Starch

Sure enough, Merv just checked out. http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original..._21297205.shtml

75 year-old Weather Report keyboardist Joe Zawinul has been in the hospital since the weekend.

Of particular interest is the phrase "three weeks since his second stroke."

Charles Lane Dead. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/10/ap3900611.html

By Timothy - Peter Coke, voice of Paul Temple on the wireless, is still alive at 94. Should be ripe for a BBC obit (assuming he dies).

In the hospital again, but by all accounts she's as unreasonably healthy as usual. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3307961

Solzy was recently bestowed a top Russian state honour, but skipped the ceremony. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/en_af...B.qD8HsWeBdDxkF

...which, according to the article, happenned earlier today. Yet to see an actual obituary, however.

Um... ignoring the above incoherency, [Post deleted, not MPFC's] I see that Pinetop Perkins, born 1913, is still going, and presumably relatively cheerful.

Another mystery hospitalization. Nothing sofar but speculation as to the reason, mostly based on his past mystery hospitalizations.

Aren't most people who get released from prison bound by these conditions?

TUESDAY BOOZEDAY!

Yesterday's Toronto Star featured a photo (unfortunately, I cannot find it online) of munchkin Mickey Carroll looking relatively healthy (ie standing on his own and carrying on a conversation) at the Toronto Blue Jays spring training camp in Florida, exchanging autographs with Jays' slugger Frank Thomas. According to the caption, Carroll said his signature collection includes Ozzie Smith (once nicknamed "The Wizard of Oz"), Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig. The caption also claims there are five other surviving munchkins, which may or may not be true. Just thought I'd share that for those of you keeping score at home.

He still does regular cameos on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Recent appearances (that I've seen) have included the "lighting of the Christmas Vigoda," an appearance where he finished second place in an "Audience Member who Mostly Closely Resembles Abe Vigoda Contest," and a Groundhog Day spoof in which Abe Vigoda's tree stump was wheeled on stage on February 2nd and he was roused from his slumber to prove that he was still alive.

I hope I can also turn into John Steed once I retire.

Ah but he might have an accident in the stylee of Owen Hart, don't count your chickens just yet Monsieur Invader If memory serves, Eddie Guerrero also appeared to be in "great shape" right before he was struck my the grim reaper's folding chair. You can pretty much guarantee that another three professional wrestlers over the age of 35 are going to die at some point this year, it's just picking the right ones that's the crapshoot.

Wikipedia is reporting the death of Italian-born, American-serving combat veteran Antonio Pierro.

Unfortunately, it sounds like he's still as healthy as an ox: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../e165938S88.DTL

While de Havilland has the extra yeare and the sicklier childhood, her sheer continual presence at awards shows and the like make me think that Joan Fontaine will assuredly die first. De Havilland is everywhere and looks quite healthy; I have no idea what Joan Fontaine's been doing the last twenty years.

I would like to also announce my extreme bummed-outedness regarding the unexpected death of Denny Doherty. Is there an official thread for me to grieve in? If not, I would like to say that it's completely unfair that Michele Phillips, although a very nice person I'm sure, should be the last surviving member of this group, and so soon at that.

Given the plethora of spellings of his stage name, I'd like to clarify: BIGELOW.

Think optimistic. Remember Aaron Spelling's 'Minor Stroke' or Pinochet's release from the hospital. All at the lower seats of last years list. I think Haughley was let go from the cocters a couple times before he became a statistic. Indeed... people give up on those advertised as "sure things" if they make it more than 12 months... as a deathpooler I enjoy feasting on last year's leftovers... That said, I think it's harder to gauge writers and playwrights as they like to establish a lot more forshadowing before they kick it - they seem to want to script their own death; politicians are similar in that they want to establish a legacy, although such can be done years (or decades) in advance. For writer-types, many of them try to establish the actual way their death gets depicted and are revealed to the media. It's the Pinters, Vidals, Vonneguts, Salingers and Solzhenitsyns who make big deals about auctioning off their possessions or anticipating their respective demises. Unless they're planning to off themselves, there's not much value in how they perceive their own state of health...

At his age and weakened state, a post-surgery infection or "problems with stitches" could be just as significant as cancer, although from what I've been able to read, healthcare in Cuba is in a much better way than most would expect.

The (admittedly terrible) thing about MS is the way it attacks the body, specifically in the prolonged nature of the disease. Not only does it progress at different rates in different people, but it can make someone appear on the brink of death externally, despite them still having many years left. My aunt has been living with MS for 30 years, and although her motor skills and speech are awful, she has never been hospitalized as a result of her condition, and nobody in the family expects her to die from it in the next, say, five years (she's currently 67). For the purposes of celebrity death prediction, I generally treat MS sufferers like those with Parkinsons, and only really consider them if there are hospitalizations or real evidence that they expect to die imminently.

He also endeared himself to Canadians around 1995 or so with the Helms-Burton Act, and a follow-up in which, as I recall, demanded that Canadians sever ties with Cuba, comparing Canada's relations with Cuba to Chamberlain's relations with Hitler shortly befire WWII. I'm pretty sure Helms swore several times in the media during those weeks.