Octopus of Odstock

Well, kind of - but it didn't really say much about his health. In fact he sounded chipper, make of that what you will. This is from June 17th, 2008. Previous reports from 2004 mention his illness, but not the latest one..

Greg Weld, the former Indianapolis 500 stalwart turned successful businessman has died, aged 64, of a heart-attack. http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_ne...ory/733202.html

Levi-Strauss.

Good stuff - my 8th hit of the year & up to equal 15th. Nice to do well without doing too well, if you catch my drift. A hit on the CPDP too. I admit to being an ignoramus about Solzhenitsyn, except I knew he had a big beard, knew he had trouble under Stalin & knew my dad found him quite inspirational. And from a DP point of view.. knew he was seriously ill. Surprised more teams didn't pick him.

Obviously, it is Dad's Army weekend this weekend on the bee bee cee, and last night they had the first of two special evenings dedicated to the programme. Last night's "The Dad's Army Story" was filmed eight years ago & Dunny looked just fine - Bill Pertwee looked near death then as well! Tonight is the more up to date version of how they are now. But interesting that Dunny was a POW during WW2 & suffered terribly at the hands of the Germans & saw Jack Jones as his way of getting his own back. God Bless him. In watching the shows last night, he was still the funniest of the lot, especially when Mrs Fox said "They've stamped my name on the bottom" and Dunny looks at her arse. No words, no overt actions, just sheer genius... I also never realised James Beck was only 39 when he died (thought he was late 40's) & that Arnold Ridley & John Laurie fought in WW1 at the Battle of the Somme. Tonight should be good viewing too.

Mel Sterland Hugely obese, heavy drinker, attempted suicide once, suffers from depression, trouble with the law, can't work due to a blood clot restricted his mobility, "is in agony if he drives a long distance" and "is out of breath just walking upstairs". Nearly died a few years ago when the clot hit his lung. Still drinking despite health problems. Who is he? Ex-Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday & England defensive footballer, so obituary certain. He also played for Leeds, which is an automatic reason to go on any dead pool & he's a complete idiot too, which is a second reason. He's only 47 this year as well..... All this comes from the latest edition of Four Four Two magazine.

CR's death to footballers post has reminded me of one - Robbie Keane And no, I'm not a Spurs fan either, it's just Keane is a complete cheating, lying, arse bastard cunting f*****t with the brain the size of a gnat. That's still only two.

I knew, despite one team protesting, that I was right not to award DDP points for his death. I also mentioned the Panama link back in December..... Didn't the Tailor of Panama fake his own death, or have I got confused with another Le Carre novel?

Train. Try Rail Europe:- London-Merens les Vals. Merens les Vals to wherever in Andorra by bus, or at worst, taxi. It is 30 miles, and about 1 hour away. Remember, I am a travel agent, after all....

General Gordon had a deep masculine voice. I fear you might be mixing me & him up with someone else Still haven't seen it - I might have a look in a little while... Miser: Aspel seems to be doing fine as far as one knows.

What DO I have to do to get a decent result against Dyslexics?!?! Now I have 5 players out through suspension & injury - kinda like after "The Battle of Santiago" Ah well, at least I have Spurs in the next two games - that should help..

The preview's on ITV Westcountry (www.itv.com/westcountry - programmes) at the moment - the naked lady has nothing to do with me... sadly. Preview is on episode 2, part 2 - 10 minutes in. Whilst my bald patch is clear for all to see, I don't look as fat as I thought I did. But - My God - I look tired. Hardly surprising considering I was up at 5am that morning to get to another function. Be nice, those of you who watch it & be honest - I won't get to see it until tomorrow at the earliest, possibly Sunday afternoon. Um.. keeping on topic - O'Brien still doesn't look good.

What - my interview or the remake? I'd probably agree on both accounts...

Oh piffle. Well, they're all the same, Domino, Diddley, Doodle-doo. Sorry, that should be 4 hits. Although I could give DL credit for a hit they haven't got because he isn't a hit as opposed to a hit they haven't got because he was a hit but they hadn't picked..........

Excellent review - but I thought that was just the *funny* ones. The unfunny ones mainly centered round (mainly) Estelle Getty's character, along the lines of 'I'm old, I'm crazy ha ha ha". "Loved on seven continents" my arse.

Yes - Widmark wasn't entered by DL on the DDP, that's why. I can hardly give DL credit for people they DIDN'T pick, now, can I? Ironically, a few of the DL dead this year weren't picked as the DDP team - the 19 (19, of course, because DL inexpiciably picked Frankie Laine & then submitted it, without noticing in time) chosen were; Ronnie Biggs Fidel Castro Arthur C Clarke Fats Domino Kirk Douglas W. Mark Felt Michael Foot Zsa Zsa Gabor Charlton Heston Albert Hofmann Claude Lévi-Strauss Herbert Lom Karl Malden Oscar Niemeyer Chapman Pincher Sydney Pollack Yitzhak Shamir Alexander Solzhenitsyn Eli Wallach

I can't believe her son called her "one of the greatest comediennes of all time". I know there's family pride but that's absurd. Golden Girls wasn't THAT funny. I will try & update it asap (bit difficult this week, mind) but on the DDP front - couple of big hitters score again & TMIB - I think - equals the all-time record of hits in a year with 12.

I know him - he was in the shop last week asking about trips to Canada. Damn the UN War Crimes Tribunal, that would've been a good £3,000 sale. One of the stories of the year - and that's just the hair. You know, when I saw the news this morning, the first thing I thought was "I hope his hair is still the same as it was" - luxuriously bouffanty. He always reminded me of a fat, evil Father Ted. Now he reminds me of a fat, evil Father Christmas.

Excellent - we give Cambridge 350,000 & we then make a profit of £5.15 million. I like that kind of business deal for RFC Very sorry to see Kits go, especially to a side who will be coming down as we go back up, but £5.5m is very good money for a 28 yr old uncapped internationally striker. We can get two, maybe three decent strikers for that. I did like Kitson's rather refreshing attitude to football & his comments in the media, but we can do without the drink driving element of his life....

Keeper. However if Banshees reads the thread again fom the start, surely it is obvious who falls into which category? Aren't we just repeating ourselves again and again and again?

Yes, that 'twas me. Interview goes out - by the way - at 11.10pm on the 24th July 2008 (next Thursday) but you can only see it on ITV Westcountry (I think you can also get it via Sky??) Considering I live nowhere near ITV Westcountry, I won't see the interview (ie my own interview), which is probably a good thing - too many errs umms etc. Richard O'Brien is just the linking man - the chappy who interviewed me was the series director, Val. No doubt those old hags on Loose Women will now write strongly worded newspaper pieces about Dead Pools. I'd happily add Jane Moore to any DP list of mine if fate worked like that.....

Only 8 months late, Phantom - Starch posted the above on the 21st December 2007, when the news was originally announced...

The Telegraph, now it updates overnight like The Times has brought a few deaths to the fore first - Spriggs, Lloyd (who, I quite agree should have got more reviews - but did the BBC even report Spriggs' death?) and now another name from Television - Bryan Cowgill - TV executive & a pivotal name in televised sport. He was 81.

Even more of a soil expert now, then....

Lady Gertrude Bliss, widow of Sir Arthur, is now 104. Bette Hill, widow of Graham. Dolores Hope, widow of Bob. All three should get UK obits, no question.