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John Warnock, the other co-founder of Adobe, dead at 82. He was also the leader of the team that created the PDF file format.

Isabel Crook dead at 107.

Ray Hildebrand, who topped the pop charts in the 1960s as half of the duo Paul & Paula, died Friday in Kansas City at age 82. No cause of death has been given. https://variety.com/2023/music/news/ray-hildebrand-dead-paul-paula-pop-duo-1235700560/

Here's a death that I found out about today that honestly now that I think about it, is a bit surprising went almost completely under the radar even within the media. That of Italian car mechanic, engineer and businessman Claudio Zampolli, who died in 2021 at the age of 82. Zampolli is one of those people who themselves were rather obscure, but managed to find himself associated with multiple completely different notable people for different reasons. So he had formed a joint venture with Italian music composer Giorgio Moroder of all people to create the car company Cizeta-Moroder which created arguably one of the most outrageous products in sports car history, the Cizeta-Moroder V16T. However the company however quickly crashed and fell apart, primarily due to Moroder deciding to leave the company after a dispute on the car's production process. And then there's the Van Halen story of how he ended up starting the Sammy Hagar era back in the 80s, after Eddie Van Halen had stopped by Zampolli's Los Angeles shop to admire a Ferrari that happened to be owned by Sammy Hagar, which lead to Zampolli recommending Van Halen that he should call Hagar and tell him to join the band.

I don't understand this belief in the media that only a horse race election would interest viewers/voters. A lot of folk are expecting a landslide in the next UK election. If that happens I intend to enjoy the fuck out of every televised second of it.

Leonard Barden is 94 today.

Isabel Crook for the List of the Missed, can't see her picked this year, 2 teams last year: https://www.derbydeadpool.co.uk/deadpool2022/celebs_C.html#crook9i021

Let lots of other sources be your friend instead. It's really not difficult to find information on the origin of the gris-gris (or gri-gri) as an amulet or charm originally from Islamic healers, then absorbed into African culture, and from there via slaves to the south of America. It's quite interesting to read about it, if actually reading about stuff is your thing. Apparently it is not all about cursing someone, although that it is what it came to be used at in voodoo. It is also widely used as a protective charm and is (or at least was) used in parts of Africa as a contraceptive. American Heritage Dictionary Entry: grigri (ahdictionary.com) Gris-Gris Little Known Black History Fact (blackamericaweb.com) Gris-Gris – OCCULT WORLD (occult-world.com) Voodoo In The Modern World: A Gris-Gris Love Story - The Traveling Witch Out of this World: An Ethnographic Study of Mystics, Spirits, and Animist Practices in Senegal (sit.edu) Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black ... - Matthew Francis Rarey - Google Books

American comedian, actor, writer, singer, stage, film, radio, television star and vaudeville performer Groucho Marx died on this day 46 years ago, aged 86. He made 13 feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers. He also had a successful solo career primarily on radio and television, most notably as the host of the game show You Bet Your Life. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians.

Shares update for fans concerned about his health after having MRI Scan of head This one deserves a thread of his own, having been plagued with health issues for years, and would not like to be sharing Hammond's thread. Clarkson battled pneumonia in 2017 (which he nearly died from), suffered from two serious bouts of COVID in recent years, and previously feared he would go at 61 like so many others. There is bound to be a lot more news to put here in the years to come.

20/Aug/2023 44 Eurythmics — Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) +1 44 Heaven 17 — Temptation 43 David Bowie — Modern Love 41 Soft Cell — Torch +3 40 Madness — Wings Of A Dove 40 Eddy Grant — Electric Avenue 35 Yazoo — Only You 34 Duran Duran — Save A Prayer 27 The Human League — (Keep Feeling) Fascination 24 Dionne Warwick — Heartbreaker 24 The Stranglers — Golden Brown 24 Spandau Ballet — Gold 24 The Jam — The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) -5 21 Tracey Ullman — They Don't Know 20 The Human League — Mirror Man 19 Lionel Richie — All Night Long (All Night) 18 Dire Straits — Private Investigations 16 Paul Young — Love Of The Common People 13 David Bowie — China Girl 10 Steve Miller Band — Abracadabra 06 Imagination — Just An Illusion -1

Sylvester McCoy is 80.

Except it’s misinformation of the highest import! This isn’t a time to let Wiki be your friend. Gris Gris is an omen or curse that’s been put on someone. It’s Cajun French.

There are a few factors that are firmly against Biden. He is unpopular right now, like scary unpopular. Those are not good numbers for an incumbent. His disapproval ratings right now are even worse than those of Trump around the same time in their respective terms. The independents and swing voters who haved rallied around Biden might simply sit this one out if they are dissatisfied with him. Remember, in 2020 most Americans voted AGAINST Trump, not FOR Biden. A low turnout, coupled with a probable third party candidate like Joe Manchin, might be enough to tip the scales in Trump's favor. That is not to say that Biden has been a failure, far from it. I think that Biden (or at least his administration, in case someone wants to be cute about it) has been really good so far. Don't let that Brandon baloney fool you: Republicans secretly like him. It is why he has been able to accomplish so much behind the scenes. He has achieved in 3 years what Barack Obama could not do in 8. To me, he is, in many ways, the LBJ to Obama's JFK: much more effective, got more things done, has a better ability to compromise and work with Congress, but lacking in charisma, popularity and communication skills. It's unfair, but that's what politics is most of the time, a popularity contest. Part of this reputation also resides in the fact that Joe Biden was never able to boast correctly about his accomplishments due to the aforementioned lack of communication skills. In the same way that COVID was the worst thing that could have happened to Trump in his election year, it was actually the best thing to have happened to Biden. Biden's campaign in 2020 was basically "I am not Trump". All he did was make a few Zoom interviews from his basements and a couple of masked speeches here and there in mostly empty fields. He also encouraged Americans to vote in any way, shape or form, while Trump commited the UNBELIEVABLY stupid mistake of telling his supporters NOT to vote by mail-in ballots and to go wait for hours to vote outside, in person, in the middle of a freaking pandemic. This time, things will be drastically different. Biden will actually NEED TO campaign and sell his brand of president to independents and swing voters. Because the "hey at least I'm not Trump!" routine can only get you so far with voters who could not care less about the Georgia phone call or Stormy Daniels. Some of them might have buyer's remorse if they are not happy with how things are at the moment and as I said before, for the first in all of our lifetimes, American voters will have on the ballot the same guy who was in charge before the incumbent. For the first and most probably only time in their lifetime, they will have the choice to get the previous guy back in office again. That is tempting. Some of them might even see the different Trump trials as mere political witch hunt, especially with them coinciding suspiciously with election season and also with the different treatment the Hunter Biden story is getting. I still think that Biden will win, but it's not going to be the lopsided victory many Democrats are hoping for. Also, a lot of things can change in a year and as we both said, this election is unique and nearly impossible to predict.

Literally every "sanctity of X" talking point is just a front for bigotry. Sanctity of marriage, think of the children, etc. Guarantee that no one making a fuss about trans women in sport actually cares about the integrity of the game when trans women are a tiny sliver of its participants and rarely ever win, they're just fixating on the minority that is *barf* currently the most socially acceptable to hate.

I can't let this pass. This is quite an extraordinary statement. There is no doubt that he admired many of his guests and to a certain extent respected their boundaries. But he was the last superb chat show host for many reasons. He was a journalist rather than a comedian or personality. He did his research and knew more than he asked questions about of his guests. Back in the day, he was not averse to either deliberately or inadvertently provoking his guests - something that rarely happens now because the guests' PR team tell the host what they cannot ask. On many occasions he had people on who had nothing to promote or sell. He gave inordinate amounts of time to the guests to tell their stories. And when they stepped out of line, they looked like idiots against an interested but objective questioner. Kenneth Williams went off on one about striking workers once - Parkinson told him his opinion was utter crap. Ali really went off on one when challenged rightly I thought about the belief system - and he allowed him to do it. People queued up to be interviewed by Parkinson. With other chat shows it's a treadmill to sell their latest product with vetted questions. He wasn't perfect, lord no. But incomparable. I'd say so.

Shame. He was incredible at what he did; he managed to get to places with his guests where very few interviewers could, by getting the balance between inquisitive and amiable absolutely bang on.

San Kim Sean, Cambodian who revived ancient martial art Bokator, hospitalised and "deteriorating daily". Edit: He's said to have died.

I think she knows the location of the Doomsday Weapon

Hettie Simons Love (Wiki), the first African-American woman who earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from any Ivy League University dead at 100

Here's Yvonne winning Miss GB in 1968: Phwoar, check out that blatant objectification.....gets a right sweat on you, doesn't it?

Yvonne Ormes, one of only two women to ever win Miss Great Britain, Miss England and Miss United Kingdom, reportedly dead aged 74: https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2023/07/10/tributes-paid-after-death-of-former-miss-great-britain-from-nantwich/ She went on to make appearances on various TV shows and was played by Emily Tebbutt in the movie Misbehaviour.

Yes, she’s been kicked out of his house. Literally kicked out as she assaulted the bodyguards who where trying to remove her.

Honestly, Delon has been a drama queen for years, always saying he has not much long to live despite being completely fine : when Belmondo died last year, he said that he has just days left and that he would follow his friend. Then he showed up for Belmondo’s funeral and looked quite good, gave interview etc… it’s been at least 10 years since he first said he would die soon, I’ll be completely shocked if ever he tries to resort to euthanasia