Very sorry to hear about them, Enigma.
My condolences, Enigma.
May they rest in peace.
[quote]A Tongan rugby player, recently married and the father of two young children, died from a heart attack during a French third division match on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Perigueux flanker Feao Latu collapsed just 15 minutes into the top-of-the-table match at Cahors and was pronounced dead in hospital, emergency services said.[/quote]
[quote=“bismarck”][quote]A Tongan rugby player, recently married and the father of two young children, died from a heart attack during a French third division match on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Perigueux flanker Feao Latu collapsed just 15 minutes into the top-of-the-table match at Cahors and was pronounced dead in hospital, emergency services said.[/quote]
Superrugby article[/quote]
is it just that those events are more widely reported now or is there just a large increase in heart attacks amongst professional sportsmen/women??
if the later, can and should we point the finger at roids?
[quote=“dablindfrog”][quote=“bismarck”][quote]A Tongan rugby player, recently married and the father of two young children, died from a heart attack during a French third division match on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Perigueux flanker Feao Latu collapsed just 15 minutes into the top-of-the-table match at Cahors and was pronounced dead in hospital, emergency services said.[/quote]
Superrugby article[/quote]
is it just that those events are more widely reported now or is there just a large increase in heart attacks amongst professional sportsmen/women??
if the later, can and should we point the finger at roids?[/quote]
Professional rugby players don’t use steroids. If tested postive they face a lifetime ban. The individual unions, clubs and the IRB are very strict regarding the use of forbidden substances. Players do get tested at all levels.
Feao Latu is the first professional rugby player I’ve heard of that has collapsed and died of a heart attack at his age. Initial findings are that he had a congenital defect that hadn’t been picked up on before. Just bad luck.
Also, this story hasn’t been widely reported, I came across it on superrugby.co.za which covers all rugby related news.
Feao Latu was also not a very widely known player, coming from Tonga. But to rugby fanatics he was known as a friendly guy, passionate player and good sportsman. He’ll be missed.
[quote=“JMcNeill”]Dia Llewellyn - The Ultimate Playboy
[quote=“Independent”]
He proudly boasted that “in the late Sixties and early Seventies, I was getting through debutantes like a dose of salts”. Although his career as a hard-drinking Casanova started on a negative note – he lost his virginity at Aix-en-Provence university to an older American woman "who smelt so disgusting that it put me off doing it again for several months [/quote]
I wonder what the woman in Aix-en-Provence smelled like. 
Rotten Cheese?
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]Vincent Ford, author of the classic “No Woman, No Cry”.
Died, Sunday Dec. 28th, 2008.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7806778.stm
I have played this song to absolutely everyone I have met.
Including the younglings…
Oh, it resonates, yes it does!
[color=#BF0080]
[i] "cause I remember when we used to sit
In a government yard in Trenchtown,
Observing the 'hypocrites
Mingle with the good people we meet,
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we have lost
Along the way,
In this great future, you can’t forget your past;
So dry your tears, I say.
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry. Eh, yeah!
oh little darlin’, don’t shed no tears:
No, woman, no cry. Eh!"[/i][/color]
Yrie![/quote]
Great song. That was one of the songs we serenaded to our sister house(dorm). I remember putting a lot of emotion into it because there was a girl in the audience who I had a crush on. I was trying to get her attention.
My favorite line: “Oh little darlin’, don’t shed no tears”. That’s the climax, I think.
Shit…I just found out Bernie Mac died in August last year… 
This belongs in 2008, but some idiot locked the topic.
nytimes.com/2009/01/02/books … .html?_r=1
[quote]Donald E. Westlake, Mystery Writer, Is Dead at 75
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: January 1, 2009
Donald E. Westlake, a prolific, award-winning mystery novelist who pounded out more than 100 books and 5 screenplays on manual typewriters during a career of nearly 50 years, died on Wednesday night. He was 75.
Mr. Westlake collapsed as he was headed to New Year’s Eve dinner while on vacation in Mexico, said his wife, Abigail Westlake.
The cause was a heart attack, she said.
Mr. Westlake, considered one of the most successful and versatile mystery writers in the United States, received an Academy Award nomination for a screenplay, three Edgar Awards and the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993.
Since his first novel, “The Mercenaries,” was published by Random House in 1960, Mr. Westlake had written under his own name and several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West. Despite the diversity of pen names, most of his books shared one feature: They were set in New York City, where he was born.
Mr. Westlake used different names in part to combat skepticism over his rapid rate of writing books, sometimes as many as four a year, his friends said.
“In the beginning, people didn’t want to publish more than one book a year by the same author,” said Susan Richman, his publicist at Grand Central Publishing.
Later in his career, Mr. Westlake limited himself to two pen names, each generally focusing on one primary character: He used his own name to write about an unintentionally comical criminal named John Dortmunder, and as Richard Stark wrote a series about an anti-hero and criminal named Parker.
Mr. Westlake occasionally wrote about other characters, such as Burke Devore, the downsized executive turned murderer in “The Ax,” whom The New York Times described in 1997 “as emblematic of his time as George F. Babbitt and Holden Caulfield and Capt. John Yossarian were of theirs.”
The full panoply of Mr. Westlake’s books was a spectacle to behold, his friends said. “We were in his library, this beautiful library surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of titles,” said Laurence Kirshbaum, his agent, “and I realized that every single book was written by Donald Westlake, English-language and foreign-language editions.”
Mr. Westlake’s cinematic style of storytelling, along with his carefully crafted plots and crisp dialogue, translated well on the screen. More than 15 of his books were made into movies. In addition, he wrote a number of screenplays, including “The Grifters,” which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991.
Mr. Westlake wrote seven days a week, his friends said. His productiveness was honed in part by an era in which publishing houses churned out books at a relentless pace. During that time, he also wrote erotic literature, science fiction and westerns.
Mr. Westlake resisted computers and typed his manuscripts on manual typewriters. “They came in perfectly typed,” Mr. Kirshbaum said. “You felt like it was almost written by hand.”
Otto Penzler, a longtime friend of Mr. Westlake’s and the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in TriBeCa, said, “He hated the idea of an electric typewriter because, he said, ‘I don’t want to sit there while I am thinking and have something hum at me.’ ”
Mr. Westlake kept four or five typewriters and cannibalized their parts when any one broke, as the typewriter model was no longer manufactured, his friends said.
“He lived in fear that he wouldn’t have his little portable typewriter,” said Mr. Penzler, who once gave him a similar typewriter that he had found in a secondhand store.
Donald Edwin Westlake was born to Lillian and Albert Westlake on July 12, 1933, in Brooklyn, and was raised in Yonkers and Albany. He attended colleges in New York, but did not graduate. He married Abigail Adams in 1979, and the couple settled in Gallatin, N.Y. He was previously married to Nedra Henderson and Sandra Kalb.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Westlake is survived by four sons, Sean Westlake, Steven Westlake, Paul Westlake and Tod Westlake; two stepdaughters, Adrienne Adams and Katherine Adams; a stepson, Patrick Adams; a sister, Virginia VanDermark; and four grandchildren.
Mr. Westlake was productive until his death. His next novel, “Get Real,” is scheduled for release in April.[/quote]
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
nytimes.com/2009/01/17/arts/ … ml?_r=1&hp[/quote] 
but you should have eaten more mushrooms.
The only person who ever inspired a young Buttercup to get out her Crayolas. I really loved this guy’s show when I was a kid.
RIP.
[quote=“Buttercup”]Morph Papa!
The only person who ever inspired a young Buttercup to get out her Crayolas. I really loved this guy’s show when I was a kid.
RIP.[/quote]
Yeah, I also saw that. Well, at 83, Tony Hart had a good run.
[quote]Children’s TV presenter Tony Hart has died at the age of 83.
Hart appeared on art programmes for nearly 50 years before retiring in 2001 because of health problems. He was most famous for fronting children’s art shows including Take Hart and Hart Beat. Mr Hart’s agent Roc Renals said he died in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He said: "I was for many years his best friend, agent, manager and publicist.
“He suffered two strokes many years ago and his health declined since then.”
Mr Hart served with the 1st Gurkha Rifles and was a supporter of The Gurkha Welfare Trust for many years. Trust Director Colonel William Shuttlewood said he regularly donated pictures to the trust which were auctioned and raised “substantial” amounts for the charity. He said: “I am sorry he has gone. He was a lovely chap and was very keen to make sure we were supported properly. Tony Hart was very quick to recognise his service with the Gurkhas and was an avid supporter of the Gurkha Welfare Trust.”
The trust supports ex-members of the regiment and their families.[/quote]
[quote]
Brazilian Model Dies In Hospital
A Brazilian model whose feet and hands were amputated because of an infection has died. The 20-year-old was twice a finalist in the Brazilian stage of the Miss World contest.
Officials said Mariana Bridi da Costa’s condition deteriorated overnight. She suffered from an infection which forced the amputation of her hands and feet because the flow of oxygen to her limbs was reduced. Ms Bridi da Costa’s feet were amputated last week. Doctors were forced to surgically remove her hands earlier this week.
She is also reported to have had part of her stomach removed as doctors tried to contain internal bleeding. Ms Bridi da Costa fell ill in December and was originally thought to be suffering from kidney stones. But after her condition became worse, she was then diagnosed with a urinary tract infection.
Doctors said the infection was caused by the life-threatening bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is known to be resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics.[/quote]
Sad ending for such a young woman.