Phantom

The Knack's year just got worse as, according to his personal website, drummer Bruce Gary has died. "It's never gonna stop, it's gonna spread, and soon I'm dead Ma-ma- my-y-y-y lymphoma" Awful, just awful

Today's the day that Sir Bobby has his operation to remove the tumour. Hoping for some news later this evening or tomorrow to find out if it was a success or not.

The Knack's year just got worse as, according to his personal website, drummer Bruce Gary has died. It's also on the band's official website too

Robert Hoffman one of the co-founders of National Lampoon has died at the age of 59

There's also Michael Birt, who is also the brother of Sir John Birt (former director general of the BBC) Actually I have an original photo by Michael Birt from a photo shoot he did with Quinten Tarantino

I wonder if there's something in it with being born in August or September, as the 3 oldest living people in the world have their birthdays within the space of a couple of weeks

There's a very bored person out there today. On Wikipedia this morning, you'll see the following I can well believe that a porn actress would commit suicide as I believe that a large number of the female cast of Debbie Does Dallas ended their lives in that way, mostly by an overdose.

I guess I'd be reluctant to part with any cash to someone who is terminally ill with cancer and cycling over 4000 miles. most people when they're that ill can barely walk a couple of miles.

I did some digging around because of the sheer lack of news articles that were about Tariq and this was the latest I could really find. It's dated from July 26th Saddam Henchman Tariq Aziz Crying the Blues to US Supreme Court by Jim Kouri, CPP Former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz has retained a US attorney, Giovanni Di Stefano, who has made an application to the United States Supreme Court and stated that he "places the US on notice of a Habeas Corpus Application to the United States Supreme Court." A Writ of Habeas Corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so that the petitioner's case may be heard. Di Stefano said the question presented to the United States Supreme Court will be: "Is the turning over of Petitioner Tariq Aziz to an authority that may reasonably be expected to violate his rights to a fair trial, due process of law, and his right to life in accordance with the law?" In essence, Di Stefano is questioning the legitimacy of the Iraqi war crimes trials for its former dictator Saddam Hussein and key officials of his brutal government. The United States Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to hear urgent cases and Aziz's US attorney claims he would be filing with the US Supreme Court shortly. In a letter sent to Mr. Di Stefano by Tariq Aziz’s Iraqi lawyer Badie Izzat, the letter claims that Tariq Aziz has been on hunger strike for over ten days and "demands to be granted his basic rights, which are provided for him by Iraqi and international law." Mr. Di Stefano confirmed he called upon the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association for support as it did in the case involving Guantanamo detainees. Tariq Aziz was the voice of the Saddam Hussein regime as its long-time foreign minister. He began to rise through the ranks of Iraqi politics after the Baath Party came to power in 1968. He later served as a member of the Regional Command, and in 1977 became a ranking official with Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council. In 1979, Aziz was named Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, where his primary role was to act as a diplomat and to explain Iraq's policies to the world. In 1980, during Iraq's war with Iran he survived an Iranian-backed assassination attempt. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Tariq Aziz served as the international spokesman in support of the military action, saying the move was justified because Kuwait's increased oil production was dampening Iraqi oil revenues. He has condemned Arab states for their subservience to the United States. Aziz served as an official for a government that routinely killed, maimed and tortured its own citizens. Observers believe that the comparison of Aziz to terrorist "foot soldiers" and "true believers" being held at Guantanamo Bay is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Aziz was part of the Saddam coverup of mass murder, weapons of mass destruction programs, and several legal scholars believe he will be denied his day before the US Supreme Court, or they may hear the case and rule against him. But that analysis may be in error, considering recent Supreme Court rulings that appear to disregard black letter law such as the Geneva Conventions. The justices on the SCOTUS have extended the right to counsel to terrorists and illegal combatants and it extended the protections of the Geneva Conventions in violation of provisions that stipulate the captured persons must be wearing uniforms or insignia that are visible from reasonable distances; they must be part of a nation-state's military or paramilitary; and they must bear arms openly, not concealed. Yet the court ruled otherwise. So it's not inconceivable that the justices -- especially the liberal-left ones -- will hear Aziz's case and even rule in his favor.

Norman Wisdom Patrick Moore to name a couple more Oh and Gerry Marsden had several.... is that the door? excuse me please!!

For sometime now I've suspected that my missus may be having a bit on the side. You know the sort of thing. The phone rings, I answer, someone hangs up. Recently shes started going out 'with the girls' a lot and when I ask which girls it's always "Just some friends from work, you don't know them". She always used to phone me for the taxi outside to let her in. but now she always calls while standing outside the gate as if she has just got out of a car around the corner. The other day I picked up her mobile, just to see what time it was, and she went mental, screaming at me that I should never touch her phone again and why was I checking up on her. Anyway, I have never approached the subject with her. I kind of think deep down I don't really want to know the truth. But then last night she went out again and I decided that I would check up on her. I hid behind my car which I knew would give me a good view of the whole street so I could see which car she got out of on her return. It was whilst I crouched behind my car that I noticed rust around my rear wheel arch. Do you think I Should take it into a body repair shop or should I buy some stuff from Halfords and try to repair it myself?

Too bad it was a female client, otherwise there would have been a decent plethora of "unfortunately for the 102-year-old, that was all that was raised" jokes. Would have been amusing if the old dear was asked to remove the strippers g-string with her teeth and she fished them out of a glass of water

Not exactly the world's oldest, but this would have raised a few eyebrows Stripper for 102nd birthday party

Reminds me of a commercial with Yogi Berra. Cash is just as good as money! Is Yogi still with us Japser? Yogi Berra is still with us, turned 81 on May 12th

I still have no idea who he is

Happy Birthday HCW

Andre Previn (77) who has been mentioned before has divorced his wife Anne-Sophie Mutter

For some reason the news has been pretty quiet about Aziz, I tried yesterday to find a latest story about him, but all I could find was a photo from a couple of months back where he looked a bit pale. To be honest I was surprised that a new trial had started up, I though the one that ended a couple of weeks ago and the verdict was to be delivered some time in October was the end of it for a while. I'm at work at the moment so when I next get a spare 5 minutes, I'll have a dig around to see if I can find anything

Latest on the Saddam trial

Shrek is like a one hit wonder. All the best movies seem to be overplayed' I enjoyed Shrek 2, not sure how the next sequel will go down though

She seems to be doing fine at the moment and is to record the voice of the character Queen Lillian, for Shrek the Third which is due out next year

yes but is he going to die any time soonm?Thats all that matters! Was Arthur Edwards the one who snapped Queen Liz picking her nose? or am I thinking of another photographer?

In that case he'll probably drop dead by the end of the year

I believe Annie Knight from Aberdeen is Britain's oldest person at the moment. she turned 111 on June 6th

Ernest Gallo isn't the nicest person in that line of business. I believe he also prevented his youngest brother from using the family name to market a line of cheeses. Which I have to confess isn't such a bad idea. I'm no fan of American wines and even less of a fan of American cheeses