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!

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!

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!

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!

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!