November was a pretty slow month for celebrity deaths.
On the 4th prolific paperback producer Michael Crichton passed away at the age of 66. His legacies include the science fiction classic Westworld, the story of an amusement park where things go horribly wrong. And science fiction classic Jurassic Park, the story of an amusement park where things go . . . wait a minute.
On the 9th Jayden Federline (aka Britney Baby II) was admitted to hospital suffering a “bad reaction” to “something” he “ingested”. Uh-huh. It turned out he was fine. Sorry, Shannon.
On the 10th legendary mathematician Kiyoshi Itō died of respiratory failure at the age of 93. This guy has a whole branch of calculus named after him which enables analysis of complicated stochastic processes like Brownian motion. This is incredibly useful in financial mathematics, but most importantly it’s one of the main components of Douglas Adams' Infinite Improbability Drive.
The 12th saw the death of Mitch Mitchell, original drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. As a kind of anti-tribute to Spinal Tap and their disposable drummers, he was the last to go.
Finally, on the 29th we farewelled Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who won an award for Norway the Sydney Opera House. There is no truth to the rumour that his funeral will be delayed because of cost overruns and poor planning.
Well, that’s it for November and the scores remain as they were last month:
Spoon 17 Kate 16
There’s only one month to go for the 2008 competition, and unless something big happens it looks like it might be Spoon’s year.
But it is the silly season, so it’s not over yet.
See, I thought this competition would be morbid, but here I am hoping that no one dies this month.
ReplyDeleteAnd, at some stage, I changed from being Spoon to being Rob. I'm happy with either, I suppose.
ReplyDelete