POPE BEYOND HOPE
April went up in (white) smoke to bring us the death of the year in His Holiness Pope Francis. As Pope Benedict stepped down amidst a torrent of paedo scandals, the conclave settled on the Jesuit cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Naming himself after Francis of Assisi was a sign of things to come, with a humble papacy that emphasised helping the poor and remembering who Jesus was. He still had usual Pope-y flaws, but at the end of the day he pushed THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in a less bigoted direction, which stands out all the more against whatever the hell is happening in the US and UK. On the Drop 40 these past two years as his declining health became more apparent, he miraculously pulled through a lengthy hospital stay earlier this year only to forever designate JD Vance the Murrican Liz Truss.
Jean Marsh was a TV stalwart for decades most noted as co-creator of Upstairs, Downstairs, where she portrayed the maid Rose Buck. Her career also included spots in Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone, and The Saint, and occasional film roles such as The Eagle Has Landed and Frenzy. She was the only Upstairs, Downstairs original to return for the short-lived revival. Ruth Buzzi was a US TV comedy regular best known as an everpresent of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Priscilla Pointer was a recurring presence on Dallas as Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, and Will Hutchins featured in the Western Sugarfoot.
If only Steve “Mongo” McMichael had a visit from Vance, what with his wife hellbent on extending his corpselike state for so long you wondered if Mongo would ever lose the game of life. Before all that, McMichael was a popular NFL defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears and a pro wrestler as part of the “Four Horsemen” squad. Other sports deaths were Rochdale midfielder Joe Thompson, F1 racer Jochen Mass and Aston Villa footballer Peter McParland.
Music lost Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, Aussie punk drummer James Baker, Eurovision-friendly Clodagh Rodgers, and the Alarm’s Mike Peters, whose on-and-off battle with lymphoma spanned nearly half his life. Wink Martindale also was a surprise chartmaker in the late 50s with “Deck of Cards”, though anyone who heard it will quickly understand why he’s better known as a game show host.
Mario Vargas Llosa was one of the preeminent authors of the Latin American Boom and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led Malaysia after the immortal Mahathir Mohamad, with his reformist message initially popular before he was stymied by economic turmoil. Inah Canabarro Lucas relinquished the world’s oldest person title, designating Ethel Caterham the first Brit titleholder in decades. And it feels like we lose an old Nazi every update, this one’s Gregor Formanek.