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He had football in an artificial coma for two decades.

Extra on many things but particularly here, Pauline Chamberlain reported dead: https://www.britmovie.co.uk/forum/cinema/obituaries/97456-pauline-chamberlain-1932-2021

Something tells me there will be a lot more prominent African COVID deaths to come. Waka waka, eh eh.

So the virus is currently ravaging cabinet level politicians in Zimbabwe. I think, that's definitely the case. Many African countries (also poor regions of India, Pakistan, etc....) might lack the diagnostic tools to discover the COVID cases. If you look at the statistics of very developed countries, take Switzerland for example, about 6% of the population had Covid. Now, Switzerland was fairly liberal until quite recently, but they have the ability to diagnose almost all of their COVID cases. I think it's reasonable to assume that about 5-6% of the world population has had COVID by now. Which means that instead of the 100 Million official cases, we have had about 350 Million cases. In terms of death rates, even in developed countries, we have a death rate of roughly 1-2%. So think we have had about 3,5-7 Million COVID deaths by now, instead of the roughly 2 Million "official" deaths.

Before Jamie, before Delia, Before Ainsley, before Floyd, there was "The Galloping Gourmet", Graham Kerr, who is 87 today. mmmmm clarified butter!

No information elsewhere yet but according to Teller, of Penn & Teller, magician Mark Wilson has died. Widely credited as being the first major "television magician".

Indeed it is spreading to Africaa and data are dramatically underestimated. Among nations heavily hit are Swaziland (both Prime Minister and Anglican Bishop of eSwatini dead from it), South Africa, Namibia (disappointed Nujoma survived), Zimbabwe (two government ministers dead), Burundi (likely Nkurunziza himself and former President Buyoya) and Ghana (former president Rawlings). Kenya and Tanzania seems to have been spared for now. Notable deaths are quite the only way to monitor the pandemic in those places, sadly death of common people is not really noted.

Pirkko Liinamaa dead at 88: https://www.iltalehti.fi/viihdeuutiset/a/23750953-1218-4bb0-952b-077a90f6be08 She was known from being a television personality in the 70s, 80s and 90s (especially known from the tv show "Levyraati", record panel) and at one point had her own tv show "Pirkon Kammari" From 1955 to 1980 she was married to the 1975 caretaker prime minister Keijo Liinamaa, who died in 1980. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keijo_Liinamaa

Not a winner but a two time nominee, and somebody I had on my watchlist for 12 years(!) but had assumed was looong dead. English sound engineer John Aldred (wiki) died on December 15th at the age of 99. Notable credits include The Italian Job, Dr. Strangelove and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Could be my imagination but I think I keep reading about African politicians dying of Covid - officially only 83,000 people have died of Covid across the whole continent of Africa since this started so considering population size seems unusual we should keep getting public figure hits (unless numbers are not correct). Also seems strange that the WHO were bothered about Africans and poor countries getting the virus when according to the official figures the vast majority of people dying are in the rich countries. In summary - wonder if the African numbers are massively understated?

Yesterday the death of a 111 year old was announced in NHS England figures.Assuming from the Oldest in Britain Site that it was Matilde Coulter who died on 19th January.

Zimbabwean politician Aeneas Chigwedere, who served as the Minister of Education, Sports, and Culture from 2001 to 2008, died at 81 years. another Covid-victim. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/zimbabwe-s-former-education-minister-dies-of-covid-19/2119254

No, there's at the very least another two to add (Hood, Gray), possibly more, but the updates are Reptiles and hes been occupied this week by a thing called work. (Namely, that which built up while he was getting the website live...) They'll come in good time.

Henryk Chmielewski (wiki), Polish comic book artist, journo and participant in the Warsaw Uprising during WWII, dead at 97.

https://www.pgatour.com/champions/news/2021/01/21/pga-tour-champions-winner-lonnie-nielsen-passes-away.html Professional American golfer Lonnie Nielsen has died aged 67.

Typical night out in Fraserburgh, mate. Some wanker always takes it too far.

I must admit, I was hoping for an easier draw to begin my defence of the title. No easy games I suppose in this competition, but this looks like a real tough one. I'll need to be at the top of my game to avoid falling at the first hurdle.

Clinton and GW Bush are the same age and Bush looks considerably better. Clinton has heart problems and is frail, and his father died before he was born and his mother died at the age of 70. Bush has no known health issues and his parents lived to old age, so I would expect him to live for at least another 20 years. As I said in the Clinton thread, I'm not sure that he makes it to 80, and would wager that he doesn't if forced to bet on it. Trump's parents lived to the ages of 93 (father) and 88 (mother), so he has that going for him, but he's also an obese man who loves fast food. I don't see him making it to 90. As for Biden, it looks like his parents lived long lives, so he has that going for him. Biden isn't as sharp as a tack like, say, Dr. Fauci is (who is 80), but I think it's important to note that Biden was never considered to be a highly-intelligent student, has long made public speaking gaffes, and has dealt with a stutter for most of his life. This is all to say that I don't think he's suffering some sort of massive cognitive decline at his age. I think he could live past 90, although the stress of the job of POTUS could completely change that. That's a fair point, so I'll set his Over/Under at 86.5 years. I'll set Trump at 85.5, Bush at 92.5, and Clinton at 79.5 years. And, of course, Carter has very limited time left, and I'd be surprised if he sees 2022. Then again, this is a dude who had brain cancer as a 90-year-old and is still somehow with us.

I just caught the end of Inside Culture with Mary Beard on BBC Two. The episode ended with a sequence with several actors reciting a speech from King Lear, all self-filmed at their homes. Tom Courtenay delivers a few lines from his chair, and I'm sorry to say he seems pretty frail, especially after the vigour of Timothy West immediately before him. It looks to me like his hands are shaking uncontrollably, and I don't recall him seeming this frail on Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule two years ago. You can watch it here.

Happy 80th birthday to one of the most famous opera singers in history.

Billy Ocean is 71 today

Gag reflex shameful, but I am Covid-free as it turns out.

8 in 20 years is definitely a record. The US was a bit of a basket case for this period, due to the prevalence of the slavery debate as new states were added. Lots of debates and deals made and lots of party turmoil between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions. Harrison famously died 31 days into his presidency having caught a chill during a 2-hour inauguration address on a cold, wet day with no coat trying to prove he wasn't frail (that went well). Tyler was an accidental president (in the sense, no one had really considered a VP actually taking over before) and although he initially ran in 1844, he dropped out. Polk served one term, achieved everything he set out to achieve and declined to seek a second term (he died less than 6 months later from cholera). Taylor was a soldier with no strong political affiliation, he died in office barely a year in having fallen ill with a still-unknown definitive illness (there are some who believe he was poisoned but this has never been proved). Fillmore succeeded as VP but lost the nomination fight (but ran again in later years). Pierce was a feckless President whose party turned against him and he wasn't re-nominated for a second term (he was also a raging alcoholic). Buchanan said he'd only serve one term and failed to deal with the growing divide between the North and the South so did just that and you know what happened with Lincoln. The ruling party changed frequently too: 1840 - Whig, 1844 - Democrat, 1848 - Whig, 1852, 1856 - Democrat (two different men though), 1860 - Republican (successor to the Whigs in many ways). It carried on too: between 1837 and 1913, only 1 president (Ulysses S. Grant) served two consecutive full terms (Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and Teddy Roosevelt took over after McKinley was shot 6 months into his second term). Only two managed it before FDR took over in 1933! (Woodrow Wilson the other). History lesson over. Another note, that has been mentioned in these ere parts before: John Tyler, 10th President of the United States between 1841 and 1845 and who died in 1862 still has a living grandson in 2021, 92-year-old Harrison Ruffin Tyler.

Is he Jewish?

British set designer who won an Oscar for his work on Titanic, Peter Lamont, being reported dead in the Twitternonsense: Worked on 18 Bond Films and was nommed for Fiddler On The Roof, The Spy Who Loved Me and Aliens. IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0483682/