Ulitzer95

Sir Colin Shepherd (wiki), obscure Tory MP for Hereford (1974–1997), dead at 86. BBC News obit. No surviving MPs from the Hereford constituency now as his Lib Dem successor Paul Keetch died in 2017. The constituency was abolished in 2010.

With thanks to @msc for flagging this: Ben Ford (wiki), Labour MP for Bradford North (1964–1983) died off radar on 17 April 2022, aged 97, as confirmed by his Who's Who profile, the Probate Search, and the GRO Index. His full death record is available here on Ancestry. This means that Sir Patrick Duffy (b. 1920) was the only MP older than the Queen to survive her. It also leaves just 11 surviving MPs from the 1964 General Election. Also, Sir Patrick is now the last living MP to have served in World War II! This is somewhat of a shock as Ben Ford enjoyed some decent coverage in later years. Ben Ford was also one of just 34 Labour MPs who have been deselected during the course of the party's history (the Labour Party are not big on deselecting people like the Tories are). It also sucks to be the team that has him as a unique pick in this year's DDP! Now... after Sir Patrick I don't know who the oldest MP is. I think it's Terence Higgins (born Jan 1928), then Elizabeth Shields (born Feb 1928... an obscure Lib Dem who was MP for just a year). Dick Taverne (b. 18 Oct 1928), Bill Rodgers (b. 28 Oct 1928) are close behind. An 8 year age gap between the oldest and second oldest is huge!

Another thing I will add is I see Godzilla actor Katsumi Tezuka (wiki) is a pick, yet again. This seems to be becoming a weird DDP tradition. I don't know if the same person is picking him for a joke or if it's because they're stupid and/or refuse to believe he's dead, but we have a reliable source that confirms he's deceased. He's believed to have died in the 60s/70s. If he was still alive today he'd be turning 112 in August and I think someone would have noticed he's still breathing by now!

Barkow, Al – says born 1905, actually born 1932 Blake, Jon – says born 1905, actually born 1954 Demoriane, Hermine – says born 1905, actually born 1942 Golding, LaVona – says born 1905, actually born 1940 Issa, Marwan – says born 1905, actually born 1965 McGoran, Thomas – says born 1905, actually born 1927 Morrison, George – says born 1905, actually born 1922 Orji, Zack – says born 1905, actually born 1960 Schilling, Mel – says born 1905, actually born 1972 Scott, Shaun – says born 1905, actually born 1954 Thorn, Barbara – says born 1905, actually born 1954 Edit: Whoops, just seen your post that came through in the mean time @time.

Several of the bios have the same problem this year. The bloke below was born in 1979, not 1905.

Probably a good shout tbh. 84 this year and has taken a leave of absence yet again from the Lords. Would tend to suggest he's not in good health.

Don Murray’s death surely worth a mention here. Had been retired for nearly 2 decades when he came out of retirement to star in the Twin Peaks revival in 2017.

How?! He seemed to be doing great.

Glynis Johns Norman Jewison Jonnie Irwin 3/50

OK I totally take back my comment about him being the male Linda Nolan.

Telegraph obit for John Zylinski, aged 72, Polish prince who ran for Mayor of London in 2016 and challenged Nigel Farage to a dual.

Someone claiming she was their aunt has marked New Zealand mezzo-soprano Honor McKellar (wiki), as having died today aged 103. A pick on the centenarians pool and a unique DDP pick.

Biggest problem with Wiki is nowhere near enough ppl edit it. I don't know a single person in real life who edits Wiki. And it's not as straight forward as ppl might think, takes time to learn a lot of rules and customs so most new contributors end up doing more harm than good. We're approaching 7 million articles in the English Wiki. It's just too much to manage. Another problem is Wikis in other languages have not grown at anywhere near the rate that the English one has. This has resulted in English Wiki becoming a dumping ground for article creation about things that are almost totally irrelevant to 99.9% of native English speakers e.g. really obscure foreign actors. These individuals perhaps merit a page in their native language but it doesn't mean English Wiki needs a version. They need to seriously tighten up article creation (I'd propose restricting it to users of 5+ years and 5000+ edits) or the whole thing will just become a wasteland. Then the only option they'll have is to control a lot of it by introducing AI editing, which I'd be against.

It's absolutely dire over on the Deaths in 2024 page atm. Editors clearly bored AF so they're creating new pages for total nobodies. Just a random example from the last week: Grace Boadu, Ghanian herbal medical practitioner. Wiki really needs to tighten up their grasp on article creation. They're in excess of 2 million biographies now. In the last 6 months I've been going through the 1920–1934 births and I've found 1000s of ppl who have died off radar but haven't had their pages updated in years, sometimes over a decade. The whole Wiki project is becoming unmanageable now due to it being so bloated with biographies of nobodies.

Mark Labbett interviewed by The Farage last week. Biggest takeaway from interview is him explaining his weight loss... 1) walks with the dog 2) caring for his young son as a new dad in his 50s 3) contracted COVID and never regained his appetite BMI is 31 so still (marginally) in the obese category but has lost 10 stone overall. Anyway, not selected in the DDP this year and probably just as well as I'd say he's easily a wasted pick. One to revisit in 15–20 years.

I don't find him interesting at all so can't see why he'd be rated as good entertainment value. What I will say is he seems like a genuinely nice bloke. Always well mannered, even when he's invited on to talk about contentious political issues he never loses his temper and is always very respectful and courteous.

Never understand why Coles gets booked literally everywhere – he crops up on every talk show, celebrity versions of popular gameshows, clip shows to give commentary etc. I find him to be a dull individual. Answer is probably a lot simpler than I care to imagine – he's most likely a cheap booking so producers have him on speed dial.

Thaina the THOT. Some good alliteration.

I get the impression that diego is an autistic savant like Rain Man. I don’t think you’ll convince him to stop. For him this is all very fulfilling.

Philip Bushill-Matthews (wiki), Tory MEP for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2009, dead at 80. Times obit. Notable for being a strange one politically. Eurosceptic but in the sense that he wanted to see radical reform in the EU. He ended up campaigning against Brexit then defected to the Lib Dems in 2019 (and rather appropriately is now also a dead parrot himself).

Been 3 years since I mentioned fitness guru Elaine LaLanne, widow of bodybuilder Jack LaLanne, so thought I'd check in on her. Well here, she is a year ago doing jack knife exercises at 96: And here she is 2 weeks ago, aged 97, being interviewed: She's 98 in March. If there was a "very strong" candidate to reach 100, it's her.

30 of the 52 are now dead. 4 are still at large, and at this point are unlikely to get caught as Iraqi fugitives are not a priority of the U.S.

The deaths of Dianne Feinstein (1933–2023) and Jean Carnahan (1933–2024) mean that Nancy Kassebaum (wiki, born 1932) is once again the only former female Senator aged 90+ No former female Senators are due to turn 90 now until July 1936 when Barbara Mikulski and Elizabeth Dole will reach that milestone.

(also you spelt his name wrong)

Rivera's death means that Carol Lawrence (wiki) is the only main cast member from the original Broadway production of West End Story still living. 92 in September. Looks very good, could be around for 5+ years yet.