Dead Pool 15th March 2015

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this weeks edition of the Dead Pool. Sir Terry Pratchett has sadly passed away. I will write a little piece about him later in the newsletter, but as with all things, life does go on and there are points to distribute.

Paul and Mark both score with Sam Simon, 91 points each plus an extra 100 for Mark as he had him as a Cert. Well done both of you!

Now for the Pratchett scores: Dave J, Julia, Stu, Neil and Sophie, you all receive 84 points. I want to say well done, but I’d rather punch you in the head for having him listed at all 😛

So a lot of movement in the league table, check out who the new points leader is below!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Izola Curry, 98, American assailant, attempted to kill Martin Luther King Jr.
• Sam Simon, 59, American writer, producer and director (The Simpsons, Cheers, The Drew Carey Show), colorectal cancer.
• Windell Middlebrooks, 36, American actor (Body of Proof, The Suite Life on Deck, Scrubs).
• Richard Glatzer, 63, American director, writer and producer (Still Alice, America’s Next Top Model), ALS.

and

• Terry Pratchett, 66, British author (Discworld series), posterior cortical atrophy.

In Other News

Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson has been hospitalised after sustaining serious injuries in a knife fight with his brother Andrew last Wednesday. Mick’s injuries included a stab wound to the back of the head. The fight took place at Mick’s home in Iowa and both siblings appeared to be under the influence of alcohol when police officers arrived. The brothers were reportedly driven to hospital in separate ambulances. Both siblings were hurt in the fight, but none of their injuries were deemed life-threatening by police and the altercation will not affect the band’s planned live dates.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has been forced to deny that the 62-year-old president is in poor health after a string of meetings were canceled and the Kremlin published old photographs to claim work was proceeding as usual. Concerns over Putin’s well-being were first raised earlier this week when he postponed a trip to Kazakhstan for talks. A source in the Kazakh government told Reuters that the visit was canceled because Putin had fallen ill. Putin has not been seen in public since a meeting and press conference with the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, on the 5th March.

Pope Francis has marked the second anniversary of his election by giving an interview in which he says he expects his time at the Vatican to be short, and that he would be ready to resign rather than ruling the Catholic church for life. “I have a feeling my pontificate will be brief,” he told Mexico’s Televisa channel. Francis, who is 78, and apparently in good health, said “It is a vague feeling I have that the Lord chose me for a short mission. I am always open to that possibility.” Well, a hot tip from the voice of God no less!

On This Day

• 44 BC – Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.
• 1892 – Liverpool F.C. is founded.
• 1906 – Rolls-Royce Limited is incorporated.
• 1935 – Percy Shaw founded his company Reflecting Roadstuds Limited to make cat’s eyes.
• 1985 – The first Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com).
• 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union.

Deaths

• 44 BC– Julius Caesar, Roman general and statesman (b. 100 BC)
• 1891 – Joseph Bazalgette, English engineer (b. 1819)
• 1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American author (b. 1890)
• 1998 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (b. 1903)
• 2003 – Thora Hird, English actress (b. 1911)
• 2009 – Ron Silver, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1946)
• 2014 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and academic (b. 1947)

Sir Terry Pratchett by KoA

It’s very difficult to write something about a man who has just died that you idolised, but I couldn’t let this week pass without saying a few words. Pterry was a lot of things to many people, foremost a writer and author, a defender of Orang-Utan’s, a voice for Alzheimers Disease and a pro-choice supporter for assisted dying. Personally I only ever saw him as a fantastic writer of books.

I stumbled across my first Pratchett by accident. I was a member of a book club that sent you novels by post, even if you didn’t want them. So this particular month I forgot to order a book and Moving Pictures landed on our doormat. What drew me to the book initially was the artwork of Josh Kirby, I’d never seen anything quite like it. So, as not to judge a book by its cover, I sat down to read it. I was instantly hooked and ordered all of the back catalogue. Since then I have bought every single book in hardback, even through those tough times when I was out of  work.

I was lucky enough to meet Terry on a couple of occasions , both during book signings, but one sticks out more for me as I’d been waiting patiently in line for over two hours in a queue that took the length of Bangor’s High Street. By the time I got to Terry, he must have signed at least two thousand books, but he was very charming and made conversation with this particular star-struck kid. He asked my name to sign the book and questioned me about Welsh names in general. We had a brief chat about such things and I walked away in awe. I was expecting a quick signature from a tired author, not a kind man in a hat who was genuinely interested in the people coming to see him. But from what other people have said since his untimely death, this was who he was. A year later, Soul Music was published. I rather hope that our little conversation helped him write that book, just a tiny bit, who knows…

His appeal was, and still is, very far reaching. I bring up Twitter as an example. How many of you clicked on my profile and saw that I liked Discworld? I bet you thought, he’s like me, he ‘gets’ it and pressed the follow button. We became friends off the back of a mutual love of the written word, words written by Terry Pratchett.  And let’s face it, who doesn’t like the Discworld novels?? If we go by the Top 200 Books Of All Time as defined by the BBC’s The Big Read, only two authors have five books in the top 100, Terry Pratchett and Charles Dickens. The author with most books in the top 200 was Pratchett with fifteen!

So, we still have one more book of Terry’s to read, which is earmarked to be published later this year, another instalment in the Tiffany Aching series called The Shepherd’s Crown. I’m for one looking forward to his swan song.

To finish, I’ll share with you the final words on Terry’s Twitter feed.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex (51), Juliette Binoche (51), Freddie Prinze Jr. (39), Sharon Stone (57), Chuck Norris (75), Johnny Knoxville (44), John Hamm (44), Robin Thicke (28), Emili Sande (28), Mitt Romney (68), Rupert Murdoch (84), Ron Jeremy (62), Aaron Eckhart (47), William H. Macy (65), Didier Drogba (37), Liza Minnelli (69), Pete Doherty (36), Billy Crystal (67) and Michael Caine (82).

Next week peeps!

15th March 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th March 2015

Afternoon Poolers. A relatively quiet week has just passed and nil points to all of us. I’ll not waffle, let’s get on with it!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Daniel von Bargen, 64, American actor (Malcolm in the Middle, Philadelphia, Super Troopers), complications from diabetes.
• Mal Peet, 67, British author and illustrator, cancer.
• Jim McCann, 70, Irish musician (The Dubliners).
• Lynn Borden, 77, American actress (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Hazel).
• Dirk Shafer, 52, American model, actor and director (Man of the Year).

In Other News 

US actor Harrison Ford is expected to make a full recovery from injuries suffered when crashing his plane on to a golf course in Los Angeles. The 72-year-old star of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films reported engine failure and crash-landed his vintage plane on a Venice golf course. He was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to hospital in a “fair to moderate” condition. His son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, said later from the hospital: “Dad is OK. Battered but OK! The nature of Ford’s injuries have not been disclosed but website TMZ, which first reported the story, said he suffered “multiple gashes to his head”. Film producer Ryan Kavanaugh, who also witnessed the accident from his office, told The Hollywood Reporter: “He literally had five seconds, and 99% of pilots would have turned around to go back to the runway and would have crashed.” “Harrison did what the best pilots in the world would do,” he continued. “He made the correct turn that the plane was designed for with an engine out.” What more could you expect from the pilot of the Millennium Falcon??

Misao Okawa, born in 1898, is said to be in remarkably  good health and says she is ‘very happy’ to be 117. Okawa, the world’s oldest person, celebrated her 117th birthday at a nursing home in Osaka, western Japan, last week, and despite her longevity she remarked how short her life seemed. The year Okawa was born, Queen Victoria was on the throne and the Spanish-American war was in its infancy. Her life spans three centuries, which have included six British monarchs, four Japanese emperors and 20 US presidents. She was five when the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight. She married almost a century ago and has been a widow for more than 80 years. At a televised event on Wednesday, a day before her birthday, she disappointed any who hoped she would reveal the secret to a long life. “Well, I wonder about that too,” she said. Previously she has attributed her longevity to plenty of sleep and a varied diet. While she has spoken of her love of mackerel sushi, which she eats at least once a month, Okawa says she is not particularly fussy when it comes to food. When he asked how she felt about the past 117 years, she replied: “It seemed rather short.”  According to government figures, Japan is home to more than 58,000 people aged 100 or over, 87% of whom are women. Experts attribute Japan’s longevity statistics to a traditional low-fat diet, affordable healthcare and generous pensions.

Singer Shania Twain has announced her final tour. The star, whose 1997 album Come On Over remains the best-selling country album ever, will play 48 dates across the US and Canada, kicking off in June. The Canadian singer became a massive star in the mid-1990s, with hits such as Man! I Feel Like A Woman and That Don’t Impress Me Much. She’s sold more than 75 million albums worldwide and became the best-selling female artist in the history of country music, but largely disappeared from the limelight between 2004 and 2009, citing personal issues and creative inertia. Bit early to think of retirement we feel, at 50 she should be in her prime, maybe she knows something we don’t…

On This Day

• 1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.
• 1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America”, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.
• 1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.
• 1910 – French aviatrix Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot’s license.
• 1971 – The Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali commences. Frazier wins in 15 rounds via unanimous decision.
• 1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
• 1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
• 1979 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.
• 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The aircraft is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia with the loss of all 239 people aboard.

Deaths

• 1874 – Millard Fillmore, American politician, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)
• 1930 – William Howard Taft, American politician, 27th President of the United States (b. 1857)
• 1999 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player and coach (b. 1914)
• 2003 – Adam Faith, English singer and actor (b. 1940)
• 2007 – John Inman, English actor and singer (b. 1935)
• 2008 – Carol Barnes, English journalist (b. 1944)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Justin Bieber (21), Jessica Biel (33), Bryan Cranston (59), Jon Bon Jovi (53), Daniel Craig (47), Julie Bowen (45), Brooklyn Beckham (16), Bobbi Kristina Brown (22), Laura Prepon (35), Ron Howard (61), Roger Daltrey (71), Javier Bardem (46), Rachel Weisz (45), Harry Belafonte (88), Chris Martin (38), Eva Mendes (41), Tom Arnold (56), Rob Reiner (68), Catherine O’Hara (61), Bryce Dallas Howard (34), Miranda Richardson (57), Patsy Kensit (47), Fred Williamson (77), Penn Jillette (60) and Jensen Ackles (37).

Next Week peeps!

8th March 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st March 2015

Good afternoon poolers. A sad day indeed when we have to report that one of the greatest icons of our screens has sadly died. Yes, Leonard Nimoy aka Mr Spock has left this mortal coil for the greatest journey known to mankind. If, like me, you were glued to all things science fiction when you were a child, this man’s portrayal of the logical alien in Star Trek is what cemented your lifelong love for all things sci-fi. However, this is the Dead Pool and one of you did list him. Ashley, you have scored! 67 points awarded!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Johanna Klink, 112, German supercentenarian, was oldest living German.
• Terry Gill, 75, British-born Australian actor (“Crocodile” Dundee, Prisoner, The Flying Doctors), lung cancer.
• Leonard Nimoy, 83, American actor and director (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Fringe), COPD.
• Boris Nemtsov, 55, Russian politician, Deputy Prime Minister (1998), shot.

In Other News

The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, is undergoing treatment after a tumour was found in his lung and will shortly undergo surgery to remove it. Robinson, 51, hopes to be well enough to be back at work full-time to cover the general election campaign in the run-up to voting on 7th May. Carcinoid tumours, a type of neuroendocrine cancer, are rare and tend to be slow growing, sometimes not  causing any symptoms for several years. Around a quarter start in the lung and typically do not spread to other parts of the body and are not thought to be linked to smoking. In a statement, his agent said that Robinson, who is married with three children, would be “taking a short time off work” over the next few weeks.

Fernando Alonso has assured his fans that he is okay in his first public comments since crashing heavily in Formula One testing for McLaren last weekend. Alonso spent three nights in hospital after the crash before being released on Wednesday. “As you can see, I am completely fine,” said the Spaniard in a video message posted on YouTube. “I would like to be at the test this week in Barcelona but the doctors’ recommendations are to wait a little bit, a couple of days,” added the double world champion. “I will rest this weekend and keep you updated next week with progress.”

As you may have seen, Madonna fell off the stage during her performance at the 2015 Brit Awards. Madonna, 56, tumbled down a set of stairs and landed like a  hunk of raw pork on a slab, apparently after a dancer tried to remove a cape she was wearing at the start of her routine. But she recovered and returned to continue her song, Living For Love. The pure outpouring of hatred for the woman was instantly seen on social media, everyone tittering with mirth like school children.

A player with the Serbian top-flight club Novi Pazar has been threatened by the team’s own supporters at gunpoint after missing a penalty. Describing the incident  as “a new low in Serbian professional football“, the world players’ union Fifpro said that Novi Pazar’s Zarko Udovicic sent his penalty over the crossbar in the 85th minute of last Saturday’s game at FK Rad, who won 1-0. Two days later, several hooligans burst into the dressing-room at the club’s training ground, drew a gun and held it in Udovicic’s face, Fifpro said. The player has since left the club. Mirko Poledica, president of the Serbian professional footballers’ association Nezavisnost, said neither the Serbian Football Association nor the league had taken any action. He said: “Must we wait until some hooligan actually kills one of our players? What worries me is that there is no reaction from the football association. They remain quiet.

On This Day

• 1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.
• 1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.
• 1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
• 1912 – Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
• 1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.
• 1954 – Nuclear testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.
• 1966 – Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet‘s surface.
• 1998 – Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

Deaths

• 1244 – Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr, Welsh son of Llywelyn the Great (b. 1200)
• 1620 – Thomas Campion, English poet and composer (b. 1567)
• 1757 – Edward Moore, English playwright (b. 1712)
• 2006 – Johnny Jackson, American drummer (The Jackson 5) (b. 1951)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Chelsea Clinton (35), Peter Fonda (75), Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38), Drew Barrymore (40), Michael Bolton (62), Tea Leoni (49), Fats Domino (87), John Turturro (58), Kelly Macdonald (39), Emily Blunt (32), Mario Andretti (75), Billy Zane (49), Rick Flair (66), Sean Astin (41), Abe Vigoda (94), Kyle MacLachlan (56), Jeri Ryan (47), Thomas Jane (46), James Blunt (41), George Thorogood (65), Edward James Olmos (68), Adam Baldwin (53) and Donal Logue (49).

Next week peeps!

1st March 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd February 2015

Good afternoon my morbid minions. Sadly no points again this week so we are still at the status quo we have been for weeks :/ The evil flying monkeys I sent out last week failed miserably but they did seed some cancer and madness along the way.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Pamela Cundell, 95, English actress (Dad’s Army, EastEnders, A Fantastic Fear of Everything).
• Alan Howard, 77, English actor, pneumonia.
• Louis Jourdan, 93, French actor (Letter from an Unknown Woman, Gigi, Octopussy).
• John Davies, 76, Welsh historian.
• Brett Ewins, 59, British comic book artist (Judge Dredd, 2000 AD), emphysema.
• Lesley Gore, 68, American singer (“It’s My Party“, “Judy’s Turn to Cry“, “You Don’t Own Me“), lung cancer.
• Harris Wittels, 30, American television producer and writer (Parks and Recreation, The Sarah Silverman Program).

In Other News

The name Tony Hart has not reverberated around the social media echo chamber for years. Certainly not since the popular children’s television presenter died in 2009. His name, however, became one of the most heavily discussed topics on Sunday and Monday as a wave of people spread the news of his demise in the mistaken belief that it was news, including your intrepid Dead Pool Master, who forgot he’d died. That was followed by a second wave rightly mocking the first one. So it turns out I’m the dickhead. Tony Hart died in 2009. Fuck the internet. Ha!

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has  revealed he is battling cancer. A statement on the band’s official website said the 56-year-old rocker has undergone treatment for a cancerous tumour on his tongue. The cancer was diagnosed during a routine check-up just before Christmas and Dickinson has just completed a seven-week course of chemotherapy and radiology. The statement said: “As the tumour was caught in the early stages, the prognosis thankfully is extremely good. Bruce’s medical team fully expect him to make a complete recovery with the all-clear envisaged by late May. It will then take a further few months for Bruce to get back to full fitness.

The scientist and writer Oliver Sacks has said his “luck has run out” after revealing that he has terminal cancer. Sacks, whose book Awakenings inspired the Oscar-nominated film of the same name, disclosed his illness in an article in the New York Times. The London-born academic, made a CBE in the 2008 birthday honours, said: “A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out – a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.” He wrote: “It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can.”

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will undergo surgery, his office has revealed. The 63-year-old was diagnosed with prostate cancer last month, he will take medical leave for a whole week! He was diagnosed with lymphoma in the 1990’s but recovered. The urologist who will operate on Mr Lee said that his prostate cancer had “no relationship” to the lymphoma. Should be a straight forward procedure it seems, but you never know…

Two fading/faded rappers have been in the news. Afroman was arrested for assault after he was caught on camera punching a female fan on stage at a concert and Vanilla Ice was arrested on suspicion of burglary and theft. Times must be very hard for them but one thing is for sure, a stint in the penal system will not be a smooth thing for either of them. I can see both of them demanding some ice, ice baby because something got too high for comfort…

Robert Mugabe has celebrated his 91st birthday. By the time you have read this his lavish $1 million party will be over and the menu of two elephants, two buffaloes, two sable antelopes, five impalas and a lion will have been eaten. There have been reports that poor villagers throughout the country have been forced to donate money and goods towards the lavish ball. I’m sure they would rather donate a timely death for the evil bastard.

On This Day

• 1797 – The Last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
• 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and dime Woolworth stores.
• 1974 – Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon.
• 1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
• 2006 – At least six men stage Britain’s biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

Deaths

• 1797 – Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, German nobleman and storyteller (b. 1720)
• 1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928)
• 2012 – Frank Carson, Irish-English comedian and actor (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Paris Hilton (34), John Travolta (61), Cybill Shepherd (65), Matt Dillon (51), Dr. Dre (50), Molly Ringwald (47), Kelsey Grammer (60), Cindy Crawford (49), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (34), Rihanna (27), John McEnroe (56), Rene Russo (61), Ice T (57), Jane Seymour (64), Smokey Robinson (75), Jennifer Love Hewitt (36), Ed Sheeran (24), Benicio del Toro (47), Michael Jordan (52), Jeff Daniels (60), Yoko Ono (82), Ivana Trump (66), Patricia Hearst (61), William Baldwin (52), Matt Groening (61), LeVar Burton (58), Hal Holbrook (90), Lou Diamond Phillips (53), Prince Andrew, Duke of York (55), Sidney Poitier (88), Brenda Blethyn (69), Tyne Daly (69) and Alan Rickman (69).

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 15th February 2015

Afternoon Poolers, yet another quiet week so no points to award. I think it may be time to send out the flying monkeys once again, so watch this space as a dearly beloved notable will undoubtedly be stricken down, most likely someone that none of us has listed. Without further ado…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gary Owens, 80, American television announcer (Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In) and voice actor (Space Ghost, Garfield and Friends), diabetes.
• Steve Strange, 55, British musician (Visage), heart attack.
• Bob Simon, 73, American television journalist (60 Minutes), traffic collision.
• Michele Ferrero, 89, Italian businessman (Ferrero SpA, makers of Nutella, Ferrero Rocher, Tic Tacs and Kinder Eggs).
• Kenji Ekuan, 85, Japanese industrial designer (Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser), heart disorder.

In Other News

Television presenter Carol McGiffin has revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer last year. The former member of ITV’s Loose Women said that she discovered a lump in her breast while on holiday in Malaysia last February. The 54-year-old says she has now “got through it” after a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions. Although she seems to have won her battle, these things do have a tendency to flare up again. One to watch out for.

Sir Michael Gambon has decided to stop working in the theatre, bringing down the curtain on an illustrious stage career, after struggling to remember his lines. The 74-year-old said in an interview that it was time to admit defeat. “It’s a horrible thing to admit but I can’t do it. It breaks my heart. It’s when the script’s in front of me and it takes forever to learn. It’s frightening,” he said. He put his forgetfulness down to age and was worried it was a sign of encroaching Alzheimer’s, although doctors gave him the all-clear and his long-term memory remained sharp.

James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan’s home in Malibu has been damaged in a fire, causing an estimated $1 million in damage. Around 50 Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the scene but no injuries were reported. A shocked-looking Brosnan was pictured outside the house, probably wondering if SPECTRE had something to do with it. A close call for Bond, we’re wondering if he spilt his vodka martini onto an open fireplace. Arson investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are looking into the cause.

Until recently, Black Tongue were just a little-known heavy metal band from Hull, purveyors of an obscure brand of rock known as “doom core”. Now, though, the five-strong ensemble have ensured themselves a place among the pantheons of rock legend, after an incident on a tour coach that could have come straight from the spoof rock movie This is Spinal Tap. In a mishap that police believe was alcohol-related, a member of the band apparently stepped out the tour bus door as it was speeding along a motorway in Poland, having mistaken it for the door to the bus’s toilet. Alex Teyen, 23, the band’s singer, was taken to hospital after suffering head and face injuries, but is understood not to have been badly hurt. He would most likely have never made the Wiki Death List, but he will next time!

Serial killer Charles Manson’s supposed budding romance with a woman 53 years his junior has been allegedly exposed as a money-making scheme. Apparently, 27-year old Afton Elaine Burton, now known as Star, was hoping that she would gain possession of Manson’s corpse through marriage so she and a couple of friends could put it on display in a glass case in L.A. They thought a Lenin’s Tomb-esque attraction would draw a huge number of visitors and make them a lot of money. But Manson, 80, apparently got wind of the plan and now no longer wants to marry Burton. The tourist attraction was also something of a non-starter because Manson believes he is immortal.

On This Day

• 1923 – Greece becomes the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.
• 1933 – In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.
• 1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
• 1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.
• 2001 – First draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.
• 2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings.

Deaths

• 1928 – H. H. Asquith, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1852)
• 1965 – Nat King Cole, American singer and pianist (b. 1919)
• 1984 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (b. 1908)
• 1988 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Elizabeth Banks (41), Nick Nolte (74), Jennifer Aniston (46), Burt Reynolds (79), Mia Farrow (70), Josh Brolin (47), Joe Pesci (72), Christina Ricci (35), Glenn Beck (51), Sarah Palin (51), Chloe Grace Moretz (18), Arsenio Hall (59), Laura Dern (48), Peter Gabriel (65), Sheryl Crow (53), Natalie Dormer (33), Robbie Williams (41), Rose Leslie (28), John Grisham (60), Seth Green (41), Damian Lewis (44), Mena Suvari (36), Jerry Springer (71), Prince Jackson (18), Darren Aronofsky (46), Stockard Channing (71), Peter Tork (73), Kim Novak (82), Meg Tilly (54) and Robert Wagner (85).

Next Week peeps!

15th February 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th February 2015

Afternoon all, yet another dearth of deaths last week so no points to award. Just to kick us whilst we’re down, Zsa Zsa Gabor was celebrating her 98th birthday as well!  To be fair, I’ve not heard of any of last week’s demises, so I took a punt on the few I have listed just to fill up some space. Lets hope that this week gives us a few bucket kickers!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Richard Bonehill, 67, British actor and stuntman (Doctor Who, Return of the Jedi).
• Norman Yemm, 81, Australian actor (Homicide, Number 96, The Sullivans).
• Robert Gavron, Baron Gavron, 84, British businessman and philanthropist, Labour life peer, heart attack.
• Billy Casper, 83, American golfer, seventh all-time in career PGA Tour wins.
• Roy Little, 83, English footballer (Manchester City).

In Other News

Bobbi Kristina Brown, daughter of singer Bobby Brown and his late wife, Whitney Houston, is fighting for her life and is surrounded by immediate family, the Houston family said in a statement. Bobbi Kristina, 21, was rushed to a hospital in Roswell, Georgia, on Saturday morning after her husband and a friend found her in the tub and her husband performed CPR. We’re told Bobbi Kristina’s condition has remained the same since Monday morning and that her brain functions are minimal and there has been no improvement. Her father, Bobby Brown is adamant that he doesn’t want to take his daughter off life support because he believes in God-driven miracles. Looks like the future is grim.

Dionne Warwick has also been in the wars. The 74 year old slipped in the shower and damaged her ankle which left her in hospital for two weeks! As she is the cousin of  Whitney Huston, it seems rather peculiar that the whole family seem unable to wash without dying or seriously hurting themselves. I’d suggest that they stick to bed baths from now on.

Police in Los Angeles have confirmed reality TV star Bruce Jenner has been involved in a car crash in which one woman died. Jenner himself wasn’t hurt, but seven others were taken to hospital. An LA police spokesman said there was no indication that Jenner, the stepfather of Kim Kardashian, was being chased by nearby paparazzi, although the whole incident seems to have been captured scene by scene by media photographers.

In another kick to the gnashers for us, Harper Lee is apparently releasing another book. Lee, 88, famous as the writer of the classic To Kill a Mockingbird is renowned for writing only one book 55 years ago, so why all of the sudden has she managed to produce another? Smells a bit fishy to us at Dead Pool Towers, not that we are envious of her $9,249 a day earnings for writing one book at all… Let’s see if the style of writing is similar upon release, or will we find out someone is riding the cash cow?

Retired footballer and ex-PFA chairman Clarke Carlisle says he was trying to take his own life when he was hit by a lorry in December. Carlisle told The Sun newspaper he had been left severely depressed by the end of his football career, financial problems and the loss of a TV punditry role. The 35-year-old left hospital six weeks after being struck in North Yorkshire, although he managed to fuck up the suicide, he still did a good job of hurting himself. Best keep an eye on him.

On This Day

• 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
• 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
• 1855 – The Devil’s Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
• 1915 – D. W. Griffith‘s controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.
• 1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
• 1952 – Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.
• 1963 – The first full color television program in the world, publicly advertised, is broadcast in Mexico City by XHGC-TV, Channel 5, due to technical breakthrough advances made by Mexican engineer Guillermo González Camarena.

Deaths

• 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots (b. 1542)
• 1725 – Peter the Great, Russian emperor (b. 1672)
• 1998 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician (b. 1912)
• 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith, American model and actress (b. 1967)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Harry Styles (21), James Spader (55), Shakira (38), Axl Rose (53), Bobby Brown (46), Chris Rock (50), Garth Brooks (53), Morgan Fairchild (65), Rebel Wilson (30),  Alice Cooper (67), Cristiano Ronaldo (30), Lisa Marie Presley (47), Ashton Kutcher (37), Isla Fisher (39), Michael C. Hall (44), Michael Sheen (46), Natalie Imbruglia (40), Christopher Guest (67), Tom Wilkinson (67), Jennifer Jason Leigh (43), Zsa Zsa Gabor (98), Rip Torn (84), Brent Spiner (66) and Rick Astley (49).

Next Week peeps!

8th February 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st February 2015

Sadly no points to award this week, even though a few well known oldies have managed to kick the bucket. Funny thing, I didn’t see any of you rushing out to buy any Demis Roussos albums when he was reported dead, I thought this was one of the things you had to do when a singer dies. We all managed to miss Geraldine McEwan too, maybe a couple of us should have dropped Dame Maggie Smith for her. Oh well, hindsight is a wonderful thing…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Lambert, 107, Irish centenarian, oldest man in Ireland.
• Demis Roussos, 68, Egyptian-born Greek singer (“Forever and Ever”).
• Bernice Gordon, 101, American crossword writer (The New York Times), heart failure.
• Colleen McCullough, 77, Australian author (The Thorn Birds), renal failure.
• Rod McKuen, 81, American poet, singer and songwriter (“Jean“, “Seasons in the Sun“), respiratory arrest.
• Charles H. Townes, 99, American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1964), inventor of the laser.
• Geraldine McEwan, 82, English actress (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Agatha Christie’s Marple), stroke.
• Richard von Weizsäcker, 94, German politician, President (1990–1994), President of West Germany (1984–1990), Governing Mayor of West Berlin (1981–1984).

In Other News

The daughter of late American singer Whitney Houston has been found unresponsive in a bathtub at a home in Georgia. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 21, was found by her husband and a friend. They immediately started resuscitating her until police and medics arrived. She was taken to a hospital in Roswell where she was said to be breathing. Her mother, Whitney Houston was found dead in very similar circumstances on February 2012, aged only 48.

Ted Robbins has collapsed on stage at Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights on the opening night in Manchester. Reports from the theatre suggest he was in the middle of a solo part of the show and appeared to clutch his chest. The curtains were then drawn and an announcement was made to the crowd and everyone was asked to leave the 20,000-capacity venue. A Manchester Evening News reporter – who was at the show – eloquently described what happened: “Ted Robbins, who plays Den Perry in the hit show, was in the middle of a solo bit. He clutched his chest and stumbled a bit. They then closed the curtain immediately, with people rushing to the stage to the help, with medical equipment”. Robbins, 59, is carrying a bit of lard on him, so it’s no stretch of the imagination to think his heart gave out with the stress of the first night and a lump of adipose floating around. Lets hope he makes a recovery so we can list him next year.

Radio DJ Chris Evans revealed live on air that he’s in the middle of a prostate scare. Evans disclosed that he was currently having tests carried out after showing symptoms since Christmas. The father-of-three, 48, told millions of listeners about his condition on the The Breakfast Show on Radio 2 on Friday. After scaring himself to death self-diagnosing on the internet, he finally went to see a doctor and underwent the ‘finger of truth’ test and is now awaiting the outcome. Watch this space, maybe Terry Wogan will make it back onto Radio 2!!

Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane has been admitted to hospital in Orlando, Florida, after falling ill with flu-like symptoms during a flight. Paramedics met him off the flight from London and rushed him to hospital where doctors said he would remain overnight and not once mentioned Ebola. Coltrane’s agent told the BBC the actor was “resting” and would “be fine”, but that more information on his condition was not yet available. Coltrane’s UK agent, Belinda Wright, told the BBC that US reports that an eyewitness had tweeted about the actor drinking heavily in a Heathrow Airport lounge before boarding his flight were “not correct” and “completely untrue”. After all, a Scot drinking heavily is unheard of and hangovers never need hospitalisation…

Brian Blessed has withdrawn from the production of King Lear in which he collapsed on stage shortly after speaking his first lines, yet managed  to return to finish the epic production last week. The 78-year-old actor has admitted that his heart condition ‘is more serious than he was aware’ and has therefore been compelled to withdraw from the production. Sounds like the loudmouth is at deaths door!

On This Day

• 1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
• 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
• 1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
• 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• 1924 – The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR.
• 1953 – North Sea flood of 1953 (Dutch, Watersnoodramp, literally “flood disaster”) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm, that occurred on the night of Saturday, 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday, 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.
• 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
• 1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
• 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
• 2004 – Janet Jackson‘s breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to Federal Communications Commission censorship guidelines.

Deaths

• 1851 – Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
• 1944 – Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
• 1966 – Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
• 1976 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• 1988 – Heather O’Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Alicia Keys (34), Christian Bale (41), Ellen DeGeneres (57), Alan Alda (79), Justin Timberlake (34), Oprah Winfrey (61), Elijah Wood (36), Tom Selleck (70), Heather Graham (45), Phil Collins (64), Gene Hackman (85), Minnie Driver (45), John Lydon (59), Vanessa Redgrave (78), Scott Glenn (74), James Cromwell (75), Carol Channing (94), Eddie Van Halen (60), Dick Cheney (74), Bridget Fonda (51), Mimi Rogers (59), Dexter Fletcher (49), Olivia Coleman (41), Marc Singer (67), Frabk Darabont (56) and Tobe Hooper (72).

Next Week peeps!

1st February 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 25th January 2015

A very busy week for deaths, as you may have surmised from the Klaxon e-mails. Alas nobody scored, so the league table remains the same for the time being. Without further ado…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ena Baxter, 90, Scottish food manufacturer (Baxters Soup).
• Tony Verna, 81, American television producer, invented instant replay, leukemia.
• Philippe Vocanson, 110, French supercentenarian, oldest living man in Europe.
• Anne Kirkbride, 60, British actress (Coronation Street), breast cancer.
• Robert Manzon, 97, French Formula One driver, last surviving racer from the first World Championship.
• Bob Symes, 90, British inventor and television presenter.
• Edgar Froese, 70, German musician (Tangerine Dream), pulmonary embolism.
• Leon Brittan, 75, British politician, Home Secretary (1983–1985), Vice-President of the European Commission (1999), cancer.
• Pauline Yates, 85, English actress (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin).
• Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, 90, Saudi King, complications from pneumonia.

In Other News

Poor old Tiger Woods, his career is in free fall and his love life in turmoil, but whilst trying to surprise his girlfriend Linsey Vonn at an Alpine Ski Competition, he manages to lose a tooth after being hit in the face by a camera! His agent later explained “During a crush of photographers at the awards’ podium, a media member with a shoulder-mounted video camera pushed and surged towards the stage, turned and hit Tiger in the mouth, his tooth was knocked out by the incident.” Oops! I bet that poor cameraman will be much poorer once the legal team get hold of him.

Veteran actor Brian Blessed collapsed on stage with an apparent heart problem while playing King Lear – but, to the audience’s astonishment, returned to the stage 20 minutes later and  continued to act. The 78-year-old had just begun his lines at the start of the Shakespearean tragedy when he fainted, falling off a raised platform with his crown rolling to a halt at the front of stage. Fellow actor Noel White, playing the Earl of Kent, announced quietly “Ladies and gentlemen this is not part of the play. Is there a doctor in the house?” But after a brief inspection backstage and in the true spirit of “the show must go on”, Mr Blessed returned to the stage 20 minutes later to apologise to the final-preview audience for the interruption. He’s a tough old nut!

Howard Marks, the notorious former dope smuggler known as Mr Nice, has told the the media that he has been diagnosed with inoperable bowel cancer. Marks, 69, said this weekend. “It’s impossible to regret any part of my life when I feel happy and I am happy now, so I don’t have any regrets and have not had any for a very long time.” The cancer was diagnosed last autumn and Marks was told nothing could be done to stop the disease, which has now spread to his liver and lungs. As a drug smuggler in the 1980s, Marks had 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 companies trading worldwide as fronts for money laundering. Sentenced to 25 years for drug smuggling, he was released in 1995, after seven years, for good behaviour. His 1996 autobiography, Mr Nice, sold more than a million copies and was made into a film starring fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans. Sounds like he’s not going to last…

Peter Sutcliffe aka The Yorkshire Ripper has been told he could lose what remains of his sight within a year. The murderer, who is already blind in one eye after a prison attack, was said to be “extremely upset” when he was told he has a severe condition linked to diabetes. Sutcliffe, now 68, killed 13 women (and attempted to kill seven more) between 1975 and 1980; he’s serving 20 life sentences at a high-security psychiatric hospital. Such shame that.

Another bad week for cartoonists; legendary Indian cartoonist RK Laxman, 94, is in a critical condition in hospital after suffering multiple-organ failure. Best known for his iconic “Common Man” character, he is credited with holding a mirror to Indian society with his satirical works targeting politicians. He’s currently in intensive care and on ventilator support.

Another failing cartoonist is Norm Breyfogle, who was one of the artists who changed Batman forever. He’s suffered a stroke that affected the left side of his body, including his drawing arm. His family is raising money to help pay his medical expenses, such a shame that he lives in the States where they couldn’t give a fuck about people who need medical help.

On This Day

• 1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
• 1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria‘s daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding recessional.
• 1947 – Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device”, the first ever electronic game.
• 1971 – Charles Manson and three female “Family” members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
• 1996 – Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the USA.

Deaths

• 1947 – Al Capone, American mobster (b. 1899)
• 1990 – Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)
• 2009 – Kim Manners, American director and producer (b. 1951)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jason Segel (35), Kevin Costner (60), Dolly Parton (69), Rainn Wilson (49), Neil Diamond (74), Emma Bunton (39), Katey Sagal (61), Geena Davis (59), Bill Maher (59), Buzz Aldrin (85), Jack Nicklaus (75), John Hurt (75), Rutger Hauer (71), Piper Laurie (83), Linda Blair (56), DJ Jazzy Jeff (50), Placido Domingo (74), Billy Ocean (65), Gil Gerard (72), Martin Shaw (70), Tom Baker (81), David Lynch (69), and Dave Bautista (46).

2015 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

25th January 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 18th January 2015

Points! Yes!! Points!!! With the sad departing of Britain’s oldest person, Ethel Lang, Stu has managed to score 136 points as he had her sown as his Cert. Fair play to him. We seem to be doing better than last year already! Also this week, we have a contribution from Julia, so remember to show your appreciation and extol her talents unless you think you can do better and submit your own contribution next week. Most people who have contributed in the past will admit, this ain’t as easy as it looks…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Taylor Negron, 57, American comedian and actor (Angels in the Outfield, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Bio-Dome), cancer.
• Brian Clemens, 83, British screenwriter (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) and television producer (The Avengers, The Professionals).
• Anita Ekberg, 83, Swedish-Italian actress (La Dolce Vita, Paris Holiday, Back from Eternity).
• Trevor Ward-Davies, 70, British bassist (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich), cancer.
• Darrell Winfield, 85, American rancher and model, Marlboro Man (1968–1989).
• Sir Jack Hayward, 91, English businessman, property developer and philanthropist, president of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
• Ethel Lang, 114, British supercentenarian, nation’s oldest person.

In Other News

Crime writer Ruth Rendell is in a critical but stable condition after suffering a stroke. The 84-year-old, who also has a seat in the House Of Lords as a Labour peer, is best known for her series of novels featuring Chief Inspector Wexford. With more than 60 titles to her name, Rendell’s last book was The Girl Next Door, which came out last year. It was published along with a 50th anniversary edition of her debut novel From Doon With Death, which saw Inspector Wexford make his debut. In a statement released, the author is said to have experienced a “serious stroke” last week and is being looked after in hospital by her son. No doctors available?

In what we can only call an act of Darwinism in action, a man who accidentally shot his friend dead while testing if his bullet-proof vest worked has been jailed. Philip Harper, 46, died from a gunshot wound to the chest after his friend Ian Catley shot him. Mr Harper had bought what he believed to be a bullet-proof vest from an army surplus store the day before, Cambridgeshire Police said. It obviously wasn’t as bullet-proof as they expected. Sentencing him to seven years in jail at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC told Catley: “You shot Mr Harper at a distance of less than 20 feet, causing him catastrophic injuries and immediate death.” He should have added that he was a stupid cunt and could have quite easily tested the vest by shooting it without his friend inside it.

A woman has been arrested after she reportedly chopped off her cheating husband’s penis, twice. The woman flew into a rage once she discovered her 32-year-old husband, father of five children, had been having an affair. His wife Feng, 30, found an image on his phone and in a rage grabbed a pair scissors and stormed into the room where he was sleeping, and attacked him. He was taken to hospital and emergency surgery was performed – but the wife returned to the hospital and cut it off for a second time, reportedly throwing it out of the window where it was lost. Doctors and police officers combed the area outside but failed to find the man’s missing member. They believed it may have been taken by a stray dog or cat. Yum yum!

On This Day

• 1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.
• 1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
• 1896 – An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H.L. Smith.
• 1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
• 1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
• 1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler“, is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

Deaths

• 1936 – Rudyard Kipling, English author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
• 1980 – Cecil Beaton, English fashion designer (b. 1904)
• 2009 – Tony Hart, English television host (b. 1925)

Obituary by JuliaB

Ethel Lang, quite literally, the last Victorian, has died. Mrs Lang was the only living British person to have been born during the reign of Queen Victoria and she lived to see six UK monarchs and 22 Prime Ministers. She was 114 years and 233 days. At age 22 she married young plumber William Lang and a year later the couple had a daughter, Margaret Bates, who is now 91 years old herself.

Her Grandmother lived till she was 92 and her great grandmother lived until she was 91. So, theoretically, if you shook her hand, you were 3 degrees of separation away from someone born in the late 17th, early 18th century!

The skilled cook regularly made her own bread and never smoked, rarely touching alcohol.

Her death means that 111-year-old Gladys Hooper, who lives on the Isle of Wight, is now Britain’s oldest person. Gladys will celebrate her 112th birthday on Dead Pool Sunday. (Hope she made it!) *Ed

It has left Jamaican Violet Brown, also 114 years of age, as the only surviving subject of Queen Victoria.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Faye Dunaway (74), Muhammad Ali (73), Howard Stern (61), Zooey Dechanel (35),  Kirstie Alley (64), James Earl Jones (84), Mary J. Blige (44), Melanie Chisholm (41), Jason Bateman (46), Michelle Obama (51), Jim Carrey (53), Kate Moss (41), Orlando Bloom (38), Betty White (93), Rush Limbaugh (64), Dave Grohl (46), LL Cool J (47), Carl Weathers (67), Mario Van Peebles (58), John Carpenter (67), James May (52), James Nesbitt (50), Jason Bateman (46), Mark Addy (51), Bill Bailey (50), John Sessions (62), Jason Connery (52), Evan Handler (54), Rod Stewart (70), and Traci Bingham (47).

2015 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

18th January 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 11th January 2015

A very busy week for deaths, rather helped along by a couple of nutters in France. Also we saw the daughter of Zsa Zsa Gabor kick the bucket before her mother, much to the disappointment of many of you! There’s a long list of notables below, none of which we managed to score with.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Roger Kitter, 64, British actor (‘Allo ‘Allo!).
• Bernice Madigan, 115, American supercentenarian, world’s fifth-oldest person.
• Khan Bonfils, 42, English actor (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins, Skyfall).
• Francesca Hilton, 67, American actress and media personality, daughter of Zsa Zsa Gabor, heart attack and stroke.
• Lance Percival, 81, British actor (The Beatles) and singer (“Shame and Scandal in the Family”).
• Vlastimila Češková, 109, Czech centenarian, nation’s oldest living person.
• Tim Roberts, 38, American professional wrestler (WWE, ECW).
• Rod Taylor, 84, Australian actor (The Time Machine, The Birds, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Inglourious Basterds), heart attack.
• Notable French people killed in the Charlie Hebdo shooting:
  • Cabu, 76, cartoonist
  • Elsa Cayat, 54, psychoanalyst and columnist
  • Charb, 47, caricaturist and journalist
  • Philippe Honoré, 73, cartoonist
  • Bernard Maris, 68, economist and journalist
  • Tignous, 57, cartoonist
  • Georges Wolinski, 80, cartoonist
• Curtis Lee, 75, American singer (“Pretty Little Angel Eyes“), cancer.
• Ray McFall, 88, British nightclub owner (The Cavern Club).
• Richard Meade, 76, British equestrian, three-time Olympic champion, cancer.
• Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., 88, American film producer (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), heart failure.

In Other News

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been discharged from a hospital after being admitted last month with a severe urinary tract infection. The three-time world heavyweight champion and cultural icon, is now back home after being discharged on Tuesday night, much to the disappointment of most of you! At 72, Ali’s health has been declining of late, it’s only a matter of time before you get a few points from him!

Richie Benaud is unlikely to make a hoped-for return to the commentary box for the Sydney Cricket Ground Test. The former Australian captain has not returned to the commentary box since a car crash left him with two crushed vertebrae 15 months ago and after he revealed that he was also undergoing treatment for skin cancer in early December. The 84 year old commentator has not been in touch with the Nine Network in Australia and they have now accepted he wouldn’t be turning up. Sounds a bit serious!

A Belgian man serving a life sentence for rape and murder will not be allowed to have doctors end his life as he has requested, the justice minister says. Van den Bleeken will be moved to a new psychiatric treatment centre instead. Van den Bleeken, 52, was convicted in the 1980s of multiple sexual assaults and murder. He had argued that he preferred to die rather than spend the rest of his life in prison. “I’m in my cell 24 hours a day. That’s my life. I don’t feel human here. What do I have to do? Do I have to sit here and waste away? What’s the point in that?” The point sir, is that you are a fucking danger to society and you deserve to rot in jail, so stop trying to get out of it!

On This Day

• 1569 – First recorded lottery in England.
• 1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
• 1879 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins.
• 1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
• 1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.
• 1960 – Henry Lee Lucas, once listed as America’s most prolific serial killer, commits his first known murder.

Deaths

• 1928 – Thomas Hardy, English author and poet (b. 1840)
• 2008 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (b. 1919)
• 2009 – David Vine, English sportscaster (b. 1935)
• 2013 – Tom Parry Jones, Welsh scientist, invented the breathalyzer (b. 1935)
• 2013 – Aaron Swartz, American computer programmer and activist (b. 1986)
• 2014 – Ariel Sharon, Israeli general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kate Middleton (33), Nicolas Cage (51), Bradley Cooper (40), Robert Duvall (84), Diane Keaton (69), Stephen Hawking (73), Jimmy Page (71), David Bowie (68), Jeremy Renner (44), Julia Ormond (50), Pat Benetar (62), Marilyn Manson (46), Kenny Loggins (67), Rod Stewart (70), George Foreman (66), Lewis Hamilton (30), Michael Stipe (55) and Rowan Atkinson (60).

2015 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

11th January 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 4th January 2015

Welcome all to the all new 2015 edition the Dead Pool! And what have we here? A point scorer already??? Yes, newcomer Sarai correctly guessed that Little Jimmy Dickens would pop his clogs in 2015 and lo he did. But not only does she score his normal points, she marked him as a Cert and got the first death of the year bonus which propels her to first place with 206 points!! Don’t you just hate beginners luck!?!?!

Anyhow, I’d like to also welcome the rest of the newbies, I think you already know what you’ve let yourself in for, and of course, to the regulars. Some of you have been taking part for years now, so I must be doing something right if you keep coming back for more! Anyhow, let’s get 2015 going…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Little Jimmy Dickens, 94, American country music singer (“May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose“), cardiac arrest.
• Donna Douglas, 82, American actress (The Beverly Hillbillies, Frankie and Johnny, The Twilight Zone), pancreatic cancer.
• Géry Leuliet, 104, French Roman Catholic prelate, world’s oldest Catholic bishop, Bishop of Amiens (1963–1985).
• Mario Cuomo, 82, American politician, Governor of New York (1983–1994), heart failure.

From 2014

• Bernard Kay, 86, British actor (Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Doctor Zhivago).
• Luise Rainer, 104, German-born American actress (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth), Academy Award winner (1936, 1937), pneumonia.
• Edward Herrmann, 71, American actor (Gilmore Girls, Richie Rich, The Lost Boys), brain cancer.
• Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, 99, British aristocrat and Army officer.

In Other News 

In a seriously good news story, U2 frontman Bono has said he may never play guitar again as a result of his bike accident last year. Millions of Apple fanboys are said to be in rapturous joy over the news. In an emotional post on the band’s website, the singer said: “Recovery has been more difficult than I thought … As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor western civilisation are depending on this.” Which sort of implies that he hopes that Africa gives a shit. The singer underwent surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian hospital for an arm broken in six places and a broken eye socket after an accident in New York’s Central Park in November.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was hospitalised this week but is in a stable condition, the royal court has said. The king, believed to be around 90 years old, was admitted to the King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh on Wednesday for checks. Examination revealed pneumonia, which required the provisional insertion of a tube on Friday evening. In recent years Abdullah’s advanced age and poor health have raised concerns about the country’s future leadership. Abdullah’s half-brother Salman, 77, is next in line to the throne, but at 77 he’s no spring chicken himself!

Two unnamed adult film actors have contracted HIV, with one most likely infecting the other during unprotected sex at a film shoot in Nevada where testing was less stringent than industry standards, officials said. One of the actors had previously tested negative for the virus that causes Aids before a pair of film shoots, but then began showing symptoms during the second shoot and was later found to be HIV-positive. The infections came amid a major decline in porn filming in Los Angeles after the 2012 passage of a law requiring porn actors to use condoms during filming. The number of porn filmmakers applying for shooting permits in the county declined from 485 in 2012 to 40 in 2013.

Former US President George Bush Sr has been released from hospital in Texas more than a week after being admitted suffering from a shortness of breath. The 90-year-old left Houston’s Methodist Hospital, and is now resting at home and is “grateful to the doctors and nurses for their superb care.” Bush, the oldest living former US president, was taken by ambulance to the hospital a week ago for what was described then as a ‘precaution’ after experiencing shortness of breath. His hospital stay included Christmas yet again, he’s now spent two out of three Christmases in hospital, which bodes well for many of you Poolers.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has cancelled her planned trips to Brazil and the Vatican after breaking her ankle on Friday. A spokesman said that Ms Fernandez had slipped on liquid spilled on the floor of her home in Patagonia, in southern Argentina. I reckon she spilt her wine… With her continued ill health and and now what seems to be a penchant for being accident prone, one wonders how long she will continue to survive.

Former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is now able to recognise his wife and two children, a year after he sustained severe head injuries in a skiing accident, a friend has said. Philippe Streiff, also a former Formula One driver, suggested in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday that Schumacher might eventually walk again with the help of crutches. It was the most optimistic assessment since a doctor who had treated the multiple world champion in hospital in Grenoble told the media two months ago that he had made “some progress”. Streiff said that Schumacher “had yet to recover the power of speech” but was “nevertheless starting to recognise those close to him”.

On This Day

• 1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
• 1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. Thomas Edison‘s movie company shoots the film Electrocuting an Elephant of the execution.
• 1958 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from orbit.
• 1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
• 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England.
• 1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
• 2004 – Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars.
• 2010 – Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is officially opened.

Deaths

• 1882 – John William Draper, English-American physician, chemist, and photographer (b. 1811)
• 1961 – Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887) Ahh, but is he dead though??
• 1965 – T. S. Eliot, American-English poet, playwright, and critic Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• 1967 – Donald Campbell, English racer (b. 1921)
• 2011 – Gerry Rafferty, Scottish singer-songwriter (The Humblebums and Stealers Wheel) (b. 1947)

2014 – In Memoriam by KoA

Yes, it was a rather unsuccessful year for us on the Dead Pool, but there were plenty of celebrities who passed away that we could have guessed. Some were tragically taken from us far too soon, others we cheered to the grave. Here are some of the famous faces that we now miss.

Let’s take a look back on some of the biggest names to have died in 2014.

• Eusébio, 71: Portuguese footballer, top goal scorer at the 1966 World Cup (January 25, 1942 – January 5, 2014)
• Ariel Sharon, 85: 11th Prime Minister of Israel (February 26, 1928 – January 11, 2014)
• Roger Lloyd-Pack, 69: British actor, best known as Trigger in Only Fools And Horses (February 8, 1944 – January 15, 2014)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46: American actor (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014)
• Shirley Temple, 85: American actress and diplomat (April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014)
• Harold Ramis, 69: American writer, director and actor (November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014)
• Tony Benn, 88: British politician and diarist (April 3, 1925 – March 14, 2014)
• Clarissa Dickson Wright, 66: English celebrity chef, notably for Two Fat Ladies, and TV personality (March 15, 2014 – March 15, 2014)
• L’Wren Scott, 49: American fashion designer and model (April 28, 1964 – March 17, 2014)
• Kate O’Mara, 74: English actress, best known for her role in Dynasty (August 10, 1939 – March 30, 2014)
• Mickey Rooney, 93: American actor (September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014)
• Peaches Geldof, 25: English TV presenter and model (March 13, 1989 – April 7, 2014)
• Sue Townsend, 68: British novelist and playwright, best known for the Adrian Mole series (April 2, 1946 – April 10, 2014)
• Gabriel García Márquez, 87: Colombian author – One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Love In The Time Of Cholera (March 6, 1927 – April 17, 2014)
• Bob Hoskins, 71: British actor (October 26, 1942 – April 29, 2014)
• H.R. Giger, 74: Swiss Oscar-winning surrealist artist, best known for designing the creature in the 1979 film Alien (February 5, 1940 – May 12, 2014)
• Sir Jack Brabham, 88: Australian racing driver, triple Formula One world champion, race car designer (April 2, 1926 – May 19, 2014)
• Malcolm Glazer, 85: American executive and sports franchise owner, including Manchester United (August 15, 1928 – May 28, 2014)
• Rik Mayall, 56: English comedian, writer and actor, best known for The Young Ones (March 7, 1958 – June 9, 2014)
• Casey Kasem, 82: Legendary American radio DJ – and the original voice of ‘Shaggy’ Rogers in Scooby-Doo cartoons (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014)
• Patsy Byrne, 80: English actress, best known as Nursie in the Blackadder II TV series (July 13, 1933 – June 17, 2014)
• Eli Wallach, 98: American actor, best known for being ‘The Ugly’ in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014)
• Bobby Womack, 70: American singer-songwriter (March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014)
• Tommy Ramone, 65: Hungarian-born producer and drummer for The Ramones (January 29, 1952 – July 11, 2014)
• James Garner, 86: American actor (April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014)
• Robin Williams, 63: American actor and comedian (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)
• Lauren Bacall, 89: American actress (September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014)
• Richard Attenborough, 90: British actor and film director, Baron Attenborough (August 29, 1923 – August 24, 2014)
• Joan Rivers, 81: American comedienne, actress and television host (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014)
• Richard Kiel, 74: American actor, best known as Jaws in James Bond films (September 13, 1939 – September 10, 2014)
• John Bardon, 75: English actor, best known as Jim Branning on EastEnders (August 25, 1939 – September 12, 2014)
• Ian Paisley, 88: British politician and First Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Bannside (April 6, 1926 – September 12, 2014)
• Sir Donald Sinden, 90: Veteran English actor (October 9, 1923 – September 12, 2014)
• Lynda Bellingham, 66: Canadian-born British actress (May 31, 1948 – October 19, 2014)
• Alvin Stardust, 72: English singer (September 27, 1942 – October 23, 2014)
• Acker Bilk, 85: British jazz clarinetist (January 28, 1929 – November 2, 2014)
• Rebekah Gibbs, 41: English actress, best known as Nina Farr in Casualty (March 17, 1973 – November 11, 2014)
• Warren Clarke, 67: English actor (April 26, 1947 – November 12, 2014)
• Mike Nichols, 83: German-born American director (The Graduate) and Oscar winner (November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014)
• Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 88: 18th Duchess of Alba, Spanish aristocrat (March 28, 1926 – November 20, 2014)
• Frankie Fraser, 90: Notorious British gangster (December 13, 1923 – November 26, 2014)
• P.D. James, 94: English crime novelist, Baroness James of Holland Park (August 3, 1920 – November 27, 2014)
• Mandy Rice-Davies, 70: British model, figure in the Profumo affair (October 21, 1944 – December 18, 2014)
• Billie Whitelaw, 82: English actress, best known as the demonic nanny in the 1976 horror film The Omen (June 6, 1932 – December 21, 2014)
• Christine Cavanaugh, 51: English actress, best known as the voice of ‘Babe’ the pig in the 1995 film Babe (August 16, 1963 – December 22, 2014)
• Joe Cocker, 70: British singer (May 20, 1944 – December 22, 2014)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jude Law (42), Mel Gibson (59), Cuba Gooding Jr. (47), Anthony Hopkins (77), Val Kilmer (55), Tiger Woods (39), Sienna Miller (33), Denzel Washington (60), Jon Voight (76), Ted Danson (67), LeBron James (30), Ben Kingsley (71), Psy (37), Maggie Smith (80), Victoria Principal (65), Danny McBride (38), Dabney Coleman (83), Tia Carrere (48), Grandmaster Flash (57), Verne Troyer (46), Heidi Fleiss (49), Eliza Dushku (35), Tracey Ulman (55) and Stan Lee (92).

2015 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

4th January 2015 | Categories: 2015 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 28th December 2014

Welcome one and all to the last Dead Pool Newsletter of 2014. Some of you will be saying thank god, no more emails, some of you will be kicking yourselves for not listing that one name, some of you will be shitting yourselves because you haven’t got your list for 2015 submitted yet! This will be your final reminder, if you’re stuck for names, a quick search through the archives on the website will give you some ideas, hell, I was surprised Phil Donahue was still alive, but I’ve already submitted my list!

If nothing amazingly drastic occurs between now and midnight on the 31st, I am provisionally declaring Lee the winner with a paltry 323 points and three deaths, albeit those deaths being a Cert, Woman and a norm.  Also, congratulations to Stu for actually getting a Maverick! First one ever, who’d have guessed that Manuel Uribe would have pegged it!! We will also congratulate Rebecca and Paul for getting Ariel Sharon as the first death of 2014, both have consistently been high scorers in the past, let’s see if they can challenge us in 2015.

So, if no other deaths are declared, the standings are as follows:

• 1st Lee
• 2nd Stu
• 3rd Paula

Obviously, do get on my case if I have missed one of your names, although many of you think I’m not, I am fallible.

Just another reminder, this will be the last email from the Dead Pool if you have not submitted a list for next year. Thank you for taking part and please carry on sending your Klaxxxxons when someone ‘of note’ dies, the emails and the community that we have built is the most fun part of the whole thing. Without you taking part and being sick little puppies, none of this would be possible.

Let’s hope we get stronger and stronger for 2015!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gino Pellegrini, 73, Italian scenic designer (2001: A Space Odyssey, Mary Poppins, The Birds) and painter.
• Udo Jürgens, 80, Austrian composer and singer (“Reach for the Stars“), winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1966.
• Anna Stoehr, 114, American supercentenarian.
• Billie Whitelaw, 82, English actress (The Omen, The Dark Crystal, Hot Fuzz).
• Joe Cocker, 70, British singer (“With a Little Help from My Friends“, “You Are So Beautiful“, “Up Where We Belong“), lung cancer.
• Jeremy Lloyd, 84, British screenwriter (Are You Being Served?, ‘Allo ‘Allo!), pneumonia.
• Joseph Sargent, 89, American film director (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, MacArthur, Jaws: The Revenge), heart disease.
• Mike Elliott, 68, British comedian and actor (Goal!, Billy Elliot), cancer.
• Conrad Johnson, 110, Swedish-American supercentenarian, oldest man in the United States, stroke.
• David Ryall, 79, English actor (The Singing Detective, Harry Potter, The Elephant Man).

In Other News

Former three-time heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali has been taken to hospital with a mild case of pneumonia! Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, is in a stable condition, his spokesman Bob Gunnell told the media. “The prognosis is good,” he added, saying the 72-year-old’s stay in hospital was likely to be brief. And true to his word, Ali has improved and it’s hoped he’s going to be discharged soon.

Talking about pneumonia, the Most Rev Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have caught it too, a day after he pulled out of his Christmas Day sermon with a “severe cold”. *cough cough* Serious stuff this pneumonia, did Richard Whitley in, remember? Lambeth Palace had said the 58-year-old archbishop had been ill for several days and decided on the morning of the service that he was too unwell to make his address. Nothing to do with a few too many communion wines and a bed littered with small boys.

The former US president George HW Bush was due to remain in hospital after being admitted experiencing shortness of breath, a family spokesman said. Bush, 90, had been taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital on Tuesday evening as a precaution, but had a “good day” and his prognosis “remains positive.” Bush spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care at the same hospital while being treated for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues. Bush is the oldest living former president, bet that keeps Jimmy Carter happy at night!

And finally, director Tim Burton and actress Helena Bonham Carter have announced that they have “separated amicably” after 13 years together. Knowing the darkness that flows through their emo souls, one would expect the imminent death of one, or at least the crushing demise of a career at least. For years the film director and actress lived in separate homes right next door to each other, something Carter said worked well for them. “It really is a great idea, you never have to compromise emotionally or feel invaded.” She said. Which somehow makes you wonder what their sex life was like…

On This Day

• 1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
• 1612 – Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
• 1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema.
• 1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.

Deaths

• 1983 – Dennis Wilson, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (The Beach Boys) (b. 1944)
• 1984 – Sam Peckinpah, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kiefer Sutherland (48), Jared Leto (43), Annie Lennox (60), Sissy Spacek (65), Ricky Martin (43), Ralph Fiennes (52), Samuel L. Jackson (66), Jane Fonda (77), Gerard Depardieu (66), Kit Harrington (28), Chris Evert (60), Phil Donahue (79), Lars Ulrich (51), Dido (43) and John Amos (74).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

28th December 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st December 2014

Welcome all to the penultimate newsletter of the year!! Yes, we’re very close to declaring the winner for 2014 and unless something drastic happens it looks like Lee is taking the crown this year! I’m sure that all of you are busy working on your lists for next year, I’ve already got five submitted so far, feel free to submit yours too. Also, please take the time to pass on the rules to your friends, the more the merrier, hopefully we can break the 50 members mark this year.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Norman Bridwell, 86, American author and cartoonist (Clifford the Big Red Dog).
• Phil Stern, 95, American photographer, emphysema and heart failure.
• Booth Colman, 91, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Norma Rae, Intolerable Cruelty).
• Larry Henley, 77, American singer (The Newbeats) and songwriter (“Wind Beneath My Wings”).
• Mandy Rice-Davies, 70, British model, figure in the Profumo affair, cancer.
• Larry Smith, 63, American record producer (Run–D.M.C., King of Rock).

In Other News

Ali Carter has been given the all-clear seven months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The 35-year-old, twice a World Championship runner-up, recovered from testicular cancer last year and is aiming to resume his career. “Two beautiful words that I’ve been waiting for ‘all clear’,” Carter tweeted on Friday. “I can now concentrate on getting my life and career back. I will be glad when this year is over. Some better things to come in 2015 … #hopefully” Fair play to him, but with two bouts of cancer behind him, we’d best keep an eye out for the third.

Anthony Crolla, the WBO inter-continental lightweight title  holder, was taken to hospital after confronting burglars who were raiding a neighbour’s house in Chadderton near Oldham on Tuesday evening. The 28-year-old is understood to have broken an ankle and suffered a serious head injury after chasing the two burglars. Crolla caught one of the intruders, according to the Manchester Evening News, but was then attacked by the other with a brick or a lump of concrete. Known as ‘Million Dolla Crolla’, the WBO inter-continental lightweight title holder had been due to face the Cuban Richard Abril on 23rd January for the WBA world title, but due to his  injuries, the fight will no longer take place.

The rock band The Who have postponed two concerts in London as frontman Roger Daltrey is suffering from a throat infection. The singer has been ordered to rest by doctors. The shows, due to take place on Wednesday and Thursday at the O2 Arena, have been pushed back to March. The band are currently on their The Who Hits 50 tour, celebrating their 50th anniversary. Daltrey, 70, admitted that touring was “incredibly tough on the body” and suggested these could be The Who’s last major live shows. “This is the beginning of the long goodbye,” he said.

A judge has refused to delay Tracy Morgan’s legal action against retail giant Walmart over a car crash in which the 30 Rock comedian was injured. He is claiming compensation from the retailer for negligence in requiring the driver to drive while fatigued. He had not slept for more than 24 hours when he collided with Morgan’s limousine according to court papers. Comedian James McNair died in the crash, while Morgan suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones. Morgan’s attorney, Benedict Morelli has said the 46-year-old is “fighting to get better” but it is uncertain whether he will fully recover.

On This Day

• 1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• 1913 – Arthur Wynne‘s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
• 1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
• 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
• 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
• 2012 – The world was predicted to end on December 21, 2012 according to some calendars.

Deaths

• 1907 – Klara Hitler, mother of Austrian-born German dictator Adolf Hitler (b. 1860)
• 1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author and poet (b. 1896)
• 1945 – George S. Patton, American general (b. 1885)
• 2013 – David Coleman, English sportscaster and game show host (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brad Pitt (51), Jonah Hill (31), Keith Richards (71), Ray Liotta (60), Don Johnson (65), Milla Jovovich (39), Steven Spielberg (68), Katie Holmes (35), Jake Gyllenhaal (34), Christina Aguilera (34), Pope Francis (78), Alyssa Milano (42), Kristy Swanson (45), Bill Pullman (61), Jennifer Beals (51), Steve Austin (50), Patty Duke (68), Eugene Levy (68), Leonard Maltin (64) and Billy Bragg (57).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

21st December 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th December 2014

Ok  peeps, I’m officially taking in lists for next year, so if you want to email me yours, feel free to do so on deadpool@kingofankh.co.uk As you know, this year has been a disaster, hardly any points scored with a record number of participants taking part as well, so let’s try to be more sneaky this year, really look into those terminal illnesses, weigh the chances of those sportspeople surviving another year in their dangerous sports, try to find out if the 89 year old is in fact doddery or fighting fit. As always, if you need to remind yourself of the rules, head over to the website for a look. http://thedeadpool.rip/the-rules/ You can also read through the old newsletters for ideas, they are all archived on the site.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ralph H. Baer, 92, American video game pioneer, inventor and engineer, developed the Magnavox Odyssey.
• Stella Young, 32, Australian comedian and disability advocate.
• Ken Weatherwax, 59, American actor (The Addams Family), heart attack.
• Mary Ann Mobley, 77, American actress (Diff’rent Strokes, Falcon Crest) and television personality, Miss America (1959), breast cancer.
• Tom Adams, 76, English actor (The Great Escape, Licensed to Kill, Doctor Who), cancer.

In Other News

Phil Collins was forced to back out of his first headlining concert in about five years, stating that he was unwell. Apologising to the audience at a benefit concert in Miami Beach, Collins claimed that doctors had told him to rest his vocal cords. The 63-year-old’s performance had been expected as the grand finale for the charity concert, which was a fundraiser for his Little Dreams Foundation. Although the singer went through with soundcheck, he said it hadn’t gone well. He had been seeing doctors for the past two days, receiving treatment for “some sort of neurological affliction that he said strikes every now and then.”

Green Day guitarist Jason White has been diagnosed with  tonsil cancer. Since his doctors “caught it early”, the musician is expected to make a “full and speedy recovery”, although, with cancer, who knows… The band wrote in a Facebook statement, “Jason recently underwent a routine tonsillectomy, and his doctors discovered a treatable form of tonsil cancer … Please join us in sending him love and positive healing vibes during this time.” Unbelievably, hundreds of people cared and left comments!

If you have Christopher Lee on your list for next year, maybe you should reconsider as the 92 year old is still fighting fit and is releasing a heavy metal Christmas single. This year’s effort is entitled Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing. This is a followup to last years attempt, Jingle Hells and 2012’s Heavy Metal Christmas, with interpretations of The Little Drummer Boy and Silent Night. Amazingly Jingle Hells made it to No.18 in the charts which made Lee the oldest musician to ever make the chart!

And finally, new research prompted by the deaths of Rik Mayall and Robin Williams suggests that the best comedians often lead shorter lives. The funnier you are, the more likely you are to die young, so I’m safe then! Researchers studied 53 comedians and found that, of the 23 ranked the funniest, 78 per cent died relatively young. Tony Hancock was 44 when he committed suicide, while Peter Sellers and Tommy Cooper died of heart attacks aged 54 and 63 respectively. The “funny” man in comedy double acts were three times as likely to die first. Eric Morecambe died in 1984 aged 58, but his straight man counterpart Ernie Wise survived him by 15 years, dying aged 73. Similarly, Peter Cook was 57 when he died, but his partner Dudley Moore lived to 66. I knew there was a reason why I decided to base my list on comedians next year!

On This Day

• 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
• 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• 1911 – Roald Amundsen ’ s team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
• 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
• 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.
• 2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
• 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Deaths

• 1799 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (b. 1732)
• 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort, German husband of Queen Victoria (b. 1819)
• 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg, American physician and businessman, co-invented corn flakes (b. 1852)
• 1947 – Stanley Baldwin, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
• 2012 – Kenneth Kendall, Indian-English journalist and game show host (b. 1924)
• 2013 – Peter O’Toole, Irish-English actor, singer, and producer (b. 1932)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Taylor Swift (25), Jamie Foxx (47), Steve Buscemi (57), Christopher Plummer (85), Dick Van Dyke (89), Jennifer Connelly (44), Dionne Warwick (74), Bob Barker (91), Donna Mills (74), Mos Def (41), Kenneth Branagh (54), Judi Dench (80), John Malkovich (61), Beau Bridges (73), Kirk Douglas (98), Donny Osmond (57), Nicki Minaj (32), Ann Coulter (53), Dominic Monaghan (38), Sinead O’Connor (48), Teri Hatcher (50) and Kim Basinger (61).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next Week peeps!

14th December 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th December 2014

Afternoon all, welcome to this weeks edition of the Dead Pool Newsletter. Last week we saw the death of the Worlds Fattest Man™, who at his heaviest weighed in at a whopping 70 stone! How did he get this fat? Well, he would gorge on 20,000 calories a day – almost 10 times the recommended amount – by having six-egg fry-ups for breakfast then pizzas, kebabs, Chinese takeaways and Big Macs for lunch and dinner, all washed down with six pints of coffee, two litres of fizzy drinks and a wafer thin mint. Apparently he leaves behind two sisters who cared for him, if they cared that much they wouldn’t have fed so much shit to a bedridden fatty. Anyhow…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Bobby Keys, 70, American saxophonist (The Rolling Stones), cirrhosis.
• Ian McLagan, 69, English keyboardist (Small Faces), stroke.
• Jeremy Thorpe, 85, British politician, Leader of the Liberal Party (1967–1976), MP for North Devon (1959–1979), central figure in the Thorpe affair, Parkinson’s disease.
• Queen Fabiola of Belgium, 86, Spanish-born Belgian royal, queen consort (1960–1993).
• Jackie Healy-Rae, 83, Irish politician, TD for Kerry South (1997–2011).
• Keith Martin, 44, British record holder, formerly world’s fattest man, pneumonia.

In Other News

US President Barack Obama has briefly visited a Washington hospital for tests following a persistent sore throat, the White House says. Obama had experienced a sore throat over “the past couple weeks”, which appeared to be caused by acid reflux, his doctor said. Apparently he has undergone a fibre optic exam, followed by a CT scan, only for doctors to say that he’s got a bit of a sore throat. Toughen up you big girls blouse!

Sadly, the Brazil legend Pelé is showing further signs of improvement as he continues his recovery from a kidney condition. However the three-times World Cup winner still remains in “semi-intensive care” at the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo. Pelé, 74, only has one kidney, having had one removed towards the end of his playing career. So following an operation to remove stones from his remaining kidney, it seems to haves fucked him up somewhat. A video was posted on the former Santos star’s official Facebook page where he appeared in good spirits and was even playing the guitar. Maybe listing him for next year is a tad too premature.

Wilko Johnson says he has found it “difficult” coming to terms with still being alive after being told he had terminal cancer. The former Dr Feelgood guitarist, 67, was given 10 months to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but was given the all clear in April. Johnson, who lives in Southend, says he now hopes to fulfil ambitions including playing with Bob Dylan, woo! Aim high why don’t ya! Johnson underwent 11 hours of radical surgery at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge to take out a 3kg tumour. The operation also involved removing his pancreas, parts of his stomach, spleen and small and large intestines, so fuck knows how he’s still breathing!

Thailand’s revered but ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej has cancelled an annual appearance to mark his 87th birthday on the advice of doctors. The world’s longest-serving monarch has spent most of the last few months in hospital as fears over his health mount. A team of royal physicians examined the king on Thursday evening and agreed that he is not ready to grant a royal audience therefore they have recommended he cancels royal activities. In October the king had an operation to remove his gall bladder after tests revealed it was swollen. He was last seen in public in early November, so he might be dead already as far as we know.

It has been pointed out that Rebecca Farnworth died of cancer last month at the age of 49. Who the hell is she? Well, some of you may have read her books as she was a prolific ghostwriter, mainly for that big boobed bag of gas, Katie Price aka Jordan. Katie lamented in The Sun that she was ‘terribly terribly sad’ to hear of her death, I’m sure she was, I bet she made millions from the talent of this particular writer. Sadly Rebecca wasn’t famous enough for our needs, so we do wish her the very best on her travels into the great unknown.

Devon and Cornwall Police say a weapon, believed to have been  owned by the notorious wife-killer Hawley Harvey Crippen, was one of 446 weapons surrendered to police as part of a gun amnesty. Dr Crippen, who was born in the United States, is believed to have used hyoscine to kill Cora at his London home before attempting to flee to Canada, so it seems that the tiny pistol is practically worthless anyway. Crippen was hanged at London’s Pentoville Prison in 1910.

A hundred brains have gone missing in Texas! I would argue that there are no brains in Texas to go missing, but apparently The University of Texas at Austin had a specimen collection preserved in jars of formaldehyde that was donated to them over thirty years ago. Could it be an outbreak of zombies? Or are average Texans getting clued up to the fact that they need brains to function correctly. Who knows what has happened to them. Best guess, students pilfering them for Halloween pranks. Oh, how I wished I lived in Texas!

And finally, a tale of warning to all the golfers out there. A crocodile has killed a man while he was retrieving golf balls from Lake Panic in South Africa’s flagship wildlife reserve. Officials at Kruger National Park said the animal grabbed 29-year-old Jacques van der Sandt and disappeared under the water at a golf course next to a staff residential area. Sadly the rangers killed the crocodile after a two-hour search on Wednesday night and the body of Van der Sandt, the son of a park employee, was recovered. I doubt this is going to happen any time soon at Gleneagles, but it would make me watch the golf on the telly box if this was a possible outcome….

On This Day

• 43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
• 1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.
• 1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
• 1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

Deaths

• 43 BC – Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (b. 106 BC)
• 1985 – Robert Graves, English author and poet (b. 1895)
• 2011 – Harry Morgan, American actor and director (b. 1915)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Amanda Seyfried (29), Billy Idol (59), Julianne Moore (54), Ben Stiller (49), Woody Allen (79), Bette Midler (69), Jeff Bridges (65), Britney Spears (33), Jay-Z (45), Daryl Hannah (54), Little Richard (82), Sarah Silverman (44), Marisa Tomei (50), Frankie Muniz (29), Tyra Banks (41), Ozzy Osbourne (66), Judd Apatow (47), Brendan Fraser (46), Nelly Furtado (36), Lucy Liu (46), Mandy Patinkin (62), John Terry (34), Nicole Appleton (40), C. Thomas Howell (48), Stan Boardman (74), Ellen Burstyn (82) and Noam Chomsky (86).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next Week peeps!

7th December 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 30th November 2014

Afternoon all, welcome once again to your weekly edition of the Dead Pool, I promise there will be no cricket jokes about bouncers not fucking about here! Remember, there’s only a month to go now so keep working on next years list, because it has to be more inspired than this year!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Merle Barwis, 113, American-born Canadian supercentenarian, was nation’s oldest resident.
• Frankie Fraser, 90, British gangster, complications from surgery.
• Phillip Hughes, 25, Australian cricketer, vertebral artery dissection leading to subarachnoid haemorrhage.
• P. D. James, 94, English crime novelist (Adam Dalgliesh series, The Children of Men, Death Comes to Pemberley).
• Chespirito, 85, Mexican playwright, actor and screenwriter (El Chavo del Ocho, El Chapulín Colorado), heart failure.

In Other News

Lars von Trier says he is worried that he will not be able to make any more films now that he has quit drinking alcohol and no longer uses drugs. The Danish film director told the newspaper Politiken: “No creative expression of artistic value has  ever been carried out by former alcoholics and drug addicts.” Von Trier, who has directed graphic films such as Antichrist and Nymphomaniac, said he will be sober for 90 days as of Sunday and is going to meetings at Alcoholics Anonymous every day. We reckon he’ll fall off the wagon and make more movies, much to the disappointment of all.

Actor Mickey Rourke returned to the boxing ring last Friday at the age of 62, defeating a fighter less than half his age in an exhibition bout. Rourke sent 29-year-old Pasadena native Elliot Seymour to the canvas twice in the second round before the referee stopped the fight. The bout at a Moscow concert hall was Rourke’s first fight in 20 years. He took a break from acting in the early 1990s, finishing a three-year pro boxing career with six wins and two draws. He hinted that the return to the ring has helped him cope with unspecified personal issues. Those issues were the death of his pet Chihuahua, not so tough now is he…

Pelé “is in better condition” though he remains in a special care unit being treated  for a urinary tract infection. The 74-year-old is in hospital in São Paulo receiving renal support treatment, which helps kidneys to filter waste products from the blood, after surgery to remove kidney stones earlier this month. He is not on vasoactive drugs or other supportive therapies, the hospital said. Pelé, often called the greatest player in history, has suffered a long list of health problems in the past decade, including emergency eye surgery for a detached retina and a hip replacement.

Burt Reynolds is having to sell off hundreds of items of personal memorabilia in an attempt to pay outstanding mortgage payments. The actor, known for Smokey and the Bandit and Boogie Nights, is selling off over 600 items in a Las Vegas auction because he’s failed to pay his outstanding $700,000 mortgage since 2010 and is in danger of losing everything. We’d better keep an eye on him in case he goes Robin Williams on us!

And finally, The Office for National Statistics have confirmed that last year had the lowest ever number of winter deaths since records began. An estimated 18,200 excess winter deaths occurred in 2013-14, the lowest number since records began in 1950-51, which sort of bolsters why our scoring has been very low this year. Last winter was notably warmer than in previous years and had a relatively mild flu season which contributed to the lower number of deaths. Unsurprisingly, of the 18,200 excess deaths, 14,000 were in the over-75s, so best keep that in mind for your list for next year.

On This Day

• 1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
• 1934 – The LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first steam locomotive to be authenticated as reaching 100 mph.
• 1936 – In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
• 1940 – Lucille Ball marries Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut.
• 1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space.
• 1982 – Michael Jackson‘s second solo album, Thriller is released worldwide. It will become the best-selling record album in history.
• 1998 – Exxon and Mobil sign a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world’s largest company.

Deaths

• 1900 – Oscar Wilde, Irish author and poet (b. 1854)
• 1979 – Zeppo Marx, American actor and singer (b. 1901)
• 2007 – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle rider and stuntman (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Paul Walker, American actor and producer (b. 1973)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Miley Cyrus (22), Ed Harris (64), Christina Applegate (43), Jon Stewart (52), Don Cheadle (50), Tina Turner (75), Sarah Hyland (24), Tom Sizemore (53), Robin Givens (50), Judd Nelson (55), Randy Newman (71), Diane Ladd (79), Natasha Bedingfield (33), Stephen Merchant (40) and Bruno Tonioli (59).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

30th November 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 23rd November 2014

Welcome minions of the moribund, I can this week say that we have a point scorer! Congratulations to Julia for correctly guessing that the Duchess of Alba would depart us this year, 62 points awarded and the joy of not being on a big fat zero, like myself, with only five weeks to go. Lets hope that the cold weather catches a few for the rest of us ‘nil point’ players before this year is out!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jimmy Ruffin, 78, American soul singer (“What Becomes of the Brokenhearted”).
• Pete Harman, 95, American businessman, opened first KFC franchise.
• Mike Nichols, 83, German-born American director (The Graduate, Angels in America, Spamalot), Oscar winner (1968), cardiac arrest.
• Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba, 88, Spanish aristocrat.

In Other News

Bono has undergone five hours of surgery after breaking his arm in six places and suffering a broken eye socket after falling off his bike in New York. Bono’s injuries are a result of what doctors called a “high-energy bicycle accident” were much more severe than the band let on in an earlier statement. Multiple x-rays showed that Bono had suffered numerous serious injuries, including a “facial fracture involving the orbit of his eye” and three separate fractures of his left shoulder blade. The fracture of the left humerus bone in his upper arm was said to be particularly serious, as it broke in six places and pierced the skin. Bono had just returned to New York after recording Band Aid 30 in London on Saturday, advocating that us poor fuckers pay an extortionate amount for a crap song to save Africans from themselves whilst he’s hiding millions in an offshore account. Karma…

Cher has cancelled the remainder of her Dressed to Kill tour after doctors advised she needed more time to recover from an ongoing viral infection. The singer said she was “devastated”. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me,” she lamented, in a statement. “I sincerely hope that we can come back again next year and finish what we started,” added the 68-year-old star. The second leg of the tour was due to kick off in New York on 11th September, but was postponed after the singer was “felled by an infection that affected her kidney function”. You can’t really complain, I doubt my granny would get up on stage dressed in fishnets to sing ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’…

Craig Charles has became the second person to leave the reality show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! after reports that his brother had died of a heart attack. After being made aware that his older brother had passed away at the age of 52, the Red Dwarf actor returned to Croc Creek to tell his fellow celebrities that he was heading home to be with his family. As yo know, heart disease runs in families, let’s keep a close eye on the Corrie star!

Jeremy Vine, the Radio 2 presenter, has been stopped by police for speeding on his bike at more than three times the limit. The reckless radio personality was caught cycling at 16mph through Hyde Park while on his way to work by an officer with a hand-held radar gun. Vine came to a halt in the cycle lane as the Metropolitan Police officer held up his hand and showed him the speed reading. He said he did not realise the limit was 5mph and apologised. With such death defying traits, he could end up like Bono, so we really should be listing him next year, or perhaps the Police should actually do some proper policing for a change.

American mass murderer Charles Manson, 80, has been granted a licence to marry a 26-year-old woman who has been visiting him in prison. The bride-to-be, Afton Elaine Burton, says she loves Manson. As a life prisoner with no parole date, Manson is not entitled to conjugal visits, so she will be spared the killers dusty sperms and the chance to get murdered herself. Luckily for his wife to be, Manson is not eligible to apply for parole again until 2027, hopefully by then the cunt will be dead and she’ll have moved on to a less media chasing life and a normal relationship.

Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi is no longer in an artificial coma and is breathing unaided, his parents have said in a statement. However, his condition is still “critical” and he remains unconscious. They said they were “relieved” to confirm their son had been transferred to Le Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice. Bianchi suffered a diffuse axonal injury when he crashed into a tractor at Suzuka that was recovering Adrian Sutil’s Sauber.

And finally, still on the F1 vein, it has been confirmed that Michael Schumacher is paralysed and has memory and speech problems from the brain injuries he sustained in a skiing accident, according to Philippe Streiff, a friend and ex-Formula One driver who was himself left in a wheelchair by a crash. Streiff, who was paralysed by a crash in 1989, said: “He is getting better but everything is relative. It’s very difficult. He can’t speak. Like me he is in a wheelchair, paralysed. He has memory problems and speech problems.” A spokeswoman for Schumacher said Streiff’s comments were “his opinions”.

On This Day

• 534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character onstage.
• 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
• 1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
• 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
• 1924 – Edwin Hubble‘s scientific discovery that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula within our galaxy, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe, was first published in a newspaper.
• 1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell), which is now the world’s longest running science fiction drama.
• 1979 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
• 1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 2004 – World of Warcraft, the largest MMORPG in the world was first released to the public.

Deaths

• 1910 – Hawley Harvey Crippen, American physician and murderer (b. 1862)
• 1990 – Roald Dahl, Welsh-English pilot, author, and screenwriter (b. 1916)
• 1991 – Klaus Kinski, German-American actor and director (b. 1926)
• 2001 – Mary Whitehouse, English educator and activist (b. 1910)
• 2006 – Alexander Litvinenko, Russian spy (b. 1962)
• 2010 – Ingrid Pitt, Polish-English actress and author (b. 1937)
• 2012 – Larry Hagman, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1931)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Scarlett Johansson (29), Danny Devito (70), Jodi Foster (52), Mark Ruffalo (47), Rachel McAdams (36), Owen Wilson (46), Goldie Hawn (69), Carly Rae Jepsen (29), Meg Ryan (63), Joe Biden (72), Maggie Gyllenhaal (37), Martin Scorsese (72), Bo Derek (58), Jamie Lee Curtis (56), Larry King (81), Lorne Michaels (70), Delroy Lindo (62), Sean Young (55), Billie Jean King (71), Missi Pyle (42), Martha Plimpton (44), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (56), RuPaul (54) and Linda Evans (72).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

23rd November 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 16th November 2014

Afternoon Poolers! Yet another week goes by and we have failed yet again to guess a single celebrity death! I’m starting to rethink my strategy for next year as these famous types are far outlasting us normal people, perhaps their longevity has something to do with how ridiculously rich they are. Back in my day an 80 year old celebrity was a cert! Anyhow, we have little over six weeks ’til the end of this years pool, so if you haven’t got your thinking cap on, you’d best drag it out from under the bed and give it a good dusting!

As always, I will be hassling you continuously during the month of December to get your lists in, I know what you lot are like, I have no idea how you managed to get an ‘O’ Level without doing your homework. If you would rather drop out for next year, please let me know and I’ll remove you from my hassle list.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Luke Dolan, 108, Irish centenarian, oldest man in the Republic of Ireland.
• Joe Walsh, 71, Irish politician, Minister for Agriculture and Food (1992–1994, 1997–2004).
• Steve Dodd, 86, Australian actor (Gallipoli, The Matrix, Quigley Down Under).
• Ernest Kinoy, 89, American writer (Roots, Dimension X, X Minus One), pneumonia.
• Big Bank Hank, 58, American rapper (The Sugarhill Gang), kidney complications of cancer.
• Carol Ann Susi, 62, American actress (The Big Bang Theory, Cats & Dogs, Death Becomes Her), cancer.
• Warren Clarke, 67, British actor (Dalziel and Pascoe, A Clockwork Orange, Top Secret!).
• Rebekah Gibbs, 41, British actress (Casualty), breast cancer.
• Mike Burney, 70, English saxophonist (Wizzard), cancer.
• Glen A. Larson, 77, American television writer and producer (Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, Magnum, P.I.), esophageal cancer.

In Other News 

Richie Benaud has revealed he is undergoing radiation treatment for skin cancer. The revered broadcaster has been absent from his commentary duties since a car accident near his Sydney home in 2013. Benaud said he was paying the price for a cricket career in which he did not wear a hat or sunscreen. “When I was a kid we never ever wore a cap. I wish I had. You live and learn as you go along,” he said. “I recommend to everyone they wear protection on their heads. Eighty-four-year-olds don’t seem to mend as well as they used to.” Ain’t that the truth!!

Pete Doherty is back in a Thai rehab centre. Two years after he was kicked out of a similar facility, the Libertines frontman is hoping to finally quit heroin and to begin helping other struggling addicts. Doherty is also receiving support from his Libertines bandmate Carl Barât. After a long hiatus the band reunited for gigs this summer and they are now working on a new album. Woo!

The Brazil legend Pelé was taken to hospital on Wednesday with a stomach complaint which forced him to miss an event at the museum honouring his career. The 74-year-old was taken to São Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital as a precaution, according to the TV station Globo. Other media quoted a spokesman as saying Pelé was not believed to be seriously ill.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been discharged from hospital after being treated for the latest in a series of medical problems. President Fernandez, who is 61, was hospitalised a week ago with fever and stomach pains. Doctors diagnosed an intestinal infection but have allowed her to leave hospital and ordered 10 days’ bed rest. This is the third time in less than a year that the president has suffered health issues. Best keep a very close eye on her.

An Argentinian magistrate has called on Interpol to use all necessary means to summon Justin Bieber to a Buenos Aires court. The singer has been accused of assault by a photographer, and magistrate Facundo Cubas said Bieber will face arrest if he does not submit his testimony about the incident within the next 60 days. If Bieber does return, a guilty verdict could result in up to a year in jail. I for one would like to see his face when a guilty verdict is read, imagine the state of his arsehole after a year in an Argentinian jail!!

And finally, a Polish woman who spent 11 hours in cold storage in a mortuary after being declared dead has returned to her family, complaining of feeling cold. Officials say Janina Kolkiewicz, 91, was declared dead after an examination by the family doctor. However, mortuary staff were astonished to notice movement in her body bag while it was in storage. The police have launched an investigation. Back home, Ms Kolkiewicz was warmed up with a bowl of soup and two pancakes and luckily has no inkling of what happened since she has late-stage dementia.

On This Day

• 1904 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming receives a patent for the thermionic valve (vacuum tube).
• 1914 – The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
• 1965 – The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, which will be the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

Deaths

• 1960 – Clark Gable, American actor and singer (b. 1901)
• 1982 – Arthur Askey, English comedian, actor, and singer (b. 1900)
• 2008 – Reg Varney, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1916)
• 2009 – Edward Woodward, English actor and singer (b. 1930)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Anne Hathaway (32), Ryan Gosling (34), Whoopi Goldberg (59), Neil Young (68), Demi Moore (52), Leonardo Dicaprio (40), Prince Charles (65), Ed Asner (85), Lou Ferrigno (63), Calista Flockhart (50), Gerard Butler (45), Beverly D’Angelo (63), Condoleezza Rice (60) and Chad Kroeger (40).

2014 League Table

[Confidential]

Next Week peeps!

16th November 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 9th November 2014

Not a good week  to be a musician it seems,  they’ve been dropping like flies and  our list of potentials only contains people of note from the music industry this week. How we missed out on Acker Bilk I’ll never know!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Acker Bilk, 85, British jazz clarinetist (“Stranger on the Shore”).
• Wayne Static, 48, American singer and musician (Static-X).
• Manitas de Plata, 93, French flamenco guitarist.
• Rick Rosas, 65, American session musician (Etta James, Joe Walsh, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young).

In Other News

Following revelations by his family a couple of weeks ago, Muhammad Ali’s doctor has played down fears over the former world heavyweight champion’s health. Ali, 72, has had Parkinson’s disease since 1984 and there have been rumours his health has been deteriorating. “I don’t see anything immediately that leads me to think that he is going to die in six months or a year,” Dr. Abraham Lieberman said. “People do not die of Parkinson’s. They develop trouble swallowing, they develop pneumonia, fall and bang their heads. His family take extraordinary care of him.” Even with such comments, all it takes is a small trip…

The six-times world championship finalist Jimmy White has told of his battle with crack cocaine addiction. The Whirlwind, 52, became a fans’ favourite in the 1980s and 90s, reaching the Crucible final in 1984 and in every year from 1990 to 1994 but losing on each occasion. White, though, was hiding a drug habit which cost him up to £10,000 a month, moving from cocaine to its stronger form. “I’m lucky to be alive” he admitted, “drugs probably cost me 10 world titles.”

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is  being treated for an “infectious fever” in a hospital in the capital, Buenos Aires, officials say. Ms Fernandez, 61, checked herself into the clinic after feeling ill Sunday afternoon, an official statement explained. The president has had a series of health problems, some of which have forced her to cancel official trips. Last year she had an operation to treat bleeding on the brain. She also missed this year’s independence day celebrations due to a throat infection. Could it be Ebola?

The Olympic champion, Dani King is recovering in hospital after a training accident left the 23-year-old with five broken ribs and a punctured lung. The team pursuit Olympic champion crashed on a regular cycling training route in Wales after a member of her group hit a pothole. King, who is in intensive care, wrote on Twitter: “Crashed whilst out training yesterday resulting in 5 broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Being looked after by the amazing NHS ICU in Wales.”

Thailand’s 86-year-old king remains in hospital after surgery to remove his gallbladder, the palace has said. Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, was admitted to Siriraj hospital in Bangkok on 3rd October and hasn’t been well since. Previously he’s spent four years in a special suite after being admitted for a lung infection! The guy seems to be falling apart, surely a contender for next years lists!

And finally, two little tales of stupidity. A 26-year-old Australian man who risked his life by diving into shark-infested waters to climb onto a rotting whale carcass has confessed that even his parents think he is an idiot. “One of my mates said it would be pretty funny to surf the whale, so I did it.” He was not put off by the fact that several hungry tiger sharks and a massive great white, were circling around the carcass at the time. Twat!

Secondly, American wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie, 26, who describes himself as “Indiana Jones with a green twist”, is planning to be eaten alive by a snake. Wearing a spacial suit, breathing apparatus and a rope tied around his foot, he plans to be swallowed whole for a TV show. I sincerely hope it goes wrong and the stupid cunt dies, but what will most likely happen is that they will have to cut him out and kill the poor snake. Bigger twat!

On This Day

• 1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
• 1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872.
• 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly is murdered in London, widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.
• 1907 – The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday.
• 1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine is published.
• 1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in eastern Europe including Russia.

Deaths

• 1888 – Mary Jane Kelly, Irish-English victim of Jack the Ripper (b. 1863)
• 1937 – Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1866)
• 1940 – Neville Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1869)
• 1953 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author (b. 1914)
• 1970 – Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician, 18th President of France (b. 1890)
• 2003 – Art Carney, American actor and singer (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Emlyn Hughes, English footballer and manager (b. 1947)
• 2004 – Stieg Larsson, Swedish journalist and author (b. 1954)
• 2012 – Bill Tarmey, English actor and singer (b. 1941)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Emma Stone (26), Matthew McConaughey (45), Roseanne Barr (62), Lorde (18), Ethan Hawke (44), Sally Field (68), David Schwimmer (48), Ralph Macchio (54), Dolph Lundgren (57), Gordon Ramsay (48), Joni Mitchell (71), Bryan Adams (55), Maria Shriver (59), Sam Rockwell (46), Tatum O’Neal (51), Art Garfunkel (72), Mike Nichols (83), Loretta Swit (77), Anna Wintour (65), Thandie Newton (42), Rebecca Romijn (42), Famke Janssen (49), Tilda Swinton (54), Adam Ant (61), Kate Capshaw (61) and K.D. Lang (53).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next Week peeps!

9th November 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 2nd November 2014

Good afternoon one and all to this especially poignant edition of the Dead Pool. Yes, your Dead Pool Master lived to see the advent of his 40th birthday, who would have thunk it!! On another note, since most of you know Nickie through the FridayTwiz or the odd post on this here newsletter, you may or may not know that she’s authored a bookie wookie for you to enjoy. So if you like quizzes, and who doesn’t, visit this link for more info or even visit this link to buy her book.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Marcia Strassman, 66, American actress (Welcome Back, Kotter, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), breast cancer.Ted Beniades, 91, American actor (Scarface, Serpico, The Odd Couple).
• Senzo Meyiwa, 27, South African footballer (Orlando Pirates, national team), shot.
• Ian Fraser, 81, English composer and conductor (“Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy“, Scrooge, Christmas in Washington), cancer.
• Michael Alsbury, 39, American test pilot and engineer (Scaled Composites), Virgin Galactic crash.

In Other News

The magician Paul Daniels needed an emergency tetanus jab after he was bitten by one of his stage rabbits while he was rehearsing for his new tour. Daniels, 76, was given the shot and prescribed a course of strong antibiotics after the rabbit attacked. The accident happened on Friday and the injury meant he had to delay the start of his show at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe, part of his Back Despite Popular Demand Tour, with wife Debbie McGee, 55. A source said: “It wasn’t too serious. He still has all his finger. It’s just a little sore. Debbie is enjoying playing nurse.” Daniels, who is famous for his “not a lot” catchphrase, later tweeted: “It will be interesting to do magic with this elastoplasted finger.” It is not the first time he has been attacked by a co-star. In 2011 Paul had to be treated in hospital and was left with a black eye, after puppet Sooty threw a pizza at his head.

Hugh Jackman has had treatment for skin cancer for a third time. His people confirmed that he was treated for Basal Cell Carcinoma after the Wolverine actor was  recently pictured with another bandage on his nose. But his representatives say he’s “all good” after the procedure. The 46-year-old tweeted “Sunscreen” with a picture of his cancerous nose.

South Korea’s spy agency believes it has solved the mystery of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s six-week public absence that set off a frenzy of global speculation. The National Intelligence Service told legislators on Tuesday that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his left ankle, lawmaker Shin Kyung-min said. He said the spy agency also told lawmakers that the cyst could recur because of Kim’s obesity, smoking and heavy public schedule.

The inventor of the popular board game Operation is in desperate need of money to pay for a real-life operation. Friends of John Spinello, 77, are hoping to raise $25,000 (£15,400) on a crowdfunding site for oral surgery not covered by his insurance. Mr Spinello sold the game for $500 in 1964 and is not entitled to royalties. He is also planning an auction of the original prototype to raise additional money.

The family of Jules Bianchi have issued a new statement on the Marussia driver’s condition, saying the 25-year-old “continues to fight” for life. Bianchi suffered a diffuse axonal injury to his brain when he crashed into a recovery vehicle in heavy rain during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on 5th October, and has been undergoing treatment in Japan. In the new statement, the family said: “It will be four weeks this coming Sunday since Jules’ accident and he remains in the Mie General Medical Center in Yokkaichi. His condition continues to be classified by the medical professionals here as critical but stable.”

Everyone’s favourite paedo, Rolf Harris, has lost the first round of a legal challenge against his conviction for indecent assaults. The disgraced entertainer was jailed in July for nearly six years for 12 indecent assaults on four girls, including one aged just seven or eight. The Judicial Office confirmed a judge had refused his application for permission to appeal, lodged in August. But the 84-year-old can still renew the application before three judges at the Court of Appeal.

On This Day

• 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
• 1604 – William Shakespeare‘s tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
• 1611 – William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
• 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
• 1939 – The first rabbit born after artificial insemination is exhibited to the world.
• 1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America‘s film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.

Deaths

• 1952 – Dixie Lee. American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
• 1982 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1985 – Phil Silvers, American actor and singer (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Michael Piller, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1948)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Julia Roberts (47), Jenny McCarthy (42), Joaquin Phoenix (40), Hillary Clinton (67), Henry Winkler (69), Winona Ryder (43), Vanilla Ice (47), Kelly Osborne (30), Richard Dreyfuss (67), Jaclyn Smith (69), John Cleese (75), Anthony Kiedis (52), Toni Collette (52), Simon LeBon (56), Cary Elwes (52), Seth Macfarlane (41), Jon Heder (37), Annie Potts (62), Bill Gates (59) and Larry Flynt (72).

2013 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

2nd November 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 26th October 2014

Welcome all, a very eventful week in the world of  celebrity deaths, however nobody scored a single point, we all really need to try harder! With little over two months left to play, the scoring has been abysmal this year, either celebrities are getting hardier or we’re simply not good enough at predicting their expiry dates. Let’s hope that the upcoming cold weather reaps a few on our lists, but I suppose celebrities don’t have to worry about heating bills…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Mick Burt, British drummer (Chas & Dave), Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
• Lynda Bellingham, 66, Canadian-born British actress (Doctor Who, General Hospital, The Bill), colon cancer.
• Gerard Parkes, 90, Irish-born Canadian actor (Fraggle Rock, The Boondock Saints).
• Raphael Ravenscroft, 60, British saxophonist (“Baker Street“) and author, suspected heart attack.
• John Holt, 67, Jamaican singer (The Paragons) and songwriter (“The Tide Is High”).
• Alvin Stardust, 72, English singer (“My Coo Ca Choo”).
• David Redfern, 78, English photographer, cancer.
• Jack Bruce, 71, Scottish bassist (Cream, Manfred Mann, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) and composer, liver disease.

In Other News

Tottenham Hotspur have said they are supporting former football star Paul Gascoigne after it was reported he had been placed on an emergency three-day detox. Medics sectioned the 47-year-old under the Mental Health Act at 3am on Friday after a drinking binge. His close friend and former Spurs team-mate Gary Mabbutt said: “Paul hasn’t been well for the past couple of weeks, he wants to get better and he’s asked for help. He is being looked after very well – he has got a lot of support around him.” Police were called to Gascoigne’s home in Poole, Dorset, at around 3.30pm on Thursday, but something must have happened in-between then and his sectioning at 3am, perhaps he tried an early points score on the Dead Pool?

Bad news for a few Poolers, former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson says he has been “cured” of the terminal pancreatic cancer with which he was diagnosed in 2012. The 67-year-old was initially given 10 months to live after rejecting chemotherapy, but had radical surgery to remove the tumour earlier this year. After an 11 hour operation to remove 3kg of tumour, his pancreas, spleen, part of his stomach, small and large intestines and the removal and reconstruction of blood vessels relating to the liver, Wilko, or what’s left of him, had accepted he was going to die, but now he’s disappointing everyone by pulling through. The lucky bastard!

A footballer has died of injuries he sustained after landing awkwardly while celebrating a goal during a state-level league match in India, the organisers of the Mizoram Premier League have announced. Peter Biaksangzuala, a midfielder for Bethlehem Vengthlang, a club based in the north east of the country, damaged his spinal cord after attempting a series of somersaults to celebrate his equaliser in the fixture against Chanmari West last Tuesday. That’ll teach him!

In more bad news for us, a doctor who treated Michael Schumacher for nearly six months after his brain injury in a skiing accident says the F1 champion has made “some progress”. Jean-Francois Payen, a doctor at the French hospital in Grenoble where he was treated, warned that any recovery would take time. The typical convalescence period was one to three years, he suggested. “I have noted some progress but I would say we should give him time,” he said. Asked about the chances of Schumacher making a recovery, he only referred to a time frame for patients with similar brain injuries. “It’s like for other patients, we are on a timescale which goes from one year to three years and we need to be patient.” Bah!

On This Day

• 1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.
• 1861 – The Pony Express officially ceases operations.
• 1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
• 1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
• 2002 – Moscow theater hostage crisis: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

Deaths

• 899 – Alfred the Great, English king (b. 849)
• 1764 – William Hogarth, English painter and engraver (b. 1697)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Katy Perry (30), Jeff Goldblum (62), Kim Kardashian (34), Ryan Reynolds (38), Carrie Fisher (58), Catherine Deneuve (71), Weird Al Yankovic (55), Kevin Kline (67), Tom Petty (64), Snoop Dogg (42), Pele (74), Christopher Lloyd (76), John Lithgow (69), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (39), Evander Holyfield (52), Viggo Mortensen (56), Ken Watanabe (54), Ang Lee (60) and Cat Deeley (38).

Next Week peeps!

26th October 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 19th October 2014

Welcome minions! Yet another week flies by, yet more  pointless deaths. As per usual, we have a few pieces of news and for this week only, a job offer you cannot refuse! Without further ado:

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Alain Siritzky, 72, French film producer (Emmanuelle film series).
• Bob Orrison, 86, American stunt performer (Stargate, Road House, Speed), traffic collision.
• Gary McLarty, 73, American stunt performer (The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Beverly Hills Cop), traffic collision.
• Graham Miles, 73, English snooker player.
• Mark Bell, 43, British musician and house music producer (LFO), complications from surgery.
• Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, 38, American keyboardist, heart attack.
• Elizabeth Peña, 55, American actress (The Incredibles, Rush Hour, Jacob’s Ladder).
• Sumi Haru, 75, American actress (MASH).
• John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough, 88, British peer, custodian of Blenheim Palace.

In Other News

Muhammad Ali was known as the “Louisville Lip”, thanks to his sharp patter and devastating wit which skewered his opponents both in and out of the ring. These days the boxing legend is so stricken by the ravages of Parkinson’s disease that he can hardly speak, his brother has announced. He did not attend the Holly­wood premier of a new film about his life, I Am Ali, last week and was unable to take part in any filming although he is said to have given the project his support. Rahman Ali said that the boxer, who lives in Arizona with his wife, Lonnie, had become increasingly frail in the past year and was now largely housebound. In January, his son, Ali Jr, said he considered there was “no chance” of his father living another year.

Country musics legendary rhinestone cowboy, Glen Campbell, is taking his last bow this autumn. The 78-year-old, who was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in  2011, said farewell to fans on a Goodbye Tour in 2012, but this week marked the official sunset of Campbells professional music career with the release of his final single, a heartbreaking ballad called I’m Not Gonna Miss You. Very much in the vein of Johnny Cash’s last single, whom died very soon after the release of his last single, a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, we rather hope Campbell makes it to January!

The president of Brazil was forced to sit down and be revived live on television after a challenging 90-minute debate with her rival for the presidency. Dilma Rousseff, 66, who is running for re-election in a vote to be held on October 26th, battled her way through a demanding debate with Aecio Neves. After the discussion had ended, she was interviewed by Brazil’s SBT television, but was evidently feeling unwell. She was ushered to a chair by the presenter, who continued to talk to the live television audience, telling them: “The president is feeling ill.” Apparently she was suffering from low blood pressure, we’re thinking it’s more serious!

After more than six weeks of global speculation, the people of North Korea can at last relax: their beloved leader has finally been seen in public once more. State media reported early on Tuesday local time that Kim Jong-un visited a newly built residential district and the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences. Kim was pictured walking with the aid of a black cane – lending weight to the theory that he has been receiving treatment for a leg injury or illness that has affected his ability to walk unaided.

And finally, a woman was horrified to receive a text message from her grandmother’s phone number – three years after her death. When Lesley Emerson died in 2011 some of her favourite things were buried with her, including her mobile phone. Sheri Emerson, of South Shields, said she found comfort in texting her but was stunned to get a reply, saying: “I’m watching over you.”

It emerged her grandmother’s number had been given to another user who replied, thinking friends were playing pranks. Ms Emerson said that following her grandmother’s death, rather than visit her grave at Harton Cemetery in South Shields, she would text small, personal messages as a “way of being close to her”. However, she was “upset and distressed” to receive a reply saying: “I’m watching over you and it’s all going to get better. Just push through.” When a family member rang the number the man who answered explained he had recently acquired the number and thought the text messages from Ms Emerson had been from prankster friends. O2 said numbers disconnected and not reconnected within a short period of time were placed in a general pool for reassignment. Oh my life!

On This Day

• 1216 – King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.
• 1900 – Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black-body radiation (Planck’s law).
• 1943 – Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
• 1960 – Cold War: The United States government imposes a near-total trade embargo against Cuba, which remains in effect today.
• 1988 – The British government imposes a broadcasting ban on television and radio interviews with members of Sinn Féin and eleven Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups.

Deaths

• 1216 – John, King of England (b. 1167)
• 1745 – Jonathan Swift, Irish priest and poet (b. 1667)
• 1937 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-English physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
• 1994 – Martha Raye, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
• 2010 – Tom Bosley, American actor and singer (b. 1927)

Get Your Arse to Mars! by KoA

You may or may not have heard of there Mars One mission. As the title suggests, it’s a mission to get man on mars within our lifetime. However, there’s one little snag, it’s a one way trip and researchers at MIT say that the settlers, if they even manage to reach Mars, will only live for a couple of months at most.

The Dutch non-profit foundation that’s behind the Mars One mission say that they already have the technology to achieve this and they can launch a preliminary expedition in 2018, which will be sending toilet-like cubicles to provide food and facilities for the group of stupid humans that make the journey.

The first four settlers will take off in 2024 and land in 2025 after a seven month journey, they will presumably eat whatever food was sent, then starve to death.

Who would make such a journey? Well, 200,000 people have applied, 1,058 have made it through to round two. They are a bunch of healthy adults from around the world and eventually the final six groups of four will be chosen by an international reality TV contest, yes, you will finally be  able to vote for someone to die with barely a whim and a few terms & conditions.

I suppose there is a certain glory involved, your name will go down in history as the first group of people to reach Mars, you will also be known as the first group of people to have died on Mars, or maybe the only one left on Mars after eating your shipmates.

If you hate humanity as much as these 200,000 people, you could have signed up, unfortunately they are not taking any more names, so you will just have to kill yourself instead.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Zac Efron (27), Marie Osmond (55), Hugh Jackman (46), Angela Lansbury (89), Paul Simon (73), Roger Moore (87), Tim Robbins (56), Sarah Ferguson (55), Eminem (42), Suzanne Somers (68), Flea (52), Chuck Berry (88), Sacha Baron Cohen (43), Pam Dawber (63), Michael McKean (67), George Wendt (66), Martina Navratilova (58), Jean-Claude Van Damme (54), Wyclef Jean (45), Steve Coogan (49), Margot Kidder (66), Matt Damon (44) and Luke Perry (48).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!

19th October 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 12th October 2014

Sunday again, and as sure as the tides, here we are speculating over the demises of the famous. Another slack week I’m afraid, however, we have more than enough to entertain the most morbid of you. I’ll remind you now that there is little over two months to go, so get your thinking caps on for next year because this years scoring has been abysmal so far. Either celebrities are healthier than they used to be or we are shit at this game!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Andrea de Cesaris, 55, Italian racing driver (Formula One), traffic collision.
• Geoffrey Holder, 84, Trinidadian actor (Live and Let Die), choreographer (The Cosby Show) and director (The Wiz), pneumonia.
• Peg Griffin, 110, New Zealand supercentenarian, was nation’s oldest person, complications from a stroke.
• Jan Hooks, 57, American comedienne and actress (Saturday Night Live, Designing Women, Batman Returns).

In Other News

Marussia driver Jules Bianchi remains in “critical but stable” condition, almost a week after his crash at the Japanese Grand Prix. The 25-year-old was unconscious when he was taken to hospital from Suzuka. Bianchi lost control close to where Sauber driver Adrian Sutil had spun and hit the tyre barrier. As a recovery vehicle was lifting Sutil’s car, Bianchi travelled across the run-off area and hit the back of the tractor. Although a statement earlier this week from his family, through the Marussia team, said Bianchi had sustained a diffuse axonal injury, no further updates have been given. It is unclear how serious his condition remains.

Michael Schumacher is “fighting” in his recovery, according to former Ferrari boss and current FIA president Jean Todt who believes the world champion’s condition will improve. “He will probably no longer be able to drive in Formula One. Voilà, that’s what we can say,” Todt said. When asked if Schumacher would be able to live a normal life again Todt said: “we have to hope for that”.

Blues guitarist BB King has called off the remaining eight  performances of his current tour after being diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion. According to his website, the 89-year-old was taken ill during a performance in Chicago on Friday. The tour was to have included two shows at his own blues club in New York. The veteran bluesman, known for such hits as The Thrill is Gone and Every Day I Have the Blues, has diabetes and was briefly in hospital in 2007. Earlier this year, King issued a public apology to fans after an erratic performance in St Louis led to audience catcalls and early departures. His publicists called it “a bad night for one of America’s living blues legends”, we call it a calling to deaths door.

Singer Morrissey has revealed he has had four medical procedures he has described as “cancer-scrapings”. The ex-Smiths star has recently battled bouts of ill health but revealed the cancer news during an email interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “I have had four cancer-scrapings, but so what. If I die, I die,” he wrote. “If I don’t, then I don’t. As I sit here today I feel very well.” He continued, ”I know I look quite bad on recent photographs, but I am afraid this is what illness does to the overall countenance. I will save relaxation for when I’m dead.” Morrissey, cheerful as always.

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is improving following an operation at a Bangkok hospital to remove his gallbladder, say officials. The 86-year-old king is revered as a near-deity in Thailand and news of his latest illness has sparked concern across the country. The king has been admitted to the Siriraj Hospital several times in recent years. He was treated there for stomach inflammation last month. In 2009 he was admitted for a lung infection, and spent nearly four years living in a special suite in the hospital.

And finally, where is North Korea’s Kim Jong-un? Nobody has seen him in weeks! According to South Korean newspaper The Chosun ilbo, the North Korean ruler fractured his ankles after putting on weight from regularly consuming imported Swiss cheese. It’s suggested that he is dead already and that Kim Jong-un’s younger sister may have stepped up to wrest control of the secretive country. This poses a quandary for us Poolers, without confirmation of his fatness dying, no points can be awarded! Anyone fancy taking a holiday?

On This Day

• 1216 – John, King of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge.
• 1492 – Christopher Columbus‘s expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached the Indies.
• 1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1773 – America’s first insane asylum opens for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia.
• 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse was the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 meters.
• 1823 – Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.
• 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the “Executive Mansion” to the White House.
• 1979 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
• 1984 – Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people and wounds 31.

Deaths

• 1845 – Elizabeth Fry, English social reformer and philanthropist (b. 1780)
• 1870 – Robert E. Lee, American general (b. 1807)
• 1971 – Gene Vincent, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (b. 1935)
• 1978 – Nancy Spungen, American murder victim, girlfriend of Sid Vicious (b. 1958)
• 1997 – John Denver, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Chad Mitchell Trio and The John Denver Band) (b. 1943)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kate Winslet (39), Simon Cowell (55), Jesse Eisenberg (31), Sigourney Weaver (65),  Paul Hogan (75), Chevy Chase (71), Matt Damon (44), Bruno Mars (28), Emily Deschanel (38), Luke Perry (48), Britt Ekland (72), David Lee Roth (60), Joan Cusack (52), Guy Pearce (47), Jane Krakowski (46), Elisabeth Shue (50), Bob Geldof (63), Karen Allen (63), Stephen Moyer (45), Desmond Tutu (83), Thom Yorke (46), Rev. Jesse Jackson (73), Sharon Osbourne (62), Tony Shalhoub (61), Scott Bakula (60) and Sean Lennon (39).

2013 League Table

[confidential]

Next Week peeps!

12th October 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 5th October 2014

Hi folks, a very quiet week this time, so I’ve pulled out all the stops to produce what I can only call an epic saga of news and entertainment for your perusal. I know, there’s no need to thank me, honestly, I know I’m particularly more awesome than your next door neighbour, so let’s just get on with is shall we?

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Sheila Tracy, 80, British broadcaster and musician (Big Band Special).
• Lynsey de Paul, 64, English singer-songwriter (“Won’t Somebody Dance with Me“), brain haemorrhage.
• Rob Skipper, 28, British rock musician (The Holloways).
• Jean-Claude Duvalier, 63, Haitian politician, President (1971–1986), heart attack.

In Other News

The television presenter Michaela Strachan has revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sadly, the Springwatch host said she was forced to have both breasts removed after the cancer was discovered in a mammogram at the start of the year. The 48-year-old, who is set to undergo reconstructive surgery, stressed that her experience showed the importance of regular checkups.

Walmart – owners of the truck that crashed into Tracy Morgan’s limousine contend that his injuries and the death of a passenger were partly their own fault because the 30 Rock comic was not wearing a seatbelt, so nothing to do with the fact that their speeding/sleeping driver hadn’t slept for over 24 hours and managed to total seven vehicles in the crash. I don’t know about how you feel about these things, but these lawyers sometimes talk out of their arses! I’m voting Walmart as cunt of the week!

The British National Party says it has expelled its ex-leader Nick Griffin. In a statement, the BNP accused him of trying to “destabilise” the party and “harassing” party members, so nothing to do with the fact the guy is a twat! The report also suggested that he had ignored warnings from Adam Walker, the party’s chairman, that he was bringing the BNP into disrepute! Disrepute!!!! We better keep an eye on Griffin, or try to, hard to look the man in the face with that massive squint, he’s pretty much on a downward spiral, having being declared bankrupt, fired from his job and now being ignored by his racist friends. A suicide in the making?

Sir Bobby Charlton has been taken to hospital after complaining of stomach pains whilst playing in the Alfred Dunhill Championship pro-am event in Scotland. A source at the hospital said that the Manchester United director, 76, was treated for stomach pains in the accident and emergency department but was then discharged and allowed home. The episode was described as ‘a bit of a turn’, maybe a strong Vindaloo the night before, perhaps its a tumour, who knows, let’s see how it pans out.

Michael Caine has said he is ready to retire at the end of the year, and we all know what happens to men that retire! Caine has had a glittering career that has seen him win two Oscars and become one of Hollywood’s best-known British actors. The 81-year-old has acted in more than a hundred films including Alfie, Zulu, The Italian Job and Get Carter admitted that “I’ve retired, sort of. I’m doing a second one of Now You See Me, a picture I did about magicians,” he said. “I do that in December and then I stop.” We’re wondering if he’s talking about acting or life…

Following news of AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Youngs permanent departure from the band, his family have now confirmed that he’s being treated for dementia. The announcement follows news of AC/DC’s 17th studio album, Rock or Bust, which is produced by Brendan O’Brien and will be released on 1 December. It is the first AC/DC album not to feature Young, most likely because he forgot where he left his guitar.

Good news for us, actor Lynda Bellingham, 66, has decided to stop taking chemotherapy for her cancer riddled body at the end of November with the hope she’ll make it to the end of January, so it  looks like all of us will be starting off the year with 84 points. Let’s hope she has an awesome Christmas and I’m sure you would all like to join me in wishing her well until January.

The long, complicated saga of Casey Kasem’s final resting place has taken another turn as his daughter, Kerri, announced on Twitter that the funeral home in Oslo, Norway has refused to bury the late radio star. The Top 40 star passed away in June in Gig Harbor, Washington, one wonders what’s left to bury after four months of rotting and globe trotting, however, I’m sure that the family know what they are doing, so feel free to sign the petition to have the slightly fluid and bony corpse flown back to the loving arms of his children.

More good news, Oklahoma prison officials unveiled new execution procedures on Tuesday to replace those used in April when an inmate writhed and moaned before being declared dead 43 minutes after his lethal injection began. The new guidelines allow the state to keep using the sedative midazolam, so you wont have to listen to the inmate moan and watch him writhe on the table as he dies. I’m sure all of those on Death Row will be so pleased to hear this news, they will still feel all the pain, but those watching wont have a clue! Well done Oklohoma!

I’m sure some of you have seen footage of Larry Evans on social media, he’s the 57 stone guy who’s sharing his workouts with the world like some kind of inspirational guru. Obviously we can’t disparage his attempts at getting fit and back into shape, but 57 stone and rigorous exercise don’t mix very well. Will he be famous enough to cut the mustard? Will his next dive into the pool cause that fatal coronary? Will bench pressing those hamburgers cause a stroke? Who knows, let’s watch and find out, but as someone who has a slight strain lifting his wine to his mouth, I’m not holding out much hope for this guy.

On This Day

• 1914 – World War I: first aerial combat resulting in an intentional fatality.
• 1947 – The first televised White House address is given by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
• 1962 – Dr. No, the first in the James Bond film series, is released.
• 1962 – The Beatles‘ first single, “Love Me Do” backed with “P.S. I Love You“, is released in the United Kingdom.
• 1969 – The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs on BBC One.

Deaths

• 1983 – Earl Tupper, American inventor and businessman, founded the Tupperware Corporation (b. 1907)
• 2011 – Steve Jobs, American businessman, co-founder and of Apple Inc. (b. 1955)
• 2011 – Charles Napier, American actor (b. 1936)

Five diseases far deadlier than Ebola found in the US by KoA

Since Ebola has reached Texas, I thought we would cover some other diseases that are already killing thousands in the US – let’s look at five currently or recently observed in the US with higher fatality rates.

Amoebic Meningoencephalitis

A rare but highly lethal disease which sees the nervous system infected by a type of amoeba which can be found in warm, stagnant freshwater including swimming pools and lakes. Only five people have ever survived the disease, representing a 97 per cent fatality rate. Infection can occur if contaminated water enters deep into the sinus cavities. There are few symptoms in the first few days of infection beyond a loss of sense of smell, but most of those infected die within 14 days of exposure.

Rabies

Rabies is still present in all parts of the world except for Japan, parts of Western Europe and Australasia, and Antarctica, killing 55,000 annually. Spread by bites or scratches from infected animals, the disease in nearly always fatal once symptoms develop, typically one to three months after infection. A range of animals found in the US can also spread the disease, including bats, skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and even groundhogs. Run now, run for the hills!

Anthrax

Anthrax used to kill hundreds of thousands around the world every year. However, the vaccine developed by Louis Pasteur has seen this vastly diminish. The disease is usually picked up by grazing animals from spores of bacteria in the soil, which can turn into inhalational anthrax, which was known as “woolsorters’ disease” due to the risk of inhaling spores suffered by those in the wool trade. Without treatment, only about 10 – 15% of patients with inhalation anthrax survive.

The Plague

We all remember this from school history lessons, the 14th-century Black Plague was just one of three global pandemics in history, which have collectively killed up to 200 million people. But it is still around, even in America! From 1990-2005, a total of 107 cases of plague were reported in the United States. Mortality from pneumonic plague approaches 100 per cent when untreated, while some strains of bubonic plague can be as high as 70 per cent.

HIV/AIDS

New research this week has claimed the first ever case of the HIV/AIDS pandemic can be traced to Kinshasa in the DR Congo in the 1920s. Since then it has spread across the world infecting some 75 million people and killing 36 million of them. It’s hard to put an exact figure on mortality as treatments vary substantially around the world and are constantly developing, while many die years or even decades after infection, however, the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual puts the case fatality rate among those untreated in a developed country at 80 to 90 per cent in the first five years.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Victoria Silvstedt (40), Brigitte Bardot (80), Mira Sorvino (47), Hilary Duff (27), Dita Von Teese (42), Jerry Lee Lewis (80), Johnny Mathis (79), Julie Andrews (79), Randy Quaid (64), Jimmy Carter (90), Sting (63), Gwen Stefani (45), Neve Campbell (41), Seann William Scott (38), Clive Owen (50), Lena Headey (41), Jackie Collins (77), Susan Sarandon (68) and Alicia Silverstone (38).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next Week peeps!

5th October 2014 | Categories: 2014 | Leave A Comment »