Ewing’s the name, oil’s my game!
And so we bid farewell to Larry Hagman who has died today at the age of 81. To most of us he will always be JR Ewing, the lovable rogue he spent 13 years portraying in the TV drama Dallas. As the most scheming oil tycoon in town, JR in his Stetson became one of the most distinctive faces on television screens across the world. It quickly became one of the network’s top-rated programmes – with its 356 episodes being seen by an estimated 300 million people in 57 countries – and was revived this year.
His forthright biography, Hello Darlin’, detailed his youthful drug-taking exploits and revealed the extent of his 50-year battle with alcoholism. Even on the hardworking set of Dallas, he consumed five bottles of champagne a day for years and was finally diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in 1992. Three years later he had a liver transplant and kept a photo of the organ donor above his mirror. “I say a prayer for him every morning,” he said. Despite this, Hagman continued to drink secretly until a further life-saving operation in 2003 forced him to stop.
I can still remember the furore around the “Who Shot JR?” mystery in 1980. It was one of the most talked about stories of that year with Hagman even being offered £100,000 during a British vacation to reveal the identity of the shooter, but he admitted that neither he nor anyone in the cast knew the answer. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was apparently among the millions worldwide intrigued by the mystery, and a session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the Dallas episode with the answer.
I like to think he is now sitting in his Southfork Ranch in the sky, still wearing his Stetson, and still smiling that slightly sinister smile as he reflects on a full and fascinating life story that was just as dramatic in real life as that which was seen on the screen!
Life in the fast lane!
In the People’s Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on – but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.
This has led to an elderly couple refusing to move as a road is built round their apartment. Luo Baogen and his wife insist on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, China because they believe that the relocation compensation offered by the government is not enough. Now the only building left standing, the five storey block is a strange sight as cars drive around it while the couple remain living inside. To ensure the couple’s safety, adjacent rooms in the building have been left intact but all their neighbours have moved out, according to local media.
The road paved through the Xiazhangyang village leads to the Wenling railway station and is yet to be officially opened. What’s the betting that there will soon be a service station and McDonald’s occupying the ground floor?
and the answer is …
Well of course it’s me! Calista Flockhart was born on 11th November 1964, Demi Moore the 11th November 1962 and me, well I’m a tad older than that!!! Were you right?
Birthday Quiz
Just a bit of fun … I’ll give you the answers tomorrow so no cheating!
Today, November 11th, marks not only my birthday, but those of Demi Moore and Calista Flockhart – but who is the oldest? Take a look at these photos and let me know what your thoughts are:
Best joke of the week!
David Cameron is visiting a Glasgow hospital. He enters a ward full of patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness. He greets one and the patient replies:
“Fair fa your honest sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the puddin race, Aboon them a ye take yer place, Painch, tripe or thairm, As langs my airm.”
Cameron is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient. The next patient responds:
“Some hae meat an canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat an we can eat, So let the Lord be thankit.”
Even more confused he just grins and moves onto the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:
“Wee sleekit, cowerin, timorous beasty, O the panic in thy breasty, Thou needna start awa sae hastie, Wi bickering brattle.”
Now seriously troubled, Cameron turns to the accompanying doctor and asks, “Is this a psychiatric ward?”
“No,” replies the doctor, “this is the serious Burns unit.” BOOM!!!
Just in time for Remembrance Day
As Britain prepares to remember its fallen heroes this weekend, this amazing picture was taken at Blackstone Farm nature reserve in Bewdley, Worcestershire, during a one-week window when the poppies appear in full bloom. It is a little known fact that poppy seeds can lie dormant in soil for more than 80 years before germinating – it’s worth the wait – wear your poppy with pride!
Permission to speak, sir?
Sad news today of the death of the actor Clive Dunn, best known for his role as Lance Corporal Jones in the much-loved series, Dad’s Army. He has passed away at the age of 92 at his home in Portugal. Apparently in recent years he was struggling to see, but his mind was as sharp as ever. In an interview for this month’s edition of Oldie magazine, he was asked what it was like being 92. He replied simply: ‘It’s like being 91.’
I think it is widely known that the actor was actually only 48 when he began playing the doddery pensioner in the BBC comedy in 1968. The series ran until 1977, regularly attracting 18million viewers, and is still repeated to this day. Few know, however, the real wartime service of the man behind bungling Corporal Jones, who saw active service with the 4th Hussars during the Second World War and spent four years as a prisoner of war in Austria.
I grew up with Dad’s Army and Lance Corporal Jones was a favourite of mine – he had all the best lines and several catchphrases that never failed to make me laugh – “Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring, don’t panic”, “They don’t like it up ’em” and “Permission to speak, sir”, whilst always enjoying telling long rambling stories of his wartime heroics but often forgetting whether he was fighting ‘the Bosch’ or ‘the fuzzie-wuzzies’ in Sudan!
Above all, however, what never ceased to crack me up was his complete inability to stand to attention at the same time as the rest of the platoon – always just a beat behind the rest – so sit back and enjoy these clips of a very funny man – RIP Clive Dunn.
Four more years
So the mud-slinging is over for now, in the US at least, with President Barack Obama winning a second term, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney by gaining more than the 270 votes needed to win.
In general that means that Europe will be waking up this morning with a general sigh of relief. Opinion polls have always shown President Obama to be more popular than Governor Romney – but for most governments continuity in Washington is better than a changing of the guard. The US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, as well as the President himself, has been closely involved in discussions on the eurozone. Added to that, the EU is so embroiled in its internal debates on the eurozone crisis that it doesn’t want any external distractions. The EU has also been working closely with the Obama administration on a variety of foreign policy issues – Iran in particular. Even if some of the key personnel change in a second Obama term, the President’s victory means there will be no dramatic change of course for us to deal with.
But what about the loser? What ought to pain Republicans most about Obama’s victory is that 2012 was entirely winnable for them. In European elections over the past few years, voters have thrown out leaders who were in charge during the worst of the financial crisis, whether those leaders deserved the blame or not. That Mitt Romney lost nonetheless is in part a tribute to his own weaknesses as a candidate. The Obama campaign put Romney on the defensive early about his work at Bain Capital, and left him there. The Republican nominee made any number of horrendous gaffes and never found a way to talk about himself or his agenda in a way that middle class voters could relate to.
But even a clumsy candidate might have beaten Obama if he’d played his cards right. Romney is not a right-wing extremist. To win the nomination, though, he had to pretend to be one, recasting himself as “severely conservative” and eschewing the reasonableness that made him a successful, moderate governor of the country’s most liberal state. He had to pass muster with his party’s right-wing base on taxes, immigration, climate change, abortion, and gay rights. Many of his statements on these issues were patently insincere. His pandering to the base made it possible for the Obama campaign to portray him as a right-wing radical from the start of the campaign. According to exit poll results, Romney won men as expected, but lost among women by 11 points—too large a gender gap to be overcome.
So we have President Barack Obama for another 4 years, saying “I have never been more hopeful”.
But perhaps Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times sums it up best: “If we’re lucky, we will find that we elected a different Obama from the one who won four years ago – not just a grayer Obama but a wiser one too.”
Poor Rudolph
Is it me, or does the Christmas fanfare start earlier and earlier each year?
It is still only early November, but casually strolling along Argyll Street in Glasgow yesterday I came across this rather lonely (enormous!) reindeer, stationed outside Debenhams Department Store and the St Enoch Centre. Is he waiting for the stores to provide the presents, and will Santa be along soon to take him on his journey around the world to deliver them? Maybe I’ll pop along on 24th December to check – he’s looking a little sad there at the moment!
Tessa's Blog 