Dead Pool 25th August 2024

Let’s start by dishing out the points! With the passing of the world’s oldest woman, I can award 33 points to Christine, and 133 points to Abi, Dave, Stu, Paul C. & Lee for being their Cert/Woman. Well done all of you, certainly spicing up the top of the league table! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Phil Donahue, 88, American talk show host (The Phil Donahue Show).  
• Maria Branyas, 117, American-born Spanish supercentenarian, world’s oldest person. 
• Dewi “Pws” Morris, 76, Welsh actor (Grand Slam), singer and television presenter. 
• Sphen, 11, Gay Australian gentoo penguin, euthanised. 

In Other News

BBC presenter Lauren Laverne has announced she has been diagnosed with cancer. The broadcaster, 46, shared the news on Instagram, urging people to “get checked out”, saying she is lucky to have “caught it early” and is “expected to make a full recovery”. Alongside a picture of her smiling, the presenter of BBC 6 Music’s breakfast show and Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs wrote: “Right then, some personal news… I recently had a cancer diagnosis. It was (thank God) caught early and unexpectedly during a screening test and I am expected to make a full recovery. I’m in hospital at the moment and wanted to take this moment to say thank you: Firstly to the medical teams who have got me this far with incredible skill and kindness. To my family and friends who have been absolutely extraordinary every step of the way – I am so very grateful and love you so much. And of course thank you to my colleagues – including those at @itg_ltd, @bbc6music, @bbctheoneshow and #DesertIslandDiscs for their support – and for giving me the time off that I need to get better.” She continued: “I also want to say that if you’re avoiding a test or putting off an appointment to get yourself checked out please, please do it today. Half of us will get cancer at some point, and if you do, finding out asap is everything. It’s usually my job to bring the good vibes on air but any you have to spare are very much welcome here. Sending loads of love to anyone in a similar boat, or who has made it back to shore. xxx.”  

The world’s oldest living person, Maria Branyas Morera, died in Catalonia in Spain at the age of 117 years and 168 days, her family said on Tuesday. Born in San Francisco, US, in 1907, she lived through two World Wars, the Spanish Civil War and the 1918 flu pandemic and faced many personal hardships in her early years, including losing her father during her family’s emigration to Spain and suffering hearing loss as a child. Her remarkable longevity was recognised by both the Gerontology Research Group and the Guinness World Records, and Branyas Morera became a symbol of resilience, having survived Covid at age 113. “Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain,” her family wrote on her Twitter account. “We will always remember her for her advice and kindness.” Catalonia’s president, Salvador Illa, re-shared the post and expressed his condolences to the family. ”Maria Branyas, the grandmother of Catalonia and the oldest person in the world, has left us. We lose an endearing woman, who has taught us the value of life and the wisdom of the years.” Branyas Morera, who had spent the last 20 years at the Santa Maria del Tura nursing home in Olot, northeastern Spain, shared in a post on Tuesday that she was feeling “weak”.  Her account was run by her family. “The time is near,” she added. “Please don’t cry; I don’t like tears. And above all, don’t worry about me. Wherever I go, I will be happy.” In January 2023, Guinness World Records recognised Branyas Morera as the world’s oldest person following the death of French nun Lucile Randon at age 118. Branyas Morera tested positive for Covid in April 2020 but recovered, becoming the oldest recorded survivor of the disease at the time. In an interview with the Flying Monkeys, she urged for better treatment of the elderly. “This pandemic has revealed that older people are the forgotten ones of our society. They fought their whole lives, sacrificed time and their dreams for today’s quality of life. They didn’t deserve to leave the world in this way,” she said. Branyas Morera attributed her longevity to “order, tranquillity, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people. I think longevity is also about being lucky. Luck and good genetics.” Following the death of Branyas Morera, the title of the world’s oldest living person passed to Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who is 116.  

Clueless star Alicia Silverstone has reassured fans she is “alive and well” after she filmed herself eating a poisonous berry during a visit to London. The 47-year-old actor had shared a video on TikTok on Monday in which she held up an orange berry with seeds inside it. She was seen biting into the fruit and appearing confused by what it was, before fans flocked to social media to warn that it was a “very poisonous form of deadly nightshade”. Silverstone was not heard from on social media for hours after the posting, prompting fans to speculate that she could have succumbed to the poison. Social media users begged for an update as they said “You’re going to need to let us know you’re OK. It’s been five hours” and “Woman! Update us! Are you alive and well?”. On Tuesday the star shared a picture of herself on a photoshoot with the caption: “Alive and well! Don’t worry… I didn’t swallow.” She added a winking emoji. Supporters shared their relief as they wrote: “Queen I’m glad you’re alive” and “I came here for this confirmation. Glad you’re healthy!” The original post showed the actor, who is best known for playing Cher Horowitz in Nineties classic Clueless, walking down a street in England and plucking an orange berry from a bush in someone’s front garden to taste it. “OK, I’ve discovered something that I can’t figure out what it is and I need your help,” she told her viewers. “I just bit into it because it was on the street, and we were discussing whether it was a tomato or not,” she continued, before filming the gated garden where she got the fruit from. Silverstone also questioned the type of leaves in the plant, which had green, red, and orange berries hanging from it. “So what the heck is this?” the star added, before showing the fruit opened up on the street, with seeds popping out of it. She once again bit into the fruit and showed off the inside of it for the camera. “I don’t think you’re supposed to eat this,” she admitted. “But it’s almost like a pepper. Does anyone know what this is? I don’t know what it is.” The actor emphasised her confusion in the caption, writing: “What the heck is this!? I’m in England and can’t figure it out.” The TikTok video quickly went viral, with more than 1.3 million views on her page and over 10 million views where it was reposted on Twitter. In the comments, multiple people claimed that the fruit she was eating was a Jerusalem cherry, which is poisonous.  

Dr Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was hospitalised after testing positive for West Nile virus. Fauci, a longtime public health official who became a household name as part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has now been discharged and is expected to recover fully, a spokesperson said. “Tony Fauci has been hospitalised with a case of West Nile virus. He is now home and is recovering. A full recovery is expected,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with the Flying Monkeys. They reported that Fauci had spent six days in hospital before being discharged. Fauci, 83, ran the NIAID for nearly four decades before he retired in 2022. As well as fronting the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, he achieved fame after becoming the target of political attacks from then-president Donald Trump. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States and is most commonly spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito. Cases of West Nile occur during mosquito season, which starts in the summer and continues through autumn. There are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat West Nile in people, though most people infected with the virus do not feel sick. Around one in five people who are infected develop a fever and other symptoms. About one out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness, according to the CDC. Despite leaving government nearly two years ago, Fauci has continued to face fierce political attacks from congressional Republicans for his role in the nation’s response to coronavirus. In June, he testified before a House panel investigating the response, where he was accused by GOP lawmakers of orchestrating a coverup of the virus’s origins. At the time he described the allegations as “simply preposterous.” 

Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has sent a heartbreaking message as he reaches the end of his life and tells fans: ‘I hope you’ll remember me.’ The Swedish ex-Three Lions manager, who has terminal pancreatic cancer, was in charge of England’s ‘Golden Generation’ men’s football team from 2001 to 2006. The 76-year-old revealed in January that he had ‘best case a year’ to live and a new documentary about his life is being released on Amazon Prime on Friday. ‘I hope you will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do,’ Eriksson said. ‘Don’t be sorry, smile. Thank you for everything, coaches, players, the crowds, it’s been fantastic. Take care of yourself and take care of your life. And live it.’ Speaking candidly as he approaches the end, Eriksson added: ‘I had a good life. I think we are all scared of the day when we die, but life is about death as well. ‘You have to learn to accept it for what it is. Hopefully at the end people will say, ‘yeah, he was a good man’. But everyone will not say that.’ 

On This Day

• 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
• 1958 – The world’s first publicly marketed instant noodles,  Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando. 
• 1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
• 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.
• 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

Deaths

• 1819 – James Watt, Scottish engineer and instrument maker (b. 1736).
• 1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philologist, philosopher, and critic (b. 1844).
• 1984 – Truman Capote, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1924).
• 2001 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (b. 1979).
• 2009 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (b. 1932).
• 2012 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Blake Lively (37), Alexander Skarsgård (48), Tim Burton (66), Tom Skerritt (91), Gene Simmons (75), Billy Ray Cyrus (63), Jared Harris (63), Rupert Grint (36), Steve Guttenberg (66), Stephen Fry (67), Kristen Wiig (51), Richard Armitage (53), Dua Lipa (29), Ty Burrell (57), James ‘the cunt’ Corden (46), Mark Williams (65), Hayden Panettiere (35), Kim Cattrall (68), Carrie-Anne Moss (57), Amy Adams (50), Andrew Garfield (41), Ke Huy Quan (53), James Marsters (62), John Noble (76), Demi Lovato (32), Ray Wise (77), Sylvester McCoy (81), David Walliams (53), Ian McElhinney (76), Diana Muldaur (86), Jonathan Frakes (72), Jim Carter (76), and Simon Bird (40).