M.Lawrenson

Got to mention Rudolf August Oetker who died on Tuesday, if only because I once got a voucher for a free pizza from his company (one of the few perks I ever got working for Asda). The pizza wasn't worth what you'd've had to pay for it, though.

João Havelange, former FIFA President and alleged perpetrator of dubious football-related 'activities'. 91 in May.

Fire safety was generally poor at circuits back then, as you know. Immediately after Bandini's accident, quite a few tracks kitted their marshals out in full fire suits, but it had all been forgotten by 1971. It still seems appalling when you think about it, especially when you consider Roger Williamson died in exactly the same circumstances less than 2 years later. I have to ask myself if this was the same decade I was born in. I've seen the YouTube Bandini clips, but the one I have is worse. You get closeups of his burning car and see him being literally hauled out of the wreck coated in extinguisher powder (horribly grim photo here). Not to mention seeing his distraught wife in the pits shaking and being led away. Bandini was underneath his Ferrari for 4 minutes. I read about it on a French site, and as far as I could make out he had 3rd degree burns on 70% of his body (apparently the nerve endings are usually destroyed in burns that bad, so his last 3 days may not have been quite as horrible as I imagined - I do hope they gave him plenty of morphine, though). As I said above, numerous drivers died in horrible fiery crashes at this time but it took many years before anyone did anything sensible to deal with or prevent them.

"He died from suffocation". Which I suppose is the best way of putting it, since his helmet visor melted in the heat and went down into his lungs. Apparently, the wrecked BRM is still in someone's collection somwhere. It's not as grim as a 7:29 Italian clip of Lorenzo Bandini at Monaco in 1967 I have somewhere. Those Italians really know how to do these things.

I know the GPM cockpit is wider than other single seaters (for obvious reasons), but will Sandro fit inside it? I hope he's planning some major exercise over the next few months. I can see the sales of cakes and Chianti plummeting in his restaurant too.

Santa Claus - Polar Czar

Phil may be old and ill, but he's one of the few drivers left who drove for Ferrari in the late 50s-early 60s. What must it have been like to see Castelotti, Musso, Collins, de Portago and Trips die before their 35th birthdays and have to drive the same cars as they did? They say that Enzo was to blame for all that. He tended to hire more drivers than he had cars for and pressurise them into driving faster by hinting that someone else may have their ride for the next race. Hill's view of racing was soured by his years at Ferrari, but unlike more than a few, he came through it. He was more perceptive than most too. Checking out the driving of his new 19 year old team mate Ricardo Rodriguez Hill said "If he lives, I'll be surprised." Ricardo didn't live to see 21. Robert Daley's book "The Cruel Sport" has excellent coverage of Phil Hill during this era.

And considering his pro-'assisted suicide' views, should he view himself as terminally ill he'll have himself finished off quickly.

I congratulate you, I wasn't sure if we would hit 12 this year. But this proves that it's not over untill it's over. Well, there could always be an Al Qaeda attack on the White House Xmas Party (if the right people are invited).

He certainly won't be Glad All Over about being in Bits And Pieces.

I wish you hadn't just put that idea in my head. Dikipedia - not that you'd get away with calling it that - would be a completely spoof encyclopedia editable by all, which re-writes the history of the universe. That would be a very popular site. Just imagine... Hitler's armies were marching through Europe in 1940, and England surrendered after Churchill was bought off with a crate of scotch. However, Captain Kirk, travelling back in time, infiltrated Switzerland and armed the Swiss Guard with phasers. Big Daddy then challenged Hitler to a Hell-in-a-Cell submission match, wherein Adolf tapped out while in a Boston Crab, thus surrending Europe. I don't normally reply to ancient posts, but have you seen Uncyclopedia? After that, you can check out my latest Wikipedia graphic triumph here.

Yes, at the South African GP at Kyalami in 1973. Hailwood got the George Medal, Regga got a few burns on his hands. Sadly, both ended up dying in road accidents. Hailwood's car collided with a truck too, while he was driving with his kids to get a takeaway.

Just seen the news on Wikipedia. Truly shocking. Regga was one of those people that you think would have the determination to live forever, despite all he'd been through. A very good driver, though according to some sources lacking in astuteness, though this made him a more agreeable personality than many drivers of his time. As someone once said, if you're sat next to an F1 driver on long plane journey, you should hope to be sat next to a driver like Regazzoni or Jacques Laffite for whom racing is just one part of a full life. Though Clay, like Jacques, would have raced for nothing.

One of those unknown people responsible for well-known computer products, Alan Shugart died on the 12th December. Apparently, he was responsible for the development of the floppy disk, which superseded the clay tablet as a storage medium in ancient times. I'm sure most people remember their first experience of the wonders of digital storage. I remember the headmaster of my primary school demonstrating a 5.25 inch floppy to us in 1984. But these were the days before paedohysteria, so he wasn't arrested for it.

I presume Thatch will go to one of her best friend's funeral. Let's face it - Heathrow to Santiago is a long way. A very long way for an 81 year old in poor health. Plus the deaths of her mates Casper and Milton must have dealt a blow to her morale even before this. Not long for her, I feel.

Just found that out via Wikipedia. I remember buying Green Lantern #19, his last comic book work back in 1991. Judging by what he drew, he was best off retired.

Phil (or Mr Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderberg-Glucksburg as he is known in my house) may be much disparaged in the press, but don't you wish that his sons (especially the eldest) were more like him. I normally dislike people who are 'celebrated' as un-PC, but with Phil it's not an act, unlike Jeremy Clarkson etc. He really is like that. He has no airs and graces, as you'd probably expect of a man who was born on a kitchen table in Corfu. His mother was as deaf as a post and his father was usually in a drunken stupor or absent gambling, so he probably grew up saying what he liked without consequences. How can anyone not warm to a man who says something so unknowingly and spectacularly tasteless as (spoken to a blind woman with a guide dog) "Did you know they have eating dogs for anorexics these days?"

South Korean equestrian Kim Hyung-chil, 47, crushed to death under his horse competing in the Asian Games.

Well, considering how humungously fat he was, it can hardly be a surprise... He did seem a touch large in the picture they showed...apparently the paramedics had to break in... Along with my dubious obsessions with European Royal history and Formula 1, I'm a Doctor Who fan as well. I never read any of Hinton's books, as the reviews I saw said they were no good. One book was called "GodEngine" - the reviewer in Doctor Who Magazine said it should have been called "GodAwful". Hinton was the Comic Book guy from the Simpsons, though thankfully without the pretentiousness. Not that the Doctor Who book authoring world is short of the pretentious. One (former, I may add) Who novelist, Lawrence 'Mad Larry' Miles has spent his time filling up a website with bitter denunciations of the new Doctor Who TV series, apparently because the producers turned down his scripts. When I read of Hinton's death on Outpost Gallifrey, I thought at first it would have been AIDS (Hinton, in common with an awful lot of Who fans, was gay), but the "Who (writer?) ate all the pies" pictures of him said otherwise. Apparently, Craig was good at hard living and bad at looking after himself. The last few months had been not good for him and his friends are not saying any more. Just one more peculiar note. There was, in the 80s, a short-lived Doctor Who companion called Kamelion, who was a robot. It failed because the only bloke who knew how to operate it died tragically in a speedboat accident. The man who voiced Kamelion, Gerald Flood, died soon after. The failed robot made one more appearance in Who to be written out. The writer of that story died of leukaemia in his forties 6 years later. The poor actor who had to be daubed in silver paint to play a more mobile version of Kamelion died in 1992, aged 45. It was about this time that fans started muttering about these coincidences - calling them 'The Curse of Kamelion'. Now, to get to the point. Kamelion was not popular, and has been neglected by Doctor Who spin-off novelists. The first book, and only one to have Kamelion as a major part of it was 'The Crystal Bucephalus', written by Craig Hinton.

I subscribed to forix.com for 2 years, but unfortunately F1 statistics sites are somewhat low on my financial priority list at the moment, my income being £59 a week and everything. Wikipedia's F1 entries should be treated with caution, yes, except for the article on Dave Walker, of course...

I really should buy one of those reference books that contain all the F1 race results than rely on the internet. I checked Wikipedia's page on the 1950 British GP and only one of the drivers listed as taking part is still alive (de Graffenreid, obviously), but on it's 'classification' section, it gives Tony Rolt as being in the race. This is explained by saying that Peter Walker started the race, then he pitted after 3 laps and Rolt took over his car. Rolt retired after the gearbox packed up 2 laps later. GrandPrix.com also has Rolt listed in the classification, but then that page looks knackered to me. IIRC, GrandPrix.com also lists Patrick Depailler as taking part in races after he was killed at Hockenheim in 1980, which at least shows the German healthcare system is better than ours.

But that version featured a bloody key change - something the author would certainly not approve of. On hearing that, Norman Greenbaum would be turning in his grave. If he were dead.

Has anyone got the odds on Pinochet and Castro dying on the same day?

Check your PM inbox. Oh, that's easy. Emmanuel de Graffenreid and Tony Rolt. Aged 92 and 86 respectively, IIRC.

Ah, "Venus" - one of the few songs based on the E minor to A major chord change. People of my generation remember the Bananarama version better, though even we could tell it wasn't a Stock/Aitken/Waterman composed song as it had more than 4 notes.