Dead Pool 30th August 2015

Welcome all, to a rather lacklustre edition of the newsletter. Not much happened last week, so I’ve padded things out somewhat with interesting stories about pain and death. It might be time for me to send out the flying monkeys again!!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Marcy Borders, 42, American 9/11 survivor, subject of “Dust Lady” photograph, stomach cancer.
• Justin Wilson, 37, British IndyCar Series driver, head injuries from race collision.
• Colin Fry, 53, British medium and television presenter, lung cancer.
• Alison Parker, 24, American news reporter (WDBJ), shot.
• Adam Ward, 27, American news cameraman (WDBJ) and photojournalist, shot.
• Nelly de Vries-Lammerts, 110, Dutch supercentenarian.
• Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 21, American actor (Les Miserables), fall.
• Oliver Sacks, 82, British neurologist and author (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), liver cancer.

In Other News

Carol Vorderman, the television presenter, has revealed she is “covered in burns” after falling off a treadmill while running naked. The former Countdown number-cruncher disclosed she tripped while using the machine and ended up trapped up against a wall. Vorderman, 54, was intending to comfort a Twitter friend over a mishap, but she managed to trump the tale with her own story “It’s hilarious. Pain? I fell off a treadmill running naked (don’t ask). Now covered in burns and doctor’s dressings!” – Thus revealing her naked exercise mishap to her more than 330,000 followers! Vorderman later told the media she was exercising in the nude because she was “hot”. However, she said she would think twice before doing so again and was “not sure it will be an Olympic sport soon”.

Two-time major winner John Daly has been taken to hospital after collapsing during a minor tournament in the USA. The American, 49, has  been checked for rib and finger injuries, but a friend said his vital signs – temperature, blood pressure and heart and breathing rates – are good. Leigh Brannan of Deerfield Golf Club in Jackson, Mississippi said Daly was having breathing problems on a hot day. “He was struggling pretty badly right before he collapsed,” Brannan said. “We’re all hoping it’s nothing serious and that he was just a little dehydrated. He was even saying he still wants to play.”

Justin Gatlin could not get close to Usain Bolt in the 200m final in Beijing – but it appears he might have had better luck if he had been on a Segway and armed with a camera. Bolt completed another double at the World Athletics Championships and when he was celebrating with the crowd an overzealous cameraman got too close for comfort, lost control of his Segway and swept the Jamaican off his feet. The 10-times world champion did not appear badly injured by the incident, managed to see the funny side and was soon posing for pictures with his adoring crowd again. “It didn’t actually hit me in my Achilles, it hit me in my calf area,” Bolt said. “It’s all right, I will get over it. Never a doubt [for the relays], never a doubt. I am just going to get it massaged, ice it up a bit and I should be fine.” Bolt added: “The rumour I’m trying to start right now is that Justin Gatlin paid him off.”

An elephant in northern Thailand killed its handler before running off into the jungle with three terrified Chinese tourists still on its back! The Police said that on Wednesday morning a Chinese family of three – a father, mother and a young child – were taking a ride on the male elephant when it turned suddenly on its new keeper. The elephant had not taken well to his new mahout and turned on him suddenly, goring him to death. The media broadcast footage of the three frightened tourists being led back to camp, still on the elephant’s back, once it had been calmed down by other mahouts and their own elephants.

And in a continuation of goring, a man has died after being struck by a bull, the 10th such death in Spain this year, making it one  of the deadliest for the sport of bull running. The unidentified man in his late 40s was struck by a bull several times during a run in the north-eastern town of Borriol on Saturday and died in hospital, a local police spokesman said. This year’s toll matches the record of 10 deaths in bull runs, set in 2009. Last weekend alone four men died after being gored by half-tonne fighting bulls in four different towns. One of the victims, a 55-year-old man, was caught on video being repeatedly gored by a bull as he lay on the ground in front of a protective barrier that separated onlookers from bull run participants. And they say Cheese Rolling is dangerous!

And finally, celebrity psychic Derek Acorah has been trolled on Twitter following the death of his close friend Colin Fry. The grieving TV star was bombarded with comments after Psychic Private Eyes star Colin lost his battle with lung cancer, aged only 53. One user wrote, ”Hey Derek, he has sent a message for you, it’ll cost you 30 pound to hear it.” Another “You and Colin deal in the business of fooling the vulnerable for private gain. I couldn’t care less he’s dead.” The comments were widely condemned as fans rallied around the star. Believe what you will about psychics and mediums, but it’s rather telling that Acorah is sad at the loss if his fellow medium, surely he of all people should be able to carry on talking to his dead friend.

On This Day

• 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time.
• 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
• 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world’s first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.
• 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
• 1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.
• 1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
• 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
• 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing an estimated 1,836 people and causing over $108 billion in damage.

Deaths

• 1930 – William Archibald Spooner, English priest and author (b. 1844)
• 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (b. 1881)
• 1982 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish-English actress and singer (b. 1915)
• 1987 – Lee Marvin, American actor and singer (b. 1924)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sean Connery (85), LeAnne Rimes (33), Jason Priestley (46), Shania Twain (50), Aaron Paul (36), Billy Ray Cyrus (54), Barbara Eden (84), Steve Guttenberg (57), Elvis Costello (61), Paul Rubens (63), Shelley Long (66), Chris Pine (35), John McCain (79), Claudia Schiffer (45), Rachel Bildon (34), Rebecca DeMornay (56), Carla Gugino (44), Florence Welch (29), Jack Black (46), Gene Simmons (66), Stephen Fry (58), Rupert Grint (27), Tim Burton (57), Alexander Skarsgard (39), Barbara Bach (68) and Elliott Gould (77).

Next Week peeps!

30th August 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 23rd August 2015

Good afternoon everyone, a lovely day for sitting down and reading the current Dead Pool Newsletter. Not many deaths this week, however loads of deadly news to catch up on. Let’s do this!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Emma Didlake, 110, American supercentenarian, oldest veteran in the United States.
• Kitty McGeever, 48, British actress (Emmerdale).
• Goldie Steinberg, 114, American supercentenarian, oldest verified Jewish person.
• Yvonne Craig, 78, American actress (Batman, Star Trek, Olivia), breast cancer.
• Anna Kashfi, 80, British actress (The Mountain, Cowboy, Adventures in Paradise).
• Arthur Morris, 93, Australian Test cricketer.

In Other News

Former US President Jimmy Carter has revealed he is to be treated for cancerous tumours on the brain, in his first public comments on his illness. Mr Carter said he would start his radiation treatment on Thursday. Mr Carter, 90, was recently treated for liver cancer, after which it was discovered the disease had spread. He said he would “cut back fairly dramatically” on public works. “It is in the hands of God and I am prepared for anything that comes,” he said. Mr Carter told a press conference on Thursday he had at first thought the cancer was confined to his liver and that an operation this month had completely removed it. But an MRI scan the same afternoon showed four spots of melanoma on the brain. “I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease. I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said. “I have got thousands of friends and I have had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence.” Mr Carter said it was likely doctors would find cancer elsewhere in his body as his treatment continued. But he said: “I feel very good. I have had no pain or debility.”

Broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire has announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The award-winning radio and TV journalist, 46, announced on Twitter on Wednesday evening that she would undergo a mastectomy as part of her treatment in the coming weeks and that she hoped to continue broadcasting her Victoria Derbyshire TV programme “as much as possible” while she recovered. Derbyshire said friends, family and colleagues were offering support and the NHS staff looking after her “were being brilliant”.

Terence Stamp was involved in a near-death experience on the set of his new film, according to an interview with the actor in the Daily Mail. The 77-year-old actor was involved in a near-fatal accident involving a horse during the shoot of Bitter Harvest. “My horse had a habit, when I brought it to a stop, of lifting its front legs up,” he said. “On my last day, I brought it to a stop but slid off the back … I looked up and saw that this horse, which weighed half a ton, had lost its balance and was going to fall directly on me.” Stamp went on to say that the horse fell on his chest and pelvis, leading to multiple injuries. “If it had landed any further up, it would have killed me,” he said. “It broke my pelvis in six places, two ribs and ripped a tendon in my arm. “I always imagined that my last thoughts would be somehow profound, but what went through my mind was, “Distinguished actor killed by horse’s arse.’” He joked that if he had been American, he might have considered legal action but he “couldn’t be bothered”.

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to spend the next two weeks in hospital, according to a family statement. The Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation said he was on a new course of antibiotics to treat an inflammation. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate “is in good spirits and not in any pain,” the family said. This is his third stay in hospital in recent weeks. He was previously treated for an infection resulting from his prostate cancer treatment. Details of his current condition have not been released. The archbishop deeply appreciate the prayers and good wishes of so many, said his daughter, Reverend Mpho Tutu. “While my father was very grateful to the media for its concern, he had humbly requested journalists not to anticipate daily updates on his condition so that he could rest peacefully while receiving treatment,” his daughter added.

Diego Maradona has revealed he has been  clean from drugs for almost 12 years in a video released on his Facebook page, adding he has “chosen to live life for my daughters, grandchildren and those still to come”. Maradona has blamed his past drug use on failing to realise his true potential as a player who failed a doping test at the 1994 World Cup. Signing off the video from inside his swimming pool, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Maradona goes on to reveal his clean living. “I think there is nothing more to prove. I think my environment is my people. I’m about to be 12 years clean from drugs because it does not let me wake up every morning the way I do today. I have chosen to live life for my daughters, grandchildren and those still to come. And be careful, I still haven’t closed the factory.”

And finally, every year for more than 50 years, Japan’s new centenarians have been honoured with a silver sake cup and a congratulatory letter from the prime minister. But as the country prepares to mark Respect for the Aged Day next month, the latest crop of citizens who turned 100 in the past 12 months face disappointment, as the soaring number of centenarians puts a new strain on the government’s coffers. The saucer-like sakazuki, a gift from the government since 1963, could be replaced by a cheaper version or be scrapped altogether this year after the health and welfare ministry complained it could not afford to keep up with the number of new recipients. In 1963 Japan had just 153 centenarians, and as recently as 1998 the number stood at just 10,000. At the last count Japan’s 100-plus age group numbered almost 59,000, and that figure is expected to rise when the government
releases new population data before Seniors’ Day on 15th September. Last year the ministry spent 260 million yen (£1.3m) on giving the cups – each worth about 8,000 yen – to almost 30,000 people, including 25,000  women. Local media pointed out that some people die before the
gifts can be distributed, forcing them to be scrapped. Demographers predict that Japan’s centenarian population
will continue to grow as the general population ages – the result of regular medical examinations, universal healthcare and, among Japanese over a certain age, a fastidious attachment to the traditional low-fat diet of fish, tofu, vegetables and rice.

On This Day

• 1305 – Sir William Wallace is executed for high treason at Smithfield in London.
• 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
• 1973 – A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term “Stockholm syndrome”.
• 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee opens the WWW, World Wide Web to new users.
• 2007 – The skeletal remains of Russia’s last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Deaths

• 1305 – William Wallace, Scottish commander (b. 1272)
• 1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian-American actor (b. 1895)
• 1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American producer, and composer (b. 1895)
• 2005 – Brock Peters, American actor and producer (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Robert DeNiro (72), Amy Admas (41), Sean Penn (55), Madonna (57), Steve Carell (53), Kristen Wiig (42), Robert Redford (79), Valerie Harper (76), Bill Clinton (69), Ty Burrell (48), Hayden Panettiere (26), Usain Bolt (29), Robert Plant (67), Kim Cattrall (59), Kenny Rogers (77), Andrew Garfield (32), Donnie Wahlberg (46), Edward Norton (46), Matthew Perry (46), Kevin Dillon (50), Christian Slater (46), Madeline Stowe (57), Denis Leary (58), Belinda Carlisle (57), James Cameron (61), Carrie-Anne Moss (48), Tori Amos (52), GZA (49), Julie Newmar (82), Ulrika Jonsson (48) and Jim Carter (67).

Next Week peeps!

23rd August 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 16th August 2015

Afternoon Poolers! Firstly, I have to apologise, I didn’t notice that Liz had George Cole on her list from last week, so I have to belatedly add 60 points to her tally and grovel for her forgiveness. Hopefully, I haven’t missed anyone else, so let’s get on with it.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jack Gold, 85, British film director (The Naked Civil Servant, Aces High, The Medusa Touch).
• David Nobbs, 80, British novelist and comedy writer (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Two Ronnies, Fairly Secret Army).
• Susan Sheridan, 68, British voice actress (The Black Cauldron, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Noddy’s Toyland Adventures).
• Stephen Lewis, 88, British comedy actor (On the Buses, Last of the Summer Wine, Don’t Drink the Water). 
• Jazz Summers, 71, English music manager (Scissor Sisters, The Verve, Snow Patrol), lung cancer.

In Other News

Former US President Jimmy Carter says recent liver surgery revealed he has cancer and it has spread to other parts of his body. The 90-year-old statesman underwent surgery to remove a small mass in his liver earlier this month. He said he would reveal more “when facts are known, possibly next week”. President Barack Obama wished Mr Carter “a full and fast recovery” in a statement released on Wednesday. Carter was America’s 39th president. He was in office from 1977 to 1981, before being defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan.

Elton John’s lawyer has said that he is pursuing three  French media outlets for publishing what he called “unfounded rumours” about the British pop singer’s health and that of his husband. “Sir Elton John and David Furnish … have instructed my office to pursue through the justice system the violation of the right to respect for their private life due to the publishing of unfounded rumours about their health,” Vincent Toledano said in a statement on Friday. John and his husband “will no longer tolerate the violation of their privacy and the exploitation of their renown and their image for commercial ends in France,” the lawyer added. What does the French media know that we don’t??

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is recovering from treated for hydrocephalus, an excessive build-up of fluid on the brain, say authorities. The 87-year-old, who has been in hospital since 31st May, also had a lung inflammation which has since subsided. Last October he had his gallbladder removed. He was in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital for seven months, and was discharged in May this year, only to return to the hospital a few weeks later for medical tests.

A prominent Spanish matador was in serious but stable condition in hospital after being gored in the groin by a bull. Francisco “Paquirri” Rivera Ordóñez suffered the injury while fighting the bull in the town of Huesca and was in intensive care. The bull’s horn sank some 25cm (10in) into Paquirri’s groin but did not threaten any vital organs, doctors said. Television footage showed the bull hoisting Paquirri into the air for a few seconds on one of his horns. His father, of the same name, was gored to death in Andalucia in 1984. His grandfather was Antonio Ordóñez, considered one of the greatest bullfighters of all time. Obviously this ‘talent’ is not hereditary.

And finally, the Jack Russell terrier, who narrowly avoided a life in the dog pound to be raised for show business, was put down after a battle with prostate cancer. Uggie the dog, the canine star of Oscar-winning film The Artist, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 13. Starting out, as so many stars before him, in commercials, Uggie’s breakout role came as “The Dog” – loyal companion to George Valentin in Michel Hazanavicius’s ode to silent cinema, The Artist. The film won five Academy awards, including best picture in 2012, and Uggie himself was honoured with a Palm Dog award at Cannes film festival. He was also the first dog to leave his paw prints outside Grauman’s Chinese theatre in Hollywood.

On This Day

• 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, England.
• 1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
• 1906 – An estimated 8.2 M_W earthquake hits Valparaíso, Chile, killing 3,886 people.
• 1927 – The Dole Air Race begins from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crash or disappear.

Deaths

• 1888 – John Pemberton, American chemist, invented Coca-Cola (b. 1831)
• 1899 – Robert Bunsen, German chemist and academic (b. 1811)
• 1948 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (b. 1895)
• 1956 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (b. 1882)
• 1977 – Elvis Presley, American singer, guitarist, and actor (b. 1935)
• 2003 – Idi Amin, Ugandan field marshal, 3rd President of Uganda (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jennifer Lawrence (25), Ben Affleck (43), Hulk Hogan (62), Chris Hemsworth (32), Antonio Banderas (55), Mila Kunis (32), Steve Martin (70), Anna Kendrick (30), Halle Berry (49), Debra Messing (47), David Crosby (74), Natasha Henstridge (41), Magic Johnson (56), Gillian Anderson (47), George Hamilton (76), Rosanna Arquette (56), Princess Anne (65), Eric Bana (47), Audrey Tautou (39), Mark Knopfler (66), Pete Sampras (44) and Fidel Castro (89).

Next Week peeps!

16th August 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 9th August 2015

Afternoon all, sorry for the epic size of this week’s edition of the newsletter, it seems I didn’t know when to stop. So make a cup of tea, sit down and relax, this one might take a while to read.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Coleen Gray, 92, American actress (Nightmare Alley, Kiss of Death, The Killing).
• Giovanni Riggi, 90, American mobster, inspiration for The Sopranos.
• Arnold Scaasi, 85, Canadian fashion designer.
• Les Munro, 96, New Zealand pilot, last surviving pilot of Operation Chastise.
• George Cole, 90, English actor (Minder, St Trinian’s, Mary Reilly).
• Terrence Evans, 81, American actor (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Star Trek, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
• Neville Neville, 65, English cricketer and football club director (Bury F.C.).
• Sean Price, 43, American rapper (Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp Clik).

In Other News

Cilla Black was ailing and “willed herself to die”, according to a long-time friend. Childhood friend Terry McCann said Black told him she knew she was going to die and her beloved late husband Bobby Willis was “waiting for me”. “I wasn’t surprised when I found out she had died,” he told BBC News. “The last thing she said to me was she was going blind, she showed me her hands, she had arthritis,” he said. “She willed herself to die. She said, ‘Bobby’s waiting for me.’ “She just said, ‘Look at me, I’m a wreck.’ I was trying to cheer her up. She knew something we didn’t. The singer and TV star died of a stroke after falling over at her Spanish home on Saturday last week. The 72-year-old was sunbathing at her villa in Estepona when she stood up, lost her balance and fell, hitting her head, which knocked her unconscious and caused a stroke. Her body has now been flown back to the UK, but no details of Black’s funeral have yet been made public.

The British band Supertramp have announced the cancellation of their European  concert tour, due to start in November, because of an “aggressive” cancer treatment co-founder and vocalist Rick Davies is undergoing. The group, famous for 1970s and 80s hits such as Bloody Well Right, Dreamer, The Logical Song and It’s Raining Again, had been planning to take their Supertramp Forever tour through 25 European cities over five weeks. But in a statement they said the concerts “have been cancelled due to health issues affecting the band’s founder, Rick Davies”. Davies, 71, has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a cancer concentrated in bone marrow that affects white blood cells – “and has begun aggressive treatment to combat the disease,” they said. Davies, who also plays keyboards, is the only original member of the band after co-founder Roger Hodgson departed in 1983 to pursue a solo career.

Former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram’s car has been fired at in Karachi, the country’s commercial capital, police say. The shooting took place near the National Stadium in Karachi’s Karsaz area on Wednesday, reports said. The ex-bowler was not hurt in the attack. Police said the incident appeared to be a case of road rage. Gun violence is not uncommon in Karachi, with much of it linked to militant groups. Wasim told the Express News channel: “A car hit mine, I stopped him and then his guy stepped out and fired at my car.” The cricket legend, who retired in 2003, is massively popular in Pakistan. Many in Pakistan, including politician and former cricketer Imran Khan, were quick to condemn the attack and express relief that Wasim was unhurt.

French police are investigating whether anaesthetic gas was used during a burglary on Formula One driver Jenson Button and his wife Jessica in a rented villa on the French Riviera. Two men, who stole jewellery reportedly worth £300,000, including an engagement ring, may have pumped gas through the air conditioning system before the break-in on Monday in St Tropez where the couple were holidaying with friends, the racing driver’s spokesman claimed. Personally I’m finding it hard to sympathise with them, it would take me nearly 20 years to earn £300k, and they spent it on sparkly things they took on holiday.

A jury in the US state of Colorado has spared gunman James Holmes the death penalty for killing 12 people at a screening of a Batman film in 2012. He will serve life in jail without the possibility of parole. I’m sure if he was black, he’d been straight on Death Row. The defence team had argued that the former neuroscience graduate student, now 27, was insane at the time. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Holmes, though mentally ill, was responsible for his actions. But it was not unanimous on the death penalty. That lack of agreement meant the jury accepted he would receive an automatic life sentence without parole. District Attorney George Brauchler said: “I still think death is justice for what that guy did, but the system said otherwise. I honour that, and I’ll respect that outcome.” Let’s hope that the same system will see the guy shanked in the goolies, nobody likes people who disturb a film in a cinema…

And finally, a woman who has just celebrated her 110th birthday says she has a daily dose of three beers and a shot of whisky to thank for her astonishing longevity. Agnes Fenton, from New Jersey, turned 110 on Saturday and is now among the small group of supercentenarian around the world. For nearly seventy years she has knocked back three Miller High Lifes and a shot of scotch every day, following the advice of a doctor who treated her for a benign tumour back in the 1930s. Her whisky of choice is Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which costs up to $150 (£96) per bottle. However, Ms Fenton has now been urged to abandon her daily tonic as she eats so little that her carers fear she can no longer handle alcohol. Ms Fenton is in remarkably good shape for a 110-year-old and is yet to have lost her hearing or eyesight. She spends her days reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, praying and enjoying plenty of naps. Amen to that!

On This Day

• 1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
• 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.
• 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
• 1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England, many young boys bottoms were never the same again.
• 1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes.
• 1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 35,000 people are killed outright, including 23,200-28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
• 1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
• 1969 – Followers led by Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men’s hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
• 1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.

Deaths

• 1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer, founded Hugo Boss (b. 1885)
• 1969 – Sharon Tate, American actress (b. 1943)
• 1996 – Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (b. 1907)
• 2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1957)

Why do wrestlers so often die young?  By David Rhodes BBC World Service

Mr Perfect, The Ultimate Warrior and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper may sound like names from a comic book, but the cognoscenti will recognise them as former superstars of the world of professional wrestling. All of them also died unexpectedly and at a relatively young age.

Mr Perfect died in 2003 of acute cocaine intoxication at the age of 44. The Ultimate Warrior died last year of a heart attack, aged 54. Most recent to go was “Rowdy” Roddy Piper who died suddenly on 31 July of a heart attack. He was 61.

So do former wrestlers die younger than athletes who take part in other sports?

“Yes the statistical evidence is quite strong when we look at the mortality rate for wrestlers compared to other sports and the general population,” says John Moriarty of Manchester University.

Researchers like Moriarty face some difficulties getting hold of data, as no official body collects statistics about the deaths of those who have spent a career in the ring. His approach has been to aggregate the findings of others who have studied the problem. He points to research by academics at the University of Eastern Michigan who studied a group of 557 former wrestlers.

Of the 62 wrestlers in this group who died between 1985 and 2011, 49 died before the age of 50. Furthermore, 24 of the 49 died  before the age of 40, and two even died before the age of 30. Mortality rates for wrestlers aged between 45 and 54 were 2.9 times greater than the rate for men in the wider US population, the study found. Cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death.

But how does this compare with other American sports?

In 2014 Benjamin Morris investigated this for the statistical blog FiveThirtyEight, looking at a group of wrestlers whose careers had ended in 1998 or earlier. He found that 20% of those who in 2010 would have been aged between 50 and 55 had died, compared with just 4% of former American footballers of a similar age. Both activities involve their competitors exposing themselves to physical harm, and the training regimes for both wrestling and American football are punishing. But New York-based wrestling journalist Eric Cohen points to two important differences. “There is no off season in pro-wrestling. American footballers play, what, 16 a games a season? And then get half a year off. Wrestlers can be in the ring five to six times a week,” he says. The other difference concerns the activities  outside the ring and off the field.

“Wrestlers who competed in the 1970s and 80s were also living and partying like rock stars,” Cohen says. “In the past the business has had a lot of issues with its stars abusing steroids and recreational drugs.” Piper admitted taking steroids and cocaine, and drinking heavily while competing as a wrestler. The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.) accepts that the culture of some of its former employees contributed to the problems they experienced in later life.

“Unfortunately, some past performers were part of a generation of wrestlers who made unhealthy and poor personal lifestyle choices, which in some cases continued beyond their years in the ring,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“Today’s athletes take great pride and personal responsibility for their overall health and well-being.

“Notwithstanding, WWE talent are subject to random drug testing and expected to live healthy lifestyles, reinforced through our Talent Wellness Program, which was instituted in 2006.”

Cohen believes things are broadly are getting better.

“Thankfully we don’t have nearly as many wrestlers in their 20s or 30s dying any more,” he says. “But as crazy as this may sound there was an incident in Mexico recently where a wrestler died in the ring.”

The hope among wrestling fans is that today’s crop of superstars will live longer than their predecessors.But the deaths of Roddy Piper and others serve as dark reminders of the journey that professional wrestling has been on.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Charlize Theron (40), Barak Obama (54), Loni Anderson (70), Dustin Hoffman (78), Martin Sheen (75), Martha Stewart (74), Tony Bennett (89), David Duchovny (55), Billy Bob Thornton (60), Geri Halliwell (43), Sam Worthington (39), Edward Furlong (38), The Edge (54), Roger Federer (34), Princess Beatrice (27), Abbie Cornish (33), Kevin Smith (45), John Landis (65), Evangeline Lilly (36), M. Night Shyamalan (45), Michelle Yeoh (53), Michael Shannon (41), Tobin Bell (73), Barbara Windsor (78) and Mark Strong (52).

Next Week peeps!

9th August 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 2nd August 2015

Welcome all, we have a lorra lorra stuff to get through today, so get your reading glasses on. Yes, it was a huge Surprise! Surprise! to find out that Cilla Black has passed away, but even more so because John had her listed! 78 points awarded!

The last week really has been a week of shocking deaths, some very unexpected indeed and at too young an age. Shame we don’t have access to the future, a fuckload of points have just gone to the ether!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Bobbi Kristina Brown, 22, American media personality and singer.
• Sir Peter O’Sullevan, 97, Irish-born British horse racing commentator, cancer.
• Lynn Anderson, 67, American country singer (“Rose Garden“), heart attack.
• Stuart Baggs, 27, Manx reality television contestant and businessman (The Apprentice).
• Roddy Piper, 61, Canadian professional wrestler (WWE, NWA, WCW); Hall of Fame (2005, 2007) and actor (They Live, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Body Slam), heart attack.
• Cilla Black, 72, British singer, television presenter and actress.

In Other News 

Joe Jackson, the father of late singer Michael Jackson, has suffered a stroke. The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo said Jackson, 87, was admitted on Sunday afternoon and is being treated in the intensive care unit. A statement from the hospital also said he was suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Apparently he was in Brazil to celebrate his 87th birthday, but he missed his own party due to being in hospital.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has been sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli. Saif, once seen as  his father’s heir apparent, was condemned to death along with eight other figures from the former dictatorship, including the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi’s last prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi. There is uncertainty about whether the sentence will be carried out, as Gaddafi is being held by a militia in the mountain town of Zintan that is opposed to Libya Dawn, the militia coalition in control of Tripoli. Yes, you can list him next year, these death sentences can take forever to be upheld so you might have a long wait.

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has returned to hospital just a week after being discharged. He has what has only been described as a “persistent infection” which his foundation says is unrelated to the prostate cancer he has had for 15 years. Tutu was first hospitalised by the infection on 14th July. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate also continues to battle prostate cancer, first diagnosed 15 years ago, but his foundation said the current infection was unrelated. The foundation said the veteran rights campaigner would undergo bed rest while his doctors determine further treatment, and remain in the hospital at least for the weekend. Tutu survived an illness believed to be polio as a baby, and battled tuberculosis as a teenager. He has been in and out of hospital for minor complaints since 2011.

And now on to Cecil the Lion. One would believe that Walter Palmer, the dentist that shot the lion with an bow and arrow, missing his mark so the lion escaped for 40 hours until shot by a marksman in his hunting group, is on plenty of death lists by now. Having paid $50k for the ‘privilege’ of killing a lion, Palmer is now in hiding and his dental practice has closed down. Sadly, court records have shown that Mr Palmer has a felony record in the US after killing a black bear in the state of Wisconsin in 2006. The dentist was given a one-year probation and fined $3,000, having shot the creature outside an authorised zone and then tried to pass it off as having been killed elsewhere, so this is not the first time he’s tried it on. I should offer an extra 200 points for the death of Palmer, alas this would contravene the rules of the Dead Pool.

Finally, a Texas man was hospitalised this week, after being hit in the head by a ricocheting bullet he had aimed at an armadillo. The man decided to  shoot the armadillo after seeing it on his property, near the east Texas town of Marietta, just before 3am on Thursday, Cass County sheriff’s officials said. He fired three shots at the armadillo. At least one rebounded and hit the man in the jaw. The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where his jaw was wired shut. It is not known whether the armadillo survived, but we can hope. The incident is the second this year in which a person has been injured in the southern US by a bullet ricocheting off an armadillo. In April, a Georgia man wounded his mother-in-law after he fired a pistol at an armadillo and the bullet bounced off the animal, traveled through the back door of a mobile home and struck the 74-year-old woman in the back. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why Americans should not be allowed to own guns!

On This Day

• 1776 – The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place.
• 1790 – The first United States Census is conducted.
• 1869 – Japan‘s samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinōkōshō) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.
• 1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
• 1932 – The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
• 1934 – Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg.
• 1937 – The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, the effect of which is to render marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
• 1939 – Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
• 1990 – Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

Deaths

• 1788 – Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (b. 1727)
• 1921 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
• 1922 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (b. 1847)
• 1976 – Fritz Lang, Austrian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1890)
• 1997 – William S. Burroughs, American author and painter (b. 1914)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sandra Bullock (51), Kate Beckinsale (42), Arnold Schwarzenegger (68), Taylor Schilling (31), Mick Jagger (72), Helen Mirren (70), Wesley Snipes (53), Lisa Kudrow (52), Jason Statham (48), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (45), Dean Cain (49), J.K. Rowling (50), Laurence Fishburne (54), Jonathan Rhys Mayers (38), Paul Anka (74), Jean Reno (67) and Christopher Nolan (45).

Next Week peeps!

2nd August 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 26th July 2015

Apologies this week, a rather quick and perfunctory edition of the Dead Pool, not much has happened anyhow, so have a quick perusal and we’ll catch up for real next week.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Nova Pilbeam, 95, British actress (The Man Who Knew Too Much, Young and Innocent, Tudor Rose).
• Alex Rocco, 79, American actor (The Godfather, The George Carlin Show, The Facts of Life), Emmy winner (1990), cancer.
• Van Alexander, 100, American big band leader, songwriter-arranger (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket“), film and television composer (I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Donna Reed Show), heart failure.
• Josh Greenberg, 28, American technology executive, co-founder of Grooveshark.
• Wayne Carson, 72, American songwriter (“The Letter“, “Always on My Mind“, “Neon Rainbow”).
• Dieter Moebius, 71, Swiss-German electronic musician (Cluster, Harmonia, Moebius & Plank).
• Theodore Bikel, 91, Austrian-born American actor (The Defiant Ones, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof), folk singer and composer.
• E. L. Doctorow, 84, American author (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The March), complications from lung cancer.

In Other News

Brazil legend Pelé has been released from hospital after successfully undergoing back surgery. The 74-year-old was suffering from a trapped nerve and has had surgery to relieve pain in his back and hip at the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo. Also, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has returned home after a week-long treatment in hospital for an unspecified infection, his foundation said. Doctors have asked him to rest, and “we’ll be doing our best not to disappoint them,” his daughter Reverend Mpho Tutu said in a statement.

Miles Frost, the eldest son of Sir David Frost has died at the age of 31 while out jogging. Mr Frost is believed to have collapsed during a run at the family’s holiday home in Oxfordshire on Sunday. Friends said he had appeared fit and healthy and was in “great form” over the past few weeks, with no signs of any health problems. His father Sir David died of a heart attack aged 74 two years ago on board the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner. Just goes to show, being a couch potato isn’t that bad for you.

Sergio Pérez walked away unscathed from a high-speed crash in Friday’s opening practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Mexican driver suffered a rear suspension failure and lost control of his Force India on the exit of turn 11 before hitting the barriers on the opposite side of the track. Pérez’s right-front wheel then appeared to get caught underneath his Force India which flipped his car. The former McLaren driver was prompt to inform his team he was “OK” before clambering out of his car. The harrowing incident, which happened one hour into the 90-minute session, comes with the Formula One community mourning the loss of Jules Bianchi who died last week.

On This Day

• 1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
• 1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement.
• 1971 – Apollo program: launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo “J-Mission“, and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Deaths

• 1952 – Eva Perón, Argentinian actress and politician, 25th First Lady of Argentina (b. 1919)
• 1984 – Ed Gein, American murderer (b. 1906)
• 1994 – Terry Scott, English actor (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jennifer Lopez (46), Prince George (2), Woody Harrelson (54), Gisele Bundchen (35), Benedict Cumberbatch (39), Monica Lewinsky (42), Slash (50), Willem Dafoe (60), Daniel Radcliffe (26), Lynda Carter (64), Anna Paquin (33), Danny Glover (69), Summer Glau (34), Kim Carnes (70), Carlos Santana (68) and Rhys Ivans (48).

Next Week peeps!

26th July 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 19th July 2015

Welcome all, to a points laden newsletter! Ash, Mark and Paula each get 125 points for correctly guessing that Jules Bianchi would die! Fair play to them all, that’s a huge score for someone that wasn’t one of the Big Three!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Satoru Iwata, 55, Japanese game programmer (Super Smash Bros., Pokémon), president and CEO of Nintendo (since 2002), bile duct cancer.
• Aubrey Morris, 89, British actor (A Clockwork Orange, Love and Death, The Wicker Man).
• Alan Kupperberg, 62, American comic book artist (The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man), thymus cancer.
• Jules Bianchi, 25, French Formula One driver, head injuries sustained in a race collision.

In Other News

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu is in “good spirits” after his admission to hospital on Tuesday for an unspecified infection, his family says. His daughter Reverend Mpho Tutu said the infection was “below the belt” but was not in his prostate, where his cancer lies dormant and was being well cared for. It is going to take a few days before he returns home, she said in Cape Town. He retired from public life in 2011 but continues to travel widely. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate cancelled a planned trip to Rome in December following another infection. His hospitalization comes a few days after he renewed his wedding vows to his wife Leah Tutu to mark their 60th wedding anniversary.

Pelé has undergone surgery on his back in São Paulo,  according to reports. Local media reports say the 74-year-old was suffering from a trapped nerve and has had back surgery at the Albert Einstein hospital. Poor old Pelé underwent prostate surgery at the same hospital in May. The procedure was to treat a condition that creates urinary problems because of an enlarged prostate, doctors said at the time. Tests conducted after that surgery showed there were no tumours.

George HW Bush is in “fair condition” in a hospital after falling and breaking a bone in his neck and is expected to recover from the injury without surgery, his spokesman said. The former US president, who is 91, sustained the injury during a fall at his family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Wednesday. Bush’s spokesman was quick to downplay concerns, tweeting that the 41st president was “fine” but likely to be placed in a neck brace. He later added that Bush’s wife, Barbara, was said to have said: “A slip and fall is not going to take out a World War II pilot.” Bush – the oldest living former US president – was hospitalised in Houston over the Christmas period last year for treatment of shortness of breath. In 2012, he spent a lengthy spell in hospital to be treated for bronchitis and other complications. Bush also has lower-body Parkinsons, which causes a loss of balance, and has used wheelchairs since at least 2011. Think I’ll disagree with Barbara!

Cheering news from Buckingham Palace. The Queen has decided to stop breeding corgis or having any more young dogs, because she’s now 88 and can’t bear to leave them behind when she dies. If that’s not a glaring admission that she feels that she’s on the way out, then I don’t know what is!! I’ll not mention the Hitler salute…

And finally, a 101-year-old woman has said she felt no fear as she broke her own world record for being the oldest abseiler, by descending 94m down the side of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. Wind and rain did not deter Doris Long, who has been honoured with an MBE for her charity fundraising, as she abseiled down the tower. She last performed the feat on her 100th birthday in May 2014. Long said she was “living in hope” to be able to repeat the challenge next year, when she will be 102.

On This Day

• 1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
• 1843 – Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
• 1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
• 1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.

Deaths

• 2013 – Mel Smith, English actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1952)
• 2014 – James Garner, American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Donald Sutherland (80), Brigitte Nielsen (52), Harrison Ford (73), Kirsten Bell (35), Bill Cosby (78), Diane Kruger (39), Will Farrell (48), Elizabeth McGovern (54), Vin Diesel (48), Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (68), Forest Whitaker (54), David Hasselhoff (63), Corey Feldman (44), Phoebe Cates (52), Cheech Marin (69), Richard Branson (65), John Glenn (94), Cheryl Ladd (64), Richard Simmons (67), Patrick Stewart (75), Harry Dean Stanton (89), Jackie Earle Haley (54), Matthew Fox (49), Michael Flatley (57), Fatboy Slim (52) and Jesse Ventura (64).

Next Week peeps!

19th July 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 12th July 2015

Welcome all,  we have points to award!!! Paul C. correctly guessed that Sakari Momoi would peg it, and so he has, plus he had him down as a Cert! 138 points awarded! Well done sir! Paul C. now takes the lead!

I was rather surprised no one had Omar Sharif, but you all know how cruel this game can be…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Diana Douglas, 92, British Bermudian-American actress (The Indian Fighter, Days of Our Lives, Planes, Trains and Automobiles), cancer.
• Amanda Peterson, 43, American actress (Can’t Buy Me Love, Explorers).
• Archduchess Dorothea of Austria, 95, Bavarian princess.
• Sakari Momoi, 112, Japanese supercentenarian, world’s oldest living man, kidney failure.
• Kathleen Snavely, 113, Irish supercentenarian, oldest ever Irish-born person.
• Jerry Weintraub, 77, American film producer (Ocean’s Eleven, Diner, The Karate Kid), chairman and CEO of United Artists, heart attacks.
• Irwin Keyes, 63, American actor (House of 1000 Corpses, The Jeffersons, The Flintstones).
• Roger Rees, 71, Welsh-American actor (Cheers, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, The West Wing), stomach cancer.
• Omar Sharif, 83, Egyptian actor (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl), heart attack.

In Other News

Guitarist Wilko Johnson has revealed he remains clear of cancer after a pioneering and complex operation he underwent last year. The former Dr Feelgood star, who had pancreatic cancer, had a nine-hour procedure to remove a large tumour and extensive sections of his digestive system. “I still can’t believe this. They got the cancer. They got it all. I’ve been for regular check-ups. Nothing.” I was supposed to be dead, but here I am doing things like walking up the road to meet me mate for lunch. Enjoying a fry-up in the caff, looking out over the Thames Delta, watching the sun dancing on the water. Ha. Every day is filled with wonderful feelings.” Johnson, 67, had previously chosen to avoid treatment after being told he had a terminal illness when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in more than a month. State television showed images of Mr Castro at a meeting with cheese experts near the capital, Havana. Castro, 88, handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2006 after struggling to recover from illness and is now rarely seen in public, and secrecy about his health means his public appearances are scrutinised by the media. Personally I think he looks like he’s on borrowed time, so keep your eye on him.

Ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt is mentally unfit to be tried again on genocide charges, Guatemala’s forensic authority declared on Tuesday. Due to cognitive deterioration the 89-year-old would not be able to defend himself against charges that he was responsible for the killings of nearly 2,000 indigenous Maya during a particularly brutal stretch of the country’s 36-year civil war, the National Forensic Science Institute determined. The institute said: “He does not have full use of his mental faculties and he is not capable of correctly understanding the charges against him.” A convenient happenstance or awesome lawyers? You decide!

One Direction star Harry Styles let his effortlessly cool exterior drop for a moment at a concert last week. During the band’s show in San Diego, USA, Harry stumbled and fell, prompting screams from concerned fans. Unfortunately the singer emerged unscathed from the tumble. Sadly, the ‘band’ will be touring the UK in September.

On This Day

• 927 – Æthelstan, King of England, secures a pledge from Constantine II of Scotland that the latter will not ally with Viking kings, beginning the process of unifying Great Britain.
• 1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
• 1962 – The Rolling Stones perform their first concert, at the Marquee Club in London, England, United Kingdom.
• 1963 – Pauline Reade, who was 16-years-old, disappears on her way to a dance at the British Railways Club in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders.

Deaths

• 1910 – Charles Rolls, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (b. 1887)
• 1973 – Lon Chaney, Jr., American actor (b. 1906)
• 1999 – Bill Owen, English actor (b. 1914)
• 2013 – Alan Whicker, Egyptian-English journalist (b. 1925)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Sofia Vergara (43), Kevin Bacon (57), Tom Hanks (59), Ringo Starr (75), Anjelica Huston (64), Sylvester Stallone (69), Courtney Love (51), O.J. Simpson (68), Fred Savage (39), Edie Falco (52), Dalai Lama (80), George W. Bush (69), Nancy Reagan (94), Kelly McGillis (58), Geoffrey Tambor (71), Huey Lewis (65), Suzanne Vega (56), RZA (46), Ned Beatty (78), Geoffrey Rush (64), Brian Dennehy (77), Richard Roundtree (73), Neil Tennant (61) and Jake LaMotta (94).

Next Week peeps!

12th July 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 5th July 2015

Afternoon all, a quick update on the happenings of last week, alas not a lot happened and without the death of Val Doonican, we would be in a terrible state. I’ll not waffle on, let’s get to the non-existent news!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Chris Squire, 67, English bass guitarist (Yes), acute erythroid leukemia.
• Matti Makkonen, 63, Finnish telecommunications engineer, inventor of the SMS.
• Kauto Star, 15, French-born British-trained racehorse, dual winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, euthanized.
• Bruce Rowland, 74, British rock drummer (Fairport Convention).
• Edward Burnham, 98, English actor (To Sir, with Love, 10 Rillington Place, Doctor Who).
• Leonard Starr, 89, American cartoonist (ThunderCats).
• Val Doonican, 88, Irish singer and television presenter.

In Other News

Former children’s television presenter John Noakes has been found after disappearing during a walk on the island of Mallorca early on Tuesday morning in 35C heat. The former Blue Peter presenter, who has Alzheimer’s disease, was taken to hospital after he was found in a field. When located, the 81 year old was found to have a weak heartbeat and was suffering from dehydration, but is expected to recover. Noakes, who joined Blue Peter in 1965, was known for both his adventurous physical exploits, including what was at the time the longest free-fall parachute jump by a British civilian, and his association with one of the show’s resident dogs, border collie Shep, which died in 1987.

Sonia Manzano, who has played Maria on the US children’s programme Sesame Street for more than four decades, is retiring. Manzano, 65, joined the show in  1971 and became a series regular in 1974, giving helpful advice to characters like Big Bird and Elmo. She was also a writer on the show, winning 15 Emmy Awards for her work. We all know what happens when active people retire don’t we Poolers…

Joni Mitchell did have an aneurysm in March but is able to speak, a friend who acts as her conservator has said. Leslie Morris’s update on the Canadian singer’s condition follows an interview with US musician David Crosby, in which he said she was still unable to speak. “The truth is that Joni is speaking, and she’s speaking well,” said Morris on Mitchell’s official website. “She is resting comfortably in her own home and she’s getting better each day. A full recovery is expected.” Mitchell, 71, was found unconscious in her Los Angeles home on 31 March and taken to hospital.

On This Day

• 1687 – Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
• 1841 – Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.
• 1937 – Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
• 1946 – The bikini goes on sale after debuting during an outdoor fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris, France.
• 1948 – National Health Service Acts creates the national public health systems in the United Kingdom.
• 1954 – The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin.
• 1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
• 1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Deaths

For the first time ever, nobody of any importance, or I’d heard of, died on this day in the past!!!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Cruise (53), Lindsey Lohan (29), John Cusack (49), Pamela Anderson (48), Mike Tyson (49), Debbie Harry (70), Dan Aykroyd (63), Mel Brooks (89), Kathy Bates (67), Katherine Jenkins (35), Gary Busey (71), Michael Phelps (30), Liv Tyler (38), Larry David (68), Ashley Tisdale (30), Cheryl Cole (32), Missy Elliott (44), Carl Lewis (54), Jerry Hall (59), Montel Williams (59) and Yardley Smith (51).

Next Week peeps!

5th July 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 28th June 2015

Welcome all,  we have points to distribute!!  Well done to Julie and Liz for correctly guessing that Patrick Mcnee would die this year, 57 points each! We almost had more to hand out, but it was Dick Van Patten who died, not Dick Van Dyke! I bet you all nearly shat yourselves when you saw that! So, a slight change in the league table, with six months to go.

Now we’re at the halfway point, some of us are doing quite well, some of us not so well. I personally thought my list was the bomb this year, but seeing I’m yet to score, I’m slightly mistaken. Oh well, you never know what will happen, one minute you’re enjoying a Tunisian holiday… Too soon?

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Earl Norem, 91, American comic book artist (Silver Surfer, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe).
• Nazar Singh, 111, Indian-born British longevity claimant, unverified oldest man in Europe.
• Tony Longo, 53, American character actor (Mulholland Drive, Angels in the Outfield, Eraser).
• Carl Thompson, 33, British record holder, nation’s heaviest man.
• Don Featherstone, 79, American artist and inventor of the plastic pink flamingo, Lewy body dementia.
• James Horner, 61, American composer (Titanic, Field of Dreams, Apollo 13), Oscar winner (1998), plane crash.
• Magali Noël, 83, French actress (Amarcord, La Dolce Vita) and singer.
• Dick Van Patten, 86, American actor (Eight Is Enough, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights), complications from diabetes.
• Sir Chris Woodhead, 68, British educationalist, Chief Inspector for Ofsted (1994–2000), motor neurone disease.
• Patrick Macnee, 93, English-American actor (The Avengers, This Is Spinal Tap, A View to a Kill).

In Other News 

The UK’s heaviest man has been found dead in his Dover flat. Carl Thompson, who weighed 65 stone, had been housebound for more than a year. The fire brigade, police and ambulance staff took several hours to remove the 33 year old from his home. His body was removed using a small crane. Consuming 10,000 calories every day – four times the usual daily amount for a man – he reportedly spent about £200 a week on takeaways and online food shopping. Unable to walk or dress himself, Thompson was bathed and cooked for by a team of NHS carers. The owner of Thompson’s favourite takeaway – who would deliver food to his bedside using a key to his flat – spoke of sending him what may have been his final food order. Merdad Mohebbi, owner of nearby Q Pizza, told the Sun: “I can’t believe it. He had cut right down on what he was eating. He was only ordering one or two things a day. When I took the order he seemed happy enough. He was talking about how he was going to the hospital and they were going to do tests for him. He was full of life.”

The Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has apologised to his victims as he returned to court to be formally sentenced to death. “I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering that I have caused you,” he told the injured and bereaved. Tsarnaev and his brother killed three and injured 264 when they bombed the finish line of the marathon in 2013. What we are now concerned with is, how long will he be on Death Row? Are you confident that swift justice will be upheld? At 21 years old there’s a potential points windfall for anyone who lists him, but as with all Death Row inmates, appeals upon appeals tend to drag on over years.

Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has worsened and her family say she is now in a hospice to die. A statement released on behalf of the Houston family said that “despite the great medical care at numerous facilities, Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has continued to deteriorate, as of today, she has been moved into hospice care.” The news comes as a court case against Brown’s boyfriend, Nick Gordon is filed. The legal case accuses Gordon of only marrying Brown after she inherited a substantial amount of money and alleges that Gordon’s behaviour “caused, among other things, substantial bodily harm to Brown.” It also claimed that since Brown’s hospitalisation in January, Gordon has accessed her accounts and stole more than $11,000 (£7,000). Nice chap…

And finally, TV presenter Michelle Watt has been  found dead in her home at the age of 38, sadly she wasn’t famous enough to feature on the main list as she does not have a Wiki entry under her own name. Police discovered her body on Wednesday evening after being called to an address in Airth, near Falkirk. The former 60 Minute Makeover host had also worked on programmes including the Scottish dating show Club Cupid and STV’s The Hour. Apparently there are no suspicious circumstances to report, other than she died.

On This Day

• 1838 – Coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom.
• 1880 – The Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.
• 1914 – Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnia Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.
• 1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, bringing fighting to an end in between Germany and the Allies of World War I.
• 1948 – Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.
• 1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
• 1969 – Stonewall Riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
• 1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the 3rd round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield‘s ear.

Deaths

• 1914 – Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg (b. 1868)
• 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (b. 1863)
• 1976 – Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (b. 1927)
• 2001 – Joan Sims, English actress (b. 1930)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Bernie Kopell (82), Lana Del Rey (30), Kris Kristofferson (79), Meryl Streep (66), Cyndi Lauper (62), Randy Couture (52), Francis McDormand (58), Selma Blair (43), KT Tunstall (40), Melissa Rauch (35), Zinedine Zidane (43), Jeff Beck (71), Mick Fleetwood (68), Lionel Messi (28), Carly Simon (70), Ricky Gervais (54), George Michael (52), Chris Isaak (59), Jason Schwartzman (35), JJ Abrams (49) and Tobey Maguire (40).

Next Week peeps!

28th June 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st June 2015

Afternoon my morbid minions, we have points to disburse! Well done Dave and Paul C. for correctly guessing that Jeralean Talley, the worlds oldest living person (now not so much), would kick the bucket this year. 34 points each. I know, not many points, but it’s still 34 more than most of us have.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Rick Ducommun, 62, Canadian actor (The ‘Burbs, Scary Movie, Die Hard), complications from diabetes.
• Blaze Starr, 83, American stripper, burlesque comedienne and club owner, subject of Blaze.
• Ron Clarke, 78, Australian long distance runner, Olympic bronze medalist (1964), Mayor of the Gold Coast (2004–2012), kidney failure.
• Nelson Doubleday, Jr., 81, American publisher (Doubleday) and Major League Baseball team owner (New York Mets), pneumonia.
• Jeralean Talley, 116, American supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person.

In Other News

Veteran actor Sir John Hurt has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The 75-year-old, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in 1980’s The Elephant Man, said he would continue working despite the diagnosis. “I am undergoing treatment and am more than optimistic about a satisfactory outcome, as indeed is the medical team,” he told the Press Association. “I am continuing to focus on my professional commitments and will shortly be recording Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (one of life’s small ironies!) for BBC Radio 4,” he said.

In the same vein, Tommy Chong, one half of the 1970s comedy duo Cheech and Chong, reveals he has rectal cancer. “I have good news and bad news. First the bad  news, the cancer came back and it is a real pain in the butt,” the 77-year-old comedian tweeted. “The good news is I now have to use more marijuana to treat the cancer.” Chong was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago, and cited marijuana as a key player in his recovery. It can’t have helped that much if it came back!

Leading on, we have reports of former dance-pop singer George Michael being in rehab over marijuana use. The 51-year-old has checked in to the Switzerland-based Kusnacht Practice to receive treatment for substance abuse, after having “admitted to have consumed up to 25 joints per day”. Once described as “the world’s most expensive rehab clinic”, the facility near to Zurich charges around €100,000 (£72,000) for treatment and has previously been used by other famous clients, including designer John Galliano. The clinic released a statement saying: “We can neither confirm nor deny that George Michael is a patient with us.” In March last year, Michael said he had not used cannabis for “well over a year-and-a-half”, so he must be making up for lost time…

Colin Montgomerie checked into hospital due to chest pains early on Sunday but was cleared in time to play his final round at the Senior Players Championship in Massachusetts. The Briton, considered one of the best players never to have landed a regular major title, has won three major championships in the over-50s ranks since joining the tour in 2013. The Scot said he felt discomfort at the end of his third round but returned to the course on Sunday after treatment. “I decided the prudent thing was to go in and get checked,” Montgomerie said. “I had all these CAT scans and all this stuff. I had two hours to do it this morning and the staff of the hospital was superb.”At 51 years of age, Montgomorie has at least won one major title, that of Oldest Living Scotsman. Anyone feeding him deep fried battered pizza will be disqualified.

In more golfing drama, Australian golfer Jason Day has collapsed on the final hole of his second round at the US Open Championship in Washington with a bout of vertigo! Day was walking down the ninth, his final hole of the day, when he collapsed. After a delay of several minutes, he got back to his feet and made a bogey. Day has been suffering from fatigue and dizzy spells for the better part of a year, withdrawing from last year’s World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational after a bout and once again having issues in 2015. The 27-year-old has taken a series of tests over the last month to try to pinpoint the problem but has yet to get an answer. Brain tumour anyone?

Writer and artist Alasdair Gray has been seriously injured after a fall at his home. An ambulance was called to the 80 year old’s house in the West End of Glasgow at around 2am on Thursday, and he was taken to hospital for treatment. He is best known as author of the novel Lanark, but is also regarded for his artwork – including a series of murals. His injuries are not believed to be life threatening at this time but we all know what a fall does to an 80 year old!!

And finally, if you go down to the woods today, you might be in for a huge surprise, like a man taking his regular morning stroll who was killed by an elephant that had escaped from a nearby circus. The 65-year-old was walking in the woods near Buchen, a town in south-west Germany, when the African elephant attacked him shortly after 5am local time. What the fuck he was doing in the woods at 5am wasn’t explained and Police declined to say what injuries the unnamed man suffered. The 34-year-old female elephant, called Baby, was captured and returned to the circus. Police are now investigating whether someone let the elephant out of its secure enclosure, and why the animal acted aggressively toward the man.

On This Day

• 1854 – The first Victoria Cross is awarded during the bombardment of Bomarsund in the Åland Islands.
• 1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York.
• 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
• 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

Deaths

• 1377 – Edward III of England (b. 1312)
• 1652 – Inigo Jones, English architect (b. 1573)
• 2001 – John Lee Hooker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Donald Trump (69), Boy George (54), Steffi Graf (46), Jim Belushi (61), Helen Hunt (52), Courtney Cox (51), Ice Cube (46), Neil Patrick Harris (42), Barry Manilow (72), Newt Gingrich (72), Venus Williams (35), Paul McCartney (73), Isabella Rossellini (63), Alison Moyet (54), Richard Madden (29), Kathleen Turner (61), Paula Abdul (53), Mia Sara (48), Zoe Saldana (37), Olympia Dukakis (84), Martin Landau (87), Danny Aiello (82), Brian Wilson (73), Lionel Richie (66), John Goodman (63), Nicole Kidman (48) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (26).

Next Week peeps!

21st June 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th June 2015

What a week! It seemed like there was a mass extinction of celebrities, but for us here at Dead Pool Towers, the only death that mattered was Christopher Lee. Many of you had him listed, but strangely none of you saw fit to declare him a Cert, which is usually a sign of a well loved celebrity.

So, 57 points are awarded thusly: Luke, Ashley, Liz, Julie, Kirsty, Paul G, & Nickie, well done to all of you, especially those of you who have scored for the first time this year.

This week I’ve taken the liberty of adding the lists to the email so you can refresh your memory on who you and everyone else has on their lists of doom. After all, its been over six months and I bet you’re wondering why you’re still part of this abominable endeavour.

So take a quick look, correct me if I’ve gone wrong or missed a death and remember that there’s months to go yet, so if like me you’ve yet to score, all is not lost, who knows what will happen! Maybe a plane crash at the Oscars….

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Vincent Bugliosi, 80, American attorney and author (Helter Skelter), cancer.
• Ronnie Gilbert, 88, American singer-songwriter (The Weavers) and actress (Running on Empty).
• Sir Christopher Lee, 93, British actor, voice artist, and singer (Dracula, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars), heart failure.
• James Last, 86, German composer and big band leader.
• Robert Chartoff, 81, American film producer (Rocky, Raging Bull, Ender’s Game), Oscar winner (1977), pancreatic cancer.
• Igor Kostin, 78, Romanian-born Ukrainian photographer, took first pictures of Chernobyl disaster, traffic collision.
• Ron Moody, 91, British actor (Oliver!, The Animals of Farthing Wood, EastEnders).
• Dusty Rhodes, 69, American Hall of Fame professional wrestler (NWA, WCW, WWE).

In Other News 

The Foo Fighters have cancelled two gigs after frontman Dave Grohl sustained “at least one fracture” when he fell off the stage during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band were two songs into their set at the Ullevi stadium when Grohl went to jump on a ramp but missed and fell into the security area. “I think I just broke my leg,” the singer told the crowd as he lay on the ground. “I’m going to go to hospital. I’m going to fix my leg. And then I’m going to come back.” Eyewitnesses told the media that the band continued the concert, playing cover versions whilst Grohl sought medical attention. A fan said, “He reappeared after an hour to continue the concert, sitting in a chair with his leg bandaged. It was surreal to see him perform on stage with a medic holding his leg. The crowd was just amazed that he was carrying on. He was just phenomenal. I can’t see how he will make the next gig in Holland but then he’s more of a man than I am so I wouldn’t put it past him.”

This year has seen several musicians injured on stage. Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine broke her foot leaping off stage at the Coachella Music Festival in April, while U2 guitarist The Edge misjudged his step and fell off the stage during the opening night of the band’s Innocence and Experience tour. Madonna also fell off stage during a live performance at the Brit Awards. The pop star continued her performance, but said she suffered “a little bit of whiplash”. It’s a perilous old game being a musician these days!

The former England and Tottenham striker Jimmy Greaves has left hospital just over a month after suffering a severe stroke. The 75-year-old was admitted into intensive care on 3 May but his friend and agent Terry Baker has now confirmed Greaves “has left hospital and entered a rehabilitation unit for the next few weeks”. Baker added in a statement on Facebook: “He has improved considerably but there is still a very long way to go.” Which suggests that Greavesy is now struggling with soup and incapable of wiping his own arse.

Paul Gascoigne has revealed that he is “happy in life” in a Radio 5 interview. Gascoigne, 48, knew something was wrong during his playing days and spoke of his relief at finally being diagnosed as an alcoholic and admits that he’s spent £300,000 on rehab clinics. Although he still manages to go on a bender now and again, he denied that he’s a piss addled sot and the media has totally blown up the whole situation. He still reckons he’s the best footballer ever to have played for England, which may be true, but is a sad statement about English football. 2/1 he dies during a xmas binge of sadness.

A Spanish bullfighter gored in the testicles by a bull he was fighting has left hospital. Marco Galan underwent surgery after Sunday’s incident where he was lifted into the air after black fighting bull thrust its left horn into his groin. The infirmary said in its medical report that he had suffered a “bull horn wound in the scrotum which caused bruising and evisceration of the left testicle”. Sadly the brutal bastard will survive, unlike the poor bull. At least he managed to get some kind of restitution before he was killed for ‘entertainment’.

And finally, if you think you’re having a bad day, think about this poor fucker who has survived after being stung up to 1,000 times by tens of thousands of bees near Kingman in north-western Arizona after he disturbed a large hive in a shed in his backyard. “The number of bees in the shed was unbelievable,” a spokesman said. “The deputy who arrived said it was it was like something you’d see in the movies. It was just amazing.” Authorities said the man was working on the property when he was stung and ran to his vehicle, getting help from two passersby who were also stung. A beekeeper called to the scene was also stung 23 times. He told authorities it would probably take several days to fully contain the bees. A particular strain of bee has been menacing people and animals in Arizona in recent weeks, with some being hurt badly enough to require a hospital stay. Nature is finally turning on us!

On This Day

• 1404 – Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr, having declared himself Prince of Wales, allies himself with the French against King Henry IV of England.
• 1777 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
• 1789 – Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.
• 1789 – Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It is named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
• 1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables”.
• 1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
• 1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
• 1962 – The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
• 1966 – The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.
• 1967 – The People’s Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb.
• 1982 – Falklands War: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley conditionally surrender to British forces.
• 2002 – Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Deaths

• 1927 – Jerome K. Jerome, English author (b. 1859)
• 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist (b. 1857)
• 1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish-English engineer (b. 1888)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Jones (75), Liam Neeson (53), Bear Grylls (41), Bill Hader (37), Michael Cera (27), Anna Kournikova (34), Jerry Stiller (88), Nancy Sinatra (75), Griffin Dunne (60), Kayne West (38), Barbara Bush (90), Michael J. Fox (54), Johnny Depp (52), Natalie Portman (34), Elizabeth Hurley (50), Gene Wilder (81), Hugh Laurie (56), Shia LeBeouf (29), George H. W. Bush (91), Malcolm McDowell (72), Tim Allen (62), Ally Sheedy (53), Steve-O (41),

Next Week peeps!

14th June 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th June 2015

Afternoon all, another fun packed edition of the Dead Pool Newsletter to keep you amused on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Alas no listed deaths this week, but plenty of news, in fact so much news I’ve had to leave out more than I put in.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Katherine Chappell, 29, American visual effects editor (Game of Thrones, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Godzilla), lioness attack.
• Charles Kennedy, 55, British politician, Leader of the Liberal Democrats (1999–2006), MP (1983–2015), internal haemorrhage.
• Tiffany Two, 27, American cat, world’s oldest living cat.
• Tariq Aziz, 79, Iraqi politician, Foreign Minister (1983–1991).
• Paolo Tullio, 65, Italian-born Irish Michelin Star-winning chef (Armstrong’s Barn) and resident food critic (The Restaurant).
• Jerry Collins, 34, Samoan-born New Zealand rugby union player (national team), traffic collision.
• Richard Johnson, 87, English actor (The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Julius Caesar, The Haunting).

In Other News

The former snooker player Willie Thorne has announced he is suffering from prostate cancer. Thorne, 61, told the media that the cancer was discovered at an early stage and said he was hopeful of making a full recovery. Thorne, a former UK Championship runner-up who has forged a career as a snooker commentator with the BBC since retiring from playing, has been battling gambling problems. He said: “I feel numb with everything that has gone on. But I am determined to summon the strength and fight. “I’m scared because I’ve spent two years living a lie with the gambling, depression and debts – I do wonder if this has been brought on by the stress.” Sounds like a good bet for next year!

Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura  in TV’s Star Trek, has suffered a stroke. In an updated post on Facebook, her agent reported that Nichols was “awake, eating, in good spirits and able to have full conversations.” “Her right side has shown minor signs of mobility loss but she is not showing any signs of paralyses. The 82-year-old was handpicked by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to appear in the original 1960s TV series. Her casting as fourth in command of the USS Enterprise broke many racial barriers, with Nichols becoming the first black woman to share a kiss with a white man (William Shatner) on US television in 1966.

A BBC journalist is facing disciplinary action for killing off the Queen on Twitter after apparently mistaking a rehearsal of the announcement of her death for the real thing. The Corporation apologised after Ahmen Khawaja, a broadcast journalist, sent a tweet saying: “‘Queen Elizabrth has died [sic]’:@BBCWorld”. It was sent during one of the corporation’s regular rehearsals for royal deaths, but insiders said Ms Khawaja was not taking part in the exercise and appeared to have overheard the rehearsal and tweeted what she thought was breaking news. Ms Khawaja, 31,had previously sent a tweet saying: “BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth is being treated at King Edward 7th Hospital in London. Statement due shortly: @BBCWorld.” By sheer coincidence the Queen was, in fact, at the very same hospital for her annual check-up at the time, but sources said Ms Khawaja did not know that.

The former German chancellor Helmut Kohl is reported to be in a critical condition in the intensive-care unit of a German hospital. Kohl, 85, who served as chancellor between 1982 and 1998 and is known as the architect of German reunification, was admitted to the Heidelberg’s university hospital in south-west Germany following an operation on his intestines. Neither his office nor the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has responded to requests by German media for information about his condition. The hospital said his family might release a statement.

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej has gone back into hospital, only a few weeks after being discharged. A statement from the palace on Sunday said he was undergoing tests at the Siriraj  Hospital in Bangkok but did not say when he was likely to return to his home in the coastal city of Hua Hin. As you know, the 87-year-old monarch has been in poor health for some years and is a good shout for next years lists.

Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias has been receiving treatment after two of his fingers were injured by a drone camera during a concert in Mexico. The singer had been attempting to grab the drone, apparently in an attempt to give fans a point-of-view shot from the stage. At the time the 40 year old singer was “semi-treated” at the side of the stage to stop the bleeding, and was advised to end the show. However, he performed for another 30 minutes before seeking further treatment where he found his mangled hand was worse than expected. Following reconstructive surgery on Monday, it was announced he would need several weeks to recover.

And finally, Stephen Hawking has said he would consider ending his own life if he became a burden to others or if he had “nothing more to contribute”. But the physicist and cosmologist told a forthcoming BBC programme he knows he has much more scientific work to do, despite his advanced motor neurone disease. “To keep someone alive against their wishes is the ultimate indignity,” Hawking, 73, told his interviewer, the comedian Dara O’Briain. “I would consider assisted suicide only if I were in great pain or felt I had nothing more to contribute but was just a burden to those around me.” Let’s see what he does!

On This Day

• 1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, was hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people were killed and 3,000 were seriously injured.
• 1832 – Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.
• 1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agree to suppress the slave trade.
• 1893 – Mohandas Gandhi commits his first act of civil disobedience.
• 1965 – The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, effectively legalizing the use of contraception by married couples.
• 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier was kept off-limits.

Deaths

• 1329 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (b. 1274)
• 1937 – Jean Harlow, American actress and singer (b. 1911)
• 1954 – Alan Turing, English mathematician, cryptanalyst, & computer scientist (b. 1912)
• 1970 – E. M. Forster, English author (b. 1879)
• 1980 – Henry Miller, American author (b. 1891)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Angelina Jolie (40), Clint Eastwood (85), Brooke Shields (50), Mark Wahlberg (44), Heidi Klum (42), Colin Farrell (39), Alanis Morissette (41), Morgan Freeman (78), Russell Brand (40), Dana Carvey (60), Lea Thompson (54), Ronnie Wood (58), Jonathan Pryce (68), Charlie Watts (74), Paul Giamatti (48), Robert Englund (68), Bruce Dern (79), Rafael Nadal (29), Justin Long (37), Zachary Quinto (38), Tom Berenger (66), Sandra Bernhard (60) and Jason Isaacs (52).

Next Week peeps!

7th June 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st May 2015

Sadly, no points again this week, but a plethora of other deaths and plenty of death related news for you to enjoy nevertheless. Without further ado:

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Hugh Ambrose, 48, American historian and author (The Pacific), cancer.
• Anne Meara, 85, American comedian (Stiller and Meara) and actress (Archie Bunker’s Place, The Boys from Brazil).
• John Forbes Nash, Jr., 86, American mathematician, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1994), subject of A Beautiful Mind, traffic collision.
• Tanith Lee, 67, British science fiction, horror and fantasy writer (Blake’s 7).
• Dennis Sheehan, 68, Irish music tour manager (U2), heart attack.
• Christer Jansson, 51, Swedish drummer (Roxette), cancer.
• Doris Hart, 89, American Hall of Fame tennis player.
• Beau Biden, 46, American politician, Attorney General of Delaware (2007–2015), brain cancer.

In Other News 

Actor , who starred in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago in the 1960s, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The 83-year-old star’s agent confirmed the news, just in case you didn’t believe him. His son Tarek told us “He still knows he’s a famous actor. The loss of memory affects above all specific things, details like when he was in a specific place or who he acted with in a specific film, he remembers, for example, that it was Doctor Zhivago but he’s forgotten when it was filmed. He can talk about the film but he forgets its name or he calls it something else instead like Lawrence of Arabia.” Egypt-born Sharif won two Golden Globe awards and an Oscar nomination for his role as Sherif Ali in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, or did he? I’m not so sure anymore…

Scottish artist Jack Vettriano has announced he is giving up painting for the foreseeable future due to a recent accident. He has released a statement  saying that he has dislocated his shoulder and is facing a long recovery period. The statement from Mr Vettriano said: “As a result of a recent accident my right shoulder was dislocated and the reality is that I am going to be unable to paint in the foreseeable future. “I am undertaking a course of physiotherapy but am facing a long recovery period. In the meantime I would like to thank the public for their continued support and interest.” Paintings by the 61-year-old Fife artist, including The Singing Butler, have fetched huge sums and his prints and postcards sell in vast quantities for some reason.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was in a stable condition in a Geneva hospital after being injured in an accident while cycling near Scionzier, France. Kerry, 71, was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Geneva, where he was being examined for a broken leg after hitting a kerb. X-rays at a Swiss hospital confirmed that Kerry fractured his right femur. “The secretary is stable and never lost consciousness, his injury is not life-threatening and he is expected to make a full recovery,” a spokesman said in a statement. The question arrises, WTF was a 71 year old doing on a bicycle??? Twat…

Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, has been discharged from hospital as he recovers from a suspected heart attack. The Democratic Unionist party leader was admitted to the Ulster hospital in Dundonald on Monday, before being moved to Belfast’s Royal Victoria hospital (RVH), where he was fitted with a heart stent. After leaving the RVH on Friday the 66-year-old paid tribute to the hospital’s staff. “Happy to be discharged and back home. Thanks to the wonderful RVH cardiac team – everyone a star,” he tweeted. Can’t be that serious if he can tweet.

Comic and 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan has settled his legal case against Walmart over a crash which left him seriously injured, and killed his friend. A Walmart truck crashed in to the back of Morgan’s limo in June 2014, with prosecutors alleging the driver had not slept for more than 24 hours. Morgan’s lawyer, Benedict Morelli, said Walmart “took full responsibility for the accident”. Morgan, 46, was left in a critical condition following the crash, suffering a traumatic head injury, a broken leg, nose and ribs. In March, his lawyer said the star had not yet been able to get back to work but was “working very hard to get better, physically, emotionally and mentally.” Which is lawyer speak for ‘he’s absolutely fine’. Morgan will be interviewed tomorrow on NBC’s Today program by Matt Lauer, so you can see for yourself the extent of his injuries.

Actor and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard was arrested Monday on suspicion of drunken driving after a Santa Fe restaurant’s security complained about a possibly intoxicated driver. The 71-year-old Shepard told a police officer that he had two tequila drinks and was planning to drive home, Santa Fe police lieutenant Andrea Dobyns said Tuesday. “Our officer could smell alcohol on his breath, and he had bloodshot, watery eyes,” she said. Shepherd declined to take a breath test, but he did perform a field sobriety test, which he failed! Monday’s arrest appears to be Shepard’s second on charges of drunken driving. In January 2009, he was arrested on charges of speeding and drunken driving in the central Illinois town of Normal. Shepard was driving 16 mph over the 30 mph speed limit, police said. A breath test then indicated his blood-alcohol level was double the legal limit. The actor told police then that he had been at a tavern in nearby Bloomington and was heading to a hotel. I’m taking bets on liver failure..

And finally, Britain’s oldest twins have died just weeks apart after being inseparable for 103 years. Glenys Thomas died in April before her heartbroken sister Florence Davies passed away within a month. The great-great-grandmothers were born in 1911, the year before the Titanic sunk. They lived through two world wars, the civil rights movement and huge advances in technology, but they always lived in the small mining village of Abertridwr, in Caerphilly, South Wales, where they had homes next to each other. The twins – believed to be the oldest identical twins in the world – built an interior door joining the two kitchens of their homes to make it easier to see each other. The pair did everything together before Mrs Thomas died on April 23, followed by Mrs Davies last Wednesday, May 20. Their family put their great age down to a “nice, quiet life”.

On This Day

• 1279 BC – Ramesses II (The Great) (19th dynasty) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
• 1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.
• 1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.
• 1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
• 1929 – The first talking Mickey Mouse cartoon, “The Karnival Kid“, is released.
• 2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was Deep Throat.
• 2013 – The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.

Deaths

• 1809 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b. 1732)
• 1837 – Joseph Grimaldi, English comedian and actor, created the clown (b. 1779)
• 1983 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (b. 1895)
• 2009 – Danny La Rue, Irish-born English drag entertainer and singer (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Laverne Cox (31), Priscilla Presley (70), Bob Dylan (74), Stevie Nicks (67), Mike Myers (52), Lauren Hill (40), Annette Bening (57), Todd Bridges (50), Mel B (40), Lenny Kravitz (51), Helena Bonham Carter (49), Anne Heche (46), Tommy Chong (77), John C. Reilly (50), Sir Ian McKellen (76), Frank Oz (71), Pam Grier (66), Bobcat Goldthwait (53), Louis Gossett Jr. (79), Cilla Black (72), Siouxie Sioux (58), Paul Bettany (44), Andre 3000 (40), Joseph Finnes (45), Gladys Knight (71), La Toya Jackson (59), Rupert Everett (56), Stephen Gerrard (35), Colm Meaney (62), Noel Gallagher (48), Kylie Minogue (47), Jamie Oliver (40), Denise Van Outen (41) and Jim Broadbent (66).

Next Week peeps!

31st May 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th May 2015

In a week where nothing seems to have happened in the celebrity death scene, I’ve managed to cobble together a small write up whilst pissed on Eurovision wine. Count yourselves lucky that anything at all was written! I best send out the evil flying monkeys again, otherwise next week will be just as dismal!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dean Potter, 43, American rock climber, BASE-jumping accident.
• Charlotte Klamroth, 111, German supercentenarian, nation’s oldest person.
• State of Bengal, 50, Bangladeshi-born British DJ and music producer.
• Twinkle, 66, British singer-songwriter (“Terry“), cancer.
• Terry Sue-Patt, 50, British actor (Grange Hill).

In Other News

Sadly, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has been given the all clear from cancer. Diagnosed during a routine check-up just before Christmas in 2014, a seven-week course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a cancerous tumour on his tongue has been successful: “We are very happy to announce that following his recent MRI scan, Bruce was today officially given the all-clear by his specialists,” the band said in a statement. In a post on the Iron Maiden website, the 56-year-old artist thanked his fans, family and his medical team for their support and treatment which has led to this “amazing outcome.” There’s always a chance for a relapse isn’t there?

The family of F1 driver Jules Bianchi are still hoping for miracle but admit the situation has become “stagnant”, very much like the bowl of piss under my  bed. Bianchi, 25, has been unconscious since crashing into a recovery vehicle during last October’s Japanese Grand Prix. “While there’s life, there’s hope, even though after a while you are hoping for a miracle,” Philippe Bianchi said. He added: “We have to think about death because we are in a situation where we know a lot of things can happen. It’s terrible. In neurological terms, I’m not sure he is able to do much now.”

Saudi Arabia is advertising for eight new executioners, recruiting extra staff to carry out an increasing number of death sentences usually done by public beheading. No special qualifications are needed for the jobs whose main role is “executing a judgment of death” but also involve performing amputations on those convicted of lesser offences. The Islamic kingdom is in the top five countries in the world for putting people to death, so you should keep this in mind when you make your next list! It ranked third in 2014, after China and Iran, and ahead of Iraq and the United States, according to Amnesty International figures. If you’re interested, a downloadable pdf application form is available. The job is classified as “religious functionary” and that it would be at the lower end of the civil service pay scale.

And finally, a Singaporean man has died after falling off a cliff and into the sea while attempting to take a selfie on an island off the coast of Bali in Indonesia. Mohamed Aslam Shahul, 21, was killed after losing his balance and falling into the sea from a two-metre high cliff, during a holiday with eight friends at the Sandy Bay Beach in Nusa Lembongan. Apparently he couldn’t swim… The news of his death emerged as another selfie-related incident was reported in Russia, a young woman accidentally shot herself in the head while taking a photograph of herself. The 21-year-old was said to have been posing while pointing a 9mm handgun to her head. She had found the gun at her Moscow office left behind by a security guard. While taking a selfie with one hand, she accidentally pressed the gun’s trigger instead of the shutter, shooting herself in the temple at close range, according to reports. The woman was in a “serious condition” today, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Sklifosovsky hospital told RIA Novosti state news agency. Darwinism is not a theory people!

On This Day

• 1607 – One hundred English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first English colony in America.
• 1895 – Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted.
• 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
• 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
• 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.
• 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt.

Deaths

• 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (b. 1473)
• 1963 – Elmore James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1918)
• 1974 – Duke Ellington, American pianist and composer (b. 1899)
• 1995 – Harold Wilson, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tina Fey (45), Sam Smith (23), Joan Collins (82), Pete Townshend (70), Naomi Campbell (45), Mr. T (63), Cher (69), Grace Jones (67), Jack Gleeson (23), Bill Paxton (60), Judge Reinhold (58), Morrissey (56), Enya (54), Trent Reznor (50), Jordan Knight (45), Sugar Ray Leonard (59), Busta Rhymes (43), Marvin Hagler (61), Andrea Corr (41) and Chow Yun Fat (60).

Next Week peeps!

24th May 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th May 2015

Points!!! Points have  been scored!!! Woo!!! Well done to Sylvia, Kaz and Stu, all guessing that B.B. King would play his last riff this year. But extra props to Sylvia who had him as her Cert. Well done all of you!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Elizabeth Wilson, 94, American actress (The Birds, The Graduate, 9 to 5), Tony Award winner (1972).
• Isobel Varley, 77, British tattooed woman, world’s most tattooed senior, Alzheimer’s disease.
• Olympe Amaury, 113, French supercentenarian, nation’s oldest person.
• B.B. King, 89, American Hall of Fame blues guitarist, singer and songwriter (“The Thrill Is Gone“), complications from diabetes.

In Other News

Rob Ford, the former Toronto mayor, has undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his abdomen. Doctors removed the growth in an intensive operation that kept him under anaesthesia for about 10 hours, Ford’s chief of staff said. “There were no new growths, the cancer had not spread beyond what they were already aware of, and they were able to remove all the existing growths without causing damage to any internal structures.” Ford’s surgery comes after several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that he said had shrunk his tumour to an operable size. He has said he could be out of commission for four months. Ford, whose admitted drug and alcohol abuse and outrageous behaviour earned him international notoriety, was forced out of his mayoral re-election bid in September 2014 when doctors discovered his rare, aggressive malignant liposarcoma. He ran successfully for his old city council seat instead.

As Mad Max: Fury Road debuts across the globe, actor Tom Hardy has opened up about his struggle with drugs. Hardy spoke about his addictions to both alcohol and drugs, stating: “I would have sold my mother for a rock of crack.” Alas the actor has now been clean and sober since 2003 and claims that it was a very clear statement that got him back to a better place. But there is every chance of a remission, amirite?

The man once dubbed the world’s fattest has had between three and four stone (22 to 27kg) of skin removed. Paul Mason, 54, from Ipswich, used to weigh 70 stone (440kg) but has lost about 45 stone (285kg). He is currently in New York recuperating after a nine-hour operation to remove his loose skin. Asked by BBC Radio Suffolk about the removal of so much tissue, he said: “I just think ‘good riddance’.” About half of the skin removed was from Mr Mason’s right leg with further significant surgery to what he described as his “apron”, which covered his midriff. Mr Mason, who used to have £75-worth of takeaways and chocolate delivered to his door daily, had the operation thanks to a donation of time by Dr Jennifer Capla.

U2’s latest world tour got off to an unsteady start in Vancouver on Thursday night, when lead guitarist The Edge fell off the edge of the stage. The guitarist fell during the last song of the night, which the rest of his caring bandmates continued to play while he was helped up by security guards. The Edge later posted on Instagram a picture of his grazed and cut right arm, with the message: “Didn’t see the edge, I’m OK!!” Twat!

And finally, a family was left waiting in torrential rain at their mother’s graveside after an “amazing coincidence” saw fellow mourners follow the wrong hearse for nine miles. A group of relatives lost the right hearse, belonging to 71-year-old Mair Howard, after getting stuck in traffic at a roundabout and becoming separated from the rest of the cortege. The three cars, containing Mrs Howard’s nephews and pall-bearers, proceeded to trail the wrong coffin along the A50 in Wales for nine miles, only realising their mistake when family members waiting at the graveside called to ask where they were. Mrs Howard’ son Gareth said his mother would have found the mix-up amusing. He said: “It was, of course, a sad occasion but despite getting soaking wet everyone had a good laugh – and I know Mam would have as well.”

On This Day

• 1536 – The annulment of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s marriage.
• 1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.
• 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1915 – The last British Liberal Party government (led by Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.
• 1984 – Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”, sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
• 1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
• 2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

Deaths

• 1886 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (b. 1804)
• 2012 – Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (b. 1948)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Bono (55), Linda Evangelista (50), Burt Bacharach (87), Emilio Estevez (53), Gabriel Byrne (65), Jason Biggs (37), Stephen Baldwin (49), Steve Winwood (67), Tony Hawk (47), Ving Rhames (56), Harvey Keitel (76), Stevie Wonder (65), Stephen Colbert (51), Robert Pattinson (29), Dennis Rodman (54), George Lucas (71), Tim Roth (54), Cate Blanchett (46), Natalie Appleton (42), Mark Zuckerberg (31), Zara Phillips (34), Pierce Brosnan (62), Debra Winger (60), Janet Jackson (49), Megan Fox (29) and George Clooney (54).

Next Week peeps!

17th May 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th May 2015

Alas no points this week, even with a few big names on this weeks listing, one of those evil flying monkeys must have been still about, either that or Orville and Chuckles decided to bring some in on their way to their final destination. Without further ado…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Grace Lee Whitney, 85, American actress (Star Trek, Some Like It Hot).
• Blanche Cobb, 114, American supercentenarian.
• Michael Blake, 69, American author and screenwriter (Dances with Wolves).
• Ellen Albertini Dow, 101, American actress (The Wedding Singer, Patch Adams, Wedding Crashers), pneumonia.
• Errol Brown, 71, Jamaican-born British singer (Hot Chocolate), liver cancer.
• Nigel Terry, 69, British actor (The Lion in Winter, Excalibur, Troy), emphysema.

In Other News

The former Tottenham Hotspur and England striker Jimmy Greaves is out of intensive care following a severe stroke on Sunday and is able to sit up in bed, according to his family. Greaves was admitted to intensive care on Sunday and on Tuesday his wife Irene disclosed that he was conscious and aware of the seriousness of his condition but that he was unable to speak. He suffered a minor stroke in 2012 but appeared to have made a full recovery. Greaves was due to be inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame on 13th May at a sellout ceremony at White Hart Lane, but we doubt he’s going to be fit enough.

In more footballing news, Brazil legend and three-time World Cup winner Pele has left hospital in Sao Paolo after undergoing prostrate surgery. The  74-year-old was admitted to the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paolo on Tuesday for the second time in six months. Pele, the three-time World Cup winner, was treated for a urinary infection in November 2014 after having kidney stones removed, which was a wordy because he only one kidney, having had one removed towards the end of his playing career. I suspect he hasn’t got half his asshole now either.

Another guy leaving hospital is King Bhumibol Adulyadej, after recovering from a gall bladder operation since last October. He must have really liked hospital food or the nurses were super friendly. However, crowds lined the streets and cheered as the 87-year-old king was driven from the capital, Bangkok, to the royal palace in the coastal town of Hua Hin. It is not the first time he has had a long stay in hospital – he spent four years getting treatment before being released in 2013, those nurses must be something else!

Blues guitarist BB King has told fans he is receiving hospice care at his home following a short stay in hospital. The 89-year-old has lived with type II diabetes for more than 20 years, and has had several spells in hospital in recent months. A message on his website said: “I am in home hospice care at my residence in Las Vegas. Thanks to all for your well wishes and prayers.” He was forced to cancel the remainder of a tour last October when he fell ill during a show, and was later diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion, so there’s no wonder he’s in need of a sexy hospice nurse to look after him.

And finally a nice little tale to sweeten your afternoon. You might not have heard of Ryan McHenry, but he died last week at the age of 27 of bone cancer. He was the genius that created the ‘Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal’ meme. Look them up, it’s hilarious. However, upon hearing of McHenry’s death, Ryan Gosling Vined himself eating cereal to honour his passing. Well done sir!

On This Day

• 1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.
• 1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.
• 1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.
• 1908 – Mother’s Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.
• 1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and remains so until his death in 1972.
• 1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release “Rock Around the Clock“, the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.
• 1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
• 1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.
• 1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.
• 1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.

Deaths

• 1863 – Stonewall Jackson, American general (b. 1824)
• 1977 – Joan Crawford, American actress (year of birth disputed)
• 1994 – John Wayne Gacy, American criminal (b. 1942)
• 2010 – Frank Frazetta, American illustrator and painter (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Adele (27), George Clooney (54), Christina Hendricks (40), Will Arnett (45), Candice Bergen (69), Don Rickles (89), Rosario Dawson (36), Billy Joel (66), Enrique Iglesias (40), Chris Brown (26), Frankie Valli (81), Traci Lords (47), Roy McIlroy (26), Michael Palin (72), Henry Cavill (32), Richard E. Grant (58), Albert Finney (79),  James L. Brooks (75), Glenda Jackson (79), David Attenborough (89),  Alan Dale (68), John Rhys-Davies (71), Lance Henriksen (75) and Rob Brydon (50).

Next Week peeps!

10th May 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd May 2015

I said last week that I’d be sending out the evil flying monkeys and they haven’t disappointed in supplying a few big names. Alas, none of us managed to score. How on earth did we all fail to name any of them astounds me! I’m a bit reticent to send out the monkeys again this week, but I shall if you moribund minions demand it!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jayne Meadows, 95, American actress (I’ve Got a Secret, Undercurrent, Song of the Thin Man).
• Suzanne Crough, 52, American actress (The Partridge Family).
• Jack Ely, 71, American singer (“Louie Louie”).
• Andrew Lesnie, 59, Australian cinematographer (The Lord of the Rings, I Am Legend, The Water Diviner), Oscar winner (2002), heart attack.
• Keith Harris, 67, British ventriloquist (Orville the Duck, Cuddles the Monkey), cancer.
• François Michelin, 88, French businessman, CEO of Michelin (1955–1999).
• Jean Nidetch, 91, American businesswoman, founder of Weight Watchers.
• Ben E. King, 76, American soul and R&B singer (“Stand by Me“, “Spanish Harlem“), coronary heart disease.
• Ruth Rendell, 85, English author.

In Other News

Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is “alert and… has her full senses” and is “not in a coma”, a statement on her official website says. The statement followed reports the 71-year-old, hospitalised last month after being found unconscious at home, was not able to care for herself. A friend filed a petition this week to become Mitchell’s guardian, in which the singer was said to be unresponsive. The petition was reportedly accompanied by a doctor’s declaration stating that the singer would be unable to attend a court hearing for four to six months. All sounds very contrived…

In a creepy, ‘I can’t let go of my ex’ story, Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara is in a legal battle with her former fiancé, who wants to have children from the couple’s frozen embryos. Nick Loeb said he wants a surrogate to carry and give birth to two embryos he and Vergara created through in vitro fertilisation before they split up. He said the actress, who plays Gloria in the ABC comedy, has refused. Vergara, who has been named the highest-earning actress on TV for the last three years, declined to comment. So, we’re in a position now to finally solve the eternal case of ‘is an egg a person’. Are embryos allowed to be counted on the Dead Pool?? Over to you!

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of 15 senior officials this year, including several who complained about his policies. Those executed include two vice-ministers, both were punished for opposing or complaining about Kim’s directives, the legislators confirmed, adding that a vice-minister from the forestry department was executed for complaining about Kim’s forestation plan. Four members of North Korea’s Unhasu orchestra, where Ri Sol-ju, Kim’s wife, once worked as a singer, were also executed in March. They were killed by firing squad on spying charges. Now, if only we could find out who is close to Kim, we could rake in the points!!

Alain Robert has been at it again. The self-styled French ‘Spiderman’ who has climbed some of the world’s tallest buildings without permission, scaled Paris’s tallest building, the 210-metre-high Montparnasse Tower, on Tuesday. Robert says he did the stunt to express support for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal. Robert reached the top of the tower in less than 50 minutes, putting up a Nepal flag en route, before being met by police. The guy can’t keep this up, he’s bound to slip one day…

On This Day

• 1913 – Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry.
• 1937 – Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 1978 – The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (which would later become known as “spam“) is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
• 1979 – After the general election, Margaret Thatcher forms her first government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 2000 – The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.

Deaths

• 1758 – Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
• 1969 – Zakir Hussain, Indian politician, 3rd President of India (b. 1897)
• 1972 – Leslie Harvey, Scottish guitarist (Stone the Crows) (b. 1944)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jessica Alba (34), Dwayne Johnson (43), Kirsten Dunst (33), Daniel Day-Lewis (58), Willie Nelson (82), Penelope Cruz (41), Jerry Seinfeld (61), Uma Thurman (45), Jay Leno (65), Michelle Pfeiffer (57), Channing Tatum (35), David Beckham (40), Ellie Kemper (35), Jamie Dornan (33), Ann-Margret (74), Kevin James (50), Sheena Easton (56), Harper Lee (89), Andre Agassi (45), Mary McDonnell (63), Lily Allen (30), Julie Benz (43), Wes Anderson (46), Burt Young (75), Jet Li (52), Joan Chen (54) and Giancarlo Esposito (57).

Next Week peeps!

3rd May 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 26th April 2015

Short and sweet this week, not many notables have died and hardly any news of worth, but hopefully we’ve managed to put something together that will tickle your fancy on a Sunday afternoon. No points this week as you may have surmised, so with a certain amount of trepidation, we shall let loose the evil flying monkeys, you all know what happens when we do that!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Betty Willis, 91, American graphic designer (Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign).
• Peter Howell, 96, British actor (Emergency – Ward 10).
• Rex Robinson, 89, British actor (Doctor Who, Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses).
• Sawyer Sweeten, 19, American actor (Everybody Loves Raymond), suicide by gunshot.
• Władysław Bartoszewski, 93, Polish politician and resistance fighter, Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner.

In Other News

Bobby Brown has said that his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown is “awake” nearly three months after the 21-year-old was found unconscious in a bath. At a concert in Dallas on Saturday, Brown told the audience that “Bobbi is awake” and that “she is watching me”. Few details have been released about Bobbi Kristina’s health since she was taken to hospital on 31st January. There were unconfirmed reports at the time that Bobbi Kristina had been put in a medically-induced coma to reduce swelling on the brain but it’s believed she was released from hospital last month.

comedian, actress and TV star Roseanne Barr has revealed that she is suffering from glaucoma and macular degeneration and is slowing going blind. The outspoken, Emmy award-winning star of the 1990s hit comedy show Roseanne said that her vision “is closing now”. Barr, 62, said she smokes marijuana to help relieve the pressure she suffers in her eyes and also believes it opens her mind. Let’s hope the weed also helps her from tripping at the top of the stairs…

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has revealed that he is undergoing treatment for back  pain after speculation about his health. He insisted he was in good enough shape to fight the general election despite being on Temazepam, 65 pints of ale and 200 fags whilst receiving hospital treatment twice a week for the recurrence of serious back pain. In his recent autobiographical book, Purple Revolution, he revealed that several health scares including testicular cancer, a car accident and a light aircraft crash had left him with the body of a 70-year-old. So claiming to be as “fit as a flea” and accusing his political rivals of spreading untruths about his wellbeing was a lie as well…

And finally, The Queen spent her 89th birthday on Tuesday celebrating quietly with members of the Royal family at Windsor Castle as she took a rare week off from official engagements. Her Majesty still went through her daily quota of government red boxes, as she does every day except Christmas Day, but was otherwise able to relax with the Duke of Edinburgh as she entered her 90th year, much to the disappointment of many of the Poolers. Looks like she’s here to stay folks!

On This Day

• 1803 – Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L’Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.
• 1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
• 1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.
• 1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
• 1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

Deaths

• 1717 – Samuel Bellamy, English pirate (b. 1689)
• 1865 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (b. 1838)
• 1970 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, dancer, and playwright (b. 1911)
• 1976 – Sid James, South African-English actor (b. 1913)
• 1989 – Lucille Ball, American actress and producer (b. 1911)
• 1999 – Jill Dando, English journalist (b. 1961)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kate Hudson (36), Jack Nicholson (78), Jessica Lange (66), Al Pacino (75), Carmen Electra (43), Tony Danza (64), Queen Elizabeth II (89), Andie MacDowell (57), Lee Majors (76), Shirley MacLaine (81), Renee Zellweger (46), George Takei (78), Maria Sharapova (28), James Franco (37), Hayden Christensen (34), Andy Serkis (51), Ryan O’Neal (74), Iggy Pop (68), James McAvoy (36), Charles Grodin (80), Michael Moore (61), Hank Azaria (51), Talia Shire (69), Bjorn Ulvaeus (70), Djimon Hounsou (50), John Waters (69), Glenn Campbell (79) and Tim Curry (69).

Next Week peeps!

26th April 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 19th April 2015

Alas a quiet week for points, which feels rather odd after the points bonanza of the last few weeks. I’ll also refrain from making that joke about the inventor of the Sledge Hammer again, well, until M.C. Hammer bites the bullet that is…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Judith Malina, 88, German-born American actress (Dog Day Afternoon, Awakenings, The Addams Family) and director, lung disease.
• Herb Trimpe, 75, American comic book artist (The Incredible Hulk, Thor), co-creator of Wolverine. 
• Ronnie Carroll, 80, Northern Irish Eurovision singer and political candidate.
• Orma Slack, 112, Canadian supercentenarian, nation’s oldest living person.
• Percy Sledge, 74, American R&B singer (“When a Man Loves a Woman“), liver cancer.

 In Other News

Spiderman, aka Alain Robert, has been up to his old tricks again. This time the 52 year old scaled one of Dubai’s tallest skyscrapers, relying on just chalk and sticky tape on his fingertips to help him up the 75-storey high Cayan Tower in the emirate’s glitzy marina area. He completed climbing the 1007-foot (307 meter) high structure in just 70 minutes on Sunday. He had no harness and little space for his feet on the ledges of the tower, which twists as it ascends. One day we’ll see him in the previous section…

Sue Perkins has said she is taking a break from Twitter because she has received death threats after speculation she might replace Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. The Great British Bake Off presenter – who also hosts an ITV chatshow with co-star Mel Giedroyc – tweeted on Tuesday to say that she was “off Twitter for a bit”. And you can’t blame her since seeing tweets wishing she would burn to death. Of course, the story of her taking over Top Gear is totally fabricated, so it makes all those people double douchebags. At least James May is of sound mind, the former presenter tweeted the trolls to ‘do the world a much bigger favour by killing yourself’ adding that ‘we don’t want them as fans’. I’ll not mention Clarkson’s cancer scare, we all know he’s pandering for sympathy.

Florence Welch has revealed she suffered a broken foot while leaping off stage during her energetic live set at Coachella last weekend. The Florence and the Machine singer promises ‘stripped back’ live performances, with her Glastonbury show only two months away! Who knows what she’ll try then, perhaps bouncing on her head? However, it’s not all bad news from Coachella, Justin Bieber and his entourage were stopped by security and denied entry to Drake’s headline show, leading to an argument with festival staff. Not even an army of Beliebers could protect the little cunt from being put in a chokehold and getting kicked out!

Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi’s fight to recover from injuries sustained in a crash last year is the equivalent of “running a marathon every day”, according to his father. Bianchi, 25, remains in a coma, six months after the accident in Japan. He sustained a severe head injury when he crashed into a recovery vehicle at the Japanese Grand Prix and is now under the care of neurosurgeons in his native Nice. His father concluded the interview by saying “From a medical point of view, his condition is stable. All of his organs are working without assistance. But, for now, he remains unconscious.

And finally a warning to all potential MP’s. A Tory councillor is recovering at home after having three fingers severed by a dog when she tried to put electoral junk mail through a letterbox. Cllr Jane Chitty was left in agony when the Staffordshire bull terrier clamped down onto her hand on Friday lunchtime in an effort to defend his home from attack. The dog is fine but Cllr Chitty was quickly rushed to the specialist plastic surgery unit at East Grinstead Hospital in West Sussex where she underwent a five-hour operation. Cllr Chitty, who represents Strood, near Rochester, Kent, was handing out lies in support of Rochester and Strood candidate Kelly Tolhurst. The councillor will be reporting the incident to the Police when she is ready, after all she shouldn’t have been trespassing and littering to begin with and the dog should be praised for its actions.

On This Day

• 1770 – Captain James Cook sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
• 1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
• 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
• 1943 – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
• 1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show.
• 1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
• 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba‘s central committee after 45 years of holding the title.

Deaths

• 1824 – Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet (b. 1788)
• 1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
• 1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist and theorist (b. 1809)
• 1989 – Daphne du Maurier, English author and playwright (b. 1907)
• 1992 – Frankie Howerd, English actor (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (b. 1925)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Samantha Fox (49), Emma Thompson (56), Adrien Brody (42), Sarah Michelle Gellar (38), Emma Watson (25), Loretta Lynn (83), Saoirse Ronan (21), David Cassidy (65), Jennifer Morrison (36), David Letterman (68), Claire Danes (36), Andy Garcia (59), Paul Sorvino (76), Ex-Pope Benedict (88), Ellen Barkin (51), Matin Lawrence (50), Sean Bean (56), Jennifer Garner (43), Rooney Mara (30), Victoria Beckham (41), Conan O’Brien (52) and James Woods (68).

Next Week peeps!

19th April 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 12th April 2015

We have points to dish out again! You’re all doing very well this year! Paul guessed that Gertrude Weaver would peg it, so an amazing 34 points! Dave guessed her too, but he had her as his Cert so an even more amazing 134 points awarded!!! Awesomeness to both of you. So the league table has changed considerably at the top once again. If you’re like me, languishing at the bottom of the table with a big fat zero, don’t worry, they’ve used up their Certs and Women, all we need is a couple of deaths and we’re right up there with the best! It’s only April after all!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• James Best, 88, American actor (The Dukes of Hazzard, Ride Lonesome, Sounder), pneumonia.
• Dave Ulliott, 61, English professional poker player, colon cancer.
• Gertrude Weaver, 116, American supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person, pneumonia.
• Geoffrey Lewis, 79, American actor (High Plains Drifter, Maverick, The Lawnmower Man).
• Richie Benaud, 84, Australian cricket captain and television commentator, skin cancer.

In Other News

The Conservative parliamentary candidate Michael Fabricant has revealed that he has skin cancer. He has been diagnosed with melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, but says he is “optimistic” because specialists told him they have caught it in time. Mr Fabricant, well known in the Commons for his shock of blond hair, said he intended to continue campaigning with his “usual enthusiasm”. Woo! Perhaps he’d be better off staying off the sun beds from now on.

Blues guitarist BB King says he is “feeling much better” after being treated in hospital for dehydration. The 89-year-old musician was reportedly admitted after  suffering from dehydration caused by diabetes. The blues legend has had type 2 diabetes for more than two decades. In October 2014, King cancelled the remaining eight performances of a tour, owing to dehydration and exhaustion. I know the feeling, after a hard night on the whisky, I feel like I need the hospital too.

The Queen’s cousin, Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent, has been taken to hospital after suffering a hip injury, Buckingham Palace has said. It is understood the duke, 79, sustained a suspected dislocated hip while staying at the Balmoral estate in Scotland. No news on what he was up to when he managed to hurt himself, but he suffered a mild stroke in 2013, so perhaps he’s a bit doddery on his feet, nothing to do with a sex dungeon under the castle.

Talking of legs, Daniel Craig has had surgery after sustaining a knee injury while filming the new James Bond film, Spectre. Eon Productions said he had had a “minor procedure” in New York during a break in production over Easter. A spokeswoman denied reports the 47-year-old had missed several days of filming. “During a scheduled break, Daniel Craig had arthroscopic surgery to repair his knee injury. He will rejoin production on April 22nd at Pinewood,” she said. I’m sure the insurance people are already sighing in relief.

And finally, an arrest warrant has been issued for that little cunt Justin Bieber in Argentina after the singer failed to respond to summons related to an incident in 2013. Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the “immediate detention” of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls. Bieber is accused of sending the bodyguards to attack photographer Diego Pesoa outside a Buenos Aires nightclub. Bieber never returned to Argentina to respond to questions about the incident. Under Argentine law, Bieber would face from one month to six years in prison if convicted on a charge of causing injuries. Let’s hope he get’s a good stretch inside.

On This Day

• 1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships.
• 1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
• 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.
• 1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; Vice President Harry Truman, becomes President upon Roosevelt’s death.
• 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
• 1961 – The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
• 1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place – the STS-1 mission.

Deaths

• 1817 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
• 1945 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, American lawyer and politician, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
• 1981 – Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
• 1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
• 2001 – Harvey Ball, American illustrator, created the smiley (b. 1921)
• 2009 – Marilyn Chambers, American porn actress and model (b. 1952)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kristen Stewart (25), Pharrell Williams (42), Robin Wright (49), Russell Crowe (51), Dennis Quaid (61), Jenna Jameson (41), Paul Rudd (46), Patricia Arquette (47),  Zach Braff (40), Francis Ford Coppola (76), John Ratzenberger (68), Haley Joel Osment (27), Hugh Hefner (89), Jackie Chan (61), Steven Seagal (63), Cynthia Nixon (49), Billy Dee Williams (78), Julian Lennon (51) and Joss Stone (28).

Next week peeps!

12th April 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 5th April 2015

Lets start with some housekeeping shall we? Last week a chap called Ray Douglas died, I missed him, but luckily a sharp eyed pooler noticed so we have points from last week to dispense. So, Liz and Martin get 43 points each for the death of that very well known composer Roy Douglas. Well done both of you 🙂

In other news, Dave, Julie, Lee and Paul all had Misao Okawa, the oldest person on the planet as their Cert, so 133 points each to them. Well done all of you!!

This has crowded the top of the league table somewhat, so all to play for, but for all of you who have yet to score, don’t worry, they’ve all used up their big pointers already on low scoring names, so it can all change dramatically at any moment!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Roy Douglas, 107, British composer.
• Gene Saks, 93, American stage and film director (The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Brighton Beach Memoirs), pneumonia.
• Tuti Yusupova, 134, Uzbekistani longevity claimant, unverified world’s oldest person.
• Robert Z’Dar, 64, American film actor and producer (Maniac Cop, Tango & Cash).
• Andrew Getty, 47, American heir.
• Dave Ball, 65, British musician (Procol Harum).
• Cynthia Lennon, 75, British author, first wife of John Lennon, cancer.
• Misao Okawa, 117, Japanese supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person, heart failure.
• Rudolph R. Perz, 89, American advertising executive, creator of the Pillsbury Doughboy.
• Bob Burns, 64, American drummer (Lynyrd Skynyrd), traffic collision.

In Other News

The former Cuban president Fidel Castro,  88, appeared in public for the first time in more than a year last Monday, greeting a delegation of Venezuelans and appearing “full of vitality”. Official media showed images of a seated Castro shaking hands with the visiting Venezuelans through the window of his vehicle, wearing a baseball cap and a windbreaker. There was no explanation of why five days passed before the encounter was reported. Seems some of you might have to wait a long time for this one to drop!

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is “getting stronger each day” after being taken to hospital earlier this week, a statement published on her website says. The 71-year-old was found unconscious in her Los Angeles home on Tuesday afternoon. A statement released on her website late on Friday said the singer was “resting comfortably”. It is still not clear what she’s being treated for. In December, Mitchell told Billboard magazine that she had a rare skin condition, Morgellons disease, which prevented her from performing. Morgellons is a controversial condition and is not recognised by mainstream medical authorities, many in the medical community believe it is a psychiatric disorder. So she’s just mad as a hatter then…

The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, has said an operation to remove a tumour from his lung was a “complete success”. Robinson, who announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer, said an operation to remove it had gone well and “normal service will be resumed as soon as possible”. Writing in a blog on the BBC’s website, the 51-year-old thanked doctors and nurses at the Royal Brompton and Royal Free hospitals for looking after him. He said: “I am now beginning a course of chemotherapy to try to stop the cancer even daring to think of returning. I’m also working to restore the strength of my voice after the op.

On This Day

• 1722 – The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island.
• 1792 – U.S. President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States.
• 1904 – The first international rugby league match is played between England and an Other Nationalities team (Welsh & Scottish players) in Central Park, Wigan, England.
• 1994 – American musician Kurt Cobain commits suicide.

Deaths

• 1976 – Howard Hughes, American pilot, engineer, and director (b. 1905)
• 1994 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
• 2006 – Gene Pitney, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
• 2008 – Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)

Last Weeks Birthdays

Celine Dion (47), Alec Baldwin (57), Robert Downey Jr. (50), Debbie Reynolds (83),  Eddie Murphy (54), Elle Macpherson (51), Warren Beatty (78), Susan Boyle (54), Christopher Walken (72), Rhea Perlman (67), MC Hammer (53), Eric Clapton (70), Michael Fassbender (38), Eric Idle (72), Ewan McGregor (44), Paris Jackson (16), Amanda Bynes (29), Brendan Gleeson (60), Lucy Lawless (47), Emmylou Harris (68), Piers Morgan (50), Al Gore (67), Ali MacGraw (76), Linda Hunt (70), Robbie Coltrane (65) and David Blaine (42).

Next week peeps!

5th April 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 29th March 2015

Welcome all, nil points scored this week, so no movement on the board. But as usual, we have produced an amazing newsletter full of nothingness for you to peruse on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gregory Walcott, 87, American actor (Plan 9 from Outer Space, Norma Rae, Every Which Way but Loose).
• Jackie Trent, 74, English singer-songwriter and actress. Writer of the theme song to TV show, Neighbours.
• Lee Kuan Yew, 91, Singaporean politician, Prime Minister (1959–1990), pneumonia.
• Lil’ Chris, 24, British singer-songwriter, actor and television personality.
• John Renbourn, 70, British guitarist (Pentangle), heart attack.

In Other News

Mad Men star Jon Hamm has recently completed a course of treatment for alcoholism, a spokesperson for the actor has confirmed. Hamm entered rehab to tackle his addiction with the support of his longtime partner, fellow actor and film-maker Jennifer Westfeldt, their publicist Annett Wolf said in a statement released on Tuesday. The 44-year-old actor has played Don Draper, a troubled advertising executive with a dark past and drinking problems of his own, for seven seasons. Seems life is imitating art!

Scotland Yard say they are investigating alleged threats to kill the director general of the BBC, Tony Hall, as the fallout over the decision to sack the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson took a sinister turn. The BBC’s head of security put out an urgent appeal for ex-Special Forces personnel to take part in an operation to protect Lord Hall, said to cost to licence payers more than £1,000 a day. Hall has received a death threat before. In 1999 when he was head of BBC News, he went into hiding under police protection following a call that said he would be next after the murder of Jill Dando. I bet Oisin Tymon isn’t getting the same level of protection!!

Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to prevent her from developing ovarian cancer, the illness that killed her mother at the age of 56. Two years ago, Jolie had a double mastectomy because she had inherited the faulty BRCA1 gene, which placed her at high risk of developing breast cancer, and also gave her an elevated lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer. We’re wondering how much of the 39 year old is left after so much surgery! Is she human anymore?

Black Sabbath have announced one final show before the band bid farewell for good. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler will headline Ozzfest Japan on 22 November – while an invite to Bill Ward, the band’s original drummer, is still pending. The legendary metal group began their reunion in 2012 with the aim to tour the world following the release of their album, 13. Some of the tour dates were scrapped after Iommi was diagnosed with cancer, although they were later able to appear at festivals such as Lollapalooza and Download before headlining a series of dates. Best keep an eye on them.

Anti-UKIP protesters invaded a pub in south London where party leader Nigel Farage was having lunch. They chased Farage and his family out of the pub and jumped on the politician’s car bonnet as he drove away. Mr Farage later branded them “scum”. Mr Farage said: “I hope these ‘demonstrators’ are proud of themselves. My children were so scared by their behaviour that they ran away to hide. Perhaps Mr Farage is well suited for a listing on the Dead Pool, it’s only a matter of time before something gets out of hand, but do you feel sorry for an ardent racist and wanker? No, me neither…

This week we will also be declaring the death of humanity. Yes, comedian Russell Brand has been voted the world’s fourth most important thinker by readers of intellectual magazine Prospect. Which probably means they voted my torn and bleeding arsehole as number two! One thing’s for certain, both Brand and my arsehole have many things in common, both are hairy and produce an amazing amount of shit and neither should be on Question Time! What next? Frankie Boyle as Immigration Ambassador? FFS!

On This Day

• 1849 – The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
• 1871 – The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
• 1886 – Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1971 – A Los Angeles, California jury recommends the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers.
• 1974 – NASA‘s Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury.
• 1974 – Local farmers in Lintong District, Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China, discover the Terracotta Army that was buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, in the third century BCE.
• 1990 – The Czechoslovak parliament is unable to reach an agreement on what to call the country after the fall of Communism, sparking the so-called Hyphen War.
• 2004 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.
• 2014 – The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed.

Deaths

• 1788 – Charles Wesley, English clergyman and poet (b. 1707)
• 1891 – Georges Seurat, French painter (b. 1859)
• 1912 – Robert Falcon Scott, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1868)
• 1972 – J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank, English businessman, founded Rank Organisation (b. 1888)
• 1982 – Carl Orff, German composer (b. 1895)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Reese Witherspoon (39), William Shatner (84), Andrew lloyd Webber (67), Lena Olin (60), Chaka Khan (62), Amanda Plummer (58), Perez Hilton (37), R. Lee Ermey (71), Donna Pescow (61), Kelly LeBrock (55), Lara Flynn Boyle (45), Jim Parsons (42), Alyson Hannigan (41), Jessica Chastain (38), Tommy Hilfiger (63), Aretha Franklin (73), Sir Elton John (68), Sarah Jessica Parker (50), Vladamir Klitschko (39), Keira Knightley (30), Alan Arkin (81), James Caan (75), Dianna Ross (71), Steven Syler (67), Martin Short (60), Jennifer Grey (55), Larry Page (42), Quentin Tarantino (52), Mariah Carey (45), Fergie (40), Jessie J (27), Lady Gaga (29), Dianne Wiest (67), Vince Vaughn (45) and Julia Styles (34).

Next Week peeps!

29th March 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd March 2015

What  have we here? More points to award! You guys are doing very well this year!  Well done to John for guessing Malcolm Fraser would peg it, 66 points! Also a well done to Lee for guessing that Leandra Becarra Limbreras would die at the age of 127, at least he had her as a Cert, so he will get some points! So the table has moved somewhat again, not by much, but at least some.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ib Melchior, 97, Danish-born American author and screenwriter (Death Race 2000, Robinson Crusoe on Mars).
• Mike Porcaro, 59, American bassist (Toto), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
• Buddy Elias, 89, German-born Swiss actor (Sunshine, The Monuments Men).
• Andy Fraser, 62, British musician (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Free) and songwriter (“All Right Now“, “Every Kinda People”).
• Shaw Taylor, 90, British actor and television presenter.
• Leandra Becerra Lumbreras, 127, Mexican longevity claimant, unverified oldest living person.
• Malcolm Fraser, 84, Australian politician, Prime Minister (1975–1983).
• A. J. Pero, 55, American drummer (Twisted Sister, Adrenaline Mob), heart attack.
• Perro Aguayo Jr., 35, Mexican professional wrestler, neck injury in bout.

In Other News

Since Vladimir Putin vanished from public view 10 days ago, the speculation surrounding the Russian president has been nothing if not dramatic. One rumour claimed he had died. Another wondered if some cosmetic surgery had gone wrong. Yet another placed him in Switzerland for the birth of a secret lovechild. The reality – two conflicting reports suggested on Sunday – may be rather less sensational and not at all at one with Putin’s virile image: while one claimed he had gone down with the flu, another suggested he had been suffering from back trouble. Nothing quite like gossip.

Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of late pop singer Whitney Houston, has been moved to a rehabilitation facility from a Georgia hospital almost two months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub. Citing an unnamed source close to the family, the news network said that Brown’s condition had not changed as doctors express their fears that she may never come out of a coma. Brown, 21, the only child of singers Bobby Brown and Houston was discovered on January 31st face down and unresponsive in a bathtub in her suburban home.

The actor Adam Deacon, best known for his roles in the film Kidulthood and Channel 4 police drama Babylon, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Deacon had been due to appear at Thames magistrates court in Bow, east London, on Friday, to face charges of affray and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place. However, the court was told that Deacon was being held under section two of the Mental Health Act and was being treated in hospital.

Former rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight collapsed in a courtroom Friday shortly after a judge ordered him to be held on $25m bail in a murder case. Knight’s attorney Matthew Fletcher said his client, who is diabetic and has a blood clot, told him that he hadn’t received any medication since Thursday, so it’s hardly surprising he had a wobbly! The 49-year-old co-founder of Death Row Records has pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges.

Robert Durst, the US real estate tycoon, who is awaiting trial on a murder charge, has been moved to a mental health unit after being deemed a suicide risk. Durst was transferred on Tuesday night to a Louisiana state prison that handles severely mentally ill inmates. Mr Durst has found himself in this position after he appeared to confess to three killings while being filmed for documentary. During a break in the filming of a documentary about his life, Mr Durst can be heard saying “I don’t know what’s in the house,” just before saying he “killed them all”. Mr Durst appears to be speaking to himself in the recording, whilst wearing an active wireless microphone inside a bathroom. He has long been suspected in the disappearance of his first wife, who went missing from their country home in New York state in 1982. In 2003, he was acquitted of murder in the death of his elderly neighbour, whose dismembered body was found floating in a Texas bay. One to keep an eye on indeed!

On This Day

• 1906 – The first England vs France rugby union match is played at Parc des Princes in Paris.
• 1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
• 1963 – The Beatles ’ first album, Please Please Me, is released in the United Kingdom.
• 1972 – In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
• 1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.
• 1997 – The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.

Deaths

• 2001 – William Hanna, American animator, director, producer, and voice actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (b. 1910)
• 2009 – Jade Goody, English television personality, contestant on Big Brother (b. 1981)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Eva Longoria (40), Holly Hunter (57), William Hurt (65), Rob Lowe (51), Kurt Russell (64), Jerry Lewis (89), Judd Hirsch (80), Bruce Willis (60), Glenn Close (68), Bret Michaels (52), Will.i.am (40), Spike Lee (58), Rosie O’Donnell (53), Matthew Broderick (53), Gary Oldman (57), Fabio (56), Erik Estrada (66), Gary Sinise (60), Timothy Dalton (71), David Thewlis (52), Irene Cara (56) and Ursula Andress (79).

Next week peeps!

22nd March 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »