Dead Pool 1st November 2015

Welcome all to the special “Day After Halloween” edition of the Dead Pool. Yes, we’re all partied out and have a hangover, so other than to award a few points, I’ll not ramble on too much. With the death of Al Molinaro, we award 54 points to Dave, well done that man. Which makes things very interesting at the top of the table. I shall take this opportunity to say thank you for the birthday wishes, I made it another year, with any luck I might be able to carry on with the Dead Pool next year too!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Sam Sarpong, 40, British-born American model and actor (Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Farm House, Anchor Baby), suicide by jumping.

Al Molinaro, 96, American actor (Happy Days), complications from infected gall bladder.

In Other News

Comedian Bob Mortimer has undergone a triple bypass heart operation. The star, known for being one half of comedy duo Vic and Bob alongside Vic Reeves, has had to cancel the first leg of the pair’s upcoming tour. Mortimer, 56, had been due to take to the stage in Glasgow in early November for 25 Years of Reeves & Mortimer: the Poignant Moments. Neil Reading, Mortimer’s spokesman, said: “Bob would like to thank his consultant and all the nursing staff at the hospital for looking after him so well. “He now needs several weeks to fully recover, so unfortunately the first leg of the UK tour will be cancelled. “Bob very much hopes to be fit and well enough to perform the second leg in January next year.”

The BBC news presenter, George Alagiah, has said that his treatment for cancer is over, and expressed thanks for the “thoughts, prayers and support” he has received. The journalist, a popular face of the BBC Six O’Clock News, shared the news on Twitter on Wednesday after it emerged last April that he was to receive treatment for bowel cancer. “A long time coming but the cancer treatment is finally over. Now I can look forward again. Thank you for thoughts, prayers and support,” he said. The corporation said last year that Alagiah was to undergo treatment, but “is optimistic for a positive outcome”. The newsreader, who joined the BBC in 1989 and became a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa, is expected now to make a phased return to work.

Phil Collins has confirmed he will return to making music after a 13-year break, with new recording sessions beginning next month. Collins hasn’t released brand new music since 2002 album Testify, though did release a Motown covers album in 2010. But in a new interview in Rolling Stone, he declares: “I’m no longer officially retired. The horse is out of the stable and I’m raring to go.” In 2011 he announced his retirement, “so I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis” – this was following his third divorce in 2008, from Orianne Cevey, who eventually took their sons to live with her in Miami while he remained in Switzerland. In the Rolling Stone interview he said the period “left me with a lot of time on my hands to think about what happened. I went through a few bits of darkness; drinking too much. I killed my hours watching TV and drinking, and it almost killed me. But I haven’t had a drink in three years.” He also has had to go through surgery, after nerve damage suffered on a Genesis reunion tour in 2007 left him unable to play the drums. Let’s see how he copes with his comeback, we all know what happened to Michael Jackson!

And finally, a dog named Trigger accidentally shot his owner during a hunt in the US. The chocolate Labrador retriever stepped on top of a 12-gauge shotgun on the ground without the safety on, and shot Allie Carter in the left foot. Indiana conservation officer Jonathon Boyd says 25-year-old Allie Carter laid her shotgun on the ground without the safety on during a waterfowl hunt Saturday at Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area. Boyd says Carter’s chocolate Labrador retriever, Trigger, stepped on top of the shotgun and depressed the trigger. He says Carter was shot in the left foot at point-blank range, suffering injuries to her foot and toes. She was treated at two hospitals and released. Even American dogs are batshit crazy!

On This Day

• 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
• 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
• 1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
• 1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

Deaths

• 1952 – Dixie Lee. American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
• 1979 – Mamie Eisenhower, American wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 36th First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• 1982 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1985 – Phil Silvers, American actor and singer (b. 1911)
• 2007 – Meredith Kercher, English murder victim (b. 1985)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Katy Perry (31), Richard Dreyfuss (68), Julia Roberts (48), Henry Winkler (70), Caitlyn Jenner (66), Hillary Clinton (68), Winona Ryder (44), Seth McFarlane (42),  Vanilla Ice (48), John Cleese (76), Emilia Clarke (29), Joaquin Phoenix (41), Simon LeBon (57), Bill Gates (60), Diego Maradona (55), Dan Castellaneta (58), Kelly Osbourne (31), Cary Elwes (53), Peter Jackson (54), Nancy Cartwright (58), Jon Heder (38), Annie Potts (53) and Rufus Sewell (48).

Next week peeps!