Continuing the look back over the last year, today is the time to look at some of the stories mainly relating to things in one way or another coming to an end or near end.
Bird Flu seemed to hit the headlines earlier this year as it spread across the globe and we were all told to keep an eye out for any birds that seemed to have met an untimely end. Police were regularly called to branches of McDonald’s to check out the McChicken Sandwiches. However, police later advised that there was no need for concern as there was indeed no chicken present in that product. When bird flu reached Turkey, Daily Mail readers panicked as to whether it was still safe to travel there, after all it would be most inconvenient to catch some pesky illness whilst catching some winter sunshine.
Madonna also caused her own travel concerns when she returned from Malawi with a baby boy. The media raged with debate on the ethics of adopting a child from another culture, even where that was one of potential poverty. Fortunately, Madonna managed to find a technique to avoid the media gaze when she tried to sneak by the press in her fur coat.
An Austrian girl, Natascha Kampusch, escaped from eight years of captivity living in a dungeon and was returned to her family and her kidnapper then killed himself. A strange story that to a degree I think we will never really know the truth about.
There was a close call for Richard “Hamster” Hammond when his car crashed at 300 miles per hour. It was touch and go for a while as to whether he would survive but he seemed to come out of it all remarkably unscathed, although being in a coma stopped him responding to Jeremy Clarkson’s insults and surely it gave him the opportunity some come up with the perfect retort. Steve Irwin, was not so fortunate and was killed instantly by a stingray off the coast of Australia. Other people who died this year included Slobodan Milosevic who will now never face charges of mass genocide which, given Saddam Husseinjoining the obituary list this morning, perhaps it meant he just short circuited the system. In terms of entertainment Aaron Spelling died who brought us the joy of such programmes as Beverley Hills 90210. The more cynical amongst us may question how his daughter will ever get a job again given that her father is no longer there to create programmes and miraculously find the perfect part for her in them but time will tell. More recently James Brown died bringing a Christmas Day end to the Godfather of Soul. One heading for extinction is the polar bear. Perhaps 2007 should be the year of eating glacier mints to show our support (can you even still get glacier mints??)
Pluto was demoted from a planet altogether and then was given a reprieve of sorts and was instead now known as a “dwarf planet”. What kind of Mickey Mouse science is that? Think about it... (*note to self* if you have to explain the joke, it isn’t funny. Did you learn nothing from Simon Amstell??). We also saw Top of the Pops come to the end of a forty year run which was perhaps signalled by the first ever number one record based on downloads. People were Crazy for Gnarls Barkley.
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