msc

Goldsmith's going, that's finally points on the board for me.

I genuinely always thought Deathray was Notaguest given a second chance by the mods? Not that it bothers me..

I'm surprised by the number of certs on my list which haven't appeared on the forum yet. I mean, I know they're on your (and DDT/DI's) lists, but that's beside the point...

No, I think this was Mel of Mel & Kim back in January 1990. Thanks - I always forget them (because I was slightly younger than Willz at the time) even with the Smith and Wilde pun Christmas song combo.

Is he the first S/A/W number one star to die then? Having a brain freeze.

Is that a grade? Bit harsh if it is. Yeah, if I were grading Sir Creep's first DDP year, I'd give it a B- : under-performed expectations, but expected to do much better next semester...

British Music Hall Society have announced, as with a lot of people lately the BBC are slow to pick it up. https://www.facebook.com/282967823195/photos/a.10151103726648196.450760.282967823195/10154098594513196/?type=3&theater I would call the BBC cautious rather than slow. They wait for reliable confirmation of a death. They double check their sources - it's why moments like the Henry McCullough premature death announcement are anomalies. Also, the Beeb were still the first major news source to cover it (after lots of source checking), swiftly followed by the Daily Mail (a whole 2 minutes later...).

BBC obit

Well, if Wikipedia says its true, stop the presses... (I think it's possible he is dead given some of the folk tweeting about, but nothing confirmed as yet - and not even the news first, check later news sites are going for it quite yet. Have patience, eh?)

If I'd have seen THIS a week ago no doubt The Dynamite Kid would be in my top 20. Big miss. His death guaranteed. SC http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/Wrestling_Legend_Still_Hospitalized_Backstage_Talk_on_a_WWE_SmackDown_Change_Brock_Lesnar.html We haven't had a mention of Tom Billington in at least a few weeks now, so here's his new Go Fund Me page, which states he's been in a care home for 13 months.

Whereas Thistle are... not yet bottom of the league.

Well, it's more good for Clinton than Trump if McMullin does. By which I mean, she's not defending Utah, nor is she expected to win it. So if someone other than Trump wins Utah, its narrows down his paths to victory.

He'll have won Utah. That's what I think will happen if it happens.

Photo in The Sun - spoiler tagged for size.

Strange? He had a ruptured abdominal aneurysm in his mid-80s and survived (c.50% mortality rate post-rupture for folk at working age, let alone beyond the average life expectancy), having previously survived a fall at home with the traditional head injury. He's done very well to make 2016, all things considered. EDIT - It might not have ruptured, though I thought I'd read that, but anyhow - not exactly a thrill for someone of advanced age.

Was he known to be ill, or is this one of those DDP related lucky guesses?

US university president - by "someone", you mean Sir Creep, right?

It particularly resonates, so I'm told all the time, by people who were school kids at the time, as there were these slag heaps all over the place, and it was Aberfan where the shit hit the fan, but it could have been anywhere. It's a bit similar to the many football fans who remember near misses in the 1980s with crushes - authorities not wanting to do anything until there's a bunch of dead kids (and older) on their hands, despite all the warnings to the contrary.

Not a fan of Phil, but that autobiography title takes balls in 2016.

I understand how people make the list ie dead, it's the 'how cold they are' before they get on the show that I can't work out. BTW I only need one more for 1000 likes (hint, hint). Liked for the gall... But anyhow, it's all relative, I presume, depending on when they die, who they were, and who dies around them. Which is why we had some academics who died in March showing up around summer in the show, due to the deluge of deaths from that time period. I think the longest wait I can recall this year was about three months for Robert McNeil Alexander.

Glancing at Montreal news, metastatic bone and bladder cancer. So, QO unlikely, but largely irrelevant with the prognosis - he wont see Hallowe'en. You were completely right. Don't look so shocked - it has been known to happen now and again!

Former Glasgow MP Tam McMillan died after falling off a bus in 1980 (though I feel there was a lot left out from the public there). His successor later died, while an MP, of a heart attack on a London tube after a jog, and his successor was jailed for wilful fire raising. Otherwise, Evan Durbin drowned trying to rescue his own daughter from drowning, and Walter Smiles died in a ferry sinking. Going considerably further back, we've got William Huskisson being run over by a train in 1830, and I'm pretty sure MPs died in duels in the 1800s, but that's stretching things considerably.

An interesting aside in the Dudley West 1994 byelection coverage on YouTube is that The Economist did a study of Tory MP mortality rates at the time and forecast that during your average 5 year parliament, an average of ten Tory MPs will die. Blair ruined that stat by getting rid of most of them in 97, of course. In fact, there's only been four sitting Tory MPs to die since the 1997 election - Michael Shersby (64, heart attack), Alan Clark (72, brain cancer), Michael Colvin (67, house fire possibly caused by discarded match) and Eric Forth (61, cancer). In comparison, we've had twenty four sitting Labour MP deaths in the same time period, from a variety of reasons like cancer, suicide, pancreatitis, and overdosing on Polish absinthe.

Method - Noteworthy people, who tend to be a few steps below your "tributes were paid today" mentions on the national news, but who had interesting or quirky life stories esp academics and bishops. Otherwise, barring people so big they can't avoid them, its down to the whim of the editor!

Never mind Trump, the chap who introduced him and Clinton at that dinner last night, Al Smith IV, looked like he might cark it on stage, as it were.