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Sorry guys - been out contemplating ebola here in Dallas and I decided that I had a paper and a midterm so I didn't have time for that shit. Basically, here's what happened, at least according to that bastion of journalistic excellence, the Dallas Morning News: Eric Duncan got a visa to the US after trying for something like 20 years. Just before he left Liberia he helped take a pregnant woman with ebola to the hospital and then back home to die. When he boarded the flight to the US he did not admit to having been around someone with an active ebola infection. So, he gets to Dallas, hangs out for a few days, gets sick and heads over to the Presbyterian Dallas hospital emergency room. He tells them he came over from Liberia, and despite his display of classic ebola symptoms someone somewhere f's up and the brain trust sends him home with antibiotics. Two days later he is so sick he has to be ferried back to Presbyterian in an ambulance. As we all know, this story does not have a happy ending. As far as the nurse goes, she is in stable condition. She is working with the US Centers for Disease Control to determine how she was exposed. The hospital staff followed all ebola protocols, so the assumption is that somewhere there was a protocol violation. I don't know. I only live here. Eric Duncan's family will soon own Presbyterian Medical Center, or at least its endowment. The racial card is being played heavily in the local media, and I hate to admit that there may be some truth there. Remember, we don't have universal healthcare, and what we do have is not accessible by foreign nationals. If Duncan had gone to the county hospital he probably would have been isolated and treated from his first visit - whether he would have lived or not can be debated, but no one is debating that his chances would have been better. Presbyterian is a corporate hospital, and there is a lot of attention to the bottom line in those places. An impoverished foreigner can fall through the cracks very easily, and unfortunately being black in the American South doesn't help. Sadly, Duncan's son never saw him. His son came to the US as a small child with his mother, which was why Duncan had fought to get a visa for so long. His son had graduated from high school and gone to college, and was supposed to come home the weekend after his father was taken to the hospital. Needless to say, the son wasn't allowed to see his father, and upon death his father was cremated. I feel a lot of compassion for the boy. In recent news, the chief medical correspondent for NBC News, who happens to be a doctor, was exposed to ebola when her cameraman came down with it and entered a 21 day quarantine which she then violated to get some soup. Sometimes I despair for my countrypersons.

Glen is in the final stages of Alzheimer's and just said goodbye to his career by recording a last ballad. This ballad was already recorded January last year, and to be honest, what a fine piece of music it is. A man who is aware of his fate and gives a last salute to his family. Campbell has been moved to 24-hour care, as his doctors have determined that he is in the sixth stage of Alzheimer’s (‘severe cognitive decline”). Here's the chorus. Moving stuff. Reminds me of how Johnny Cash (who passes by after 27 seconds in this clip) bowed out with an amazing cover of NIN's "Hurt". If he makes it to 2015 he's sure a candidate for the top 50 next year.

Angela Merkel is passing through customs on the way into France As she's filling in her form, the customs official asks "Occupation?" "No, just vacation for the weekend"

He was good in Columbo.

Cheeky blighter! The joke compelled me to post that.

Cheeky blighter!

Can't we just ship him out to a godforsaken island on the other side of the world?

She played an old-looking teacher in Dennis Potter's 'Stand up, Nigel Barton' from 1965. Mind you, it's in a scene where the kids are played by adults!

Local paper coverage, death race points as and when, right? I mean...my knowledge of obscure Welsh drag queens is sadly limited.

The first victim of the Mummy in Saturday's Doctor Who episode was an old lady played by Janet Henfrey (b.1935) but when I checked out where I recognised her from it was from the 1989 DW episode The Curse of Fenric where she played - an old lady so she should join the ranks of Peter Sallis, Warren Mitchell and Stephanie Cole in being nominated for the Clive Dunn eternal pensioner award.