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FTR @CarolAnn is a fun, funny and fantastic person. She’s brilliant. Probably went without saying but now it’s said. Had a great time talking about death and DL to all the horrified patrons at Denny’s. SC

DL Mini-Con #251 CarolAnn & Sir Creep

Betty Ballantine, who along with her late husband Ian were paperback publishing pioneers, has died. She was 99. https://toronto.citynews.ca/2019/02/13/paperback-pioneer-betty-ballantine-dead-at-99/

I love @Vaagheid 's avatar. He might have had it for a while, but, if he has, I missed it at first.

Forrmer Alaska Lieutenant governor Jack Coghill dead at 93.

Yes, but 6/20 on the LOTL by Valentines Day has it going even more smashingly than I'd expected!

Throbbing Threesomes (1987)

maybe they snorted from the same batch

Let’s go unconventional: Barbara Walters

Czech director Vaclav Vorlicek dies at 88: https://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/czech-fairy-tale-film-master-vaclav-vorlicek-dies-aged-88 Most famous for the very popular TV fairy tale "Three Nuts for Cinderella".

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's half-brother Lothar Vosseler has died at 71: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/panorama/im-alter-von-71-jahren-gerhard-schroeders-halbbruder-ist-gestorben/23973460.html (german link) He was used occiasionally by the media to criticise Schroeder's policies.

As far as rounds are concerned:

And my Top 10 is: 01. Hand on your heart – Kylie Minogue 02. Showing Out (Get fresh at the weekend) – Mel & Kim 03. Never gonna give you up – Rick Astley 04. Respectable – Mel & Kim 05. Especially for you – Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan 06. Love in the first degree – Bananarama 07. Got to be certain – Kylie Minogue 08. Too many broken hearts – Jason Donovan 09. I should be so lucky – Kylie Minogue 10. Together forever – Rick Astley Damn, I was 11 to 15 at that time and was so in love with Kylie Minogue Still I am, haha!!!

Just seen an excellent rant posted by a Nate White on Quora, after someone asked why many British people don't like Donald Trump: "A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a bully's snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: - Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. - You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: 'My God… what… have… I… created?’ If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set." My apologies for the loss of paragraph separation and its somewhat ad hoc replacement during that copy paste.

18 and very fit so could put up a good fight In the short term it'll save on buying swimming caps too

RIP to a legend who seemed to be a fairly nice guy too !

Rest in peace..

Hurrah! That's the 30th time my vote for Leah Bracknell has been wrong! To mark this prodigious occasion, I'm going to fucking vote for Leah Bracknell.

I'm a bit green on these matters, how can, "non existent people" play and what purpose does that serve?

You should probably put @Sir Creep to gain his attention as the only non submitted team, assuming of course that unlike that sub-arctic renegade sharon he hasn't disabled it. The point is sound though

Yanksville? Canuckistan, London Ontario given the fleg on the meatwagon.

Each year I cross reference my long list with the DDP selections and I produce a list of the top 20 picks that have never appeared on the DDP within the last six years. Antonia Fraser – Writer (b.1932) Shirley Conran - Writer (b.1932) Michael Frayn – Writer (b.1933) Sheila Steafel - Actress (b.1935) Gary Player - Golfer (b.1935) Michael Eavis - Farmer (b.1935) Jan Pienkowski - Illustrator (b.1936) Robert MacLennan – Politician (b.1936) Silvia Kay - Actress (b.1936) Carl Davis – Composer (b.1936) Tom Stoppard – Playwright (b.1937) Terry Dicks - Politician (b.1937) Freddie Davies – Comedian (b.1937) Anne Stallybrass – Actress (b.1938) Harvey Smith – Show Jumper (b.1928) P J Proby – Singer (b.1938) Helen Oxenbury – Illustrator (b.1938) Larry Niven – Writer (b.1938) Eleanor Bron – Actress (b.1938) Ralph Bakshi – Director (b.1938)

Barron trump is a time traveller and so is Donald J Trump. DJT has possession of that time machine that John G Trump and got the plans from or copied them off of tesla's work. Juilian assange is either John G Trump who time travelled or a relation to Trump. Not as crazy as you may think. Not saying I believe it just bringing it to everyone's attention.

My uncle Paulie passed away this afternoon, aged 70. Had a massive stroke three weeks ago and was sent to the hospital on life support. Showed no signs of brain activity, so it was time to turn off the ventilator. Unexpected.

As background, in my college days and beyond I had a group of friends that I met up with about 6 nights a week at Denny's. There was a core of 5 or 6 of us, and about that many more who may pop in to the restaurant for 'coffee and fries' on any given night (and girlfriends too when applicable). So anyway as I reported a couple months ago my best friend growing up died of heart failure, he being 54. Yesterday we discovered another member of our little group, Brian Hastings, has passed away, again 55 years old or so. He lived near Muskegon, MI and it was a rare treat when his always amusing arse would show up to Denny's -- he was probably the least attended person. But he was called "Uncle Buck" long before any movies or anything, so I am missing Uncle Buck and as usual have the few posts we shared on FB the past couple years to remember. He had in fact been an enigma for 5+ years, no one really knowing what had happened to him until one of us discovered his wife (we didn't even know he got married - 2011) posted some photos along with his name. Then we all converged on him and got to talking like old times. Not sure what was wrong but apparently he had some medical issues, his wife posted 'no more pain'. Obviously esoteric, but what does it matter. So now we've lost 2 of our Denny's gang in a matter of two months. RIP my friend.