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Though we wouldn't want the Deathlist to become like Celebrity Big Brother with most people having no idea who the people on the list were.

15 would certainly seem possible, many people thought that this year's selection with a fair amount of centenarians (Kirk Douglas, Herman Wouk etc.) and terminal cases (Joost van der Westhuizen, Errol Christie, Leah Bracknell) had the potential to break the record. Now that it is only at 7 in August, that seems a little bit less likely, but a cold Autumn/Winter and a flu epidemic could still boost DL's record chances. On the other hand, I think a success rate as high as 50% would require giving up the current (both written and implicit) selection (inclusion/exclusion) criteria (choosing "fairly ill" or "fairly old" household names [think Ken Kercheval in 2015] over terminal celebs not-well-known in the UK [think Mário Soares]; not dropping very old but healthy people whose death would be regarded as a terrible miss [think HM Elizabeth II] etc.)

I do wonder if these are attention seeking vids . People who want to commit suicide tend to just do it , I wonder how much of this is her missing the spotlight and trying to get the attention she needs. She did do that whole ripping up a picture of the pope , to get attention. Still you do wonder, it wouldn't really be a surprise if the breaking news was she has been found dead.

I saw that original four piece when the Heaven 17 guys were there. Phil singing, two synths and one band member doing nowt but projecting slides behind the live show. What I loved about them then, and still do is that sense of total randomness behind any serious message. The slide show included sixties television puppet heroes and the like which made them a lot less po faced and serious than - say - Gary Numan.

He's 97, so chances are he will be going somewhere before too long .... I'm not sure I agree with disqualifying people solely on the grounds that they're "boring" though.

Indeed. Could be a contender for DDT's Scrabble Deficit thread.

I wonder if 14 is that unbreakable ceiling that deathlist can never break. Or, it could be setting up for a massive year in 2018 with survivors from this year plus household names that are good bets to make the list (i.e. Newton-John, McCain, Wood etc). I'm starting to think that it's the latter...

Nigel Beard, Labour MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford from 1997 to 2005, has died at the age of 80.

I always thought it came from where peeps of 'negotiable affection' had to sluice their cavities in preparation for the next client?

If you drop Perez he drops dead.

No Ronnie Wood either...

If we got no more hits this year (unlikely) then keeping the 'soon to die' survivors in from this year plus all the 'too big to miss' names might start getting tricky. For me losing some of the 'too big to miss' names would be no bad thing. There will always be plenty of room for the new names. In other words which 18 names would you currently drop for next year. I'd go for 1) Pierre Cardin 2) Javier Perez de Cuellar 3) Betty White 4) Doug Ellis 5) Honor Blackman 6) David Prowse 7) Sandy Gall 8) Pope Benedict 9) Emperor Akihito 10) Valerie Harper on a first run through then I get a bit stuck looking for another 8. The list needs some more deaths to make it easier to drop names out.

A big name.

I am kind of in two minds about changing the rules.I think it would be better without Shameless type picks but I think marginally famous picks make it more interesting.Also the will they wont they obit type picks are part of the fun.

Nothing is THAT bad.

I love you Mary and if I was going to change my mind for anyone it would be you But I just cannot bring myself to like them. They are my pop equivalent of Anthea Turner!

Well, I didn't succeed in getting these picks banned in spite of the shamelessness of it all. I probably only made it worse. And indeed, if I'd field it again, I'd probably win the Theme Team League again, without any competition (boring). If I'd field it, I'd also want to do better than last time, and if Shameless 2018 did even better than Shameless 2017, then it might actually be one of the contenders, which I think is fairly unhealthy for the whole competition.

Shameless update, if you care (I'm basically emptying my vault - not planning on submitting it a third time): Aundrea Bannatyne - tweeted that she's lying dying, listening to Ed Sheeran Gemma Nuttall - went to Hallwang Clinic and they healed her, miraculously, very interesting to see if this actually works Bobby Zarin - miraculously recovering, indeed the Monty Brinson of 2018, probably dying in January as well Emma Houlston - still nothing Cheyann Shaw/Clark/Tunt - posting cute dog videos on YouTube. Healed Heidi Loughlin - doing chemo, cancer under control, ok for now Leanne Hock - was last seen getting an award for Best Mom and raising money for alternative treatment in Mexico Sophie Sabbage - bad news last week, going down in a couple of months Juan Pedro Franco - has lost 218 kilos of weight, good for him! Still on oxygen, though. The organs were tortured pretty badly. Laura Saull - heavy chemo, in pain, going down eventually There's 1-2 more hits coming, I guess.

Her partner says that they are still considering longterm remission a possibility.11 months into a stage 4 lung diagnosis!Whatever they are smoking it must be good shit.

Oliver Hardy got himself into another fine mess this day 60 years ago, age 65. Stan Laurel's daughter died just a few days ago fwiw.

I guess that happens since switching the parameters is technically a new search? I did go ahead and reduce the server flood time to 5 seconds for members since I doubt it'll make a noticeable difference on the server.

He is a patron of the British Homeopathic Association so that should be good from our point of view.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry says her only child has died of an apparent drug overdose. A statement released Sunday from Barry and her husband, Bruce, says 22-year-old Max Barry died Saturday night in Denver. Max Barry graduated in June from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Putting that degree to good use! SC

Stop it, bitch, please! You got your fucking attention, now stop complaining or we'll do the work for you next time.

Enjoy your time away from the DDP OoO. I personally think you're making a correct decision. You just have to blink and the next thing you know your kids are all grown up. I still can't believe my son is almost 30. Tempus fugit. Erm............. edited to say our member Tempus Fugit is not my son