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For some time now the BBC news page has been becoming more like a low-rent magazine.

I need a new go-to now that Wouk is gone, so Kirk Douglas it is for me! (Yes, this is going to be another repeat affair until I'm right - let's hope it isn't the 2 years+ that Wouk was, though)

I've mentioned him a few times here, but this is a photo from his radio show the other day. Has he now beaten Jim Neidhart to the record of the man with the highest blood pressure in history?

Recent pic.

Went for Larry King. An anagram of Larry King is Rank Girly. So Vera Lynn will probably drop dead tomorrow.

Wouk's death has shaken up the list a lot. John Key almost reaches a positive score with his first hit; Great Uncle Bulgaria and En Passant get bonuses for their 3rd hits; and Grim Up North can feel very chuffed in his choice of jokers as he leapfrogs into equal 4th place at the head of the peloton. John Key -2 YoungWillz -5 drol -7 Grim Up North -9 The Quim Reaper -9 Phantom of the Midway -9 Sean -10 gcreptile -10 alt obits guy -10 Bibliogryphon -10 Zefph -11 Joey Russ -11 Sir Creep -11 Banana -11 Great Uncle Bulgaria -11 En Passant -12 Book -12 Master Tech -12 BlackLivio -12 SuperSowder -12 nantonian2013 -13 Squonk -13 Torva Messor -13 Dr_T -13 The Cosgroves -14 theoldlady -15 ebless -16 msc -17 The Old Crem -17 Gooseberry Crumble -18

Says the man on 4 points.

The pig flew above the London skyline, the unicorn dragged the cart along Times square and the Hares Death Pool scoreboard was update. Team by Team (Use above link to check accuracy) theoldlady 719 Joey Russ QTips 605 574 Wormfarmer 546 the_engineer 512 Drol 489 CaptainChorizo 445 Prophet 436 gcreptile 421 The Mad Hatter 400 Grim Up North 391 John Key 346 Clorox Bleachman 325 Great Uncle Bulgaria 323 FixedBusiness 287 Whoaml 285 Doulton 282 Banana 277 markb4 269 Sir Creep 268 Torva Messor 266 charon 238 An Fear Beag 204 Toast 187 The Old Crem 179 YorkshireBanker 173 Widows Peak 154 nantonian2013 152 Pedro67 141 Deathray 136 Th Unknown Man 136 GraveDanger 135 JoeMoneyPenny 135 Death Impends 131 msc 123 Phantom of The Midway 110 ebless 36 Bibliogryphon 34 YoungWillz 0 Book 0 Skinny Kiltrunner 0 Predictor 0 mysteriousmummu 0 Now back to Hide and Seek. Think I still have the entire book in my chapters balance.

From the "4th death" thread: The winner of today's Nostradamus award.

Wouk takes my tally to one hit here! Lowball score anaw.

Shame you died, but at least you had the decency to take care of your wife and three kids by leaving them a great guy.

I voted to keep Leah Bracknell alive.

Finally, vindication for voting Wouk poll after poll after poll... Bibliogryphon gets two right in a row. Congrats as well to Drewsky, DeathClock, ThereWillBeDeaths, nejmoq, mollyafox, and CastAway. Thread closed.

Broke: Bentrovato, msc, Neobrakeon, Philip, Team Wean, The Unknown Man, and theoldlady Wouk: The ancient author the above seven all incorrectly predicted lingering on into next year. =1. markb4 0 =1. Phantom of the Midway 0 3. drol 1 =4. gcreptile 3 =4. JoeMoneypenny 3 =6. Bibliogryphon 4 =6. CaptainChorizo 4 =6. Mercarte 4 9. Great Uncle Bulgaria 7 10. paddyfool 8 11. manuel 9 =12. Dr_T 11 =12. machotrouts 11 =12. The Old Crem 11 =15. Death Impends 12 =15. Newjack 12 =15. QTips 12 =15. Sir Creep 12 19. GraveDanger 13 20. Banana 14 =21. An Fear Beag 15 =21. BuffaloPhil 15 =21. FixedBusiness 15 =24. Clorox Bleachman 16 =24. Joey Russ 16 =24. Torva Messor 16 27. Spade_Cooley 17 28. The Quim Reaper 19 29. Toast 20 =30. Pedro67 21 =30. Wormfarmer 21 =32. charon 23 =32. The Unknown Man 23 =34. Book 24 =34. deadsox 24 =36. Skinny kiltrunner 25 =36. The Mad Hatter 25 38. Master Tech 26 39. Grim Up North 31 =40. En Passant 32 =40. YoungWillz 32 42. theoldlady 34 43. Philip 38 44. nantonian2013 41 45. Bentrovato 55 46. Neobrakeon 59 47. msc 61 48. Team Wean 64

Hidden in many of these articles was also the news that Rosalynn was also in the hospital for feeling "faint".

The funny things are that there are no high rise buildings in Wagga Wagga. It is a regional city of about 50,000 people. While there may be a few building in the centre with maybe 3 or 4 storeys I doubt there would be anything that remotely qualifies itself as a high rise (although this may just be because building was temporarily suspended by the workplace tragedy described in the aforementioned post). Fosters is barely sold in Australia. You may be able to find 6 packs at the very large bottle shops but by and large it doesn't really exist in Australia. I remember drinking it when I regularly visited Melbourne about 20 years ago where there was a pub I knew that sold schooners (405 ml) for $2. My memory of it was that it is a very nondescript Australian lager, perfectly drinkable but not very interesting. Wikipedia notes that while it is in the top ten most consumed beers globally, it is not widely consumed in Australia. Considering that these guys are tradies who are still on the tools working in NSW I would say that their beer would be most likely be Toohey's New.

June Carter Cash went to Jackson and never came back on this day 16 years ago, aged 73.

End of the game for Gene Sarazen on this day 20 years ago, aged 97.

Tuff Gong, Jamrock's finest musician, did drop out 38 years ago todeh. Rasta was just 36 years old.

When they are a decent size (like those seem to be), I spread some Crucials Hot Stuff sauce on them, add cheddar, mozzarella, tomato etc and bake 'em in the oven for 15 minutes. Lovely.

End of all the tales for L. Frank Baum on this day 100 years ago, aged 62.

There's panic, and then there's realising at midnight that you forgot to put the glass bin out.

There was a terrible fatal road accident near here on Thursday in Cornwall on A38. Sadly it’s my mates Mum who was the person killed. Just dreadful to wake up to read the heartbreaking news from him this morning.