authorities to stamp it out. The ritual involves the extra body being reburied and placed along the deceased in their tomb, usually with gongs and drums being played as relatives look on. Brides are more commonly sought by families because of China’s gender imbalance towards males. A deceased single man is also seen as making a family tree incomplete in the traditional Chinese social order. Some families will give such a man a “wife” in a form of a silver statuette or a dough mould of a woman, using black beans for eyes. But a handful of communities in inland backwaters still believe that if they fail to provide a real corpse, the dead relative could return to haunt the family and bring misfortune.

The black market in selling human remains is believed to have grown in recent years as China’s economic boom has seen the rural wealthy pay large sums to meet the needs of their deceased loved ones. Last October, police in Shanxi detained three people suspected of stealing a corpse which they aimed to sell as a bride. In 2013, a gang of four men were jailed after they made £240,000 yuan from the sales of 10 corpses in Shanxi and neighbouring Shaanxi. Remains of younger women and those who have recently died are more expensive on the black market, but decomposed female skeletons can be reinforced with steel wires before they are clothed and buried, according to Chinese media. Matchmaking agents provide the ghoulish service of pairing dead bachelors with the bodies of women from consenting families – which appears to be more tolerated by authorities than the illegal corpse trade.

The Last Word

All is lost. Monks, monks, monks! – Henry VIII, King of England, d. 1547

Next week peeps!

28th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st February 2016

Welcome all to a points ridden edition of the Dead Pool. Good old Harper Lee has decided to finally kick the bucket, which means that Toby, who listed her as a Cert, gets 111 points! Millie, Ashley, Sarai and John C, each get 61 points!! Well done all of you!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Kenny Easterday, 42, American actor and “man with half a body” due to sacral agenesis.
• Nathan Barksdale, 54, American heroin dealer, dramatised in The Wire.
• George Gaynes, 98, Finnish-born American actor (Police Academy, Punky Brewster, Tootsie).
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, Egyptian politician and diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992–1996), complications from a fall.
• Brendan Healy, 59, English actor and musician, cancer.
• Harper Lee, 89, American author (To Kill a Mockingbird).
• Umberto Eco, 84, Italian philosopher and novelist (The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum).

 In Other News

Magician and entertainer Paul Daniels, 77, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, his family has said. A statement on his website says: “We can confirm that one of our greatest magicians and entertainers of all times, Paul Daniels, has sadly been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. “On behalf of Paul, Debbie and their families, we thank you for your kind concerns and support at this sad time and ask that their privacy continues to be respected. There will be no further comments at this time.” Daniels launched his career by performing at parties, youth clubs and to fellow servicemen during his national service. He later began performing at evening shows in clubs, where it is said that he first developed his long-running catchphrase, “You’ll like this … not a lot, but you’ll like it,” to deal with a heckler. The Paul Daniels Magic Show regularly attracted audiences of 15 million in the UK, and was sold to 43 countries. In addition to performing magic, Daniels also hosted popular quiz shows for the BBC including Every Second Counts, Odd One Out and Wipeout. He also narrated the children’s TV show Wizbit.

Denise Robertson, resident agony aunt of ITV’s This Morning, has been diagnosed with cancer. The 83-year old explained: “A persistent health issue has turned into something quite a lot bigger. I’ve been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” Robertson added that she is due to start chemotherapy soon. Ruth Langsford, one of the presenters of the mid-morning show, said the team were in a “state of shock”. “After almost 30 years of providing comfort to millions of viewers, agony aunt Denise Robertson is in need of a lot of love herself today,” Langsford said. Denise Robertson has been with the programme since it began in 1988. She said the diagnosis had “come as a surprise to me and my family” but added: “We know that many others have suffered and dealt with this condition and I don’t plan to give up without a fight.” She also thanked viewers of This Morning who had sent in messages of concern in recent weeks. She lost her first husband Alex Robertson to lung cancer in 1972, but kept his surname when she remarried. In 2006 her stepson, John, also died of cancer, at the age of 44.

Shane Warne has been bitten by an anaconda after plunging head first into a tank of snakes on the Australian reality television show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. The episode, which aired on Thursday night on Channel Ten, required Warne to dunk his head into boxes filled with African clawed frogs, scorpions, Madagascan hissing cockroaches and rats as part of the show’s “Tucker Trial”. He was then presented with a Perspex tank of snakes – reportedly his biggest fear. “Aw, no, come on,” the spin legend said. “A little warning, Shane,” the show’s host, Chris Brown, said. “You were just in with those rats for a long period of time. They may see you as being food.” Brown’s caution proved prophetic – Warne was struck on the head by the non-venomous anaconda. News Corp Australia reports that the bite was treated with antiseptic fluid and that a medic is monitoring Warne for signs of infection. “Shane has made no secret that snakes are one of his greatest fears so it’s amazing that after being bitten he bravely continued with the trial,” an executive producer of the show told News Corp Australia. “When Shane puts his mind to a task, he won’t let anything stop him.” Warne is believed to have been paid about A$3m to appear on the show.

Japanese police say an actor has died after getting stabbed in the stomach during a rehearsal with what is believed to be either a real or mock samurai sword. Daigo Kashino, a  33-year-old theatre group actor, was rehearsing with several people at a Tokyo studio on Monday when the incident occurred. He was rushed to a hospital, but died hours later. Media reports indicated nobody was watching exactly how it happened. Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that other members of the theatre group rehearsing with Kashino said they saw him hunched over as they turned around after hearing him groan. Tokyo police said on Tuesday they were investigating whether the death was criminal or accidental.

Michael Schumacher’s manager hopes that the seven-times Formula One world champion “will be here again one day”. It is more than two years since Schumacher, 47, sustained brain injuries in a freak accident while skiing in the French Alps, and updates on his condition have been infrequent. Earlier this month the former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said news regarding Schumacher’s condition “is not good”. However, speaking at the opening of an exhibition of Schumacher’s career in Marburg, Germany, his manager Sabine Kehm said: “Of course Michael is missing on days like today. Of course it is a great shame that he cannot be here, and no one should regret it more than him. “Unfortunately, however, we cannot change what has happened. We have to accept it – and patiently hope, supporting him with everything that we have, that he will be here again one day.” Kehm’s words will provide some hope to Schumacher’s fans that he may yet recover from the injuries he sustained in his skiing accident in December 2013.

On This Day

• 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
• 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
• 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera“, the Polaroid Land Camera.
• 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
• 1958 – The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
• 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
• 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Deaths

• 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
• 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and academic (b. 1868)
• 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925)
• 2002 – John Thaw, English actor and producer (b. 1942)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Meg Tilly (56), Jane Seymour (65), Matt Groening (62), LeVar Burton (59), Elizabeth Olsen (27), Ice-T (58), John McEnroe (57), Hal Holbrook (91), Rene Russo (62), Lou Diamond Phillips (54), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (35), Michael Jordan (53), Paris Hilton (35), Yoko Ono (83), Cybill Shepherd (66), John Travolta (62), Matt Dillon (52), Dr. Dre (51), Molly Ringwald (48), Smokey Robinson (76), Jeff Daniels (61), Seal (53), Benicio Del Toro (49), Sidney Poitier (89), Brenda Blethyn (70), Cindy Crawford (50), Rhianna (28), Ivana Trump (67), Mike Leigh (73) and Patty Hearst (62).

The Last Word

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis. – Humphrey Bogart, actor, died January 14th 1957

Next week peeps!

21st February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th February 2016

Welcome all to a special ‘Fuck Off to Valentines Day Special Edition’ of The Dead Pool, where there will be no further mention to said consumer holiday. Alas no points to award, in fact we’re very thin on the ground this week for deaths. However we have plenty of deathly news for you to read and plenty of gruesome facts.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dan Gerson, 49, American screenwriter (Monsters, Inc., Big Hero 6, Chicken Little), brain cancer.
• Margaret Forster, 77, English novelist (Georgy Girl) and biographer, cancer.
• Wayne England, English artist (Magic: The Gathering).
• Christopher Rush, 50, American illustrator (Magic: The Gathering).
• Antonin Scalia, 79, American judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (since 1986).

 In Other News

Barry Manilow is out of surgery and is “doing well” after being rushed to hospital “due to complications from emergency oral surgery”. The 72-year-old singer was taken to a Los Angeles hospital after playing a sold-out show on Wednesday evening. In a message posted on Manilow’s Facebook page, his management team said it was due to complications arising from an operation he had on Monday. “For the next 48 hours, Manilow has been instructed not to talk, sing, or rap,” an updated posting on the singer’s Facebook page said. Manilow is due to attend Monday night’s Grammy awards – it’s not yet known whether he will still be able to make it. He has suffered a series of health scares over his career – having to undergo regular dental treatment after a benign tumour ruptured in his mouth in 1986.

Richard Dawkins has had a stroke on the eve of his tour of Australia and New Zealand. Management for the 74-year-old author of The God Delusion said he had suffered a “minor  stroke” in the UK last Saturday but had already returned home from hospital. Management for the 74-year-old author of The God Delusion said he had suffered a “minor stroke” in the UK last Saturday but had already returned home from hospital. “On Saturday night Richard suffered a minor stroke, however he is expected in time to make a full or near full recovery,” the statement said. “He is already at home recuperating.

Ken Watanabe has revealed he is suffering from stomach cancer. The illness has forced the 56-year-old Japanese actor to delay his return to the Broadway musical The King and I in order to have treatment. The Oscar-nominated actor has had endoscopic surgery and is recuperating in a hospital in Japan, his agent said. Watanabe, who has previously battled leukaemia, was diagnosed “almost miraculously early” with stomach cancer last month and underwent surgery, he said. “I was really shocked, my wife and daughter pushed me to have a health check and the cancer was found. It was a very early stage and they operated immediately,” he added. The actor was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 1989 but resumed acting while still undergoing chemotherapy. He became ill again in the early 1990s and, following further treatment, has been in remission since.

Rapper DMX is recovering after being found unconscious in a hotel car park and resuscitated. A representative of the rapper whose real name is Earl Simmons said he had suffered an asthma attack, although one source told the media it was actually a drug overdose. Police in Yonkers, New York, were first alerted to the report of an unconscious man in a Ramada Inn parking lot on Monday night. Lt Patrick McCormack of the Yonkers Police Department told CNN that officers escorted Simmons to the nearby Saint Joseph’s Medical Center, administering chest compressions and oxygen in the ambulance.

Britain’s most successful gymnast is walking unaided after neck surgery following a fall during training for Channel 4 show The Jump. Beth Tweddle, who won bronze at the London Games in 2012, could only walk a few steps assisted by medics after the operation, which involved having a piece of bone taken from her hip. In a statement, she said: “The medical staff here in Austria have been fantastic and I couldn’t have wished for better people to be around me at this time. I’ve started to feel a lot better in the past 24 hours and I’ve begun walking by myself. It’s still a case of taking one day at a time.” Surgeons took a bone from her hip and used it with pins to fuse together two fractured vertebrae in her neck. The number of injuries on the third series of The Jump – five celebrities have been forced to pull out – has prompted Channel 4 to review safety procedures on the show.

Hugh Jackman has appealed to people to wear sunscreen and get regular skin checks by posting a picture of himself on social media after having a fifth skin cancer removed. The picture shows his nose covered in a dressing after the removal of a basal cell carcinoma, a common and usually non-invasive type of skin cancer. The 47-year-old Australian actor, who starred as the Wolverine in the X-Men film series, says he had his first skin cancer removed in 2013 after his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, suggested he should get a mole on his nose checked. Basal cell carcinomas are relatively common, accounting for about 70% of all non-melanoma skin cancers. They are not invasive, but can require treatment as some may develop into more aggressive skin cancers. About 95% are caused by UV exposure from sunlight.

The world’s longest-surviving heart transplant patient has died, 33 years after his life-saving operation. John McCafferty was told he had only five years to live when he received the transplant at Harefield Hospital in west London, on 20 October 1982. His widow Ann said: “The last 30 years we had together were brilliant. We’ve travelled the world.” Mr McCafferty, from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, died aged 73 on Tuesday at Milton Keynes Hospital. He was officially recognised as the world’s longest surviving heart transplant patient by Guinness World Records in 2013. At the time he said: “I want this world record to be an inspiration to anyone awaiting a heart transplant and to those who, like me, have been fortunate enough to have had one.”

And finally, we’re wondering if everything okay with the Queen? The only reason we ask is that the Arts Council have just sent out a document entitled “Advice And Guidance: Category ‘A’ Death” which lets organisations know how they should conduct their affairs in the event of the death of a senior member of the Royal Family. Although they do try to broaden the advice out for other “notable persons”, they return to the theme of Queeny carking it regularly. The most interesting part? We learned that while Charles, Camilla, Wills and Kate all classify as a ‘Category A’ member of the Royal Family, Harry doesn’t, perhaps further fanning the fires that he’s Hewitt’s son, not Charles’.

On This Day

• 1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
• 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
• 1849 – James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
• 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
• 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
• 1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone‘s gang, are murdered in Chicago.
• 1966 – Australian currency is decimalised.
• 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
• 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
• 2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.

Deaths

• 1400 – Richard II of England (b. 1367)
• 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
• 1779 – James Cook, English captain and explorer (b. 1728)
• 1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and eugenicist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
• 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English author and poet (b. 1881)
• 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
• 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)

Why Are So Many Unnatural Deaths Not Investigated? 

The UK’s most prolific murderer, Harold Shipman, would have been 70 this year had he not killed himself 16 years ago in Wakefield Prison. He managed to kill at least 250 women without alerting suspicion. The whistle was blown by a relative of one of the victims. So why wasn’t the case picked up by a coroner and how many more unnatural deaths are officially missed?

What do coroners do? A coroner is an an independent judicial officer, appointed and paid for by the relevant local authority. He or she is usually a solicitor or doctor of five years standing, although all new appointments now have to be legally qualified. Their job is to investigate deaths that are violent, unnatural or of unknown cause with a view to determine who the deceased was, when and where they died and, crucially, how they died. There are about 507,000 deaths every year in England and Wales, of which about 45% will be reported to coroners. And there are currently 96 separate local coroner areas, each with their own senior coroner.

The coroner has three main decisions to make when a death occurs. First, should they accept the death for investigation? The general principles are that if the death was violent, unnatural or of unknown cause, it should be investigated. However, local reporting rules mean that what’s considered violent or unnatural varies from one area to another.

Second, once investigated, the coroner must decide whether to open an inquest. An inquest is opened when the original reason for accepting the death for investigation – violent, unnatural, or unknown cause – still holds after initial enquiries. Data for the same period showed that deaths advancing to inquest ranged from 6% in some areas to 29% in others.

The third and final decision for the coroner is to determine the appropriate verdict for the death. There are six common verdicts (now known as  “conclusions”): natural causes, accidental death, suicide, industrial disease, open verdict, and the increasingly used “narrative” verdict where the circumstances of the death are recorded in a brief story.

You might think that coroner areas would have a fairly similar profile of verdicts but, in fact, these too vary widely. For example, narrative verdicts for the period 2000-2010 ranged from almost zero in some areas, such as Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales, to 46% of all verdicts returned in another (Birmingham and Solihull). And in South Shropshire, just 3% of inquest verdicts were recorded as natural deaths, while that verdict accounted for an incredible 52% of all inquest conclusions in Sunderland. Suicide rates ranged from 4% to 27%.

Does this matter? Widely varying outcomes across the country prove that not all coroner areas can be striking the appropriate balance between the needs of the state and the rights of the bereaved. This is how Harold Shipman was able to kill people without anybody batting an eyelid. Had he been practising in another area he would have been caught much sooner or perhaps not at all!!!

Last Week’s Birthdays

James Spader (56), Garth Brooks (54), Chris Rock (51), Ashton Kutcher (38), Nick Nolte (75), Mary Steenbergen (63), John Grisham (61), Seth Green (42), Joe Pesci (73), Mia Farrow (71), Greg Norman (61), Glenn Beck (52), Laura Dern (49), Elizabeth Banks (42), Chloe Grace Moretz (19), Robert Wagner (86), Burt Reynolds (80), Taylor Lautner (24), Damien Lewis (45), Jennifer Aniston (47), Sheryl Crow (54), Darren Aronofsky (47), Arsenio Hall (60), Josh Brolin (48), Christina Ricci (36), Mena Suvari (37), Peter Tork (74), Jerry Springer (72), Peter Gabriel (66), Charles Yeager (93) and Robbie Williams (42).

The Final Word

Actress Joan Crawford yelled at her housekeeper, who was praying as Crawford died. Crawford said, “Damn it! Don’t you dare ask God to help me!”

Next week peeps!

14th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th February 2016

Alas, no points to be awarded today, which is somewhat of a surprise after the glut of celebrity deaths we’ve been seeing lately. Either famous people are dying exponentially or you lot are getting clued up as to how to play this game!

A quick note about contributions towards the newsletter; I know you have all been enjoying Ceri’s excellent pieces of writing and you probably feel that you could manage a few paragraphs from time to time too. Don’t be shy, email in a short piece, if only to give the us a break from time to time as writing on the same subject on a weekly basis gets very difficult very quickly, as some of you might remember when you took over the Dead Pool when I took a vacation ;P

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Joe Alaskey, 63, American voice actor (Looney Tunes, Rugrats, Casper), cancer. 
• Benoît Violier, 44, French-Swiss chef, suicide by gunshot.
• Katie May, 34, American model (Playboy, Sports Illustrated) and online media personality (Snapchat), complications from a stroke.
• Kristine Miller, 90, American actress (I Walk Alone, Jungle Patrol, Too Late for Tears).
• Dave Mirra, 41, American BMX rider, suicide by gunshot.
• Edgar Mitchell, 85, American astronaut (Apollo 14).
• Axl Rotten, 44, American professional wrestler (ECW).
• Maurice White, 74, American songwriter and musician (Earth, Wind & Fire), complications from Parkinson’s disease.
• Raphael Schumacher, 27, Italian actor, hanged during performance.

In Other News 

The news on Michael Schumacher’s health is “not good”, according to Luca di Montezemolo, the former Ferrari president, in an unusual intervention which only added to the speculation and mystery surrounding the Formula One legend’s condition. What is known is that Schumacher is still receiving treatment in Switzerland after sustaining severe head injuries in a skiing accident in December 2013 in the Alpine resort of Meribel. The 47-year-old was put in an induced coma following the crash and has been recovering with a specialist medical team at home on the shores of Lake Geneva since September 2014. The seven-time world champion’s family have retained a dignified silence throughout, with updates few and far between. Sabine Kehm, the 47-year-old’s manager, declined to respond to Di Montezemolo’s comments when contacted by the media. “I have news and unfortunately it is not good,” Di Montezemolo told reporters on Thursday, refusing to elaborate in any way. “Life is strange. He was a fantastic driver and only had one accident with Ferrari in 1999 (Schumacher broke his leg in an accident during the British Grand Prix).” Very few people are known to have visited the former Ferrari and Mercedes driver, who won five straight championships from 2000 to 2004.

Talking about Schumacher’s, an Italian actor who was left in a coma after he accidentally hanged himself during a live theatre performance has been pronounced clinically dead. Raphael Schumacher, 27, was performing in a production of Mirages at the Teatro Lux in Pisa, Italy, when the incident occurred. He was taken to hospital on Saturday night and has been in a coma since. Doctors say his condition has worsened and that he was not responding to treatment. The BBC reports that following a six-hour procedure to establish brain death on Thursday, the hospital issued a statement: “The family and the prosecutor’s office have both authorised that his organs be donated, but their removal will be subject to a medical assessment to be performed in the course of the night.” Mirages is a six-scene immersive performance staged in different parts of the theatre, with audience members walking between them. At the time of the incident, Schumacher was reciting a monologue from Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening alone in a courtyard in front of just one spectator. The actor reportedly changed the ending of the scene by placing his head in a noose instead of using a gun. He was discovered unconscious by a second spectator, reportedly a medical student, who rushed to his aid. While it is assumed that the incident was accidental, an investigation has been launched into the theatre’s safety procedures. That investigation has shifted from grievous bodily harm to culpable homicide, or manslaughter, according to the BBC. Schumacher’s mother has rejected the theory that he may have tried to commit suicide. “My son recently lost his father and had ended a relationship but had found his serenity again,” she said. “He didn’t leave a suicide note and had no reason to kill himself.”

More than 40 years after Lord Lucan disappeared from a blood-soaked London crime scene, the high court has finally cleared the way for his only son to inherit the earldom. A presumption of death certificate was granted by Mrs Justice Asplin on Wednesday following a hearing that lasted less than an hour. George Bingham, 48, can now assume the family title as the eighth earl of Lucan. The hearing at the Rolls Building in central London had been scheduled to last three days but Neil Berriman, Rivett’s son, withdrew his objections to a death certificate being issued under the 2014 Presumption of Death Act. The judge made the declaration on the basis that she was satisfied Lucan had not been known to be alive for a period of at least seven years. The death certificate can be revoked if the peer, who would now be aged 81, reappears. The hearing was told that police had confirmed there were no live lines of inquiry into Rivett’s murder, although the case had not been closed.

Frank Bruno’s death wish of returning to the ring have been dashed after he was told his application for a licence would be declined. The 54-year-old former heavyweight boxing champion posted on Twitter that the British Boxing Board of Control had informed his agent that “should I apply for a licence this would not be granted”. His agent, Dave Davies, confirmed on Monday the board had been in touch, saying: “Frank, like many other former sports stars, misses the good times when he was in the boxing ring and watching his son train has reignited his wish to return to the ring. “However we have had confirmation today … that should an application for a boxing licence be received from Frank it would be declined. As agents for Frank we must respect and accept their decision.” Bruno, who has bipolar disorder, acknowledged he had “certainly set Twitter talking” after he announced on ITV’s This Morning that he was “coming back into boxing” to help him cope with the effects of his medication. Asked how drugs had affected him, he said: “They made me suicidal – mess up your head, mess up your clock – you can’t sleep. I’m walking around break-dancing I’ve got so much energy. Asked how drugs had affected him, he said: “They made me suicidal – mess up your head, mess up your clock – you can’t sleep. I’m walking around break-dancing I’ve got so much energy!”. Almost enough energy to die in the ring!

Gone With The Wind actress Olivia de Havilland, who –  at 99 – is the oldest living Oscar winner, is honoured by satirical magazine The Oldie. However she was unable to travel from her home in France to collect her Oldie of the Year award in person at Tuesday’s ceremony in London. But in a recorded message she said she was “utterly delighted” the judges deemed there was “sufficient snap in my celery” to win the accolade. The tongue-in cheek awards are given out annually by The Oldie, set up by former Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams to take an irreverent stand against ageism. De Havilland said: “It is deeply gratifying to thus find myself in the company of the Queen Mother, whose record I have long wanted to match as well as that of so many other distinguished recipients.” She shared her Oldie of the Year award with 101-year-old former barrister and member of the House of Lords, Jeremy Hutchinson.

A father of three choked to death as he tried to eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger in one mouthful, an inquest heard. Darren Bray, 29, blacked out when he attempted to fit the 99p burger into his mouth whole following a night out with friends. Cardiff Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Bray, of Barry, South Wales, had been drinking cans of beer, but not enough to affect his judgement, although eating a McDonald’s would be considered bad judgement in our book! He died from a food blockage to his airway and a coroner recorded a conclusion of death by misadventure. The hearing was told that Mr Bray had told friends to “watch this” as he picked up the burger, “rolled it into a ball” and put it in his mouth. However, Mr Bray went “blue” in front of two friends and started choking. Friend Sam Bisgrove told the inquest: “I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises. I tried to hit his back to help him clear his airway.” Paramedics arrived and performed CPR on Mr Bray, who was at a friend’s house in Barry, but were unable to restart his heart and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Dr Rhiannon Trefor told the hearing there was a 3in by 1.9in (8cm by 5cm) ball of food stuck at the back of his neck. The moral of the story, avoid McDonalds at all costs!

And finally, Antonio Docampo García, who died last week at the grand old age of 107, attributed his longevity to his drinking habits – four bottles of red wine a day, and no water. Mr Docampo liked to have two bottles of wine with lunch, and another two with dinner, his family told reporters. “He could drink a litre and a half all at once,” said his son Miguel Docampo López. “When we were both at home we could get through 200 litres of wine a month. He never drank water.” Mr Docampo, of Vigo in north west Spain, owned his own vineyard and was founder of the wine company Bodegas Docampo. (A cynic might suggest that tales of the wine’s life-giving properties could contain a teensy trace of marketing spiel.) Mr Docampo’s nephew Jerónimo Docampo, who now runs the vineyard, told La Voz de Galicia: “He sold the majority of the wine he produced, but still kept a decent amount back for himself.” “If he produced 60,000 litres a year he would keep 3,000 litres for himself. He always said that was his secret to living so long.”

On This Day

• 1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.
• 1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.
• 1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
• 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
• 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
• 1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

Deaths

• 1871 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (b. 1797)
• 1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (b. 1868)
• 1979 – Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (b. 1911)

Why Do OAP’s Die Every Seven Minutes During the Winter?

Over the last four winters, according to the latest official figures, nearly 120,000 people in England and Wales have died of cold weather, or factors associated with cold weather such as a virulent strain of influenza. But campaigners argue that these excess winter deaths, defined as the difference between the number of deaths that occur each winter (from December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the subsequent four months (April to July), have more to do with poverty than freezing temperatures.

And excess winter deaths seem to be increasing: despite last year’s mild winter, an estimated 43,900 excess winter deaths occurred – a rise of 140% on the previous year and the worst statistics since 1999-2000.  Female deaths leapt nearly 150% in a single year, from 10,250 to 25,500 between 2013-14 and 2014-15. Poverty rates for women remain higher than for men, which compounds health problems.

Weather seems to be a minor factor in explaining these deaths. Across Europe, England and Wales have some of the highest rates of excess mortality in winter months. All Nordic countries have far lower winter mortality rates, despite much harsher weather. Norway’s rate is a quarter that of England and Wales, while Finland reports no difference in mortality rates between the summer and winter months. In contrast, Spanish and Portuguese climates are milder than Britain’s, yet excess winter deaths are far higher.

“The UK has an appalling record on cold-related deaths, with one older person dying every seven minutes from the winter cold. Colder countries like Sweden are better at protecting older people from the cold,” says Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK. Abrahams argues the issue is not so much cold weather as increasing fuel poverty, where people cannot afford to heat their homes adequately.

“Cold homes are a bigger killer across the UK than road accidents, drug abuse or alcohol abuse,” says Maria Wardrobe, director of National Energy Action. She agrees that the key to tackling winter deaths is to make sure older people have a well-insulated, warm home and the income needed to pay the fuel bills. The NPC wants a fuel poverty inquiry, and more suitable homes built specifically for older people, extra money for insulation and winter fuel payments.”

Of course, fuel poverty isn’t the only reason for excess winter deaths. The main problem with these statistics is that the measure itself is simplistic. The myriad factors that exacerbate illness, vulnerability or susceptibility aren’t collated. Inequality levels, access to hospitals and social care, loneliness and poverty worsen physical and mental health, and increase people’s vulnerability to dying during the winter months.

So keep all this in mind when you’re hoping for a rich celebrity death during the Winter!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Carol Channing (95), Johnny Rotten (60), Minnie Driver (46), Justin Timberlake (35), Brent Spiner (67), Lisa Marie Presley (48), Michael C. Hall (45), Stephanie of Monaco (51), Graham Nash (74), Shakira (39), Morgan Fairchild (66), Rebel Wilson (36), Isla Fisher (40), Alice Cooper (68), Natalie Imbruglia (41), Charlotte Rampling (70), Christopher Guest (68), Bobby Brown (47), Cristiano Ronaldo (31), Michael Sheen (47), Zsa Zsa Gabor (99), Rip Torn (85) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (54).

The Final Word

Murderer James W. Rodgers was put in front of a firing squad in Utah and asked if he had a last request. He replied, “Bring me a bullet-proof vest.”

Next week peeps!

7th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st January 2016

We awoke this morning to hear on the radio that Terry Wogan has died. A great loss to the BBC and those who loved him, however two of us thought that his death would be worth listing, well done to Nick M and Ceri J, both get 73 points!! No only this, but Shân E stuck to her guns and kept Abe Vigoda on her list and managed to score 156 points as a Cert. So now we have a new points leader and if the celebrity deaths keep on coming as they are, I think we’ll all be scoring something pretty soon!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Henry Worsley, 55, British adventurer, multiple organ failure.
• Colin Vearncombe, aka Black, 53, British singer-songwriter (“Wonderful Life“), head injuries sustained in a traffic collision.
• Abe Vigoda, 94, American actor (The Godfather, Barney Miller, Late Night with Conan O’Brien).
• Paul Kantner, 74, American musician (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship) and songwriter (“Wooden Ships“), multiple organ failure.
• Gordon Goody, 86, British criminal (Great Train Robbery), heart attack.
• Cecil Parkinson, 84, British politician, cabinet minister, cancer.
• Frank Finlay, 89, British actor (Othello, The Pianist, The Three Musketeers).
• Sir Terry Wogan, 77, Anglo-Irish broadcaster (BBC), cancer.

In Other News

Israel’s former president Shimon Peres has been rushed to hospital after experiencing chest pains, 10 days after he had a small heart attack. A spokeswoman has said medics treated him at his home on Sunday night and detected a “light irregular heart rate”. She said the doctors decided he should spend the night in hospital for observation. Mr Peres, 92, underwent minor surgery last week for a constricted artery. Despite his age, Mr Peres has maintained an active public schedule, mostly through his non-governmental Peres Centre for Peace, which promotes closer ties between Israel and the Palestinians.

Lord Lucan’s body was fed to a tiger after he shot himself, a member of the missing peer’s gambling set has claimed, the latest twist in the decades-old mystery surrounding the fate of the aristocrat. The account comes days before a procedural hearing at the High Court to determine whether a death certificate should finally be issued for Lucan. The Eton-educated 7th Earl of Lucan vanished after Sandra Rivett, nanny to his three children, was found murdered at his family home in Belgravia on November 7, 1974. He is said to have mistaken her for his wife Veronica and bludgeoned her to death. Three days later, the peer’s blood-soaked car was found abandoned in Newhaven, East Sussex, and an inquest jury declared him to be Miss Rivett’s killer a year later. Now, more than four decades later, a member of the set of wealthy gamblers to which Lord ‘Lucky’ Lucan belonged has given a grisly account of what is said to have happened to the peer. In an interview, Philippe Marcq says he was told by Stephen Raphael, another regular at the Clermont Club in Mayfair, shortly after Lucan’s disappearance that the peer travelled to a private zoo in Kent owned by his close friend John Aspinall. According to 73-year-old Mr Marcq, Raphael claimed he was among a group of friends at Howletts zoo who discussed with Lucan about what he should do next. The peer was said to be concerned that he would never see his children again and his wife would get both them and the family trust. In order to  make sure his estranged wife didn’t get a penny from his trust, he was advised the only way to avoid this was for him to vanish without a trace. His friends allegedly told him that, without proof of death, probate could not be granted on his estate for at least seven years – by which time his children would be old enough to look after their own affairs. They allegedly dismissed the idea that he flee abroad, saying he was not cut out for a life on the run and he would be returned to the UK. Instead, Mr Marcq said a pistol was placed in front of Lucan, who picked it up, went into the next room, and shot himself. The body was then fed to a tiger named Zorra. Police reportedly investigated the tiger theory at the time after Aspinall’s mother, Lady Osborne (the grandmother of Chancellor George Osborne) told them: “The last I heard of him (Lucan), he was being fed to the tigers at my son’s zoo.” When police visited Howletts, Aspinall is said to have responded: “My tigers are only fed the choicest cuts – do you really think they’re going to eat stringy old Lucky?”

I don’t know how I missed this last week, but Nickie  pointed out that Mustafa Koç, 55, Turkish businessman (Koç Holding), died of a heart attack. There’s a whole family of very successful Koç’s if you care to take a look on their Wiki. What I like most is that this Turkish family have made their fortune from hard work and graft and have since shared their wealth with their country by donating towards a Koç Museum, a Koç School and a Koç University. Who knows, maybe we will see his kind arise again.

A grieving family and funeral congregation were left horrified when a pornographic video was accidentally played during the service. Hundreds of people gathered at Thornhill Crematorium in Cardiff to pay their respects to Simon Lewis, 33, and his baby boy, Simon Lewis Jnr, who were killed in a head-on collision. Mourners at Wednesday’s funeral described their shock after a crematorium blunder saw pornographic footage played by accident, instead of a tribute made in remembrance of Mr Lewis. Cardiff council, which runs the crematorium, has launched an urgent investigation. “It was absolutely disgusting, the priest turned around to play the video of Simon, but instead a hard-core pornography video was played on the big screen,” said a funeral-goer, who wished to remain anonymous. “Everyone was in shock, Simon’s father-in-law was furious, he shouted at the staff present and told them to turn it off. “It took them nearly four minutes to turn it off, people couldn’t believe what they were seeing. “To the priest’s credit he handled it extremely well. He apologised on behalf of Cardiff Council and said that in 30 years of doing the job, he had never seen such filth.” Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, who led the funeral service, said: “I remember looking up at the screen and seeing some type of video came on and a very loud noise. “I look at my congregations instead of the TV screen, but when I heard this noise and members of the congregation moving towards the screen, I realised something was wrong. “Members of the family were very distressed, and Simon’s father-in-law was desperately upset. “Thankfully an engineer came to fix it and turn it off. It seems to be some kind of electronic accident. A Cardiff council spokesman said: “We are carrying out an urgent investigation. There were four television screens used. “We are trying to establish whether the smart TV could have picked up a broadcast by accident from Bluetooth or a Wifi connection. The other TVs were not affected. “We are clear that it is not possible for any member of staff to play or download anything onto the computer to be shown on the screen.

On This Day

• 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.
• 1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
• 1865 – The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification.
• 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.
• 1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.
• 1990 – The first McDonald’s in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
• 2010 – Avatar becomes the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

Deaths

• 1606 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (b. 1570)
• 1956 – A. A. Milne, English author, poet, and playwright; wrote Winnie-the-Pooh (b. 1882)
• 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn, Polish-born American film producer; co-founded Goldwyn Pictures (b. 1882)

Ceri’s Grisly Corner

On our “how to die horribly list” this week is Necrotising Fasciitis, a rare Flesh Eating Bacterial Infection where the full thickness of whole areas of skin become infected, goes gross, black and dies in a short period of time and although the skin dies, the tissue beneath it is generally left untouched. The thing that marks it out as special is that it travels so fast, racing over your body like a flashover or backdraft or something leaving large areas of tissue beneath it either open to infection or dead.

NF can spread at the rate of 3cm per hour which, as I’m sure you can imagine is a right bugger when there’s only so much body to race around. Around 25% of people who get it die from it and many people lose loads of skin and require skin grafts, quite often large areas of tissue and or limbs need to be removed to try to stop this flesh eating menace’s spread.

Caused by relatively innocuous flora living on the surface of the skin, there’s no reliable way to avoid Necrotising Fasciitis other than practicing good hygiene and avoiding having a compromised immune system as most cases are in people who would be able to fight it off were their immune systems’ not taking a snooze or otherwise MIA. Very small scratches or wounds can start it off and then it’s holding a huge rave with only antibiotics or surgery as options for treatment and on top of all that lovely stuff it can also cause systemic shock and cause organ failure and ultimately death.

Many famous types have had their flesh metaphorically eaten by this infection such as Alan Coren (call my bluff), Jeff Hannerman (guitarist of Slayer) and there seems to be some confusion over whether Jim Henson (Muppets) died from it (or TSS). Either way it seems to me that it’s a safe bet for the monkeys of misfortune.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Aaron Neville (75), Neil Diamond (75), Nastassja Kinski (55), Kristen Schaal (38), Alecia Keys (35), Scott Glenn (75), Eddie Van Halen (61), Ellen DeGeneres (58), James Cromwell (76), Mimi Rogers (60), Bridget Fonda (52), Alan Cumming (51), Patton Oswalt (47), Alan Alda (80), Elijah Wood (35), Ariel Winter (18), Jessica Ennis-Hill (30), Tom Selleck (71), Heather Graham (46), Gene Hackman (86), Vanessa Redgrave (79), Phil Collins (65), Christian Bale (42) and Dick Chaney (75).

Next week peeps!

31st January 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th January 2016

Points galore this week!!! With the passing of the world’s oldest living man, Yasutaro Koide at the age of 112, Kaz scores 138 as she had him down as her Cert, and Paul C. and Dave J. both score 38. But not only this, Stu had Sheila Sim, so a further 57 points are awarded! Well done to all of you! This has now moved things along somewhat on the leader board and it’s barely mid-way through January!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dale Griffin, 67, British drummer (Mott the Hoople), Alzheimer’s disease.
• Glenn Frey, 67, American musician (Eagles), songwriter (“Take It Easy“, “Hotel California“, “Tequila Sunrise“) and actor (Wiseguy, Jerry Maguire), complications following intestinal surgery.
• Andrew Hatch, 117?, American supercentenarian, world’s unverified oldest person claimant.
• Yasutaro Koide, 112, Japanese supercentenarian, world’s oldest living man, heart failure and pneumonia.
• Sheila Sim, Lady Attenborough, 93, English actress (A Canterbury Tale, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, West of Zanzibar), dementia.
• Jimmy Bain, 68, Scottish bassist (Rainbow, Dio).
• Jennifer Guinness, 78, Irish socialite and kidnapping victim, cancer.

In Other News

British-born astronaut Piers Sellers says he is now living life at “20 times normal speed” after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Dr Sellers, originally from Crowborough in East Sussex, is the deputy director of Nasa’s science and exploration division. The 60-year-old was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in late October. “It did motivate me to concentrate my thoughts,” he told the BBC. “I’d been feeling rough for about six or nine months, getting progressively more ill. The outlook in terms of expected longevity was a bit of a shocker.” Speaking of his diagnosis and treatment, Dr Sellers said: “The prognosis right now is 12 to 18 months.” Dr Sellers had to become a US citizen to fulfil his dream of becoming an astronaut and has campaigned for the British government to develop its own space programme.

Jamie Foxx has been praised for putting his own life at risk by saving a man who was trapped in a burning truck. Brett Kyle’s pick-up went off the road and rolled over into a ditch close to Foxx’s California home. Foxx said the truck became engulfed in flames “within five seconds” after he got the driver out. “I don’t look at it as heroic”, he told reporters, “I just look at it like, you know, you just had to do something. And it all just worked out.’’ The Oscar-winning actor said he heard the crash from his house and called 911 before running to the scene. An off-duty paramedic who was driving by also stopped to help. They used his emergency room scissors to break the window and cut the man’s seatbelt and pull him out. “I told him as we were talking, as I’m getting him out, I said ‘you’ve got to help me get you out because I don’t want to have to leave you'”, Foxx said. The driver’s father Brad Kyle met Foxx to thank him for his actions. He said he had been shown surveillance footage of the crash site and said several cars had passed by the scene without helping. The 32-year-old driver has broken bones and a punctured lung, but he is expected to recover.

American Pie singer Don McLean was arrested on a misdemeanour domestic violence charge on Monday in Maine, a jail supervisor said. In a statement on his official website, McLean blamed “hard emotional times for my wife, my children and me”. “What is occurring is the very painful breakdown of an almost 30-year relationship…. There are no winners or losers but I am not a villain. I hope I will not be judged in this frantic media environment,” he said. The 70-year-old was arrested on 18 January after police were called to a property in Camden, Maine, at 02:00 local time. He was later released on bail. It is understood his wife was granted a temporary restraining order against the singer after she cited a pattern of abuse going back three decades. She claimed she feared for her life when she called police earlier this week, writing: “Don terrorised me for four hours, until the 911 call that I think might have saved my life.” McLean, “vigorously denies” his wife’s allegations. One thing is for sure, this clusterfuck ain’t over yet!

The Ryder Cup star Jamie Donaldson has suffered a potentially severe finger injury following a mishap with a chainsaw. The  Welshman, who claimed the decisive point when Europe  defeated the United States in September 2014, posted a graphic photo on Twitter of what seems to be a laceration to the little finger on his left hand. The 40-year-old wrote: “So folks in my time off decided to have a fight with a chainsaw and lost! Oops!! C u in Dubai.” It is not yet known whether Donaldson hacked off the finger completely, although the image shows he required multiple stitches. Further details remain unclear, but his post seems to indicate he will play at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, which gets under way on 4th February.

On This Day

• 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor.
• 1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento.
• 1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
• 1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
• 1984 – The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
• 1986 – Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometres (50,600 mi) of Uranus. Hehe 

Deaths

• 1965 – Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
• 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911)
• 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Betty White (94), James Earl Jones (85), Jim Carey (54), Kid Rock (45), Zooey Deschanel (36), Michelle Obama (52), Kevin Costner (61), Dolly Parton (70), Katey Segal (62), Bill Maher (60), Buzz Aldrin (86), Rainn Wilson (50), Geena Davis (60), Billy Ocean (66), Emma Bunton (40), Jack Nicklaus (76), Placido Domingo (75), Dj Jazzy Jeff (51), Linda Blair (57), Piper Laurie (84), John Hurt (76) and Rutger Hauer (72).

Why is Leslie Nielsen STILL dead?  BBC Blog by Anisa Subedar 

Is this a familiar experience? You wake up. Check the internet and there’s news of the passing of a much-loved celebrity. Then some time later after scrolling through screens of social media tributes you discover that person had actually died before… several times.

This week there have been waves of online sympathy over the passing of actor Leslie Nielsen prompting many to quote their favourite and most memorable lines from films such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun.

The only trouble is Nielsen actually died in November 2010 aged 84.

That didn’t stop thousands of online users sharing this BBC story without checking the date and so it appeared that Nielsen had just died.

As a result the article popped up in the “Most Read” section which resulted in even more people sharing it. And the snowball rolled on gathering weight. Many people shared their own personal tributes on Twitter and then felt foolish when they discovered the truth.

Leslie Nielsen isn’t the only celebrity who has experienced Multiple Death Syndrome, as we’re calling it. Artist and children’s TV presenter Tony Hart and Columbo actor Peter Falk have also been mourned more than once.

So why does this happen and why will it keep happening?

BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones says the intricacies of how stories spread on social media are complex and mysterious. “It’s no surprise that the deaths of Leslie Nielsen or Tony Hart are stories that people want to share. But they’re at an interesting level – not people whose death makes the traffic stop like David Bowie or Princess Diana, but big enough in people’s childhoods to mean something.”

So if a person’s celebrity is below a certain level some of their fans may have missed news of their original death. And if they randomly search to find out whatever happened to a star, they may discover a report of their hero’s death, but not notice the date stamp. And so another snowball starts rolling downhill. It’s chaos theory making its presence known via social media. An entirely innocent variation of the Butterfly Effect – very different from the malicious “RIP” trolling of celebrities who are still alive.

So what fuels the need to share the death of someone famous online in such a hurry without checking the facts? Rory thinks it’s obvious that there’s a natural urge to be first with breaking celebrity news. “Everyone now sees themselves as a celebrity reporter! I’m sure there’s an element of mischief involved – which sometimes descends into malice. Social media is now where you see all kinds of human behaviour reflected – from kindness to one-upmanship to sheer nastiness.”

So there you go, we’re all a bunch of nasties!

Next week peeps!

24th January 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th January 2016

Welcome poolers, to a sadness filled edition of The Dead Pool. The flying monkeys have indeed been busy, taking from us a host of people, but primarily David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both much loved for the work they did. However, the Reaper waits for no man, and we all missed a bunch of points there, in fact with all the deaths last week, everyone failed to score! Luckily we’re experiencing a huge cold snap, you know how old people hate the cold right?

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• David Bowie, 69, English singer-songwriter (“Space Oddity“, Ziggy Stardust, “Heroes“), record producer and actor (Labyrinth), liver cancer.
• William Del Monte, 109, American centenarian, last known survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
• David Margulies, 78, American actor (Ghostbusters, The Sopranos, Conversations with My Father).
• Robert Black, 68, Scottish serial killer and kidnapper.
• Brian Bedford, 80, British actor (Robin Hood, Nixon, Much Ado About Nothing), cancer.
• Conrad Phillips, 90, British television and film actor (The Adventures of William Tell).
• René Angélil, 73, Canadian entertainment manager (Celine Dion), throat cancer.
• Alan Rickman, 69, English actor (Harry Potter, Die Hard, Love Actually), pancreatic cancer.
• Robert Banks Stewart, 84, Scottish television writer (Doctor Who, Bergerac, Shoestring), cancer.
• Dan Haggerty, 74, American actor (The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams), spinal cancer.
• Molly Madden, 109, Irish woman, oldest citizen of Ireland (death announced on this date).

In Other News

In what we could only describe as wishful thinking, a radio presenter announced the death of David Cameron in a news report about the death of singer David Bowie. Fiona Winchester, a newsreader across Global Radio-owned stations Heart, Smooth, LBC and Capital, was reading the news for Heart FM on Monday morning when she made the gaffe. A tongue-tied Winchester said “David Cameron has died” before quickly correcting herself and replacing the prime minister’s name with Bowie, who has died of cancer aged 69. If only her story was true! So, now that Bowie is dead, please rush out to buy all of his albums, because you never appreciated him when he was alive as you’re a sheep following the masses.

We’d better keep an eye on Celine Dion, because days after her husband and manager died of cancer, a family spokesman said on Saturday that the Canadian singer lost a brother to cancer too! Daniel Dion was 59. He was the eighth of 14 Dion siblings, so she does have some to spare. Strangely, both men suffered from throat cancer. Mr Angelil’s funeral will be held on Friday at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal where the couple married. The following day a memorial service will be held for her late brother, with a formal funeral a few days after that, the family spokesman said.  I’m sure Celine’s heart will go on…

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres has undergone a “successful minor surgery” after suffering small heart attack, officials have said. Mr Peres, 92, was treated for a constricted artery that had caused chest pain, his spokesman Ayelet Frisch said. The veteran politician is said to be “conscious and in stable condition” in hospital in Tel Aviv. Mr Peres twice served as prime minister and was president from 2007 to 2014. His personal physician Raphi Walden said he was expected to stay in the Tel Hashomer hospital for “a few days”. Despite his age, Mr Peres has maintained an active public schedule, mostly through his non-governmental Peres Centre for Peace, which promotes closer ties between Israel and the Palestinians.

Bob Mortimer came so close to death he was given special permission to marry his long-term girlfriend just half an hour  before undergoing a triple heart bypass. The comedian, one half of double act Reeves and Mortimer, was told last autumn he needed surgery because his arteries were 95 percent blocked. He wed his partner of 22 years Lisa Matthews on the morning of the operation. Couples are usually required to give 28 days’ notice to their local register office before the ceremony, but special dispensation can be granted if the bride or groom is suffering from a terminal illness or has an operation for a serious illness scheduled. Mortimer, 56, said: “I found out on the Thursday that I needed surgery, so I made a will on the Friday. My consultant said I was incredibly ill, so the registrar in London gave me permission to get married on the Monday. So I got married at 9.30am on the Monday, and went to hospital at 10am to have my operation.” His comedy partner Vic Reeves did not have the opportunity to be his best man because the only guests at the ceremony were the couple’s two children, Harry and Tom. The news of his heart problems “came completely out of the blue” after visiting the doctor with a suspected chest infection, he said. He added: “I’ve just redone all my tests and they said if I was a builder or a scaffolder I would be absolutely fine to do the show. And we don’t do anything like heavy labour in it.” But Mortimer still has to monitor his health, with a device that gives a constant reading of his heart rate. If it goes above a certain limit, he would have to stop the show.

And finally, a British man received quite a shock when the courier service that was supposed to be delivering a Kindle to his address sent him a package containing a tumour tissue sample from America instead. The sample was supposed to be sent to the Royal Free Hospital in London, yet somehow ended up in Bristol at the home of James Potten, who had been expecting to receive the e-reader, which he had ordered online. FedEx had initially delivered the package to Mr Potten’s door while he was out, so he contacted the courier asking them to return once he got home. The driver then headed back to the house, bearing a package with the recipient’s name and address. However, when Mr Potten opened the parcel, he discovered a box marked “patient tumour – specimen enclosed.” After seeing this, the still Kindle-less environmental consultant got back in touch with FedEx, asking them to retrieve the package and deliver it to the correct address. Meanwhile, the Royal Free Hospital has confirmed that a package destined for one of its institutions had been erroneously delivered to an address in Bristol, and says it will now seek “answers from the delivery company as to how this mistake was made.” Apparently there is still no sign of the Kindle.

On This Day

• 1912 – Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
• 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
• 1949 – The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, airs for the first time.

Deaths

• 1874 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai conjoined twins (b. 1811)
• 1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, American general, lawyer, and politician, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)
• 1964 – T. H. White, English author (b. 1906)
• 2003 – Richard Crenna, American actor, singer, director, and producer (b. 1926)

Ceri’s Grisly Corner

Generally we think of rabies as something that happens somewhere else, mainly because it does, however the population of our lists are fairly elsewhere (other than incarcerated ones) in nature too or at least travel a lot.

Rabies, or bitey frothy mouth disease is caused by a virus passed between mammals when the infected creature bites, scratches or otherwise passes the virus into the uninfected one. It causes fever and tingling in the site of infection leading to inability to move body parts or jerky movement, excitement, confusion, fear of water and aggression. All lovely symptoms to have, I’m sure you’d agree!

Once you have been bit, scratched or even licked by something that might be infected you need to have the vaccine as soon as possible as other than a few recent cases treated with the ‘Milwaukee protocol’ (mainly involving an induced coma) its 100% fatal once it gets to the brain.

Rabies (from the Latin for madness) leads to inflammation of the brain where it causes behaviour changes and movement problems. Animals infected with Rabies will often change their normal routine such as being active during the day if nocturnal or the reverse, leading to an increased chance of encountering other animals and so being more likely to pass on the virus. Moral being don’t let a drooling lurchy animal into your house!

Rabies has been around since at least 2000 BCE and has always been a source of fear leading to owners of rabid dogs being heavily fined if their dog bit a person, I’m not sure if you’d be fined if your own dog bit you though. There were many culls of stray dogs and cats carried out during the 18^th century however as people like fluffy animals in general the culls were not fully enforced and so were not particularly helpful in reducing the spread; idiots! During the 19^th century the increased understanding of dogs and disease led to more helpful initiatives such as quarantine which is the main reason behind the UK being rabies free and is still used today.

Over the years many stories and fantasy creatures have evolved from our collective fear of rabies, especially the behaviour changes. Werewolves (people acting more like dogs with rabies presumably), Vampires (people biting people) and even Zombies (lurching body movements, biting and aggression while having their personality destroyed) are thought to have emerged from legends and myths surrounding rabies.

It’s a rather nasty condition and I probably wouldn’t wish it on anyone on my list really. Even the pretty nasty ones, however I guess the ones in prison are kind of quarantined anyway so if it were to happen at least it wouldn’t lead to a zombie plague!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Rod Stewart (71), Kate Moss (42), Jason Bateman (47), Faye Dunaway (75), Orlando Bloom (39), Kirsty Alley (65), Pat Benatar (63), Howard Stern (62), Mary J. Blige (45), George Forman (67), Liam Hemsworth (26), LL Cool J (48), Dave Grohl (47), Carl Weathers (68), Melanie Chisholm (42), Pixie Lott (25), Amanda Peet (44) and Evan Handler (55).

Next week peeps!

17th January 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th January 2016

Welcome all, to a slightly controversial start to the scoring this year. As you know, the first death of the year is a highly coveted prize that secures an extra 50 points, so when Laura messaged me that one of her choices had died, I was over the moon. However, one of the rules of the Dead Pool is that your choices must appear in the Wiki Death Pages. Laura knew from the outset that her choice, Oscar Ray Bolin, a Death Row inmate in Florida, was a dodgy listing. Strangely he has no Wiki page of his own, despite his murderous tendencies and several appeals against his execution. Perhaps someone will take it upon themselves to write one. Saying this, he did pop up briefly on the mobile version of the Wiki Deaths page, he has been subsequently removed for some reason, but we do have pictorial proof, hence my decision to award the points! In the past, the Wiki Death Page has been rather unreliable in its listings, highly notable people are missed whilst obscurities from the world of fly fishing are included. I believe the listings are changed by the demonic power of Jimmy Wales himself, so in future, if you have an obscure listing, the onus is on you to send proof that your dead star was listed on the page, be it the mobile or normal version.

Well done Laura, first death of the year and a relatively young un too. 147 points to start off the season!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Robert Stigwood, 81, Australian band manager (Bee Gees, Cream) and film producer (Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Evita).
• Sian Blake, 42–43, British actress (EastEnders), head and neck injuries.
• André Turcat, 94, French aviator, first man to fly the Concorde.
• Pat Harrington, Jr., 86, American actor (One Day at a Time, The Inspector, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels), complications from a fall and Alzheimer’s.
• Otis Clay, 73, American R&B and soul singer (“Tryin’ to Live My Life Without You“, “The Only Way Is Up“), heart attack.
• Ed Stewart, 74, British broadcasting personality (Top of the Pops, Crackerjack), stroke.

In Other News

Pop star Janet Jackson has used her own lyrics to deny rumours she has throat cancer. Concerns spread earlier this week, when US media reported “sources close to the singer” saying doctors had found a growth on her vocal cords. Jackson responded by quoting her song The Great Forever on social media: “Sources say but where ya gettin’ it? Don’t create the truth you like.” In a statement, she added: “The rumours are untrue. I do not have cancer.” The singer announced just before the new year she would postpone several 2016 dates on her Unbreakable world tour, telling fans she had been advised to have surgery. “I need you to know, I learned today, from my doctors that I must have surgery soon,” she wrote. “It breaks my heart to tell you that I am forced to postpone the Unbreakable tour until the spring.” Jackson didn’t elaborate on her condition at the time, saying: “There will be no further comment.” The cancer rumour originated on US gossip site Radaronline and was rapidly reported by media outlets. The unnamed source was quoted as saying Jackson’s family were “terrified” as they awaited test results. After denying the cancer rumour, the 49-year-old stated: “I’m recovering. My doctors have approved my concerts as scheduled in Europe, and as I promised, the postponed shows will be rescheduled. Thank you for your prayers and love.”

Bob Mortimer has been cleared by doctors to go on tour with comedy partner Vic Reeves after having a triple heart bypass operation. Vic and Bob cancelled the first leg of their 25th anniversary UK tour last October because he needed surgery. Mortimer wrote on Twitter on Monday: “Doctors just passed me fit to do second leg of tour next month.” The tour, 25 Years Of Reeves And Mortimer: The Poignant Moments, was due to have started in Glasgow on 8th November. At the time, Mortimer wrote: “So sorry to those who bought tickets that we had to cancel 1st leg of tour. Three consultants said I had to have the op immediately.”

USA Paralympic silver medallist Richard Browne has sustained broken ribs and concussion in a car accident. The 24-year-old spent two nights in hospital after his car was in collision with a lorry in Florida. “Richard is badly shaken up and in a lot of pain but he was very lucky,” his manager Ian Byers said in a statement. “Doctors have advised that he should rest for three weeks, which will impact on his winter training and may mean that we have to review his early-season race plans.”

Did you know that Tony Hart, presenter of TV shows including Vision On, Take Hart and Hart Beat, died in 2009. Half the people you know on Facebook don’t. The internet apparently has an extremely short memory when it comes to children’s television icons of the 70s and 80s. Piers Morgan was one of the useless cunts that failed to check his sources when he joined in with the latest round of lamentations over the death of Mr Hart, but why would he check his sources, he never bothered when he was running The Tabloids™. The six-year-old story became the most shared page on the Telegraph website on Sunday as huge numbers of readers posted the link to Twitter and Facebook. Well done you if you saw through it!

And finally, in a slightly overthought suicide, a man strangled and dismembered his wife, encased her head in concrete and then used the concrete block to help drown himself in an Austrian lake. Officials said the couple were a 72-year-old man and his 71-year-old wife from near Frankfurt in Germany, but did not identify them further. The corpse and a bag were recovered by police divers from the waters of Traunsee on Monday. A day earlier, two suitcases containing the woman’s remains were found floating close to the lake’s shore near the town of Gmunden. Postmortem examinations suggested that the woman was strangled between 25th December and 1st January and that the man drowned some time later. There was no indication of involvement by a third party. “We believe first and foremost that [the man’s death] was suicide,” state prosecutor Birgit Ahamer said.

On This Day

• 1810 – Napoleon Bonaparte divorces his first wife Joséphine.
• 1863 – The London Underground, the world’s oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.
• 1927 – Fritz Lang‘s futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.
• 1929 – The Adventures of Tintin, one of the most popular European comic books, is first published in Belgium.
• 1985 – Sir Clive Sinclair launches the Sinclair C5 personal electric vehicle, which became a notorious commercial failure and later a cult collector’s item.
• 2015 – A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involves beer that was deliberately contaminated with crocodile bile leaving at least 56 dead and nearly 200 hospitalised.

Deaths

• 1862 – Samuel Colt, American businessman; founded Colt’s Manufacturing Company (b. 1814)
• 1917 – Buffalo Bill, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846)
• 1971 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (b. 1883)

Last Week’s Birthdays 

Victoria Principal (66), Mel Gibson (60), Michael Stipe (56), Julia Ormond (51), Robert Duvall (85), Diane Keaton (70), Marilyn Manson (47), Bradley Cooper (41), Rowan Atkinson (61), Jeremy Renner (45), Nicholas Cage (52), Kenny Loggins (68), Lewis Hamilton (31), Shirley Bassey (79), Joely Richardson (51), Jimmy Page (72) and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (34).

Ceri’s Grisly Corner

Hello Deadpoolers, I’m attempting to do my bit for our weekly death page by bringing you a weekly peek at the horrible, disgusting and terrifying diseases and conditions that will hopefully prove the downfall of those on your list.

This week we’re looking at a fairly recent threat to our genitals, that is, super gonorrhoea.  Super gonorrhoea (or as I prefer to call it ‘mutant clap’) has been in the news recently, as it emerged amongst some amorous feckers who aren’t sensible enough to wear a raincoat when making the beast with 2 backs.

The clap has been around since at least the 1600’s. It causes yellow or green discharge from yer bits, tummy ache and burny pee.  Obviously it’s a complete bugger to have running riot in your nethers and early treatments included various metals including mercury and weirdly an Indonesian pepper! Ultimately it became less serious and more treatable once penicillin was introduced.  While it isn’t strictly fatal by itself, the associated complications really can be, if not treated in time.

Right, back to the super in super gonorrhoea. In 2015, 16 cases of antibiotic resistant clap were reported in Northern England. This was probably helped by people not sticking to their treatment regimes.  The UK chief medical officer said that ‘gonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease’ and has ‘rapidly acquired resistance’ to the drugs we are using and as there are few alternative options for treatment we may soon be screwed.  Complications can range from sterility to sores on your nads (which if infected can kill).

I don’t know about you guys, but I know I don’t fancy getting gross, green genitals. I think I’ve just killed my libido. Shame that wasn’t on my list, eh?’

Next week peeps!

10th January 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd January 2016

Welcome all to the brand new 2016 Dead Pool!! Please welcome all the new players and nod your head towards the old guard. We have now fully migrated to the new domain www.TheDeadPool.rip, so please update your bookmarks. Also the email has changed to mail@TheDeadPool.rip. After some teething trouble earlier this week, everything is now fully operational, pretty much like The Death Star!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

2015

• John Bradbury, 62, English drummer (The Specials). 
• Meadowlark Lemon, 83, American Hall of Fame basketball player (Harlem Globetrotters).
• Lemmy, 70, English rock musician (Motörhead, Hawkwind), cancer.
• Ian Murdock, 42, American software engineer, founder of the Debian Project. 
• Pavel Srníček, 47, Czech footballer (Newcastle United, national team), complications from heart attack
• Natalie Cole, 65, American Grammy-winning singer (“This Will Be“, “Sophisticated Lady“, Unforgettable… with Love) and actress, heart failure.
• Steve Gohouri, 34, Ivorian footballer (Wigan Athletic, national team).
• Wayne Rogers, 82, American actor (M*A*S*H, Cool Hand Luke, House Calls), complications from pneumonia.

2016

• Nimr al-Nimr, 56, Saudi Shia religious leader, executed
• Faris Ahmed Jamaan al-Showeel al-Zahrani, 38, Saudi al-Qaeda member, executed

In Other News

Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne is said to be feeling better  after suffering a heart attack earlier this week and has thanked members of the public for their support. The 81-year-old was taken to hospital on Tuesday. He is best known for presenting The Late Late Show on Irish television between 1962 and 1999. Since then, he has continued to work for the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, working on television and radio shows. “I’m feeling better and on the road to recovery. Thanks to all for the well wishes,” he said. High-profile RTÉ colleagues have expressed relief at news of the improvement in his condition, and the station said “all his friends and colleagues across RTÉ are thinking of him and wish him all the best with his recovery”. Despite cutting back on his workload in recent times, Byrne continues to host a weekly show on RTÉ Lyric FM as well as the ‘Meaning of Life’ television series on RTÉ One. The family have requested privacy following the incident.

Nigel Farage has said police suspected sabotage after a wheel on his Volvo fell off while he was driving on a motorway. The Ukip leader claimed nuts on all of the wheels of his V70 were found to be loose after the “frightening” crash on a road near Dunkirk in France. He described how he was forced to stop after losing control on the motorway, fleeing the car and darting over a barrier to avoid oncoming traffic. “It was in the middle of bloody nowhere, and I was caught in a very bad position. There was a huge section of roadworks with cars going back and forth on the same side of the carriageway. “I suddenly realised I was losing steering but there was no hard shoulder to pull on to. I slowed down, put the hazards on and then one of the wheels came off. I jumped over the wall as quickly as I bloody well could to get away from lorries and everything.” When police arrived, they reportedly told him the cause was a malicious act but he decided not to take action. He has received death threats in the past but, when asked who he thought might be responsible, said: “I haven’t got a clue. Quite frankly, the way my life’s been over the past two and a half years, nothing surprises me.”

The favourite dog of Thailand’s ailing monarch has died. The dog, called Tongdaeng (Copper), became both a household name and a publishing sensation in Thailand after King Bhumibol Adulyadej adopted her as a stray puppy and penned a heartfelt book about her attributes in 2002. She was praised for her loyalty and obedience, with the book widely interpreted at the time as a parable about how Thais should live and remember their place within the kingdom’s rigid society. Her death was announced in a statement from the veterinary faculty of Kasetsart University late Monday. “While Khun Tongdaeng was sleeping and relaxing, she died peacefully on 26th December 2015 at 11:10pm at Klai Kangwon Palace,” the statement read. The statement added that she had been ill for the last few years and was just over 17 years old when she passed away. An unnamed official at the university confirmed that the statement was genuine. She regularly featured in palace photographs while the book about her outsold bestsellers such as Harry Potter in Thailand.

A clip shared by boxing legend Mike Tyson on Twitter shows the moment he tried out his daughter Milan’s ‘hoverboard’. At first, he manages to ride and spin the self-balancing scooter, however, he soon appears to lose control and ends up crashing to the floor. His daughter may have seen it coming, as she is heard saying: “Daddy, I don’t want you to fall.” Tyson, 49, posted the video on Twitter and said: “Seemed like a good idea to ride my daughter #milantyson #cyboard #hoverboard but guess not…” His fall, which sounded like a pound of wet flesh splatting on a hard concrete floor, proved popular on social media with thousands of shares.

A man died on Christmas Day in Germany after he was hit in the head by a flying piece of metal from a condom machine that he and two accomplices blew up in an apparent robbery attempt, police said on Monday. The 29-year-old man was taken to hospital in the western town of Schöppingen, near the Dutch border, by the two other men who fled the scene of the explosion in a car, leaving behind condoms and money scattered around the gutted vending machine. The two men told hospital officials that their friend had fallen down the stairs, injuring his head. Suspicious of their story, the officials called the police. During questioning, police said, one of them admitted that the three had blown up the condom machine, and that their fellow conspirator was hit in the head by metal as he tried to take cover. They should have taken precautions…

On This Day

• 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
• 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
• 1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
• 2009 – The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, was established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Deaths

• 1795 – Josiah Wedgwood, English potter, founded the Wedgwood Company (b. 1730)
• 1903 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (b. 1837)
• 1967 – Jack Ruby, American murderer (b. 1911)
• 1979 – Conrad Hilton, American businessman, founded the Hilton Hotels & Resorts (b. 1887)
• 2014 – Phil Everly, American singer and guitarist (The Everly Brothers) (b. 1939)

Last Week’s Birthdays

John Amos (76), Gerard Depardieu (67), Masi Oka (41), Stan Lee (93), Maggie Smith (81), Denzel Washington (61), Sienna Miller (34), Noomi Rapace (36), Marianne Faithfull (68), Ted Dansen (68), Jude Law (43), Danny McBride (39), Fred Ward (73), Patti Smith (69), Tracey Ullman (56), Jay Kay (46), Eliza Dushku (35), Ellie Goulding (29), Heidi Fleiss (50), LeBron James (31), Anthony Hopkins (78), Ben Kingsley (72), Val Kilmer (56), Verne Troyer (47), Tia Carrera (49), Cuba Gooding Jr. (48) and Kate Bosworth (33).

Next week peeps!

3rd January 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

2015 Faces We Will Miss

1st January 2016 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 27th December 2015

How’s this for commitment eh? A not-so-special post-Boxing Day edition of the Dead Pool. Yup, I spent half my Crimbo writing up this piece of tat just to keep you happy. Don’t worry though, I had plenty of time spare as they overlooked my space at the dining table and I had next to no presents to open, so here we are. I hope you all got to see The Queen looking as doddery as her husband at 3pm, surely 2016 is the year for both of them, but there’s only one way to find out, list them and send your deadly thirteen to me!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Patricia Elliott, 77, American actress (A Little Night Music, One Life to Live), Tony Award winner (1973), leiomyosarcoma.
• Carol Burns, 68, Australian actress (Prisoner), cancer.
• Brooke McCarter, 52, American model and actor (The Lost Boys, Thrashin’), alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency.
• Don Howe, 80, English football player (West Bromwich Albion, Arsenal, national team) and coach.

In Other News

Singer Janet Jackson has put her Unbreakable world tour on hold until spring to have surgery. Jackson said her doctors told her she needs an operation “soon”. “Please pray for me, my family and our entire company during this difficult time,” the 49-year-old asked fans. She said she would not be giving any details of her health condition. In 2008, Jackson cancelled a string of concert dates after developing migraine-associated vertigo, which might suggest that she’s got a brain bubble. “It breaks my heart to tell you that I am forced to postpone the Unbreakable Tour,” she said, adding that fans should hold on to their tickets. “They will be honoured in a special way when the new schedule is announced.” Would that be your funeral Janet?

Former Newcastle goalkeeper Pavel Srnicek is in a critical  condition in hospital after suffering cardiac arrest in the Czech Republic. According to information received by his agent Steve Wraith, the 47-year-old collapsed while out jogging in Ostrava on Sunday, which doesn’t surprise anyone. “I spoke to his family in the Czech Republic who said his heart had stopped,” Wraith told BBC Sport. “He is in a critical condition in hospital and remains unconscious.” Srnicek became a fans’ favourite during his first spell with the Magpies between 1991 and 1998. He was signed by manager Jim Smith and played under Ossie Ardiles, Kevin Keegan and latterly Kenny Dalglish, all of which are amazing names for your list!

The downhill skiing champion Marcel Hirscher escaped unharmed after a drone carrying a camera fell from the sky and narrowly missed him on his way down the slope during a race in Italy. The Austrian, who has won the overall World Cup title for the past four seasons, was on his second run of the slalom event at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy when the machinery smashed into the snow metres behind him. Hirscher appeared not to notice and continued his run, but afterwards he said: “This is horrible. This can never happen again. This can be a serious injury.” But we’re all hoping that it will!

And finally, a Montana man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to shoot a student for divulging a plot line from the newly released Star Wars epic. Police say Arthur Roy, of Helena, got “angry” with a student he had befriended on Facebook after the boy gave up a subplot to Star Wars: The Force Awakens during an online conversation last week. During the online fight that ensued, Roy is alleged to have posted a photo of himself in which he appears to brandish a gun, which he indicates is a Colt 1911 with a “hair trigger”, according to a probable cause affidavit. The affidavit also says the boy was fearful Roy was going to come to “shoot him”. Roy also said he was “coming to find” the boy, whose school was placed on security “lockdown” after officials saw the exchange. Roy was arrested on Friday on suspicion of assault with a weapon, a felony. He made an initial appearance in Lewis and Clark county justice court on Monday, after which he was ordered held on $10,000 (£6,750) bail. Such a waste of resources, I could have easily told you that Chewy dies and Yoda’s babies have infiltrated the Imperial HQ as green larvae that need seeding by Luke’s special sauce, Oh, jesus turns up with a light sabre too!! Seriously, the film is that shit!

Oh… Michael Schumacher is still alive, just about. Whatever you have heard is false.

On This Day

• 1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington‘s funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
• 1846 – Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.
• 1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans died.
• 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
• 1982 – Time‘s Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
• 2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000.

Deaths

• 1972 – Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884)
• 1977 – Howard Hawks, American director and screenwriter (b. 1896)
• 2001 – Nigel Hawthorne, English actor and producer (b. 1929)
• 2005 – Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)
• 2006 – Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (b. 1913)
• 2012 – Gerry Anderson, English director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1929)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jane Fonda (78), Kit Harington (29), Samuel L. Jackson (67), Kiefer Sutherland (49), Jonah Hill (32), Sissy Spacek (66), Ricky Martin (44), Jared Leto (44), Annie Lennox (61), Phil Spector (76), Harry Shearer (72), July Delpy (46), Chris Evert (61), Phil Donohue (80), Ralph Fiennes (53), Vanessa Paradis (43), Lars Ulrich (52), He,ena Christensen (47), Dido (44), Stephenie Meyer (43) and Lemmy Kilmister (70).

End of year round up next folks!

27th December 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 20th December 2015

Welcome all, to a points ridden edition of the Dead Pool. Lets start off with the only one who’s died this week, Jimmy Hill! Wendy had him down as her Cert, so 163 points, well done!! Now onto the housekeeping. Those pesky names I missed throughout the year. Luke had Ingeborg Sjöqvist, so 47 points. Barry had Denis Healey, so 52 points. Lee had Nicholas Winton, 44 points and he had Stuart Scott, 101 points. Martin also had Stuart Scott, 101 points. So there’s some movement on the leader board.

Do I need to remind you that there is only 11 days left? Which means that you have that much time to submit your list for 2016, best get your arses into gear!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Kathy Secker, 70, British television presenter. (body discovered on this date).
• Patricia Brooker, 80, British reality television personality (The Only Way Is Essex).
• Peter Dickinson, 88, British author.
• Jimmy Hill, 87, English footballer (Fulham), manager, trade union leader (Professional Footballers’ Association) and TV presenter (Match of the Day), Alzheimer’s disease.
• Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, 87, British politician, Member of Parliament for Leicester North West and later Leicester West (1970–1997), Alzheimer’s disease.

 In Other News

England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks has revealed he is suffering from kidney cancer for a second time. Having lost one kidney to the disease 10 years ago, Banks, 77, is receiving chemotherapy after blood tests showed the other is now affected. He told the media: “Last year we went on our annual holiday to Florida. A week later I couldn’t sleep and then I couldn’t even stand due to the pain. I was sent straight to hospital where they told me I had cancer. I was so shocked when they told me it was my kidney. “The last time I had the cancer it was very large but they were able to remove the kidney and take the cancer away with it. We hope medication will make this cancer small enough for them to operate and carry out electrical treatment to break it up. But if it grows they will have to remove [the kidney] and I’ll need a replacement.”

Marc Dal Maso, who was in charge of Japan’s scrum during Eddie Jones’s time there, has revealed he has Parkinson’s disease and believes the blows he received during his career as a hooker are the cause. Dal Maso, who played for France 33 times, will not be part of Jones’s England regime as he resumes a consultancy role with the Highlanders in Otago in the new year. He said the illness was diagnosed in 2012 but he did not tell anyone, including Jones, until now. “The problems started when I was 30 and still playing,” said Dal Maso, who is 48, in an interview with a French newspaper. “I was not feeling well, tired all the time, and my sister, who works in medicine, suggested I had tests. A scan revealed Parkinson’s disease and I am on medication morning, noon and night.

Actor James Woods has narrowly avoided serious injury after being involved in a major car accident. The three-time Emmy award winner tweeted on Monday that a man driving “75+ in an ice storm” spun out of control. In a dramatic report of events, Woods said he “hit right wall to avoid him, spun 180, hit left wall sliding backwards going 60 mph.” “Huge drop 100 feet into river below, but the guardrail held. I managed to pull out and slide down out of oncoming traffic. Six car pileup.” The Nixon actor said there were no deaths but his car was “wrecked”. “Good to be alive. Glad everybody survived.” Woods was driving in the US state of Colorado in a 4WD jeep he described as an “old tank”. “That Jeep saved my life,” he tweeted. He also said police officers told him he was the only driver involved who didn’t hit anybody. Woods said he had only a “little concussion”. “God smiled on me today. I am so happy to be alive.”

Wilnelia Forsyth has revealed she feared for the life of her husband, Sir Bruce, after he had surgery following a fall, but said he was getting better. The veteran television presenter underwent keyhole surgery on an abdominal aortic aneurysm in mid-November and is still in recovery, forcing him to pull out of hosting the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special. The aneurysm was discovered in October after a fall, which left him in hospital with a minor concussion and abrasions on his face. The 87-year-old entertainer has been recovering at home and his wife said it had been an emotional time. She told the Daily Mail: “I’m not ready to lose him yet. This has scared me to death, particularly waiting in that hospital when he was having his operation. That felt like an eternity. Because of Bruce’s age there are so many risks involved. “You think: ‘My God, will he come out all right?’ But you have to trust the doctors. The alternative – not having surgery – was worse. It’s like you’re in a corner. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, because this is such a fatal thing.” The 58-year-old said the surgery and recovery had been “very, very hard” for her husband, who was a “proud man”. But she said: “We’ve been told with this kind of operation it will take one or two months for him to fully recover. Seeing my husband getting better is like having an early Christmas present.”

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej has made a rare public appearance, amid concerns for his ailing health. In television footage released on Monday by the palace he is seen swearing in judges at a Bangkok hospital where he has been staying. He has received treatment for a number of ailments including a lung infection. The health of the 88-year-old monarch is of public concern as he is widely revered and seen as an arbiter in the country’s divided political arena. The king, who is the world’s longest serving monarch, was last seen in September in a video released by the palace. He missed his birthday celebrations for the second consecutive year on 5th December. The event was marked by a cycling event last week in Bangkok led by his son, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. Palace officials did not give any further details of the king’s health on Monday.

The former BBC broadcaster, Stuart Hall, has survived and been released from prison after serving half of his sentence for sexual abuse. The former It’s a Knockout presenter, now 85, was jailed in 2013 after he admitted indecently assaulting 13 girls, one as young as nine, between 1967 and 1985. He was sentenced to 15 months, which was doubled when the court of appeal ruled the original term “inadequate”, and received an additional 30 months in jail in 2014 when he pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting a teenage girl. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it was unable to comment on individual cases, but added: “Public protection is our top priority and offenders automatically released on licence at the halfway point of their sentence are subject to strict controls. Either way, lock up your daughters!

And finally, the doctor of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he is in “excellent” health and has had no significant medical problems. Mr Trump had been under pressure to release his medical history after several other candidates had done so. The 69-year-old real estate tycoon would become the oldest president to be elected in US history. However, his physician said he would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”. New York City-based physician Harold Bornstein said his physical strength and stamina are “extraordinary”. Promising to release it a few weeks ago, he tweeted that his medical report would show “perfection”. “I am fortunate to have been blessed with great genes,” Mr Trump wrote on Facebook. “People have been impressed by my stamina, but to me it has been easy because I am truly doing something that I love.” Mr Bornstein writes in a note that he has been Mr Trump’s personal physician since 1980, and that in 39 years, he has had no major issues. His blood pressure and laboratory tests are “astonishingly excellent” and he has lost 15 pounds (7kg) in the past year, according to Mr Bornstein. He said Mr Trump has had no forms of cancer, or joint surgery, and does not smoke or drink alcohol.

On This Day

• 1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.
• 1946 – The popular Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
• 1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
• 1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
• 1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
• 2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

Deaths

• 1862 – Robert Knox, Scottish surgeon and zoologist (b. 1791)
• 1968 – John Steinbeck, American author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• 1973 – Bobby Darin, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1936)
• 1996 – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist (b. 1934)
• 2010 – Brian Hanrahan, English journalist (b. 1949)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Dick Van Dyke (90), Christopher Plummer (86), Steve Buscemi (58), Ted Nugent (67), Jamie Foxx (48), Taylor Swift (26), Vanessa Hudgens (27), Don Johnson (66), Michelle Dockery (34), Billy Gibbons (66), Ernie Hudson (70), Eugene Levy (69), Bill Pullman (62), Milla Jovovich (40), Laurie Holden (46), Pope Francis (79), Keith Richards (72), Stephen Spielberg (69), Leonard Maltin (65), Ray Liotta (61), Christina Aguilera (35), Steve Austin (51), Jennifer Beals (52), Kirsty Swanson (46), Alyssa Milano (43) and Jake Gyllenhaal (35).

Next week peeps!

20th December 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »