Apolyton Celebrity Dead Pool 2009

[OzzyKP]

I added the leaderboard to the first post too.

[embalmer42]

I was actually trolling you as I thought you started a thread opposing her release. My memory is obviously failing me in my old age.

Luckily for you, it's gone so low it can't get any worse so you always have that going for you.

[Wezil]

Luckily for you, it's gone so low it can't get any worse so you always have that going for you.

Laugh it up chuckles. You apparently missed the jab I took at you in another thread.

[Winston]

Hey, go easy on embalmer42. He's by far my favourite contestant of this pool.

[Lord Avalon]

I'm still tied with embalmer

[embalmer42]

Hey, go easy on embalmer42. He's by far my favourite contestant of this pool.

Lord Avalon - I do what I can.

wezil - Sorry, but I'm not going to waste time looking through all the threads you've spammed - I mean, posted comments in (I was going to say "intelligent comments" but you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear after all ); provide proof of this supposed jab or you're no better than your pal McGuinty.

[SlowwHand]

The Hell Hound is still on my trail.

[Wezil]

Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist, language expert and former White House speechwriter William Safire died Sunday, his assistant said. He was 79.

Safire had been diagnosed with cancer and died a hospice in Maryland, said his assistant, Rosemary Shields. She declined to specify the type of cancer Safire had or say when he had been diagnosed.

Safire spent more than 30 years writing on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. In his “On Language” column in The New York Times Magazine and 15 books, Safire traced the origins of words and everyday phrases such as “straw-man,” “under the bus” and “the proof is in the pudding.”

During 32 years on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, Safire penned more than 3,000 columns, aggressively defending civil liberties and Israel while tangling with political figures. Bill Clinton famously wanted to punch the curmudgeonly columnist in the nose after Safire called his wife “a congenital liar.”

“Not only was he brilliant in language and assessing the nuances of politics, he was a kind and funny boss who gave lots of credit to others,” Shields said.

In his “On Language” column in The New York Times Magazine and 15 books, Safire eruditely traced the origins of words and everyday phrases such as “straw-man,” “under the bus” and “the proof is in the pudding.”

And as a speechwriter in the Nixon White House, Safire penned Vice President Spiro Agnew's famous phrase, “nattering nabobs of negativism,” a tounge-in-cheek alliteration that Safire claimed was directed not at the press but Vietnam defeatists.

Safire was also wrote several novels and served as chairman of the Dana Foundation, a philanthropy that supports brain science, immunology and arts education.

Along with George Will and William F. Buckley Jr., Safire's smooth prose helped make conservatism respectable in the 1970s, paving the way for the Reagan Revolution. A pioneer of opinionated reporting, Safire's columns were often filled with sources from Washington and the Middle East, making them a must-read for Beltway insiders.

In his 1999 book “Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy,” Eric Alterman called Safire an institution unto himself.

“Few insiders doubt that William Safire is the most influential and respected pundit alive,” Alterman wrote.

His scathing columns on the Carter White House budget director Bert Lance's financial affairs won him the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1978; in 1995 Safire was named to the Pulitzer board.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/columnist-william-safire-dead-at-79/article1303183/

[-Jrabbit]

A brilliant thinker with a sharp wit.
RIP.

[Guynemer]

[SlowwHand]

RIP, Lucy.

Lucy of `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' fame dies

11:49 AM CDT on Monday, September 28, 2009

Associated Press
LONDON — Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.

Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.

Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.

Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

At the time, John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," a landmark album released to worldwide acclaim in 1967.

The elder Lennon seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, replete with haunting images of "newspaper taxis" and a "girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Rock music critics thought the song's title was a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always claimed the phrase came from his son, not from a desire to spell out the initials LSD in code.

Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents' divorce, but they were reunited in recent years when Julian Lennon, who lives in France, tried to help her cope with the disease.

He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.

"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.

She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," she told the Associated Press in June. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age.

The list includes John Lennon, gunned down at age 40, manager Brian Epstein, who died of a drug overdose when he was 32, and original band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage at 21.

A spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, said they were "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.

Angie Davidson, a lupus sufferer who is campaign director of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, said Vodden was "a real fighter" who had worked behind the scenes to support efforts to combat the disease.

"It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long," said Davidson.

[Wezil]

Lupus is a serious disease.

[SlowwHand]

Yes, it is.

[Wezil]

Page 4 bump...

Our celebs have found a way to beat the DP.

Yes, it is.

Read what I wrote again.

[Winston]

Page 4!?

Not to blow my own horn, but I'm on page 13