OBITUARIES

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Re: OBITUARIES

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Universal praise for Niki yesterday, a much loved man....
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Re: OBITUARIES

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Tam, the last male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia has died. A female called Iman is now the only remaining member of the species in that country. After decades of deforestation and poaching, it's now thought only 30 to 100 Sumatran rhinos remain in the wild, most on the nearby island of Sumatra.

Spare a thought also for puffins. About 9000 puffins and other seabirds died within a few months in Alaska due to rising sea temperatures having caused fish to migrate elsewhere.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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I noted the Puffins in Climate Change Tiz. Lovely little birds.....
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Re: OBITUARIES

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Christopher Booker one of the founders of Private Eye has died.

"Parliamentary sketchwriter Quentin Letts described Booker as “magnificently bloody-minded and non-compliant”.

I think I might settle for that myself. :smile:
Last edited by Tripps on 04 Jul 2019, 10:46, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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Stanley wrote: 31 May 2019, 03:20 I noted the Puffins in Climate Change Tiz. Lovely little birds.....
National bird but on the menu in Iceland.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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I heard Ian on Today talking about Christopher. A very affectionate tribute to a man who founded a good institution. I think he would still approve what they are doing and how they do it.....
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Re: OBITUARIES

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I got news yesterday from my friend Tony's wife, they live on Wellhouse Street, that he went into hospital 14 days ago, had a massive heart attack and died. Another old face gone and I feel very sorry for his wife who is not in the best of health. Inevitable I know but very sad......
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Re: OBITUARIES

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John McCririckthe legendary racecourse pundit has died. Not everyone's 'cup of tea' to put it mildly, but I shall miss him. His excellent book on gambling is in my collection. I shall dip into it it again tonight.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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I saw the report. He always reminded me of Prince Monolulu....
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Re: OBITUARIES

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His obit makes a fascinating story - thanks for for posting it Bodger.
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Racing circles have been full of tributes to 'Big Mac' They seem to agree that he was outrageous and controversial because that was his 'unique selling point' and how he made a living for a long time. His attitude to women didn't fit into the modern PC mode, but here is what the women who worked with him for many years have said.

Tanya Stevenson, John McCririck’s sidekick on Channel 4 Racing in the betting ring for 15 years, enjoyed every minute of her time working alongside someone she described as her “hero”. The pair were an unlikely double act, but Stevenson revealed she shared lots of interests with McCririck, who has died at the age of 79.

“It’s terrible, very sad news indeed,” she said. “I loved him dearly – I worked with one of my heroes and I was so lucky. “I worked with him for 15 years and the majority of that time was on air alongside him. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been able to do that. He was the one who encouraged me the whole time with his support.

“We hit it off from the start. We both loved our sport, we both loved the betting industry. Unfortunately I’m Arsenal and he was Newcastle. We both loved NFL, we both loved cricket. He was even sweet enough to take me to cricket a couple of times. He was an absolute hero.
“It was an absolute privilege to say I worked alongside him. We had so many funny times.”

Stevenson revealed the general public did not know the “real” McCririck.
“I don’t think people appreciated or saw the real side of him, the things he did for charity,” she told PA. “He based his persona on trying to be a devil’s advocate and villain to incite discussions and debate, and then they all picked him out for picking the wrong side.
“People would say, ‘how on earth do you work with him’ and I would say, ‘how on earth did he work with me’. I was so lucky. “Bless him. He will be missed.”

Alice Plunkett was another female colleague who had the utmost respect for McCririck.
“I worked with John for 20 years. I felt extremely privileged, for when I joined Channel 4 Racing they had such an iconic team. They revolutionised racing. At that point it had been very straitlaced with the BBC,” she said.

“John was just frustratingly brilliant. Everybody always wanted me to say I didn’t like him, but I loved him very dearly. “He called me the ‘saucy minx’. I was a young upstart and he always said to me to be as rude as I liked on screen as that’s what people want.
“Everything he did on screen he did with a real twinkle and with kindness behind it.

“He was just a genuine supporter of young people, women – weirdly. What people saw and what he actually was were a long away apart. He was great to Tanya, he was great to me and I’ll always be so grateful as to how he looked after me when I started out and knew nothing.

“He was a great journalist. He never, ever came to work unprepared. He was such a worker. All that flap and nonsense was one thing, but he turned up every day with so much background work. “He knew exactly what was going on. In the end he probably became a caricature of himself. The (Celebrity) Big Brother stuff didn’t do him any favours, but at heart was a brilliant journalist. “He was a consummate professional and passionate about racing. “He was ahead of his time. People have tried to copy him but no one has had the class and style to do it the way he did.

“I had the utmost respect for him and the Booby (his wife, Jenny), who made him so single-minded.”
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Re: OBITUARIES

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So sorry to see that Richard Hills has died. He and I did a lot of good stuff together and we still occasionally corresponded. He was a good man and universally respected. If I remember right he married late in life and I remember pulling his leg unmercifully about it..... He had a great interest in Ellenroad.
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Andrea Camilleri author of the Montalbano novels - which have relieved the boredom of Saturday night TV for me, on many occasions, has died.

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I saw that report David, a good age!
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The curiously named Barrington Pheloung has died.

Composer of the theme tune for Inspector -- --- .-. ... .

I knew almost nothing about him until today - I'd always vaguely assumed he was part Cambodian or some such. Seems not. Still beats the modern 'dramas' for me though.
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Thanks David, I'd missed that one......
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Re: OBITUARIES

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Elizabeth `Betty' Killick, engineer, died on 7th July 2019. I've only seen one obit and that's in The Times and not available online without a subscription. She was born in 1924 and did important engineering development for the Royal Navy, much of it secret. She rose to a senior position and was highly regarded by other engineers. There is a Wikipedia page for her here: LINK but, judging from the obit in The Times, it doesn't do her justice. She is also mentioned on page 10 of this Anniversary issue of The Engineer: LINK
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Re: OBITUARIES

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A macabre way of touting for registrations..... I wonder if this is the future for news eventually in the Brave New World.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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`Dorothy Olsen, a Pioneering Pilot in World War II, Dies at 103' LINK
`...Transporting and testing the latest models, towing targets and transferring captured enemy planes, the WASPs collectively flew an estimated 60 million miles from 1942 to 1944. Thirty-eight died in accidents during training or on duty. From her base in Long Beach, Calif., Mrs. Olsen flew 61 missions for the Sixth Ferry Group in nearly two dozen models, including P-38s, P-51s and B-17s. She flew them to West Coast airfields to be deployed in the Pacific, or to Newark to be deployed in Europe....'
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Never heard of her. What a woman!
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Re: OBITUARIES

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She outlived our Spitfire girl Mary Ellis who in the ATA flew over a thousand sorties in in 76 different types. She ferried everything from single engined fighters, multi engined bombers (solo) and continued in the RAF after the war ferrying the first jet aircraft. She was the first woman to fly the Gloucester Meteor. All remarkable women.
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Yes, Stanley put this link on OG about Mary Ellis in July 2018: LINK

One thing missed in the NYT obit but mentioned in The Times was that Olsen enjoyed partying and she always carried a pair of expensive high heel shoes in the cockpit so she could go dancing wherever she landed. Some of her flying was deliberately dangerous and she was known for buzzing not just airfields but railway trains and even Mid-west farmers on their tractors. They probably should have let her go into action against the Luftwaffe - she'd have been a fighter ace! :smile:
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I'd forgotten that Tiz.... So much for my memory!

Peter Fonda has died. See THIS BBC obituary.
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Re: OBITUARIES

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`Tetra Pak billionaire Hans Rausing dies at 93' LINK
Although the Rausing family now gets criticised for their multilayered unrecycable Tetra Brik packaging it was an amazing product 60 or more years ago when it was first developed. It provided a much lighter form of packaging for liquids, both food and pharmaceutical, and dramatically cut the costs of transporting these goods. Tetra Pak was also a leader in the development of aseptic processing for foods and pharmaceuticals.

Mrs Tiz and I were in Lund, Sweden, in 1983 where Hans Rausing's father, Ruben, lived. We happened to be there when Ruben's funeral took place. He was highly respected in Sweden and especially in Lund. The streets were packed with people on that day for the funeral procession.
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