Dr Hackenslash

Depends if what someone becomes is more important than what they were. Ervine was imprisoned in Long Kesh in 1974 while an active member of the UVF, after being arrested driving a car bomb to its presumed target of a pub frequented by Catholic civilians Paisley may be vocal, but...

Scottish Cup Third Round, too

Daily Record SICK FIDEL 'IN SPAIN' AILING Fidel Castro was rumoured to be in a Spanish hospital yesterday after being smuggled into the country. It was reported that the Cuban dictator, above, was in a Madrid clinic. He is said to have been flown in on the same plane as the Spanish surgeon who jetted to Cuba last week to treat him. The surgeon, Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, has denied claims Castro has cancer.

Statement from the Office of Senator Johnson: U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) underwent an angiogram this morning at George Washington University Hospital. “Today’s angiogram revealed no evidence of residual arteriovenous malformation,” said Dr. Vivek Deshmukh, MD, neurosurgeon. “Senator Johnson continues to be responsive to both his family and physicians-- following commands, squeezing his wife’s hand, and understanding speech.” Senator Tim Johnson underwent surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage caused by an arteriovenous malformation at George Washington University Hospital on December 13th. As a consequence of the initial hemorrhage, Senator Johnson developed fluid in his lungs. Doctors placed him on a ventilator to assist his breathing. "His breathing has steadily improved and now he only requires ventilator assistance at night," says Dr. Deshmukh. “My family and I are so pleased with today’s angiogram results, and I want thank everyone for their constant prayers and support. Tim has had some challenging days since surgery, but step by step, he’s been making great progress. We know there is a long road in front of us, but Tim's determination will make all the difference and he’ll be back at work as soon as he can be. We ask that everyone keep us in their prayers,” said Barb Johnson, wife of U.S. Senator Tim Johnson. Senator Johnson’s overall medical condition has improved steadily over the past three weeks. The next phase of his recovery is expected to take several months and focus upon rehabilitation and physical therapy.

He is still alive and recently received another award: Bernard Matthews, the famous Norfolk turkey farmer, who already has a CBE, is also made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

Having found a recent interview from her, I can't see Ruby Muhammad going soon. Though Dunny is immortal.

May have just solved that problem. Here's an interview with her. http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=oid%3A69975 The life of a matriarch Ruby Muhammad By Sonia K. Saini Ruby Muhammad lives comfortably with family in Rancho Cordova, but it wasn’t always that way. She grew up in Americus, Ga., not knowing any family. Her mother passed away when she was young; she didn’t know her father until she met him by chance as a teenager. Raised by a woman whom she knew to be her aunt--though she now doubts that she was--Muhammad spent her childhood working in the fields. She has since lived through World Wars, the sinking of the Titanic, the Great Depression, various social movements--basically, the entire 20th century. And at 109, she’s still going strong. One highlight of her life was joining the Nation of Islam in 1946; she credits it with giving her the internal strength to live for so long. In 1986, minister Louis Farrakhan named her the “Mother of the Nation of Islam.” Sixty years after joining it, she is still a devoted member. She now lives with her granddaughter and grandchildren, and proudly said, “I live with the family I created.” Is Sacramento a good place to grow old? It is. I've had no problems here. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to live here and get old. What has been the best part of your life so far? 1969, when I met my second husband. My second husband was the type of person who gave me everything that I needed and some of the things that I wanted. After he left me, I found myself going back into the condition that I came out of. I had no one to tell me what was right and what was wrong. Then, when I met this man who gave me everything that I needed, my life changed. I had what I wanted, and I thought I was living in another world. Then when he left me, I felt my world went back to the beginning of my life, and I went into a depression. My family thought that I was going to lose my mind. I shut myself out of my family's life; he was gone, and he was my life. I decided to come out of the house about three months after my husband passed and take a walk. I stepped on a little seed, and the next couple of days when I came out of my house to sit in the yard, I happened to step on that same little seed. And I picked it up, I put it in my pocket, and I took it in the house. The thing that broke me out of that period was the poem I wrote about that seed. I began to write poems from that, and I'm back to myself again. You joined the Nation of Islam in 1946. Are you still very active with it? Islam is not a religion; it's a way of life. As a black person, not having anything, being abused from the beginning of my life by the white man, by the people who had control of my life, I couldn't take care of myself. I couldn't defend myself. Islam came into my life to tell me who I actually was. Who am I? Not someone who wants to be beat up. You have a mind, and your mind controls you. You can do what you want to do. You can be what you want to be. That's the way I see Islam. The Lord came and gave me the mind to take care of myself, a free mind. I can do what I want to without anybody telling me anything. I got control of my own life. Farrakhan named you the “Mother of the Nation of Islam." How does that feel? Wonderful! This is the best thing that ever happened to me. Coming from where I came from, not knowing any member of my family, not even knowing any member of my father's family until I was a mother myself, I was out there by myself. Here I am now, the Mother for the Nation of Islam, traveling, talking to people, doing things that I want to do. I did it myself. See? You can do anything that you want to for yourself. I don't care what you want to be--if you make it up in your mind that that's what you want, then that's what you'll do. I came from nothing to something. I know this is a popular question for people over 100, but what’s your secret for a long life? I don't really have secrets for a long life. I'm just blessed by Allah to be 109 years old. I've never drank, never smoked, and I've always taken care of myself. I don't drink soda, and I don't eat pork. I get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and a piece of toast. I eat salad and rice and string beans. People judge me by my age. I don't know anyone else that can do the things I do at 109. I don't know anyone else who can get up and fix a meal at 109. I swim. I exercise. I don't need a walking stick or a wheelchair. This is something that blows everyone's mind. You'll probably come back and interview me two years from now. My goal is to be the oldest black woman that ever walked the planet without a wheelchair. I'm going to make it because I'm determined to do that.

If he survives 2007, which I doubt, then H. Doug Ellis, former chairman of Aston Villa FC and now Life President, could be worth a punt. He hasn't been well for a long time and looks to be going downhill fast.

Any chance we can correct the thread title to Ruby Muhammad? And I'm sorry for being ignorant, but has anyone a link with more detail about exactly who she is?

To be fair, if it is a quiet news day he'll get in. Either way, as CP as said I can imagine this thread becoming somewhat interesting. As for the legitimately biggest crowd in 1992 - it was given as 80,000 or so at Wembley but with all the seats taken and seats on the pitch, I honestly believe it was more like 100,000 - but they didn't want to beat the fake crowd for Wrestlemania III (where my avatar is from) so they knocked it down.

It should be noted there have only ever been eight Deputy Prime Ministers and six First Secretaries of State. As Wiki states, and it's not bad when it comes to Parliamentary convention: Unlike analogous offices in some other nations, a British Deputy Prime Minister, where one exists, possesses no special powers above those of his ministry and does not possess the theoretical powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence or illness, such as the powers to seek a dissolution of parliament, appoint peers or brief the sovereign

I hope that can't kill you

Doesn't she count as a source on this planet any more? I'll bet she could tell a few stories if them 109 year old fingers could only be made to post here. I'd rather not think about what the 110-year-old Mother of Islam can and can't do with her fingers, thank you very much

Apparently so. Don't know that officially, but from what I've heard, yes.

Dick Van Dyke is immortal. An American Clive Dunn, if you will... Barbara Billingsley isn't a bad shout though - but seems to be in good health in the Santa Monica area.

Doesn't work like that. The Prime Minister has to be asked to form a Government by the Queen, etc. Look at when Harold MacMillan wrongly thought he was dying in the 1960s - the Queen had to ask people who she should invite and she went for Alec Douglas Home as opposed to Rab Butler, even though Home at the time had to resign his seat in the Lords and win a Commons seat (well, he didn't have to, but you know what I mean). If Blair was to cark it, Prescott would be acting Prime Minister only, and would arguably then sit as chairman of cabinet until the cabinet voted on who to recommend to the Queen who she invites to be the new Prime Minister. General Elections in many ways are merely opinion polls - the Queen doesn't legally have to ask the leader of the largest party to try and form a government, although tradition/convention states she will. If in a freak event, every MP was killed the Queen would be well within her rights to appoint an interim government, whether from the Lords or her own family, or techinically take over the reins of Government herself...

Just to add, according to Piper if the cancer had not been discovered he would have gone three to five years without knowing about it. Hmmm.... Not the most likely to cark it this year then! From: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...b=Entertainment ....Piper, 52, wasn't even supposed to be wrestling - he was expected to tour Quebec City, Montreal and selected southern Ontario cities by train to promote a WWE/VIA Rail partnership for Wrestlemania 23 next April in Detroit. But Piper was forced into extended ring duty at the world tag team championship at the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view event on Nov. 5. There, in a unique promotion, fans voted the popular Piper into the match with Ric Flair - he earned 46 per cent of the votes, compared to Dusty Rhodes at 35 per cent and Sergeant Slaughter at 19. That bout led him to the European gig, where he suffered the back ailment that led to the discovery of the cancer. "If the fans hadn't voted me in (at Cyber Sunday), I wouldn't have discovered this," Piper said in a telephone interview from Portland, Ore. "I would have gone three to five years and never known it. And it's in my lymph glands, so it wouldn't have taken long to go through my entire body." The cancer wasn't Piper's only problem. The surgery also revealed a damaged disc that threatened to end his career. "This doctor put me on the slab, and it turned out, I had a bone about the size of a potato chip, and about that thin," said Piper. "And it was starting to cut the nerves inside my spine." "It was just a matter of me moving too much one way or the other, and I would have been paralyzed." Piper began undergoing radiation therapy immediately ("I glow in the dark now," he joked), and because the lymphoma was caught early, doctors say his chances for recovery are excellent. "I've got a 30 per cent chance of (the radiation) not working," said Piper. "Well shoot, those are good odds to me." ....

From: http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6375.cfm?Id=0,53551 A Sioux Falls neurologist says US Senator Tim Johnson may be in for a long recovery period from brain surgery. Doctor William Rossing bases that belief on the length of time that the senator has been sedated. Prolonged sedation was used to minimize swelling after emergency surgery on Johnson for bleeding in the brain. Rossing says recovery for someone who's been sedated as long as Johnson is likely to be "significant and lengthy." That could mean the 60-year-old politician will be in recovery for months instead of weeks. Rossing says it usually takes just a few days to wean a patient from sedation. Johnson has been sedated since December 13th and is being gradually weaned. A New York University Medical Center official also says it's unusual for a patient to be sedated for more than a few days after brain surgery.

I appreciate there are other wrestlers in films, such as John Cena, Steve Austin, Kane, Rock, etc, etc, but there really is only one Hulk Hogan in terms of global recognition. Heck, there are still rumours floating about that Hulk was paid millions of dollars not to run in the 2000 US presidential election because the security services thought he would win. Obviously Hogan is not the most technical wrestler to ever live, and has never performed a drop-kick, etc, but in terms of marketability, he's number one. Seriously, if you were to ask a random person on the street to name a wrestler (or American wrestler, if not in the US) then 9/10 at least would say "Hogan".

It's only January 2 and this thread already includes more information about Ol' Ruby than any other source on the planet...

The problem with Alphonsin's system is that if the Queen dies, she'll get so many points that those that don't have her won't be able to win! And I wouldn't fancy counting the wordage on that one!

How long before our friend Richard John Bingham is mentioned in this thread And some of those who were already dead and listed remain classic errors - Wilfrid Brambell on the 1989 list when he had died of cancer in 1985. Surely if someone is declared dead, as with the aforementioned Lucky, that is enough?

He's as Scottish as Star Trek's Scotty But, to be fair, he did headline the first few Wrestlemanias, etc, and "played" the bagpipes during Summerslam 92 at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000-plus. Owen Hart only received a mention in the UK press because of how he died - ie entering the ring, etc - and because the WWF/E decided to carry on the Pay-Per-View (called Over the Edge, ironic as he died after falling from the rafters...).

I honestly can't see a Roddy Piper obit. And that's not his real name. If he was realyl Scottish, yes, but he's Canadian. The only wrestler who would get a UK obit is Hulk Hogan, surely?

Tony Hart - just seen his pic on the Swap Shop programme. Looked awful. Noel Edmonds said he wasn't there because "he's not in the best of health" and gave him his thoughts. Could be a good punt.