Phantom

Am I alone in never having heard of him? Almost as famous as the Queen? Are you kidding? Which queen? Freddie Mercury? Danny La Rue? Julian Clary? Russell Grant?.....

The Norwich Evening News have it on their website damn TF beat me to it

Not sure what it is, but people seem to die in troves around Easter

Pio Leyva singer with the Buena Vista Social Club has died of a heart attack at the age of 88

this is an excellent thread, and postings like the guy who got stabbed in the back by his new wife eaten by a crocodile are a good example why That's basically the thin line between "world famous" and "world renowned" Someone might not necessarily be constantly in the news or the public limelight, but in their own circles they could be classed as famous.

I've got Smyslov and Bronstein on my DDP team, but Spassky seems another good candidate Dead Grandmaster. regards, Hein Smyslov is an excellent choice, He'll be 85 on Friday

He'll be 92 in September, but if he's recently doing push-ups in that manner, it goes to show that he's as fit as a fiddle and not about to keel over anytime soon. Possibly one to watch in the next few years though.

Not a very well known player, but a strong player none-the-less. He didn't gain worldwide celebrity status as players such as Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov or the very charismatic Kasparov. He reached his pinnacle during the late 50s and early 60s and was ranked as high as 6th in the world by 1960 Had he been more consitant with his games, he could have made it as World Chess Champion. Such a shame that's the 2nd chess player to have died within the space of a month Not far behind him though is Boris Spassky who will be 70 next January, however for the past 30 years, Spassky has been living comfortably in France

Are you in a cult Phantom? not in a cult, Christopher writes fantasy spoofs. Practical Demonkeeping is about a guy called Travis who summons a demon called Catch from hell who is invisible to all but Travis. Except when he eats people, then he triples in size. Also the demon's favourite movie is The Wizard of Oz. I understand the book was written, obviously I asked if you yourself was in a cult? Demons and cults both were born in the same tree. But overall sounds like a good book. The Wizard of Oz was always a very strange movie to me. I always seem to think theres something wrong with it. Almost like the movie is evil? Everything is just too colerful. To gather then many muchkins at the same time also influences me to understand. Or perhaps not the movie itself but the script. The writer is improvising that Dorethy had a dream of the dark angels - A world darker then our own. It's very much the same sort of humour as Robert Rankin "A Dog Called Demolition" , "East of Ealing", "Raiders of the Lost Car Park" etc.

Are you in a cult Phantom? not in a cult, Christopher Moore writes fantasy spoofs. Practical Demonkeeping is about a guy called Travis who summons a demon called Catch from hell who is invisible to all but Travis. Except when he eats people, then he triples in size. Also the demon's favourite movie is The Wizard of Oz.

Just finished reading "Practical Demonkeeping" by Christopher Moore

Are you sure you're not my brother-in-law?

It's definitely from March 2004, it's a copy of this BBC article Damn, I was starting to get my hopes up a little there.

according to the site it was updated on Sunday 19th March so it could be a bit misleading if it's referring to an earlier performance

Sir Norman bids farewell to the stage

Good find OoO! It's reassuring to see that one of my DDP Candidates might be, you know, actually dying. I can't tell much from the picture as to his health, but I'd say for 2000 pounds a week, just let the bugger go home and die if he wants. He can't walk or talk, so everyone wins. Although I have no idea what 2000 pounds is in dollars. Is it a lot? I honestly have no idea why they're bothering to keep him behind bars. He might be aware of his surroundings but he's unlikely to reoffend. OK so he's behind bars for his part in a heist over 40 years ago, but it's daylight robbery that we're using tax payers money to keep him in prison and still keep him alive. So even since he's been recaptured, he's still stealing from your average person on the street

SNP Poltician Margaret Ewing dies at the age of 60 from breast cancer

Pardon my being a Canucklehead, but what does it mean to be given the freedom of a town? The possession of the rights and privileges of a freeman of the city; formerly often, and now occasionally, conferred on one not a resident, as a mark of honorary distinction for public services. I remember one person telling me that they were once listed as having the freedom of the City of London. When I looked up the priviliges, apparently they were permitted to lead their cattle over London Bridge

what goes "Mark! Mark! Mark!"? A dog with a hair-lip.

No need for them to work in shifts. They put in the hours as and when they can and contribute a lot to the forums. They work the site around their own personal commitments. If you start giving them set times when they should be moderating, it kills the fun for them too.

According to this ... "Root was in the lead dugout with the tour guide when a crocodile leaped out of the river, grabbed the UW physician and disappeared back under the water. Root was not seen again." Hmmm, sounds dubious. Since when do crocodiles leap, and there was no evidence of any clothing or equipment being recovered? If I were the Limpopo River DA I'd be having words with "new" wife Rita O'Boyle. I reckon she stabbed him, had the guides bury the corpse, and paid them off. Saw something just like it on an episode of Poirot. This news article has details about a croc leaping to attack someone

Allegedly, Mike Biggs gave permission for the photos to be published, however one paragraph that strikes me as being a bit odd is this one "Mike did not take the pictures or know how we got them. But he hopes they will persuade the authorities to show mercy."

Karma can be very fast these days; since I posted those two 'jokes' about 10 mins ago the company I work for has gone into administration... Big Issue anyone? TLC, Sorry to hear that, hope all goes well with finding a new job. Having been made redundant twice in the past, I can understand what you're going through.

I'd have to dig around, but I heard that what with the movie version of Dallas being filmed soon, Hagman is sort of coaching the actor who will be playing J.R. Ewing

The only biog I could find is this one, old ernie had a traumatic early life and is estranged from one of his brothers, all over money. TF, Thanks, that was pretty much the same one I found when doing a search on him. Well it was more for details on his brother Julio that I was looking for at the time, until discovering that he had died in 1993. Also I wanted to read up a bit more on the history but even the Gallo website doesn't have much of a detailed history unless you want to part with hard earned cash and by their biography.