Latest

Dead Pool 14th/21st October 2018

Firstly let me apologise for the lack of a weekly newsletter last week, life got in the way and to be fair, not many famous people died over the last fortnight. However, we now have a bumper two week edition full of facts and news. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

John McCririck, 78, sparked serious health concerns last week when he appeared on Bit On The Side. John, who presented on Channel 4 racing for over 30 years, began: “I’m getting better. I couldn’t speak for about three months. It really was awful.” The telly personality was struck down with the flu back in January. He added: “I’m recovering, but only slowly. “I’m not well. I’m never going to fully recover because age has taken over.” John urged audiences to “set yourself a target that you will reach. Have an aim, an ambition, a drive.” The former CBB housemate, who appeared in the 2005 series, said being sacked from Channel 4 contributed to his poor health. “I wake up in the morning now and I have no purpose in life,” he admitted. “I’ve worked over 50 years in my life. Work comes first, because you can’t look after your family if you’re not working. “You feel you’re lacking something.” Viewers were gobsmacked by John’s telly appearance and rushed to Twitter worried. One person tweeted: “It’s so sad when you see a usually strapping old man fade to virtually nothing! Wishing John well.” “This John McCririck interview is really uncomfortable. He’s speaking so incoherently,” said another. We’ll give him three months….       

Bill Turnbull has described dealing with cancer every day as “relentlessly boring” and admitted he asked doctors to stop his “unbearable” chemotherapy. The former BBC Breakfast anchor, who’s now a presenter on Classic FM, said: “I just couldn’t bear it any longer.” After that round of chemo in July – his eighth – he went on to have one more. Turnbull said he coped with the “bad phases” of chemo by watching “lots” of TV, including all 67 episodes of Game of Thrones. The broadcaster, who was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer in November 2017. “It’s the fact that having cancer is so relentlessly boring. You go to bed at night thinking about it, and it’s still there when you wake up. “It’s there all day, every day – a fact of life you have to get used to. And it’s a massive pain in the backside.” Turnbull, whose cancer has spread to the bone – across his pelvis, hips, legs and spine – said of chemo: “Each round felt worse.” He lost his sense of taste, and some days could only cope by lying down to wait “for the feeling of crushing fatigue and nausea to pass”. By round six, “it felt as if the chemo was now taking on a life of its own, like some malevolent gremlin”. Turnbull said the disease has stopped spreading but “hasn’t been beaten back entirely”, adding: “We’re at a stalemate.” He said: “I’m still optimistic about hanging around for some time yet.”  

Selma Blair has revealed she has multiple sclerosis (MS). The 46-year-old actor shared the news with fans on Saturday, explaining how she had been diagnosed with the lifelong condition, which affects the brain and the spinal cord, in August. Writing on Instagram, Blair said that despite only just being diagnosed, she has been experiencing symptoms for years, leading her to believe she might’ve had the disease for more than a decade. The Cruel Intentions star begins the candid post by recalling a recent wardrobe fitting for Another Life, the 10-part Netflix series she is currently filming for, explaining how she has the “deepest gratitude” for the show’s costume designer, Allisa Swanson, for helping her into her clothes. “She carefully gets my legs in my pants, pulls my tops over my head, buttons my coats and offers her shoulder to steady myself,” Blair writes. “I have Multiple Sclerosis. I am in an exacerbation.” She goes on to thank the producers at Netflix for their compassion before illustrating how the disease is beginning to have an adverse effect on her daily existence. “I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS.” MS is an incurable condition that disrupts the central nervous system and can cause a number of physically debilitating symptoms, including blurred vision, difficulty walking, muscle spasms and fatigue. Two months after receiving the initial diagnosis, Blair explains she is now “in the thick” of her illness and feels perpetually exhausted. 

On This Day

  • 14th October
  • 1066 – Norman conquest of England: Battle of Hastings: In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeat the English army and kill King Harold II of England.  
  • 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence.  
  • 1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.   
  • 1913 – Senghenydd colliery disaster, the United Kingdom’s worst coal mining accident claims the lives of 439 miners.  
  • 1926 – The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published.  
  • 1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1.06 (700 miles per hour (1,100 km/h; 610 kn) over the high desert of Southern California and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.  
  • 2012 – Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere in the Red Bull Stratos project.
  • 21st October
  • 1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.  
  • 1879 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.  
  • 1966 – Aberfan disaster: A colliery spoil tip collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.  
  • 1983 – The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second, just because… 

Deaths

  • 14th October 
  • 1066 – Harold Godwinson, English king (b. 1022)  
  • 1944 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (b. 1891)  
  • 1959 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1909)  
  • 1977 – Bing Crosby, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1903)  
  • 1990 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1918)  
  • 2010 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (b. 1952)

Last Two Week’s Birthdays

Viggo Mortensen (59), Danny Boyle (61), Snoop Dogg (46), John Lithgow (73), Michael Gambon (78), John le Carré (87), Zac Efron (31), Jean-Claude Van Damme (58), Pam Dawber (67), Paul Chuckle (71), Eminem (46), Mark Gatiss (52), George Wendt (70), Angela Lansbury (93), Tim Robbins (60), Suzanne Somers (72), Peter Bowles (82), Dominic West (49), Sarah Ferguson (59), Steve Coogan (53), Sacha Baron Cohen (47), Paul Simon (77), Chris Carter (62), Hugh Jackman (50), Robin Askwith (68), Michelle Trachtenberg (33), Emily Deschanel (42), Jane Krakowski (50), Joan Cusack (56), Stephen Moyer (49), John Nettles (75), Dawn French (61), Rose McIver (30), Manu Bennett (49), Charles Dance (72), Martin Kemp (57), Guillermo del Toro (54), Brandon Routh (39), Scott Bakula (64), Chris O’Dowd (39), Tony Shalhoub (65), Brian Blessed (82), Sharon Osbourne (66), Kristanna Loken (39), Matt Damon (48), Sigourney Weaver (69), Chevy Chase (75), Paul Hogan (79), Ardal O’Hanlon (53), Bruno Mars (33), Simon Cowell (59), Alesha Dixon (40), Tim Minchin (43), Thom Yorke (50), Britt Ekland (76), Ioan Gruffudd (45), and Bree Olson (32).

Posted by  |  21st October 2018 | Categories: 2018 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th October 2018

What a week! Plenty of interesting people kicking the bucket and too many stories to add to this weeks issue! Sadly no points to award and with little under three months to go, it does seem to be a two horse race at the moment, but this game is as cruel as the unbelievers portray it to be, albeit for a different reason, one Cert could change everything!   

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

DJ Mark Radcliffe will be taking time off from his BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music shows to have treatment for cancer. The 60-year-old, who began his BBC career in 1983, revealed  his diagnosis to listeners while presenting The Folk Show on Wednesday 3rd October. “I’m said to say that I’ve got some cancerous tongue and lymph node issues,” he said, adding that he hoped to be back on air in the New Year, “or sooner, if I feel well enough.” “It’s all been caught very early and so everything should be fine,” he reassured fans. On Twitter he added: “All being well I’ll be back in action in the New Year – or sooner if I feel well enough – but I will be back, you can depend on it, I just can’t say exactly when that will be. So you won’t hear from me for a while now and therefore… well… Merry Christmas I guess. Life eh?” Radcliffe confirmed that he would broadcast his Thursday 6 Music show with Stuart Maconie on 4th October, as usual, before taking a break. Ricky Ross will present the Radio 2 Folk Show for the next few weeks.

The German scientist nicknamed Dr Death because of his pioneering work on preserving corpses has asked his wife to plastinate his own body after he himself passes away. Gunther von Hagens told partner Angelina Whalley he then wants his body to be displayed at the entrance to London’s new Body Worlds Museum Experience – where preserved organs, skulls and corpses are all on show in various poses. The 73-year-old, who is suffering with Parkinson’s disease, is the driving force behind the museum, which opens on Saturday. His decision to be among his exhibits when his own time comes is “a finalising [of] his life’s work”, said Dr Whalley. Plastination involves replacing certain body fats and tissues with silicone so the corpse does not deteriorate or smell. It takes a year to complete. Dr Whalley said her husband’s request had left her “stunned”. “Of course, in the very beginning I thought, Gunther, you are kidding me. This is something I would never be able to do,” but she says she slowly came round to the idea. “He said to me: ‘Angelina, you are entitled to freeze me down to -25C for one year, but after that time you really need to put your hands on me because otherwise I will get freeze burn’,” she said. “So I have one year for mourning and then I will have to do it.” She told the newspaper her husband – who wears a trademark fedora – would like his final pose to be a welcoming one, adding he would like to be wearing his much-loved hat. Dr von Hagens – who has toured his Body Worlds exhibits all across the globe – is perhaps best known in the UK for performing the country’s first public human autopsy for 170 years in 2002.      

Actor Ben Affleck has thanked his family after completing yet another stay in rehab for alcohol addiction. The Oscar-winner wrote on Instagram that he had spent 40 days at a treatment centre, and was still in outpatient care. “The support I have received from my family, colleagues and fans means more to me than I can say,” his post read. “It’s given me the strength and support to speak about my illness with others.” Affleck was pictured looking bedraggled in August while being driven to rehab by his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. The actress filed for divorce in April 2017, but the former couple remain close and have three children together. Garner “staged an intervention” after seeing photos of her ex-husband getting an alcohol delivery outside his home. The Batman star’s latest spell in rehab is his third, following stints in 2001 and 2017. “Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am fighting for myself and my family.”  

And finally… A hunter is fighting for life after a bear he shot tumbled down a slope and landed on him. Alaska state police said William McCormick, 28, was also struck by a rock dislodged by the bear as it fell on Saturday afternoon. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Anchorage, where he was in a critical condition. Mr McCormick and his hunting partner, 19-year-old Zachary Tennyson, are both US army soldiers stationed at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Mr Tennyson was not hurt and alerted authorities by sending a distress signal. Police did not say what kind of bear was shot, how far how it fell, or whether it died. Alaska is home to several species of bear, including an estimated 30,000 brown bears and 100,000 smaller black bears. Nearly 1,500 brown bears are hunted each year in the state but at least this one got its own back. 

On This Day

  • 1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon. 
  • 1988 – An Iñupiat hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, US; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
  • 1996 – Fox News Channel begins broadcasting, the birth of fake news.

Deaths

  • 1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story witer, poet, and critic (b. 1809)
  • 1956 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (b. 1886)
  • 1959 – Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kate Winslet (43), Guy Pearce (51), Jesse Eisenberg (35), Karen Allen (67), Neil deGrasse Tyson (60), Clive Barker (66), Bob Geldof (67), Dakota Johnson (29), Melissa Benoist (30), Alicia Silverstone (42), Christoph Waltz (62), Susan Sarandon (72), Liev Schreiber (51), Alicia Vikander (30), Seann William Scott (42), Lena Headey (45), Neve Campbell (45), Clive Owen (54), Gwen Stefani (49), Greg Proops (59), Avery Brooks (70), Ian McNeice (68), Sting (67), Brie Larson (29), Julie Andrews (83), Zach Galifianakis (49), Randy Quaid (68), Ioan Gruffudd (45) and Britt Ekland (76).

Posted by  |  7th October 2018 | Categories: 2018 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 30th September 2018

Slightly food related this week, you can blame Nickie for that as she kept sending these awesome stories she found. The highlight of this week is the passing of John Cunliffe, the creator of Postman Pat, we can only assume that Jess the Cat has been re-homed appropriately. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

A judge in Pennsylvania has jailed US comedian Bill Cosby for three to ten years for sexual assault. Cosby, 81, was classified as a “sexually violent predator” and immediately sent to a state prison in Pennsylvania to serve out his three-to-ten sentence for the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand. (Constand is one of more than 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault.) Other than putting ‘America’s Dad’ on suicide watch, I’m sure we’d all like to know what he had to eat once Big Brenda finished with him. Meals vary depending on the day and the week. For breakfast, Cosby will have access to fruit and cereal every day, as well as milk, coffee and sugar. On Saturdays, on the current rotation, there are pancakes. For lunch and dinner, the menu is more varied. On Mondays, lunch could be a cheese pizza or a garden burger with bread. This coming Monday, the dinner entrees are roast pork or a tofu oat burger. At lunch that day, the prison is serving chocolate pudding, a product Mr. Cosby was associated with as a pitchman for Jell-O. Cosby famously promoted Jell-O products starting in 1974, with his work talking up Jell-O Pudding Pops in 1979 attaining iconic status. Pudding Pops were discontinued in the late ‘90s. Cosby was discontinued in 2018.    

Remember Gladiators? Other that the sexy Jet, no, I don’t either. However, former Gladiator star Cobra has revealed that he can still fit into his iconic leotard – but that his body is now ‘worn out’ and he is preparing to get both hips replaced. ‘I need new hips. I’ve bolts in this shoulder, bolts in that shoulder. I’ve torn my bicep. I’ve torn the bicep on this side. I’ve got arthritis up and down the spine,’ he said. ‘But it’s just like a car, if you do too much. You do too many miles and your parts wear out.’ Cobra, real name Michael Willson, is now 54; he found fame on the ITV Saturday night game show which saw four contestants compete in a series of physical events against the show’s Gladiators. ‘My friends keep telling me I should stop living in the past, let the Gladiator thing go, but I can’t. I keep looking at myself on the Gladiator magazines and albums. I once was on the front of a cereal packet. I’ve even had my own action figure,’ he said. Michael became a household name alongside co-stars Diane Youdale (Jet), Kim Bets (Lightning), Warren Furman (Ace), and Michael Van Wijk (Wolf), but these days he lives in Kent by the coast, crying into his cornflakes each morning. Just goes to show, being a couch potato is probably better for you.  

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more food related, notorious serial killer Rose West has scooped first prize in a prison bake-off competition. West, 64, who was convicted of ten murders in 1995, came up trumps when inmates in F-Wing at HMP Prison Low Newton voted for her Victoria sponge. West, who is serving a life sentence, loves to bake and uses her culinary skills to impress fellow lags. ‘There are some very violent women on the wing and a lot of them are very aggressive towards West because of her crimes. ‘But she tends to defuse situations by offering other prisoners cakes and biscuits.’ West along with her husband Fred raped and murdered their daughter Heather and buried her under their patio – then did the same to nine others. Despite being a sadistic serial killer, West, who is serving a life sentence for her despicable crimes, is allowed to use knives while under staff supervision. West suffers from breathlessness and high blood pressure and has been warned that she must diet or face developing type 2 diabetes or premature death after her weight ballooned to 18 stone. You can send her more sugary treats c/o HM Prison Low Newton, Brasside, Durham, DH1 5YA.

On This Day

  • 1888 – Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.  
  • 1965 – In Indonesia, a coup by the 30 September Movement is crushed, leading to a mass anti-communist purge, with over 500,000 people killed.
  • 1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 and injuring 30,000.

Deaths

Last Week’s Birthdays

Erika Eleniak (49), Ian McShane (76), Mackenzie Crook (47), Luke Goss (50), Patricia Hodge (72), Naomi Watts (50), Mira Sorvino (51), Hilary Duff (31), Brigitte Bardot (84), Jeffrey Jones (72), Dita Von Teese (46), Moon Unit Zappa (51), Gwyneth Paltrow (46), Avril Lavigne (34), Meat Loaf (71), Denis Lawson (71), Jim Caviezel (50), Linda Hamilton (62), Olivia Newton-John (70), Lysette Anthony (55), Serena Williams (37), Ricky Tomlinson (79), Will Smith (50), Catherine Zeta-Jones (49), Mark Hamill (67), Michael Douglas (74), Michael Madsen (61), Heather Locklear (57), Felicity Kendal (72), Sven-Ole Thorsen (74), Jack Dee (57), Karl Pilkington (46) and Bruce Springsteen (69).

Posted by  |  30th September 2018 | Categories: 2018 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 23rd September 2018

Let’s begin with awarding Ashley 66 points for correctly guessing that Denis Norden would finally climb that stairway to heaven. Well done that man! Norden used to be a very popular choice at one time, but like most dwindling celebrities, if they ain’t on the TV, people forget them. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Former X Factor contestant Chico Slimani has suffered a stroke. The 47-year-old, who was a popular star on the second series of the show, fell ill on the way back from performing a ‘gig’ at the weekend, which was most likely a singalong down the pub. A statement from his publicist said he was undergoing further tests and asked for privacy for his family. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2005 series and had a number one in 2006 with It’s Chico Time. He also took part in Dancing on Ice in 2012. He appeared in the Christmas special of Ricky Gervais’s BBC One sitcom Extras in 2007, and also released a fitness DVD. Since then we assume he’s been selling kebabs from a roadside cafe. His publicist Kym Rowlingson said: “This has been a great shock to Chico, his wife and their two children, also his close friends and family. “We thank you in advance for giving Chico and the family some privacy at this time.” Which sort of suggests that nobody has tried to disturb that privacy as of yet…  

Bolton defender Stephen Darby has announced his retirement from football, aged 29, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). Fully taking upon himself the mantle of Professor Stephen Hawking, Darby stated “I would like to ask for privacy at this time so I can adjust to the battle I have ahead and that I can spend time with those closest to me. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my team-mates, manager and all the staff at Bolton for their amazing support at what has been an extremely difficult period,” he said. MND is a degenerative condition that affects how nerves in the brain and spinal cord function. There is currently no cure.  

Former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook has said she will undergo a hysterectomy as she has been diagnosed with cancer of the womb. The actress and reality TV star, whose battle with substance abuse issues has been highly-publicised over the years, said she does not want to die and that she is determined to get better, but that she took cocaine to cope with the news initially. Westbrook, 44, said that her thoughts turned to her late friend Jade Goody, who died in 2009 from cervical cancer. She told Dead Pool Towers: “I’ve always said I am not scared of dying. But when the doctor said, ‘You have cancer’, straight away my thoughts turned to Jade and that I don’t want to die. I know I need to fight.” Westbrook said her mother was diagnosed with womb cancer 30 years ago, and that she is “still here” thanks to undergoing treatment on the NHS and that she will follow suit. She added: “They are taking me in in three weeks for a full hysterectomy. Before they take it out they won’t know to what extent the cancer has grown.” Westbrook said her doctors believe the cancer is “containable so I’m hopeful”. Westbrook, who rose to fame in the 1990s playing Samantha Mitchell in EastEnders, said the cancer was diagnosed by a doctor in Spain, where she lives, after weeks of heavy bleeding and being unwell. So, yet another immigrant coming into our country and using the NHS!

On This Day

  • 1641 – The still undiscovered Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold (worth over £1 billion today), is lost at sea off Land’s End.
  • 1980 – Bob Marley plays what would be the last concert of his life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • 2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1”) is released.

Deaths

  • 1889 – Wilkie Collins, English novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1824)
  • 1939 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (b. 1856)
  • 1994 – Robert Bloch, American author and screenwriter (b. 1917)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Felton (31), Billie Piper (36), Sue Perkins (49), Joan Jett (60), Ruth Jones (52), Nick Cave (61), Andrea Bocelli (60), Bill Murray (68), Stephen King (71), David Wenham (53), Ethan Coen (61), Ricki Lake (50), Alfonso Ribeiro (47), Jon Bernthal (42), Asia Argento (43), Sophia Loren (84), Moon Bloodgood (43), George R.R. Martin (70), Danielle Panabaker (31), Jeremy Irons (70), Jimmy Fallon (44), Twiggy (69), Victoria Silvstedt (44), Faye Reagan (30), Jason Sudeikis (43), James Marsden (45), Jada Pinkett Smith (47), Tim McInnerny (62), Cassandra Peterson (67), Bryan Singer (53), Baz Luhrmann (56), Bruce Spence (73), Bingbing Fan (37), Mickey Rourke (66), Amy Poehler (47), Jennifer Tilly (60) and Danny John-Jules (58).

Posted by  |  23rd September 2018 | Categories: 2018 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 16th September 2018

Sadly, no movement on the scoreboard this week, it’s also a little bit quiet on the deaths side. We can’t have the likes of Burt Reynolds dying each week, unless we send out the monkeys of course… Fly my beauties!!!!! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

A missing film star has been given a 0% “social responsibility” rating by Chinese authorities, fuelling fears she may have been detained by state officials. Fan Bingbing, who starred in the 2014 Hollywood film X-Men: Days of Future Past, came last in a ranking of 100 celebrities judged on their professional lives, charitable work and what was described as their personal integrity. The zero rating for Bingbing, China’s best-paid actor, comes four months after a Chinese TV presenter appeared to accuse the star of tax evasion. Although her studio denied any wrongdoing, Chinese internet users speculated the two were related.  China still uses the death penalty, some have speculated that Bingbing could be made an example of. Bingbing has not been since 1st July when she visited a children’s hospital, local media has reported. Her last activity on social media came on 23rd July, when she “liked” a number of posts. Of the 100 Chinese actors, singers and public figures in the report, only nine were judged to have “passed” by receiving a score of 60 per cent or more. It praised those who had become “relatively strong role models”, but highlighted cases where celebrities had caused a “negative” social impact. Xu Zheng, a Chinese actor who co-produced and starred in 2018’s Dying to Survive, came top of the list, while Hollywood star Jackie Chan, despite his well-known philanthropy, was ranked 42nd.  

Paralympian David Smith has revealed he faces losing his life if he chooses not to have a tumour removed that is crushing his spinal cord. The Scot has recently been diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time and says he could be left paralysed below the neck if he goes under the knife. In 2016, the Paralympic rowing gold medallist, 40, was forced out of the Rio games due to a similar tumour. “I’m actually stood in hospital right now,” Smith told Dead Pool Towers. “I just got told 10 minutes ago that this aggressive tumour that I have is crushing my spinal cord again and if I choose not to have surgery then basically I’m going to lose my life and, if I make the choice of going for surgery, I might be paralysed from the neck down.””I just got told 10 minutes ago that this aggressive tumour that I have is crushing my spinal cord again and if I choose not to have surgery then basically I’m going to lose my life and, if I make the choice of going for surgery, I might be paralysed from the neck down.” Smith intended to take part in the Brazilian games as a cyclist and even delayed surgery on his tumour to give him a better chance of making the event. However, the threat of having his spinal cord crushed forced his withdrawal.  

Pyotr Verzilov, an activist with Russian protest group Pussy Riot, is reported to have been taken to hospital in a serious condition. Relatives speaking to the Meduza website said they believed he may have suffered poisoning but there is no official word on his condition.  He reportedly fell ill after a court hearing on Tuesday for fellow Pussy Riot activist Veronika Nikulshina. Mr Verzilov was one of the activists who invaded the World Cup final pitch. Ms Nikulshina told Meduza that Mr Verzilov had complained of losing his sight, “then the ability to talk, then the ability to walk”. She said that when he was admitted to hospital, an initial examination “didn’t turn up anything bad”, but that later doctors suddenly moved Mr Verzilov to the hospital’s toxicology wing. He has since been flown to Germany for specialist treatment. 

On This Day

  • 1400 – Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers.  
  • 1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.  
  • 1994 – The British government lifts the broadcasting ban imposed against members of Sinn Féin and Irish paramilitary groups in 1988.

Deaths

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Hardy (41), Tommy Lee Jones (72), Oliver Stone (72), Prince Harry (34), Jimmy Carr (46), Brendan O’Carroll (63), Sam Neill (71), Andrew Lincoln (45), Walter Koenig (82), Amanda Barrie (83), Alfie Allen  (32), Ian Holm (87), Linda Gray (78), Virginia Madsen (57), Roxann Dawson (60), Amy Madigan (68), Johnny Vegas (47), Moby (53), Colin Firth (58), Guy Ritchie (50), Chris Columbus (60), Adam Sandler (52), Hugh Grant (58), Jeffrey Combs (64), Eric Stonestreet (47), Julia Sawalha (50), Rachel Hunter (49) and Michael Bublé (43).

Posted by  |  16th September 2018 | Categories: 2018 | Leave A Comment »