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It's always great picking Leslie Phillips and him living on and on. Great game we're having which I'll continue by picking him here!

Miss Boudicca and Sir Creep attended ‘Immersive Van Gogh’ in Detroit, MI. We can’t post videos here I guess so allow these few still photos to do the event no justice. It was great. SC

Boris Pahor (1913-2022) Boris finally joins the Necropolis Age at death: 108 Known health issues: Frail for years, completely blind. Cause of death: Old age. Who would have said? Alignment: Though he was a Holocaust survivor, he was known for his strenuous denial of Foibe massacres. So quite a cunt, yes.

On this day in 1321 Birger King of Sweden died aged 40/41. This is quite a Nordic saga! Very Game of thrones as much monarchy was back then. Birger was the son of King Magnus ll of Sweden. But Magnus himself had only become monarch after he lead a rebellion against his elder brother King Valdemar,after disputes over taxation and 'personal matters' , successfully toppling him from the throne. King Valdemar died when his son Birger was only 10 but he had appointed an influential statesman of the time Torglis Knutsson as his sons guardian and constable of the realm. So Birger was effectively King at the tender age of 10 but not initially with much power being exercised by him. In 1302 when King Birger came of age and was ready and willing to embrace his role as monarch and to become a husband to Martha of Denmark ,daughter of King Eric V of Denmark he was formally crowned King of Sweden. But pretty much from the beginning of his reign there was an argument with the church of Sweden over the interpretation of privileges 1280 which had been the price Birgers father had paid to secure the churches support when he usurped his brother from the throne years before. Birgers two brothers Erik and Valdemar spotted a weakness and decided to take advantage of the disagreement between church and monarch and tried establishing mini kingdoms in parts of Sweden fermenting rebellion and dissent. Civil war broke out but by 1306 the situation had somewhat simmered down and Birgers two brothers were prepared to acknowledge their nephew Birger son as the rightful successor to the throne. But this acknowledgement was not without cost because King Birger insisted on his brother Duke Valdemars father in law was executed as a token of reconciliation between the three brothers. So later that year animosity still brewing King Birger was taken hostage by his two Duke brothers on one of the royal estates. Still King in name but largely powerless and held captive for two years before his brother in law now the King of Denmark intervened and forced his brothers to release him in 1308. Upon release he fled to Denmark but very much was by then King of Sweden in name only and having given up Swedish territory and some royal estates to his brothers. Four years later in 1312 King Birgers two brothers both married into the Norwegian Royal family on the same day in a massive double wedding in Oslo They both then started to expand their Kingdoms and territory joining up parts of Norway with parts of Sweden their brother Swedens King had effectively ceded to them. This tense power play rumbled on for several years but in 1317 Birger launched a successful capture of both his brothers during a traditional royal Swedish Christmas banquet and according to historical record starved his brothers to death on a cellar in Nykoping Castle. But jubilation was short lived as his brothers supporters ousted him from power less than a year later and had to go into exile again in Denmark where he died three years later. His son and heir Magnus was killed in battle trying to retake Sweden in 1320 leaving no direct heirs- meaning that Birgers three year old nephew Magnus, son of his treacherous brother Duke Erik, who was already King of Norway with his mother as regent , was to be the next King of Sweden .

Times death notice for British chemist Peter Maitlis (wiki), aged 89. Father of BBC journo/newsreader Emily Maitlis.

Jacques N'Guea, winger who played for Cameroon at the 1982 finals, dead at 66: https://actucameroun-com.translate.goog/2022/05/31/necrologie-un-ancien-lion-indomptable-nest-plus/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Fuck, I almost forgot and my top picks are of course gone. Nigel Taylor

To be fair to someone I'm not keen on, I think its this forum which did the stressing. All Frank Field ever did was make one announcement, through a third party, that he was now terminally ill and "had recently spent some time in a hospice". He's been silent ever since. The silence from a Frank Field points to his days being number, but none of us know even what terminal illness afflicts him, so we're all guessing at the prognosis! And on that note, Bob Barker for me, thanks.

Alexander Kojo Kum

My clock say 9am so I am hoping we are open and I am picking Dame Deborah James

And further to the last post the tipping point is "inching closer" - gloriously ironic (and probably caused a few smirks at The Mirror), since one of the crowd-pleasing iniatives of the Save Big Dog campaign involves bringing back imperial measures

Clint Eastwood is 92. Quoth Joe DiMaggio's DeathList obit: "We still think Clint Eastwood has some life in him yet"... and here we are 23 years later.

We've been saying that for a decade now...

It's nothing more than a punt since there was some discussion around a few days ago that he's having us all on and I thought it was true DL style that he'll therefore be dead before the week's out.

Frank Field was my reserve pick for Advent Avalanche but I am perhaps beginning to think that without some primary evidence to the contrary he might be over stressing how close he is to the drain

Git! Knew she'd go first! Unfortunately I couldn't get on til now. I'll go with the far less exciting Frank Field.

John Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton Death Notice: http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/257526/lord-monk-bretton

So, former Attorney General takes the known numbers of letter writers to 27. Worth a mention because when May faced a vote of no confidence it was subsequently discovered that those publicly calling for her to go represented about half of those who'd formally submitted to the 1922 Committee. If the current situation is remotely the same we're almost in vote of confidence territory. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61636151

LOL

Another of the big FMW names has lost their ultimate death match: Tarzan Goto dead at 58. Was probably the #2 guy in the company behind Onita for a while, and wrestled in ECW as part of a talent swap in the mid-90s as well.

On this day in 1750 Emperor Sakuramachi , the 115th Emperor of Japan died aged 30. He ascended to the chrysanthemum throne in 1735 after his father Emperor Nakamikado abdicated in his favour. He was thought by many to be the reincarnation of legendary regent of Japan Prince Shotoku who was credited with creating the earliest constitution of Japan known as the seventeen article constitution which rather than being a constitution in the traditional legalistic sense that we think of today but was a constitution rooted in Buddhism and confucianism with a primary focus on morals and virtue in politics, government and the leaders in society. Emperor Sakuramachi was pretty much political leader of Japan in name only as the military dictators effectively had most of the power. However he did work with the leader of the military to create a restoration of some imperial/ royal rites including the return of spiritual shinty rituals including harvest festival which had stopped and effectively put into abeyance for nearly 300 years. He had four children via two women-his wife and concubine and abdicated from the throne aged just 27 in favour of his eldest son and took the title of Daijo Tenno, which simply means retired Emperor. He died less than three years later aged 30.

I think the Queen is well enough to do the things she wants to do.

1922: José Sahagún de la Parra/María Fux 1923: Bruno Foresti/Fina García Marruz 1924: Roger Guillemin/Nadia Cattouse 1925: Bill Hayes/Peggy Webber 1926: George Ariyoshi/Marilyn Erskine 1927: Júlio Duarte Langa/Joan Jara 1928: Ray Marshall/Delfina Guzmán 1929: Édouard Balladur/Margaret Kerry 1930: Warren Buffett/Gena Rowlands 1931: Mikhail Gorbachev/Sylvia Lewis

On this day in 2005 twice Oscar nominated actor Eddie Albert died aged 99. His oscar nominations were for best supporting actor in Roman Holiday (1954) and The Heartbreak Kid (1973). Some of the other numerous films he starred in include The Perfect Marriage, Eagle Squadron, Four mothers, The Longest day and the famous 1950s musical Oklahoma whose lead stars were Jane Powell and Howard Keel. Eddie Alberts career suffered as a result of the hollywood blacklisting of suspected communists or communist sympathisers . His career survived long term, some believe because of his military service softening harsh attitudes but his mexican actress wife Margos career never recovered with her 'outspoken ' views against Spanish dictator Franco counting against her. In his later years Eddie Albert regularly appeared on US Primetime soap Falcon Crest as Carlton Travis against the feisty wealthy matriarch Angela Channing played by Jane Wyman.

On this day in 1994 peer in the House of Baroness Joan Vickers died aged 86. She was originally a member of the national Liberal party which had broken away from the Liberal party. The National Liberal party ceased to exist in 1968 after years of local pacts at the general election with the conservative were there was agreement in some seats not to stand against each other - resulting in a final formal merger between the two parties. Her family background was very well-known connected, her father being a stockbroker who counted King Edward VII as one of his clients. Joan was also presented to the Royal Court by the wife of Winston Churchill- although Winston himself told Joan when she revealed to him that she wanted to go into politics that he did not approve of women going into politics and didn't think it was a good idea . He did however advise her to wear a pretty hat and join the London County Council. So in 1936 she was elected a member of the Ladies Grand council of the Primrose league and in 1937 she was elected to London County council representing the district of Norwood. She was the only female member of the National Liberal Party to represent them nationally. In 1955 she was elected as the MP for Plymouth Devonport defeating the future leader of the Labour Party Michael Foot by around just 100 votes. She left the house of commons in 1974 after losing to the labour candidate and future SDP breakaway rebel David Owen in the general election . She was subsequently made a house of lords peer in 1975. She never became a government minister largely many think because she had a history of voting by conscience on many issues rather than the party line.