Dead Pool 24th May 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 17th May 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 10th May 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 3rd May 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 26th April 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 19th April 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

 In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 12th April 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 5th April 2015

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

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

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Weeks Birthdays

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

Next week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 29th March 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next Week peeps!

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

Dead Pool 22nd March 2015

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

Next week peeps!

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

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 »