Tuesday, October 9, 2007

TWID - Man Responsible for Oppression, Degradation and Genocide of an Entire Indigenous Population Day Edition

This Week in Death brings you: This Week in Death! Below are all the notes and news to cover a week's worth of health and death. There are more health notices than a hospital, and more death than Thanksgiving. How is Farrah Fawcett this week? What's the latest on Ronnie Biggs? Which Music or TV persona - whom I have never heard of - died? (Hint: It's Ned Sherrin) In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue; in 2006, the Commissioner's Council went for a dip in the Death Pool.

In honor of Columbus Day, we gave these people blankets to keep them health noticed...

His Ashes Aren't Blowing Anywhere
Weathered folk hero Bob Dylan performed to a full house at the Ryan Center on Sept. 29 - and he was in good company - joined by old pro Elvis Costello and newcomer Amos Lee. Unlike many of his peers, Dylan's still kicking: he's managed not to OD, get assassinated, or die in some other horrible, but legacy-cementing way, which makes him one of the few remaining representatives of his generation of artists.
[The Good 5¢ Cigar]


Sheppard's Voice Shows Up in October as Much as Yankees Do
Bob Sheppard, the voice of the New York Yankees, will miss the club's first-round playoff games with a bronchial infection, ending his string of 121 straight postseason contests behind the public-address microphone. Sheppard, who will turn 97 on Oct. 20, has been the announcer at Yankee Stadium for 57 seasons. He earned the nickname the "Voice of God'' for his unhurried introductions of Yankees players from Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter. "Doctors are monitoring my progress,'' Sheppard said in a statement. "And I am hoping to get back to Yankee Stadium to watch and announce Yankees playoff games long into October.''
[Bloomberg]


I'm Ronnie Biggs, Reminding You Kids that Crime Doesn't Pay... Not Counting the 2.6 million pounds. ♪ The More You Know
Ronnie Biggs apologised yesterday for his role in The Great Train Robbery – and begged to be released from prison so he could die a free man. In a sensational letter to Government officials, the ailing 78-year-old admitted that crime does not pay, and conceded he had wasted his life. Biggs took part in the theft of £2.6million from a mail train in 1963 in which driver Jack Mills was hit over the head. Mr. Mills died seven years later from leukemia, having never recovered from the ordeal. Biggs earned his notoriety following his dramatic escape from Wandsworth Prison in 1965. Then began 30 years on the run in Australia and Brazil before his arrest in May 2001
[Daily Express]

If Our Family Was Ryan O'Neal, We'd Also Search for Alternative Approaches
Actress Farrah Fawcett and the late Coretta Scott King are among the thousands of people who have turned to alternative approaches to cancer treatment when conventional medicine has failed. It's often a last-ditch attempt to find a cure, one that brings the patient into a murky world of offshore clinics and unproven courses of treatment that are scorned by the medical establishment. "I would [tell a patient considering alternative treatment] that they are signing their own death certificate," said Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Department at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Cassileth has not treated Fawcett. "I would say they are wasting time they could otherwise spend happier and with their families."
[ABC News]


Although I think these people may have received smallpox blankets, accidentally...

Oerter in the Court; Dismissed
Al Oerter was destined to become an athlete, although he often wondered what he might have been if not for a chance meeting with a discus. "I could throw a baseball, a football or a golf ball a country mile," Oerter told the Associated Press in an interview last year. "It was just easy to throw anything." The discus great who won gold medals in four straight Olympics to become one of track and field's biggest stars in the 1950s and '60s, died Monday of heart failure, less than two weeks after his 71st birthday.
[ESPN]


The Lesson, As Always: Duke Sucks
U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Virginia, died Saturday after battling breast cancer, her office said. She was 57. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2005, according to a statement from her office, and had a recurrence earlier this year. "Davis had been receiving breast cancer treatment at Duke University and just recently had received positive reports on her condition," the statement said. "However, during the last week Davis' health took a turn for the worse."
[CNN]

Harry Made Quite a Dent Using a Tricky Dick in his Southern Strategy
Harry S. Dent Jr., who helped devise the "Southern strategy" that was crucial to Richard M. Nixon's winning the White House, died on Friday in Columbia, S.C. He was 77. The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease. When President Lyndon B. Johnson championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, some Republican strategists thought their party could reap the votes of white people uneasy with Democrats, or downright hostile to them, for advancing the cause of black people.
[New York Times]


We at TWID Salute our Forebears: TWTWTW
Broadcaster Ned Sherrin, who directed "That Was The Week That Was" news program in the early 1960s, has died of throat cancer Monday, his personal manager said. He was 76. Sherrin was proudest of his work producing and directing the British Broadcasting Corp.'s satirical show, which poked fun at current affairs and packed spoof news items between skits and songs.
[International Herald-Tribune]


This Week Was Somebody's Birthday! Whose Birthday? Some Death Pool Entrants' Birthdays. How Old Are They? 1,2,3... And Never been Kissed By... Death
Happy Birthday to:
October 3: Gore Vidal (82)
October 4: Charlton Heston (83)
October 4: Anne Rice (66)

October 4: Run Run Shaw (100)
... And Many More!!!!!!!!

Were there any points deaths this week? Well, was Columbus really a Sephardic Jew? Actually, no. The Top 5 remain...
1. El Esta Adead - 76 points (6 deaths)
2. The Ex-Parrots - 62.3 points (6 deaths)
3. Kraut's Picks - 60.9 points (8 deaths)
4. Yiz-score - 54.3 points (4 deaths)
5. Struck Down by Yahweh - 53.6 points (6 deaths)


At least we got the day off from work, though...
The Commissioner's Council

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