DevonDeathTrip

This year's effort. Hoping to better the 31st place achieved in 2018 and 2019. The Living End Yoo Sang-chul (Joker) Sam Lloyd David Gulpilil Doug Supernaw Gianluca Vialli Frankie Banali Alex Trebek James Church Ruth Bader Ginsberg Belinda Sykes Pat Smullen John Downing Sultan Qaboos of Oman Sally Sheridan Jana Bennett Judy Dyble Michael McKevitt John Lewis John Andretti Lee Noble Sub: Bradley Murdoch

Stone cold sober and my team is in. No inebriated last minute alterations this time and no religious figure or terrorist either.

I'm going to pin this thread again until 00.00 01/01/2020. We have lots of visiting guests right now, so they might need it for handy reference.

Direct replacement for Swami please

Does that mean I get a fraction of a consolation point and am therefore now leading the competition? A warm welcome back to Sister Helen Prejean to replace the departed Hindu holy chap.

Here we go again, another bunch of religious figures, who have lived blameless, virtuous lives and are therefore almost indestructible. Dr Francis Jackson Mother Delores Hart Sister Catherine Wybourne Father Lazurus El-Anthony Archbishop Desmond Tutu Nawal El Saadawi HH The Dalai Lama Vishvesha Tirtha Swamiji Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Pope Emeritus Benedict Sub: Fetullah Gulen Chief Raoni The list just doesn't look the same without Wendy and Lionel on it though

Nearly done but....is Frankie Banali going to obit?

Nicholas Parsons obligingly writes an article about his health.

True story, I once took pity on Stephen Gough and let him camp in my field for a couple of days after he'd been beaten up by a group of outraged Orthodox Jewish hikers.

A very rare appearance tonight from Archers veteran Lesley Saweard, who has played Christine Barford for 66 years. I think it might be at least six months since she last appeared and I was starting to wonder if we'd heard the last from her. Her character, perhaps in a nod towards real life, is now in a residential home. Archers actors do have a history of working until they drop.

I'm trying to be less impatient this time around, instead of sacking all of my survivors only to watch them succumb weeks or months later. But I really don't like giving people another chance. So will probably follow the usual pattern of mass redundancies, putting together a half good new team from scratch, making it less good by trying to be stylish and including an obscure Polynesian ski-jumper and a Latvian nun, with the final effort unlikely to meet expectations, finishing even beyond the UEFA cup places.

TJ Ducklo 31, Joe Biden's press secretary, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Unless they're driven into a wall by a drink driver at 100mph, with a fleet of pepperazzi in hot pursuit.

Roger Scruton gives a rundown of his year in the Spectator.

Agreed Spade. The gratuitous torture Bittaker and Norris indulged in does set them apart from most self-respecting serial killers. There's footage on YouTube of horrified attendees running out of the courtroom during Bittaker's trial, after the audio of their last murder was played. Unfortunately some of the sound escapes from the courtroom as the doors open, so I won't post a link.

The reclusive Rollo Armstrong of Faithless casually mention in this article that he's fully recovered from a bout of lung cancer.

The problem I have with Jess Phillips is the unequivocal support she gave to the fantasist Esther Baker, who is currently under investigation for perverting the course of justice. The man Baker falsely accused, John Hemming, was the previous incumbent of Phillips' parliamentary seat. To try and make political capital out of false allegations of child abuse - and to subsequently fail to offer any apology for this course of action - strike me as the acts of someone who is unworthy of holding political office, let alone the party leadership.

Cardinal Miroslav Vlk, 84. As Catholicism was frowned upon in communist Czechoslovakia, Vlk spent much of his working life officially employed as a window cleaner.

An impressive performance by independent candidate Anthony Watchorn in the Melton and Rutland constituency, who managed to get 458 votes, despite unexpectedly dying two weeks ago.

Labour.

Somehow this appeals to my juvenile sense of humour. Miss E Dearlove v Babs Baps Ltd: 1802922/2019 Employment Tribunal decision. Published 11 December 2019

Just had to drive through two floods to exercise my democratic duty and try to unseat Geoffrey Cox. Which is rather unlikely to happen. I still think anarchy will prevail in the end.

Not exactly in my backyard, but seventy miles down the road at Sennen, near Lands End... For the last few weeks I've been following the news about possibly the most unusual rare bird sighting ever to happen in the UK. The Paddyfield Pipit is an unremarkable little brown bird, native to South East Asia, so quite how one ended up in West Cornwall is anybody's guess. While many other non-native species of bird have been spotted only once in the UK, almost all of them were migratory birds who have either got lost or blown off course. There have also been birds which were later determined to have been released or escaped from captivity. What makes the Paddyfield Pipit sighting so unusual is that there is no record of them being kept in captivity and it is non migratory. They don't really stray that far at all. This map indicates the Paddyfield Pipit's range (note the isolated purple blob over Cornwall). So unlikely was it considered that this bird could possibly end up here, that the sighting provoked huge debate on bird forums. Many were convinced it had been incorrectly identified, basically refusing to accept what they saw in front of them. Anyway, after a tense wait, this weekend it was confirmed that, through DNA analysis of it's droppings, the bird was indeed Cornwall, Britain and Europe's very first Paddyfield Pipit. The nearest one has ever been spotted before was the United Arab Emirates. The bird's DNA pinpointed it to probably being originally resident of the Western Ghat mountain range in southern India. How did this poor, confused, tiny creature end up here? We'll never know. One thing we can be fairly certain of is that it won't be going home. There have been no sightings since. Hopefully the cat enjoyed his exotic snack.

I'm not sure it was mentioned at the time - Rowland Gould, guitarist and founding member of Level 42, hanged himself in April.

Wow, there's a blast from the past. Welcome back