Daily Archives: October 20, 2019

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Horror was a popular genre even in pre-WWII comics. The best horror reflects the time and place of its audience, and for this wartime period, there were many uncertainties. Its rather fitting that most of these early horror stories originate from Crime Comics. So while superheroes provided hope and optimism to readers, horror was a constant reminder of the dangers around the corner.

But what about the elements and tropes that people associate with the genre? Vampires, other monsters, and mad scientists? Well crime was (and still is) something people are familiar with. But these creatures represent a suspension from reality. People like debt collectors become literal blood suckers that people find otherworldly. Reason the main weapon against fear means very little to these monsters. These others are so detached from reality that the real world doesnt seem as scary. Anthology series, like in EC Comics thrived on these monstrosities.

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Ironically those same fears and reason (or lack thereof) is what both ruined and reinvigorated horror comics. Take for example the original Human Torch and Namor the Submariner. In their debuts, these characters are more monstrous and outright villainous respectively. And by the time WWII is over and horror overtakes superheroes in popularity, they revert back to these states. At least until Seduction of the Innocent came in, itself more of a horror, and the Comics Code Authority was established to try and censor the medium.

Unfortunately for those censors, comic creators were able to work about the Comics Code restrictions by recycling ideas. The concept of the Incredible Hulk is a combination of Mr. Hyde and Frankensteins Monster. By adapting those concepts into something unrecognizable, the Comics Code cant hold the Hulk down. In fact, later publications featuring the Not-So-Jolly Green Giant make full use of recycling some of its own concepts. For example, the Hulks original gray skin color was reused for new characterizations such as the Joe Fixit persona. All of these concepts help make a fascinating character that is loved today, even if some parts become less horrific and more comedic.

On that note, Horror (much like comedy) is more of a mood than a genre. Unlike comedy though, horror encompasses several parts of life that scare people. Are you sick or going through puberty? Youve got body horror. Questioning your place in life? Youve got existential horror. Psychology Today actually has an article explaining why people love horror movies using three primary factors: tension, relativity, and (paradoxically) unrealism.

Even established stories can have a horrific side. MFR writer Manuel Gomez actually puts it best in his list of modern horror comics. Afterlife with Archie features Jughead at his best and worst. Jughead has always been a nonconformist and a glutton; his status as the zombie leader are these parts of his character at their most terrifying. This change becomes so powerful it affects the entire town of Riverdale; beneath this ordinary exterior lie deadly secrets.

Because of this turn, the series gets the highest of reviews. The series becomes so notable, the Archie Horror imprint forms around it. The imprint even features an alternate monstrous Jughead as a werewolf; it makes as much sense as a zombie.

Even this is just official fan-fiction.

All of these are very good points, but as previously stated, the best horror reflects time and place. Monsters, mobsters, and rehashes of older products are good and all, but with passing times must come new ideas that relate to audiences.

I believe James Tynion IV puts it best in his work at BOOM! Studios. The Apocalyptic Trilogy graphic novels capture modern woes, with themes like free will vs nature and idealogical differences, each of which are subjects that people find familiar in their everyday lives. Thats not to say it doesnt take influences from other sources like H.P. Lovecraft. Other times, modern horror storytelling comes into play, as is the case with the recent Something Is Killing the Children, a tribute to creepypasta storytelling.

An adult might grasp the situation with sound effects.

With all of that in mind, people like horror comics because they can have the experience of fear without any threat to them. Real things can scar people for life, but horror allows for audiences to suspend their fears. Using comics, movies, or TV as a bank allows audiences to store their fears away. Theyre in the safety of their seats but are able to feel the pure terror in these fictional worlds.

Since theyre reading comic books, that feeling intensifies. With each panel, tension builds up, and all it takes is a turning the page to release the anticipation. Unlike animation (even with a pause button) the reader is in control. But the readers instincts are practically at the storys mercy, because not knowing a storys end is worse than just stopping abruptly. Its like learning something new about someone that feels uneasy. The investment however is just too strong to let go of. Just look at Jonathan Hickmans X-Men titles; the mutants feel as otherworldly as movie monsters.

But if youre a horror fan, why do you love the genre? Feel free to express your thoughts in the comments.

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The Immortality of Horror Comics: A Continuous Resurrection - Monkeys Fighting Robots

In 1995 a Harvard-educated mathematics prodigy who went on to study and teach at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, sent an anarchist manifesto to The New York Times and The Washington Post called Industrial Society and Its Future. He wrote that if it were not published immediately, he would continue to send bombs to those he perceived as the enemies of nature and humanity. The hunt for him, which had begun years earlier, was the most extensive and expensive in the history of the FBI, but it was only when Ted Kaczynskis younger brother recognized stylistic mannerisms in the manifesto that the Unabomber, as the media dubbed him, short for University and Airline Bomber, was finally cornered in a cabin in Montana. Hes 77 now and in prison in Colorado, but his story captured the imagination of writer and academic Eileen Pollack.

A graduate of Yale, where she majored in physics, Pollack saw in the technobombers story a timely fictional inquiry into the psychological and societal effects of increasing reliance on technology, and also a way for her to continue to express concern about what she sees, still, as the paucity of women with important careers in science and technology, a subject shes written and lectured about a lot. As she writes of her heroine, Maxine Sayers, Most of the young men Maxine mentored acted as if they were embarrassed to admit they had sprung from her professorial womb.

Pollacks novel, The Professor of Immortality, is a clever, if at times labored, amalgam of these two themes: a third-person narrative about the academic and personal challenges faced by Maxine, an intelligent, well-intentioned 55-year-old single mom who heads an all-male scientific institute dedicated to exploring cultural values as technology prolongs life. The book also suspensefully charts Maxines growing suspicions about the identity and whereabouts of the Unabomber.

After a colleague is badly injured by a mail bomb, Maxine begins to suspect that a brilliant former mathematics student she befriended, Tadeusz or Thaddy Rapaczynski, may be involved. There are similarities between some of his phrases in a published newspaper note, and a Joseph Conrad novel they use to discuss. She recalls that Thaddy was a loner who couldnt connect with women, and that she had hired him some years ago to look after her son Zach after her beloved husband died and she needed to get on with her teaching and research. She also, uneasily, begins to believethat her son, an environmental engineer who has mysteriously disappeared from his Silicon Valley job and reportedly is living somewhere off the grid, may have had contact with Thaddy.

As if these two loaded subjects were not enough, Pollack also follows Maxines trials as she visits her dying mother in a nursing home, scenes at once tellingly right and acerbically funny. The result is a Big Book, or one that seems longer than it is. Im not wild about the ironic title, and I dont get the rolling sentence parts Pollack adopts as chapter heads, but still, The Professor of Immortality is an original work of fiction, an engaging domestic drama and a critical questioning of significant and diverse contemporary issues, especially theneed for more women to feel welcomed in the mathematical sciences.

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Book Review: 'The Professor Of Immortality' - WSHU

Eddie Jones has told England they stand on the brink of greatness after setting up a World Cup semi-final against the beatable All Blacks on Saturday. Jones described New Zealand as the greatest team in sporting history but believes England can reach the final provided they are not blinded by the All Blacks aura.

England have never beaten New Zealand under Jones, going down 16-15 last November in their only meeting during his tenure. Joness side are two victories from sporting immortality, however, after their comprehensive win over Australia booked a first World Cup semi-final for 12 years.

The reason I took this job is because I saw a team that could be great, Jones said. That was the challenge and they are starting to believe it. We have a challenge this week because we are playing the greatest team that has ever been in sport. If you look at their record no other team has that over a sustained period of time. So we are going to have to be better, improving and see what we can get out of this weeks preparation.

New Zealand are a great team with a great coach and a great captain but like any team they are beatable and there are ways to beat them. We will be investigating every possible way of how we beat them. [The danger] is you become part of the show. I thought that happened a bit [on Saturday]. Ireland really got stuck in when the game was lost. Against any of the best teams, you have to go hard from the start. Thats going to be important for us.

New Zealand have not lost a World Cup match since 2007 and are pushing for an unprecedented third straight title. They ruthlessly dispatched Ireland 46-14 to reach a seventh World Cup semi-final. The All Blacks raced into a 22-0 lead after 32 minutes and Jones has warned of the dangers of paying New Zealand too much respect in the opening exchanges. Last autumn Chris Ashton scored the opening try within a minute and England missed out on victory only after Sam Underhills late try was controversially ruled out.

You always want to play the best and they are the best no one can dispute that, Jones said. You want to be the best in the world, you have to beat the best. For the players and coaches this is the best week of their lives and you have to enjoy it and make sure you focus on yourself and work to get better.

If you look at their record I dont think theres a team that comes close to them for sustainability. They are playing in the toughest competition in the world against the best all the time. I just admire them. To do what they do from a small country is incredible.

Name me another team in the world that plays at the absolute top level that wins so many of their games. Its an example of what you can do. People are raving about Japan and its fantastic but you look at what New Zealand have done with four million people. You have to admire them. But then the challenge is to beat them.

Jones is hoping to have a full-strength squad, with Jonny May being monitored for a hamstring twinge. Jack Nowell will be in contention if he can train fully on Tuesday.Jones bristled when asked whether he had any sympathy for his compatriots after England condemned the Wallabies to their worst World Cup showing since 2011, with Michael Cheika quitting as the Australia coach on Sunday. Lets not get too emotional and silly about this Im not an Australian, Im coaching England; Im an England coach, if you hadnt worked that out. Maybe you have to work that out.

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All Blacks are best sports team ever but beatable, says Eddie Jones - The Guardian

We cant avoid aging. Every passing minute brings us one minute closer to the end. Not a pleasant thought. So, it is little wonder that the term anti-aging has been seized by marketers of various cosmetics, health supplements, exotic juices and dietary regimens. Anti-aging medicine is a growing field with numerous biotech companies working on drugs designed to combat the aging process.

The quest for immortality, of course, is not new. The ancient alchemists sought to turn base metals like lead into gold in order to find the secret of golds immortality. After all, the metal would not tarnish, it maintained its beautiful sheen and seemed to last forever. If they could find its magic, they could perhaps apply it to humans. But they never did find the secret. Lead is still lead and the alchemists are long dead.

This is not to say that there are not some intriguing possibilities that may help slow down the clock. As we age, an increasing number of our cells enter a stage of senescence in which they no longer divide and begin to release chemicals that cause inflammation resulting in damage to tissues. A buildup of senescent cells, sometimes called zombie cells, is a hallmark of aging. Can anything be done to prevent this buildup? Possibly. At least in mice. When researchers at the Mayo Clinic injected just a small number of senescent cells into young mice, their speed, endurance and strength eroded to that seen in a senior mouse in just a few weeks. When the mice were then treated with desatinib and quercetin, a combination of drugs known to destroy senescent cells, they recovered most of their lost physical capabilities within two weeks! Quite dramatic! But mice are not people, and while quercetin is a safe compound extracted from apple peel, desatinib is a very expensive leukemia drug with loads of side effects. Still, this experiment is a proof of principle, demonstrating that destroying senescent cells with senolytics is worthy of exploration.

However, slowing aging may not be a matter of what we do, but what we dont do. It may be that if we want to live longer, all we have to do is eat less. Calorie restriction has been the only sure-fire way that scientists have found to slow aging in animals from rodents to monkeys and now we are beginning to accumulate data that suggests this applies to humans, as well. The idea that less is more when it comes to eating is not new. Hippocrates noted that fat people were more likely to die suddenly than slender ones, and Avicenna, the famed Persian philosopher and physician, suggested that the elderly should eat less than when they were younger.

Venetian nobleman Luigi Cornaro may have been the first to put a restricted calorie diet to a test in the 17th century when he came to believe that his health was deteriorating due to excessive partaking of food, drink and sex. He then restricted himself to no more than 350 grams of food a day and 400 mL of wine and lived to the ripe old age of 98. He documented his regimen in his book Discourses On the Temperate Life and described how the changes he made in his lifestyle allowed him to remain in vigorous health well into old age.

Today, members of the Calorie Restriction Society that has the goal of increasing longevity are following in Cornaros footsteps and are acting as human guinea pigs. They consume no more than 2,000 calories per day, which is just over half of what an average North American wolfs down. They dont do this, though, by eating half servings of hamburger, fries or pizza. They do it by following a diet high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and fish. And according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the austere regimen is paying off. Researchers examined the heart function of 25 members of the Calorie Restriction Society, and to their amazement found that the hearts functioned like those of people 15 years younger. But permanent hunger is not appealing.

What is appealing, however, is taking a deep dive into the science of aging. That is just what we will do this year at our annual Trottier Public Science Symposium, one of McGills largest annual public events. We have invited three expert speakers to address humans Longing for Longevity. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Harvard Professor of Genetics David Sinclair, a world leader in aging research, will discuss how aging may be a treatable disease, and cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos will scrutinize claims made by producers of anti-aging cosmetics. On Wednesday, Oct. 23, Ruth Westheimer, psychosexual therapist, author and pioneer of radio and television programs dealing with sexual issues will speak on Sex After 50. (Spoiler: there is.)

The symposium will take place at 7 p.m. both days at the Centre Mont Royal, 1000 Sherbrooke St. West. Admission is free. Arrive early.

joe.schwarcz@mcgill.ca

Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill Universitys Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.

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The Right Chemistry: Looking for the secrets to longevity - Montreal Gazette

I generally try to shy away from the Ken Burns Baseballisms, but baseball really is a lot like life - and thats rarely as clear as after the kind of death we just experienced.

Every season ends in death, except those rare few that reach immortality in the form of a championship. And even in those rarest of years - just two in my 30+ years as a fan - immortality lasts only for the winter. Then you play another season and die again.

This years death was especially painful, so I stand here at the wake for the 2019 Cardinals asking you not to mourn the tragedy of their final days, but to celebrate their life. Thats what Im trying to do, with admittedly mixed results. But over the last week, as Ive interacted with fans in person, via text, at my local Cardinals bar and especially on Twitter, Ive been struck by how differently we all process loss.

The frustration and anger came easily. With blinders on to the context and the history of this season, these last four games were bad baseball. Even if they had happened on a Tuesday and Wednesday night in June, nearly getting no-hit in back-to-back games would strike a chord. During the nightmare 1st inning last night, I told my family it was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life. Not the worst baseball game - I dubbed it the worst thing of all things. 9/11 had officially been bumped down to the #2 slot.

If you took a stroll through Cardinals Twitter, and especially if you dug into the the dark hole of something like the replies to @cardinals or Derrick Goold, you would find plenty of fans wringing their hands, calling for the firing of everyone affiliated with the team in any capacity. This in turn sparked national writers and fans of other teams to decry the spoiled Cardinals fans, who cant even be happy when their team is in the NLCS.

Im no grief counselor, but Im pretty sure processing loss is not that simple and not that linear. Maybe there are fans among us who could watch that lazy fly ball drop between Jose Martinez and Kolten Wong and think Im just so grateful for all the joy this team brought me this season. Me personally - the words I yelled at my TV were very different from that.

But in the long run, and hopefully as early as this morning, the place we all should want to get to is appreciation for the joy this team brought us this season. Thats not to say that there were not frustrations, and its not to say there are not things to be improved or even fixed this offseason. But (nearly) every baseball season is going to end in death. If you can only find joy in the seasons that end in a Championship, youve set yourself up for a pretty dreary fandom.

The actual death of this season was a rough one. It called to mind 2004 for me, and Id guess many of you. That year, I saw my beloved Cardinals reach the World Series for the first time since my very first year as a true fan, way back in elementary school. Their team was a juggernaut. I was poised for immortality... and then they laid an absolute egg in the series.

That loss hurt me, and the hurt lingered for some time. But now, I look back on that as one of my very favorite Cardinals teams.

Much like that 2004 team, in the grand spectrum of Cardinals seasons, 2019 was a very good one. I hope you can all find solace in that as we begin counting the days to 2020 and another shot at immortality.

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The way you process the end of the season says a lot about you - Viva El Birdos

There is something inherently science-fiction about Paul Rudd himself, a man who is nearing 50 but would still get carded by any careful bartender in America, like he is part of some kind of dystopian, futuristic cabal that has discovered a way to conquer aging with a high-tech treatment made of endangered whale placenta and children's tears. Rudd's new sci-fi Netflix show, Living with Yourself, isn't about his inherent immortality, but it does play on another of the guy's strengths: Paul Rudd's endless, debilitating charm.

The series, which was created by former Daily Show producer Timothy Greenberg, follows Miles (Rudd), a slovenly ad guy who cashes out his savings to pay for an experimental spa treatment that promises to break him out of his rut. The next thing Miles knows, he has woken up naked in a shallow grave and there's a man in his house that looks just like himexcept with a little more confidence and lot more hair product. It turns out that the spa replaced Miles with a clone and left the original Miles for dead, not knowing that their euthanasia process still had some kinks to work out. Now, there are two Ruddser, two Milesesand hijinks, naturally, ensues.

It isn't exactly a new premise. We've seen it in everything from the 90s rom-com Multiplicity to Calvin and Hobbes. But where the world didn't exactly need more Michael Keatons, Living with Yourself proves that things can only get better with more Rudd.

We're currently in the middle of a longform science-fiction renaissance, thanks to the rise of streaming services. Undone is fantastic, Dark is one of the most complex time travel plots ever put to film, and Maniac is the most brilliant, thoughtful, and criminally-overlooked series of the decade. Living with Yourself is another solid addition to the list, but its darkly comedic tone and dream-like quality shares more in common with the movies of Michel Gondry or the bubbly existentialism of The Good Place. The show isn't exactly breaking any new sci-fi ground, but between Rudd's pitch-perfect performances, which are easily two of the best of his career, and Greenberg's tight writing, Living with Yourself proves it's more than just Eternal Sunshine lite.

The season unfurls in a twisty narrative that gets stranger and better as it goes on, hitting its stride once the inciting incident gets out of the way, but over the course of its eight half-hour episodes, it never quite manages to deliver on the deeper, knottier question of the premise: What makes you you, anyway? And what does it take to truly change?

Do your memories define your personhood, or is it something deeper, more physical, more fundamental, that a clone with a copy of your brain can't duplicate? And, wait, speaking of, is the new Rudd clone ecstatic and amazed by the world due to some neurological tweak in the cloning process, or is he just overwhelmed by the splendor of life simply because it is new> And if so, will it fade like it fades for all adults in their march away from the innocence of childhood, and, and... ultimately, who cares? Look at the two Paul Rudds!

Why sweat that stuff when you can just kick back and enjoy the bumbling hijinks of two Rudds in a love triangle with their wife or whatever? Living with Yourself may not be Philip K. Dick-level sci-fi, or even the best science-fiction limited series Netflix has produced, but it's a compelling, hyper-bingeable series that will let you blow an entire weekend with a double helping of Paul Rudd. And what more do you want? Well, the answer is "even more Rudds," but we'll take what we can get.

The entire eight-episode season of Living with Yourself premieres on Netflix October 18.

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Netflix's 'Living with Yourself' Proves Two Rudds Are Better Than One - Munchies

Get to know Nephrologist, Regenerative Medicine Specialist and Internist Dr. Priya Visweswaran Balakrishnan, who serves patients in Houston, Texas.

(The Magazine Plus Editorial):- New York City, Oct 15, 2019 (Issuewire.com)Dr. Balakrishnan is a board-certified nephrologist and internist with clinical and research experience. Additionally, she is a survivor of multi-organ failure and a near-death experience, as such she feels she was born to reverse kidney failure.

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She is the Principle Investigator of The Immortality Institute in Houston, Texas. The primary purpose of The Immortality Institute is to reverse and to cure, not merely control chronic medical illnesses. Every distinguished consultant or collaborator of Team Immortality is a part of the effort to reverse kidney failure.

In regards to her educational background, Dr. Balakrishnan earned her medical degree from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research in Pondicherry, India in 1994. Seven years later, in 2001, immediately after completing her renal fellowship, she sought advice from her mother, Lalitha, about opening her own dialysis unit. Lalitha urged her daughter instead to try and do everything she could to prevent patients from going on dialysis.

In 2007, Dr. Balakrishnan received bad news when she admitted herself for multi-organ failure and extensive bilateral kidney scarring. The near-death experience led her to develop a patented protocol to reverse kidney failure that is highly effective and safe. This protocol involves enhancing cellular energy production in the kidneys and the body by utilizing a mixture of safe and effective biochemicals.

Nephrology is a specialty of medicine and pediatrics that concerns itself with the kidneys. It is the study of normal kidney function and kidney disease, the preservation of kidney health, and the treatment of kidney disease, from diet and medication to renal replacement therapy. Nephrologists have advanced training in treating kidney disease. They diagnose and treat kidney failure, as well as help patients by prescribing medications, offering special diet advice, and coordinating dialysis care when the time comes.

Learn More About Dr. Priya Visweswaran Balakrishnan:

Through her findatopdoc profile, https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/2612235-Priya-Balakrishnan-internist-Houston-TX-77005 or through The Immortality Institute, http://theimmortalityinstitute.com/about-us/

About FindaTopDoc.com

FindaTopDoc is a digital health information company that helps connect patients with local physicians and specialists who accept your insurance. Our goal is to help guide you on your journey towards optimal health by providing you with the know-how to make informed decisions for you and your family.

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Priya Visweswaran Balakrishnan, MD, with The Immortality Institute in Texas - The Magazine Plus

By Steve Leary, former Star editor

HOW on earth do you sum up the life of Alan Whalley with a few words?

It aint going to be easy. His Whalleys World feature alone entitles him to immortality. But there was so much more to Alan.

Every week his legion of loyal readers would flick through the Star looking for that familiar whiskery smile beaming out an invitation to join him on a gentle meander down Memory Lane.

His wizardry with words captured an army of fans which later grew into a worldwide supporters club after his column went online.

He created a personal universe populated by old time sports heroes like Our Nells Jack, the champion skating racer from the Brown Cow in Billinge or Tom Colquitt who could leap across canals.

Also on the WW menu you could sample yarns of how an expat St Helens bobby smuggled his favourite Burchalls pies out to Oz, or the day Cromwells Roundheads fired a cannon from Billinge Hill as Cavalier leader Prince Rupert hid in Windleshaw Chantry.

He also loved delving into the areas spooky past like the spectral legend of the Grey Lady of Taylor Park and the cannibal dwarves who devoured intruders in the depths of Crank Caverns.

Whalleys World was the cornerstone of the paper in those formative years. Weekly, Alan regaled readers with his gallery of lovable rogues, wartime memories and oddball tales.

One trusty subject was big Jonty Pilkington. Alan revealed that this legendary one-eyed hardman who combined punch-ups and fairground boxing contests had a hidden soft centre with a lifelong love for operetta, making trips to London to listen to legendary tenor Richard Tauber.

Alan also pulled back the dustsheets to reveal a treasure chest of forgotten St Helens heroes including Oscar winning Hollywood sound legend George Groves and the diminutive film actor Herbert Mundin who starred alongside screen legends Errol Flynn and Charles Laughton.

His writing generated a massive readership and Alan was making a big name for himself. He could so easily have earlier taken the step up to Fleet Street, but opted to remain on his home turf and shape the destiny of this paper.

That infectious personality had a big impact on the Stars founder Malcolm Smith. They had first bumped into each other at another paper up College Street. And when the Stars first editor Lesley Richards left, Alan came in to head up our small but select editorial gang, clattering away on the typewriters in a cramped office next to a newsagents in Corporation Street before expanding into an even more cramped cubby hole in the YMCA Buildings.

As his career progressed, Alans skills were recognised by senior figures in our group and he was promoted to the rank of editorial director in the 1980s with a seat on the board of Northern Counties Newspapers Bolton/St Helens.

Whalleys World took centre stage in the Star until he signed off in 2009, collecting a clutch of top journalistic Oscars for Alan along the way. And though Alan retired from official duties in 1992, WW remained a regular Star favourite for another 17 years - as witty and fascinating as ever.

But as I hinted, Alan had another facet: he was never stumped for a cracking idea to boost both St Helens and the Star.

There cant be many papers to have been advertised at the Olympics. But at the 1980 Moscow Games your Star got a massive plug on primetime TV courtesy of BBC boxing guru Harry Carpenter.

Over the course of the tournament Harry introduced three English fighters, brothers George and Ray Gilbody plus Keith Wallace.

The link: the trio all fought out of the ST HELENS STAR Amateur Boxing Club with trainer Tony Smart at their base in Clock Face. Though their Moscow medal bid fizzled out, the Gilbodies and Keith all became multiple title holders.

It was Alan who was instrumental in setting up the club and locating grants and sponsorship.

Alan also helped project the Stars image at the once massively popular St Helens Show. It was Star Funtime with the Mother and Baby Contest, Miss St Helens Star, Star Junior Talent, Glamorous Gran, Mr St Helens and even a Gurning contest! There was so much Star branding, most people believed it was this paper that ran the show and not the council.

I first met Alan at a nightclub launch party in the town centre. He was working at the Daily Telegraph but was soon to become my new boss at the Star and my mentor for the next four decades.

He pitched himself into so many good fights, I lost count. One that touched him deeply was the battle to keep the old Providence Hospital open. Month by month the donations flowed in. But not even employing the fluid fundraising talents of world record beer gulper Joe Johnson could stave off the inevitable.

My final memory of that sad Providence campaign was helping Alan and his dad rescue a weighty solid iron bench from a top floor verandah. I think his father had been in haulage and he soon had ropes and pulleys in place with Alan and myself dangling below like comedy bellringers. But down it came.

Talking about bringing things back down to earth, although Alan made many friends in high places, he frequently cocked a snook at stuffy authority.

He loved to tell the tale of how as a novice newshound hed been assigned to cover a council meeting.

Taking his place on the press bench, our young reporter, fed up with all with the endless speechifying, whipped out two chunks of (I think) cardboard and clapped them over his ears.

Young man would you mind telling the committee what those are for? one councillor demanded.

The return volley bounced back: Theyre my bull**** deflectors.

That was Alan to a tee. His impish sense of humour was ever-present through his career netting countless friends from all walks of life.

We will never see his like again.

Alan (right), wife Sandra (left) and Lady Pilkington and a friend

I FIRST encountered Alan Whalley, an extremely talented journalist and revered columnist, in 1966, writes Star founder Malcolm Smith.

I had been recruited to sharpen up the business side of a flagging provincial weekly group.

From the word go Alan and I had differing ideas on newspaper management. We clashed with no holds barred. That we became exceedingly good friends proved miracles can happen.

We were both obsessive in our views on status. What comes first, the cart or the horse! Editorial and Advertising belong to different worlds. I dismounted from my high horse and sank my pint.

Alan was a brilliant writer far more talented than his fellow scribes.

My job was to do the finance bit and I could add up! Money meant nowt to Alan. A clash was unavoidable! Alan, had his brilliant Whalleys World wooing readers whilst I had the financial headaches. Both of us were successful, a quiet impasse was necessary.

Later Alan headed to the Daily Telegraph and shortly afterwards I launched the Star so we saw little of each other for a while. When we did a friendship developed. Of a like age we discovered our playtime hobbies were similarboth enjoying the odd pint...often in the nearest bar to my YMCA office. He took an interest in my maniacal project in a casual way. He had influential friends which we often shared and gradually he became an ad hoc PR adviser. Getting Lady M and Lord Harry on the team was one of his scores. On several occasions I tried to tempt him into becoming Editor and eventually pressure won through. I had pulled off a superb coup. Not only had I won over the best possible editor but the Whalleys World reader bedazzling column too.

In conclusion I will reiterate a piece he wrote describing my No Problema send-up book about living in Spain. Alans intro read: I find it tough trying to sum up Malcolm Smith perhaps because I know him so well. Words like extrovert, outrageous, brash and gregarious spring readily to mind when reflecting on a friendship which has survived the test of a quarter-of-a-century, since the time we first met whilst working together on the same local newspaper.

Were it possible to deliberately get in the last word I would say touche mate. But Ill save it for the next time we meet.

That my heart goes out to Sandra says it all!

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Whalley's World discovered a treasure trove of local heroes - St Helens Star