[Duma]

 

[Jaspersharpe]

I hope Death spoke spoke to him with caps lock on

He did, it's on his Twitter feed. Which is quite lovely actually, if someone dying can be lovely.

[dave]

Anyone know if took the trip to Dignitas? Watched the doc he made in 2012 about assisted dying, was a brilliant doc and very uncomfortable viewing at times. Not one you forget in a hurry. Seemed to anger a lot of religious and pro-life groups, although having watched it I can hardly say is "glorified" suicide. RIP.

[slackline]

Says he died at home in his bed with his cat next to him and close family (site is currently down, presumably due to the amount of traffic).

[Oldmanmatt]

.......

😞

Sam Vimes might be the closest thing to a hero I will ever have.

Havelock, always my favorite politician.

And I've always wondered, is Sloper, Slant?

I hope he lies,

Still and quite.

With a cardboard sign,

Upon which has been scratched,

In an untidy, but firm, scrawl.

"I 'Ain't Dead".

[Muenchener]

 

You couldn't put off the inevitable. Because sooner or later, you reached the place where the inevitable just went and waited.
And this was it.
Fri'it stepped through the glow into a desert. The sky was dark and pocked with large stars, but the black sand that stretched away in to the distance was nevertheless brightly lit.
A desert. After death, a desert. The desert. No hells, yet. Perhaps there was hope.
He remembered a song from his childhood. ... It was a simple little home-made song, terrifying in its simple forlorn repetition:
You have to walk a lonesome desert.
'Where is this place?' he said hoarsely.
THIS IS NO PLACE, said death.
You have to walk it all alone ...
'What is at the end of the desert?'
JUDGEMENT.
There is no one to walk it for you ...
Fri'it stared at the endless, featureless expanse.
'I have to walk it by myself?' he whispered. 'But the song says it's the terrible desert -'
YES. NOW IF YOU WILL EXCUSE ME ...
Death vanished.
Fri'it took a deep breath, purely out of habit ...
Be sensible man. You were a soldier. This is a desert. You crossed a few in your time.
...
A memory stole over him. A desert is what you think it is. And now, you can think clearly.
There were no lies here. All fancies fled away. That's what happened in deserts. It was just you, and what you believed.
What have I always believed?
That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, and not according to any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, in the end, more or less turn out alright

Which fictional character would you most want have on your side in a fight?

Granny Weatherwax, obvsly.

[Oldmanmatt]

I think Sam Vimes, Granny W, Cohen and Mustrum.

Throw in Susan and Lao Tze and you could rule the world.

My 9 year old daughter is a big Tiffany fan, so she'd probably plump for an army of six inch high blue Glaswegians, with rabbit skull helmets...

[Stubbs]

Good piece by Neil Gaiman from last year that he shared today http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman

[moose]

My book shelves are jammed full of books.  Three books stand out as especially battered.  The condition of one is mainly due to age - a Lord of the Rings I've had since I was 10.   Another, my copy of Swan's Way, the terrible condition is due to it being my companion on a 6 week trip around Egypt.  But the most "foxed" volume is my copy of Good Omens....... read, re-read and dipped into.... such an imaginative and humane writer (I honestly think that if his books had been released with better cover art, he would have been lauded far more).

[slackline]

I think Josh Kirby's art fits with the jumbled chaotic Discworld perfectly.

Good Omens is one of the few books I've read multiple times, its brilliant and I shall be digging it out again soon.

[slackline]

[SA Chris]

What does the W stand for?

W.

Its a trick name... if I have offspring I shall burden them with a middle name that is just an initial. Maybe something odd like an O or a Z.

As in Homer J Simpson?

[slackline]

As in Homer J Simpson?

J stands for Jay

[SA Chris]

Yes Slackers I knew that.

[slackline]

Yes Slackers I knew that.

Thats not apparent from what you wrote though because...

I shall burden them with a middle name that is just an initial.

As in Homer J Simpson?

...indicates that you thought 'J' was just an initial. 

[SA Chris]

Fucking spare me.

[Falling Down]

Someone is wrong on the internet 

[duncan]

John Renbourn

[Duma]

Ah shit.

[Falling Down]

A great musician and artist.

[jwi]

Tomas Tranströmer, among the living poets he was perhaps my favourite. He had been frail for a long time, so it didn't come as a chock to anyone

It’s spring in 1827, Beethoven
hoists his death-mask and sails off.

The grindstones are turning in Europe’s windmills.
The wild geese are flying northwards.
[...]

[jern]

Richie Benaud


http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/67682998/australian-cricket-legend-richie-benaud-dies-in-sydney-hospice

[DaveC]

Great knock that.....possibly the last truly great voice of cricket. RIP

[tomtom]

Ah shit.

[Jaspersharpe]