Octopus of Odstock

Mentioned two days ago in the Not Exactly Famous.. thread, MPFC. I do hope you're not turning into Iain. Also, calling Sir Malcolm Arnold a "musician" is a bit of a misnomer.

One of those rediscovered, Francois Jaffre, has died, on the 22 September. The lack of newspaper coverage thus far means picking a WWI survivor for a DP is a bit dodgy, as the media will coo at them some of the time, but not all of the time - Harry Newcombe a case in point.

A quick check in the I & P thread would've confirmed that in seconds, MPFC. Dammit, he was number 12 in my 2007 DDP list, and the only reason I didn't enter him for either CPDP or RDP was because I was hoping I'd sneak him in as a unique pick. Drat. Drat. And Treble Drat. Ah well, Arnold out, Heston in.

Yes, he is. A quick look at other Stan the Man or Stan posts quickly reveals that "Stan" is in fact "Iain"

Cristiano da Matta, earlier this year. Still recovering, not his former self yet, but likely to die anytime soon? No. Same with Hammond, I hope. He'll be off our TV screens, magazine covers & newspaper columns for a while, but hopefully he'll be back - I like his infectious enthuiasm. Shame it wasn't Quentin Wilson.

Until this accident, Frere was quicker than most people more than half his age & with 60 years of testing experience, who better to choose as a tester than someone who knows it all & has tested virtually every car going? More respect please, MPFC, for Mr. Frere, and John Fitch, who also tests cars, and is also 89. After all, Bentley Warren, the ex-Indy 500 driver has just won a major race in the US. Warren is 66, some of the young pups he thrashed were not even 20. Go racing drivers! Anyway, looks like Paul will pull through, which is testament to his strength & fitness at 89, but it may end his testing days.

Not even his wikipedia entry has his death updated, so I guess he died without anyone noticing I'll do it now. It does happen. For example,Jesse Carver, who managed loads of top flight football clubs in England & Italy died un-noticed in 2003, and it was only in Jan 2006, it was reported by a journo that met him a long while back & wondered what had happened to him.

The total's under 60 for the first time. Basically, it's 57 verified WWI veterans. PLUS; 3 who joined up AFTER WWI, but the US still count as WWI era. 2 who are even bigger fakers than Jane Tomlinson and are basically talking bullshit about their lives. 4 Poles who aren't verified, and one of whom is almost certainly dead. Even taking the Poles into account, at least one of them looks on very dodgy ground, so, depending on your point of view, there's just 57 or 59 veterans left - rapidly dwindling, but not perhaps as much as we thought at the start of the year. Thus, I feel confident there will still be 5-10 veterans left to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of WWI in 2008. Whether they will be ones that actually fought (ie Harry Patch) or ones in training (ie a lot of them), we shall see.

If any of you had, have or are having Harry Newcombe in your DP's, don't bother any more. He died earlier this year and even the Guardian did not give him an obit

Oh, TF, how Iainesque of you. 15 hours after the information was first posted. I expected better. Terrible, simply terrible. *shakes head & tuts*

Even if they are, we wouldn't have heard of any of them, and they'll snuff it before 1 Jan, so all I can say is execute away!

The answer is in another thread, CP. There's no need for 700-800 names, whatever it was, so I decided to have 250 names to choose from, which is enough for DL, DDP, CPDP, WDP & RDP. Some I deleted as they simply won't get an obit for DL, DDP, CPDP, and some weren't featured on RDP. Some are not going to die in the next 15 months, end of story. What's left are those that have a good chance of dying, the very old, and those that fit DL requirements, as well as a few "odds & ends" - there's enough choice for everybody there AND still room for people to have their "surprise" candidates. These 250 are VERY broad, not MY suggestions, and even if I am sceptical about their illness (Stand up Mrs. Tomlinson), I have added them in. Most of the "Big Uns" (ie Ford, Pinter, Biggs) are in there, lets put it like that.

Mickey Hargitay, father of Mariska, ex-husband of Jayne Mansfield & former Mr Universe, has died.

Yah, happy B's, Sixy.

Well done TLC! I can't say I have learned anything from your posts, but I have enjoyed them. And that's the way it should be.

Please note full interview now edited. I don't think MF will be a DL hit in 2006 if the only weakness he has is feeling "tired" after a long interview.

If you read the comments, it says what the accident was - and yes, they all SURVIVED - both drivers & the flag man: The long-term result was as follows:- A racing car driver whose career ended with a sickening crash five years ago Wednesday was awarded 90 million yen compensation after the Tokyo District Court ruled race organizers were to blame for his crippling accident. Tetsuya Ota fell well short of getting the 300 million he had been asking from the five organizers and the marshal of the 1998 race where he suffered severe burns that ruined his driving career, but received the vindication he had been looking for. "The crash was caused when the flag car suddenly slowed down," Presiding Judge Tsuyoshi Ono said. "Firefighting and rescue preparations were also not up to scratch." Ota was delighted with the court win. "I would like to thank everybody who has supported me along the way," the 43-year-old once referred to as Japan's best Ferrari handler said in the wake of the ruling. Those ordered to pay Ota include Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture, where the horrifying crash occurred, and TV Tokyo, which broadcast the race. None of the defendants have stated whether they will appeal against the ruling, including TV Tokyo, which spent the entirety of the court battle arguing that it could not be regarded as one of the race organizers. Court records said Ota's terrifying crash occurred during a warm-up lap before the official start of the race in May 1998. Ota's car burst into flames after slamming into another vehicle that had already stopped because of a different accident. Ota was stuck in the fireball for almost 90 seconds before rescuers finally dragged him out. He sustained burns across his body and is still unable to move his right arm, right shoulder and fingers properly. Judges ruled the flag car should have been traveling at about 60 kilometers per hour instead of the 150 kilometers it was doing, and caused the accident by slowing too quickly. Ota was forced to unexpectedly drop his pace and, as a result, he lost control and smash into the stationary vehicle. They also decided that Ota was left in his flaming vehicle for too long and organizers had neglected their responsibility to get him out of the burning car within 30 seconds of the blaze erupting. A pre-race agreement between Ota and the organizers not to pursue legal action in the event of an accident was also dismissed as unacceptable. "A letter that tries to eliminate one party from taking any responsibility for major accidents caused by gross negligence is incorrect, unfair and not void in this court," presiding judge Ono said. TV Tokyo's attempt to avoid being regarded as one of the race organizers was dismissed by the court, which ruled it was involved in sufficient decisions made about the race to be viewed as one of the organizations directly concerned with running it. Ota made his debut in 1982, racing in the Formula 3000 series before switching to GT car races in which he competed in four straight Le Mans 24-hour races. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 29, 2003)

This Premiership lark is easy. 5 games, 3 wins. Top 6 & Europe! EASY EASY EASY EASY EASY EASY EASY EASY

Obiang: FWIW, I also have Obiang on my CPDP, which is why I brought it up especially. It's one to keep an eye on. I guess until/if we know what the complaint is about, then it's difficult to clarify. Unless Obinag snuffs it, in which case it WILL all be clear

Hello Iain, by the way, if you're going to report that Iain is dead, don't sign your post off as yourself, ie. Iain. and if Iain was dead, then it hasn't been reported in Wikipedia yet.

Article from the Spectator re. Michael Foot this week. At first I couldn't print the whole interview, but now I can - here goes:- Gordon will do the job very well John Reynolds Michael Foot and I are sitting in the kitchen of his house in Hampstead, north London. Outside in the garden a red ‘Labour’ rose blooms in the afternoon sun; inside, the house is crammed with books: they’re in piles on the kitchen table, on shelves on every wall: William Hazlitt, William Blake, John Keats, Benjamin Disraeli, Thomas Paine. Upstairs there’s a whole roomful of books on women’s suffrage that belonged to his late wife, Jill Craigie, then another room where an entire corner is devoted to Irish writers: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift. Mr Foot believes that politicians should have a love of great literature (he has written acclaimed biographies of Aneurin Bevan and H.G. Wells among others) and also that the best writers of fiction should concern themselves with politics. ‘I’m in favour of politicians knowing something about literature and vice versa,’ he says. ‘Swift was a wonderful example. Swift, his views and ideas changed my life. I was asked to speak at his 300th commemoration at Trinity College Dublin in 1967,’ he says, ‘and I remember thinking I would be hosting perhaps a small seminar in a library or lecture room. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was to give the talk in the awe-inspiring St Patrick’s Cathedral. I felt very close to heaven!’ ‘I also met Mary Robinson [the former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] there,’ he continues. ‘She is one of the wonderful women of the world, but I felt she was very badly treated by the US during her work for the UN. Mary showed herself to be independent and was not afraid to ask tough questions when she saw the need, such as during the war in Chechnya. She would have made a wonderful International Secretary of the UN.’ So Swift informed Mr Foot’s philosophy, introduced him to great figures of the day, and also played Cupid between him and his wife. In the early days of their relationship, Foot and Craigie spent many happy hours discussing Swift. ‘Jill and I also read the essays of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw,’ says Mr Foot, then pauses perhaps to replay the happy memories in his mind. Joyce is another Irish writer whom Mr Foot admires, for his ideas about both love and politics. ‘We have to take notice of Joyce on politics. He embodied the spirit of Ireland, and was outraged by some of the things the English did there,’ he says. Mr Foot is 93 now and, since his birthday on 23 July, the longest-lived leader of a British political party, beating Lord Callaghan’s record of 92 years, 364 days. And though he’s as politically astute as ever, he sometimes lapses into silence and I find it difficult to get him talking about the current state of the Labour party. On the subject of Tony Blair’s foreign policy, however, he becomes uncharacteristically outspoken. ‘Blair was quite wrong to go into Iraq,’ Mr Foot says, adding vehemently, ‘Our government should be prepared not to accept the American way of doing things, and the ongoing talk of putting pressure on Iran, militarily or with sanctions, is also quite wrong.’ It’s not of course that Mr Foot has any objection to spreading democracy. ‘Government by consent is the most sacred cause of all,’ he said in 1970, and he has always argued that all people deserve to live in democracies. But his love of democracy these days often rubs up against his hatred of war and his fear that in an attempt to destroy injustice, the world will destroy itself. ‘The pre-emptive strike is a terrible, terrible idea,’ he says, about the onset of the second Gulf war, ‘and the dangers of this idea spreading are just appalling.’ One of Mr Foot’s persistent worries is that other nuclear nations might take up the idea of pre-emptive strikes, to catastrophic effect. ‘Look at India’ (Mr Foot was a close friend of Indira Gandhi) â” ‘the dangers if they tried a pre-emptive strike are too awful to contemplate.’ Perhaps, then, Mr Foot has more in common with David Cameron’s foreign policy than New Labour’s? After all, on his recent visit to Mumbai, the Conservative leader referred to the ‘challenge in international affairs’, the British political obsession with Europe and America, and the importance of ‘our deep relationship with India’. The answer is an emphatic ‘no’. While Mr Foot would agree with Mr Cameron that it’s crucial to take notice of what other countries think â” ‘Of course we should be listening to people in India,’ he says, ‘they’ll give us better ideas about how to deal with the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction’ â” during the course of our interview it becomes clear that he’s a great supporter of Gordon Brown. So even after all this infighting and betrayal, you still see Mr Brown as a figure on whom to focus your hopes, I ask. Mr Foot raises his voice, sounding more urgent than usual as he says: ‘I have known Gordon Brown for a long time and I’m very much in favour of him taking over. ‘I think he’ll do the job very well,’ he adds, leaving little doubt that he sees Mr Brown as the inevitable heir â” and the sooner the better. It is perhaps strange that, for someone who favours debate and diplomacy, Mr Foot sees no need for these qualities in a new party leader. Nor does he seem concerned that the Chancellor’s seriousness and his obvious bitterness will put voters off. But then Mr Foot is an intellectual, and the antithesis of the image-conscious politicians of today, as he himself would happily admit. ‘The age of the agitators has gone,’ he wrote in 1965, ‘and that of bureaucrats, political technicians and public relations officers has succeeded.’ By now, Mr Foot is tired and keen to finish our interview. ‘I’m going to have to throw you out, I’m afraid,’ he says, firmly but politely. As I gather my notes, he thoughtfully gives me a book of his essays to take with me, before walking me to the front door. John Reynolds is a freelance writer based in Ireland. Michael Foot’s and Alison Highet’s biography of Mr Foot’s father, Isaac, published by Politico’s, goes on sale on 18 September. So, politically astute, and still helping to compile a biography. Whilst Footy is clearly weakening, I don't think he'll die this year, with v. little mention of his "supposed" ill-health. I think he'll outlive Iain yet.

Yes. A very quick and sudden change of health fortunes for ol' Mally. After annoying the whole of the Tongalese population, maybe DL could aim for enraging the Samoan bunch

Giap is 95 Read past the wankfest, and he seems - and looks - to still be quite healthy. He's certainly still actively involved in Vietnamese politics & military issues. For a slightly more balanced report and picture: Giap 95 or here I think it's important, as we throw candidates in for DL, DDP & CPDP, to possibly think about some candidates who are - possibly likely to carry on for a while, despite their great age.

Arise Dame Jane..... Of course, going by her and Wank Wank's comments, she should turn it down if it comes to that as she hates publicity of any kind.... Oh yes... she really detests it VT, I missed your comment. No, I have no problem with JT raising money for charity, I have no problem with what she does, the problem is IF she's a fake, then she's got all this publicity, solely for having "terminal" cancer. There are many other fine individuals up & down the globe, doing far more and raising far more, and would love an iota of "publicity shy" Tomlinson's news coverage, but they won't get it as they're not terminally ill. That's the sticking point - the publicity and using that angle to raise her profile - IF she's faking. So far in my Tomlinson challenge, two weeks in - still alive.

Could be a South Pacific Royal Double Bill: King Malietoa of Samoa unable to attend funeral on doctors orders. hmmm....