Dead Pool 22nd August 2021

Those evil flying monkeys have been busy this week although none of us scored a single point. But one of last weeks deaths has made me rather hesitant to send out the little buggers once again, just in case! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

This weeks shocking news is that of the tragic death of comedian Sean Lock; sometimes we wish those evil flying monkeys would miss their mark or maybe get shot down by a local farmer! The comedian’s family confirmed his passing earlier this week at the relatively young age of 58 and his friend and fellow comedian Bill Bailey has now revealed that Sean passed away after a secret battle with lung cancer, which he was diagnosed with a “few years ago”. Bill told us: “He had been diagnosed with lung cancer a few years ago and it was at the time quite a blow, particularly when it was quite advanced. We’ve tried to make the most of the last few years. We spent a lot of time together and went on trips together. And he’s continued to work. He’s amazingly courageous and tough individual who was mentally strong throughout the whole time. I’m just grateful for the time we have had together.” Sean has received many glowing tributes from those on the comedy circuit and Bill is hardly surprised as he praised his late friend’s fearless nature and “determination”. 

The world’s smallest cow ‘Rani’ died on Thursday due to  ‘excessive gas accumulated in its stomach’. Sajedul Islam, livestock officer of Savar, Bangladesh, confirmed the death to us. “The cow fell ill two days ago. It was taken to Savar Upazila health centre at around 11am and the on-duty doctor declared it dead at 12pm,” he said. The dwarf cow of the Boxer Bhutti breed, grew up  in a  farm at Charigram of Savar, near the capital Dhaka. The cow stood  just 51cm (20in) high, and weighed 28kg (62Ib), just enough for 30 Big Mac’s. At the time it was waiting to be recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest cow. The cow turned into a celebrity since the news first broke in the Bangladeshi newspapers back in July and hundreds of visitors had been flocking to the farm to catch a  sight of it. The title for the world’s smallest cow has been held officially by Manikyam, in neighbouring India, which measures 61.1cm from the hoof to the withers.

If you thought Covid has gone away, fear not, it’s still with us and bringing down many a celebrity. Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has said that he is “very sick” after testing positive for coronavirus. The 47-year-old – who is currently in the middle of a North American tour of his solo album CMFT – was forced to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Astronomican event in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday after testing positive for Covid-19. Taylor shared a video to Facebook addressing his absence, stating: “I hope everybody’s well, I wish I had better news. I woke up today and tested positive, and I’m very, very sick.” He apologised to fans, adding that he is “absolutely devastated” and that he hopes “everyone has a good time”. Speaking about his health, the heavy metal rocker said: “I should be okay. It’s just the flu. I’m vaccinated so I’m not worried but I certainly would not want to spread it to anyone else, so everybody be safe out there. I will see you again, promise,” he said. Taylor recently spoke out against concertgoers who refuse to get vaccinated, stating: “People act like getting a vaccine is signing a deal with the devil. It’s been so politicised and spun out of control in these conspiratorial echo chambers that people forget that you can find all the info you want online to educate yourself about everything about these vaccines.” Taylor continued: “Do I think it should be a requirement for people to be vaccinated to go to shows? Yes and no. Here’s the thing: there shouldn’t be mandate, but guess what man, if you’re going to put people at risk of getting sick, you shouldn’t want to go to a show. And if you do put people at risk, then you’re a fucking asshole, and you shouldn’t be let in anyway,” he concluded.  

On the flip side of the above story, a conservative US talk radio host and vaccine skeptic has died in hospital from complications related to a Covid-19 that he contracted last month. Radio personality Phil Valentine’s death was announced in a tweet on Saturday by Nashville radio station SuperTalk 99.7 WTN. “We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and Prayers,” the station said. Mr Valentine, who had been skeptical of coronavirus vaccines and mask wearing, was 61 when he died. Last December, Mr Valentine wrote in his blog: “I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting Covid? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from Covid if I do get it? Probably way less than one percent”. But on 11th July, Mr Valentine reported that he had tested positive for the virus. Shortly afterwards, he told his listeners: “If I get this Covid thing, do I have a chance of dying from it?”. Now urging people to get vaccinated, he added that he had chosen not to get the vaccine because he thought that he probably wouldn’t die. Later in July, Mr Valentine was hospitalised for Covid-related pneumonia, and near the end of the month he was moved into a critical care unit where he was placed on a ventilator. Mark Valentine, Phil’s brother, said that his brother regretted not being a “more vocal advocate of the vaccination”. He told us: “I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ‘Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories”. “He regrets not being more adamant about getting the vaccine. Look at the data.” Mr Valentine’s family also issued a statement after the radio host was hospitalised. The statement said: “Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an ‘anti-vaxxer’ he regrets not being more vehemently ‘pro-vaccine’ and looks forward to being able to more vigourously advocate for that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon.” As of Saturday 21st August, there have been 977,230 Covid infections and 12,142 related deaths reported in Tennessee alone. Only 41 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, and 48 per cent have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.  

Tributes have been paid to the inventor of the Pornstar Martini after he died at the age of 51. Douglas Ankrah, who also co-founded the groundbreaking London cocktail bar ‘Lab’, was dubbed an industry ‘pioneer’. His family shared the news on social media as tributes poured in from across the industry. His cause of death has not been confirmed though the trade outlet Master of Malt reports Ankrah had a history of heart problems and ‘went peacefully in his sleep’. The Ghanaian-born entrepreneur invented the Pornstar Martini in 2003 while he was working at his cocktail bar Townhouse, in Knightsbridge, west London. The cocktail features a mix of vanilla vodka, fresh passion fruit, passion fruit liqueur, vanilla syrup and lime juice, plus a shot of Prosecco on the side. Since its creation, the Pornstar Martini has regularly featured in top cocktail lists and was this month revealed as the World’s most popular cocktail, based on Google search data. Ankrah is said to have come up with the name after a trip to a gentlemen’s club in Cape Town, telling Master of Malt in 2019: ‘The cocktail was so sexy and looked like what a pornstar would drink.’ He added: ‘When I first made it, I had no idea it was going to be neo classic’, but he later created a  bottled version, because he was fed up of tasting badly-made versions of his tipple.

On This Day

  • 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.  
  • 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War.  
  • 2006 – Grigori Perelman is awarded the Fields Medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture in mathematics but refuses to accept the medal.

Deaths

Last Meals

The 2014 Taipei Metro attack was a mass stabbing spree that took place on 21st May 2014, directed at random civilians on a Taipei Metro train near Jiangzicui Station, resulting in four deaths and 24 injuries. It was the first fatal attack on the city’s subway system since operations began in 1996. The suspected attacker, Cheng Chieh, then 21, was arrested after the attack.

The attack started at around 16:25 local time, inside a Bannan Line train heading west between Longshan Temple Station in Taipei and Jiangzicui Station in New Taipei. The distance between the two stations is the longest between any two stations in the Taipei metro system, lasting three to five minutes. During the attack, the assailant chased and hacked passengers with a 30cm long fruit knife. Before the train could stop at Jiangzicui Station, a group of passengers banded together to distance themselves using umbrellas while others tried to discourage the attacker by loudly taunting him.

When the subway train arrived at Jiangzicui Station, a single suspected assailant was subdued by passengers, police and metro staff and taken to the nearby Haishan police station after a brief standoff. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-pin said police presence on the metro was increased soon after the incident and added that he was requesting reinforcements from the National Police Agency.

On the day after the attack, the suspect was taken to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office for questioning. A prosecutor applied to detain him in the New Taipei District Court, which was approved by a judge around 6:20am.

The train carriage which was the setting of the stabbing attack, was temporarily withdrawn from service after arrival at Jiangzicui Station and underwent disinfection and change of seats. It was then renumbered 175/176 (173/174 was avoided as the number “一七三, 一七四” sounded like “一起殺、一起死”, which literally means “kill together, die together”) and returned to service in 2015. 

New Taipei Police Chief Chen Kuo-en identified the suspected attacker as Cheng Chieh, a 21-year-old second-year student at Tunghai University in the central city of Taichung. Chief Chen said the suspect told police he had wanted to do something “shocking and big” and had plotted to carry out the attack from childhood. Chen said there was no other motive.

During questioning, the suspect said he originally intended to attack after his college graduation, but decided to move earlier since he had “no classes” on 21st May and he had grown tired of living. The suspect stated that he does not admit guilt, feels no regret, wants the death sentence, and that even if his parents were on the train he attacked, he would have killed them, as well as the prosecutors questioning him. 

Cheng Chieh’s parents later publicly apologised at Jiangzicui Station and called for a quick death sentence for their son. 

Cheng was indicted by the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office on 21st July, and charged with four counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder. The Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, the company that runs the Taipei Metro, claimed that ridership was down by 945,000 within ten days of Cheng’s actions, causing them to lose NT$20.61 million, an amount for which they are suing Cheng. 

Cheng was found guilty of four counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted manslaughter on 6th March 2015 in the Taiwan New Taipei District Court. For each count of murder, he was sentenced to death and deprivation of citizen’s rights for life; for each count of  attempted manslaughter, he was sentenced to a jail term of between five years, two months and eight years. His knife was also confiscated. 

On 7th August, the New Taipei District Court ordered Cheng to pay approximately NT$30 million to ten victims of the attack. I have no idea how much of that he was able to pay. 

Justice Minister Luo Ying-shay signed the execution order for Cheng at 17:00 on 10th May 2016. Cheng was executed at 20:47 on the same day. After eating his last meal, a biandang with stewed pork, rice and vegetables, Cheng was given general anaesthesia. Soon after its administration, he was laid in a prone position and shot in the heart three times. The 18-day gap between Cheng’s final guilty verdict and execution was the shortest in Taiwanese judicial history.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Richard Armitage (50), Kristen Wiig (48), Ty Burrell (54), James (The Cunt) Corden (43), Dua Lipa (26), Mark Williams (62), Carrie-Anne Moss (54), Laura Haddock (36), Hayden Panettiere (32), Kim Cattrall (65), RJ Mitte (29), Amy Adams (46), Ben Barnes (40), Andrew Garfield (38), Ke Huy Quan (50), James Marsters (59), Misha Collins (47), John Noble (73), Ray Wise (74), Sylvester McCoy (78), Demi Lovato (29), David Walliams (50), Matthew Perry (52), Jonathan Frakes (69), Jim Carter (73), Diana Muldaur (83), Jill St. John (81), Simon Bird (37), Edward Norton (52), Christian Slater (52), Robert Redford (85), Madeleine Stowe (63), Roman Polanski (88), Denis Leary (64), Robert De Niro (78), Sean Penn (61), Belinda Carlisle (63), Taika Waititi (46), Steve Carell (59), James Cameron (67), and Madonna (63).

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