RIP thread

[Arthur Crabtree]

Bill Oddie, comedian and birder, aged 85.

[Durhamfootman]

the original Grandmaster of the ancient Lancastrian martial art of Ecky Thump

[Arthur Crabtree]

From Rochdale, though Mike Harding was the Rochdale Cowboy.

[Durhamfootman]

and now the Zippy puppeteer.... Ronnie le Drew, 78

He was President of the British Puppet Guild, worked on Labyrinth, the Muppet films, Little Shop of Horrors, and he was Sweep too

[Arthur Crabtree]

Glen Hansard, aged 56. Songwriter/actor of Irish screen musical, Once.

[sussexpob]

Glen Hansard, aged 56. Songwriter/actor of Irish screen musical, Once.

And of course the group the Frames..... motorbike accident. Very sad. A talented musician, and seemingly great all-round guy.... 56!!

[Arthur Crabtree]

And support role in the Commitments.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Gosh, didn't realise Markéta Irglová was 19 when she was in Once.

[GarlicJam]

Glen Hansard, aged 56. Songwriter/actor of Irish screen musical, Once.

I stumbled onto this one night watching tellie.

Very enjoyable film, with some good songs. They had a stage show of it touring Aus recently.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Quality film. Love the soundtrack, especially If You Want Me, though that's a Markéta Irglová song.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Unflappable media adored Italy/Milan defender Franco Baresi, aged 66.

[sussexpob]

Unflappable media adored Italy/Milan defender Franco Baresi, aged 66.

Is this definitely true, because there was an internet hoax a couple of days ago claiming he'd died.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I read about that, but his old club have announced this. The BBC has a reputation for waiting on stories until they are checked. Obviously though I have no info...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, aged 43. Died in avalanche in Pakistan.

[sussexpob]

Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, aged 43. Died in avalanche in Pakistan.

I would like to say that Purja is a brilliant mountaineer, but his claim to have summitted Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in under 2.5 days is unbelievable in the realms of fiction, let alone reality. Even taking into account the fact that you can attack Lhotse from Everest Camp IV without needing to descend, you would still be looking at earth shattering, record pace on all three mountains being maintained over a period of about 3 times what anyone else has ever managed in each isolated speed ascent, and you would be spending so much time in the death zone, even if you were somehow impervious to extreme exhaustion or severe cognitive decline, which you would not because even at sea level 60 hours without sleep doing nothing would lead to severe decline let alone severe hypoxia involved, spending that much time at high altitudes would lead to catabolism of your muscle mass, and you would start to lose pace and strength. And the order he did would induce the most severe physical exhaustion as the technical challenge increased. And how did he get from EBC to Makalu? Did he teleport?

He claims he climbed Annapurna and Kanchenjunga in the days before too, which are extremely difficult mountains to climb. The idea he could do 5 in 12 days is beyond comprehension.... many who claimed to do things like this had their records disputed or unacknowledged.

Claims like this start to make you wonder how truthful other claims are.... and history tells you they tend to be BS in the end.