Phantom

The report on Channel 5 news which is the local news station here in Minnesota states that Ford was admitted for "medical tests" but apparently Ford's spokesman is not disclosing what the tests actually entail. It's also been reported that it was an appointment made a while ago. Gerald Ford has often visited the Mayo Clinic here in Minneapolis, which incidentally is just a short drive away from me. There have been no reports that Ford has suffered a serious stroke and neither is he in a coma.

I voted for Alfredo, I think Sharon has enough staying power just to avoid croaking first

Candidate for mayor back in 1977, doubt he'll get a mention in the UK Once again, not exactly a near miss. Unless someone voted for him back in the 70s would actually remember who he was You've excelled yourself Iain, and promoted yourself from cretin to buffoon

Ailing Pavarotti Expresses Faith

and she didn't even get a mention in the local papers

ditto from me Mr SC Have a happy birthday

Yep, fell off a ladder at the age of 94. I didn't realise they had sattelite tv in those days

That story would raise more sN-words in the UK than in the US as in the words of Keith from The Office "Fanny over there means your arse... and not your minge" Working in the mortgage department for a bank, we do get a lot of strange names. Although I've only processed a mortage for one "Rapunzel" so far, but my favourite was for a Miss Dorothy Two Bulls

CP. Kirby Puckett was mentioned on the BBC site, but I'll admit he wasn't well known in the UK until he actually dropped dead at the age of 45 from a stroke

knowing my luck, I'll pencil him in and he'll die next week

ok the BBC are reporting that he has pneumonia. I thought he had double pneumonia yesterday either his condition was reduced in that time or news agencies are differing slightly in their reports

Lois January? who the bloody 'ell is she? oh yes, silly me she was the woman holding cat in Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. She was in a fair number of movies in the 30's but I'm not sure many would have heard of her

That was the newspaper article that I read, it was just strange not having heard anything further about it. He does look frail in the photo but not to the extreme where or

I've got a feeling the news will be fairly quiet until later this week when they can state if the medication they're giving him has a little time to work, or make things worse. If he wasn't a former world leader, the doctors would have given up on him ages ago. Sad thing is, even if he were to pull through, there would be no way would he ever been the same again or even be able to communicate very well. I think if I was ever in that condition, I'd rather my family just switch everything off rather than prolong things. MPFC, what I meant by the doctors stating "yes, he's still in a coma" was regarding his condition prior to Monday before the sudden hive of activity. When there's no news, we just have to assume that his condition hasn't changed since the last statement. With all that's been happening on the news recently, the potential suicide bombings on UK to US bound flights, the events in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan and Castro having surgery.. news stories are often sidelined until something major happens. You can tell it's a slow news day when CNN will report on anything that's going just to give people something to read. The most pointless news story at the moment must surely be this one "Aussies on lookout for ugly sheep"

John L. Bull self-taught ornithologist, author and research assistant at The American Museum of Natural History, has died at the age of 92. Robert Hebeler, a 49-year-old vice president of the online auction company E-Bay has been killed in a bicycle accident

Must be on a few dead pool teams with that high a profile. Although at only 69 I wasn't expecting Lacy to depart for a few more years myself.. Just in... Chet Atkisson a retired Electrical Estimator from Phoenix, Arizona has died

Whatever happened to the appeal he was making earlier in the year? I saw the initial photos and the comment made by his son, then everything just went quiet

Or failing that, Monday was the only day recently that there was any change in his condition. Makes no sense each day just putting forward the statement, "yes, he's still in a coma"

Faas Wilkes only seems to get a mention on the website for the Netherlands National team website oh and of course, Wikipedia. So I'd hardly count him as being a "Near Miss"

I could never work out what was so great about Eva Cassiday, ok she had a nice singing voice. But no one had ever heard of her until her parents would appear on GMTV plugging a cd of her songs and playing her version of "Somewhere over the rainbow" over and over again

Hopefull for what? Iain, you appear to be the only person on this site who actually wishes for people to die rather than make an intelligent guess as to when that person will actually die.

That is definitely not a good sign. Hopefully he can hold on for another 4 1/2 months Not sure exactly how severe it is, as there seem to be conflicting reports. Although BBC, CNN and Reuters all state that Sharon's health is declining. The report on Reuters states that Sharon has double pneumonia

Al "the Savage Slav" Hostak who won the World Middlewieght title in 1938 has died at the age of 90 following complications from a stroke

You could go on a shooting spree. People like Michael Ryan was a complete nobody until he decided to walk out on to the streets of Hungerford that day in 1987

Hugo Chavez has been to visit Castro in hospital It doesn't say if he bought him a bunch of grapes though