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Trent Reznor is 58.

I've just had a look and the presence of Cilla Black makes me want to vom.

MMMDP Form Guide #1 Alan Brazil Fair play to the former footballer, this is the same blurb that appeared as #1 entry on last year's form guide: Claims to "enjoy" his light refreshment (i.e. maintains his drink driving conviction and daily tonnage of units is a lifestyle choice and therefore not evidence of alcoholism), then again he claims to know things about football others find - ahem - bemusing. May soon face legal action for bringing the beetroot family into public disrepute (specifically because the most inane moments in his broadcasts plumb hitherto undreamt of depths for utterances attributed to a "vegetable") and evidences a complexion suggesting medical science may want to investigate him to see if the current world record for the shortest distance between the outside wall of a blood vessel and the outside world is under threat. An early June heatwave could cause spontaneous combustion given that surface temperatures on Alan Brazil are considered unduly high, alternatively he may, simply, burst.

Well, all bar one (as in, half of one) of the finalists this round are utter drivel, but I managed to find a grand total of 8 songs in the next round that don’t make me want to vom. Things are looking up.

Another notable fast dwindling group to watch out for. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion also known as Six Triple Eight, the only all-black women's unit sent overseas during the war. There's only 6 known surviving members. Anna Mae Robertson (99) - Looked terrible in recent public appearance. Romay Davis (103) - The oldest survivor, but seemingly the healthiest of the lot. Crescencia Garcia (103) - Total immortal. Was hospitalized several times as far as I know, was in critical condition in the ICU with Covid when she was 100 but miraculously recovered, still very looking very much skeletal. Lena King (100) - Confirmed alive on her 100th birthday this year, but no public news since 2022. Fran McClendon (101/102) - Looked decent for her age in last known public appearance but no news in a while Gladys Blount (100) - Very frail physically, but still alert and sharp.

Seki Yoshida (4 Jan 1910 – ) was validated by LongeviQuest at 113 years and 132 days. Not much is known about her. On 25 April 2023, following the death of 113-year-old Shina Seki, Yoshida became the oldest known living person in Ibaraki Prefecture. She is currently the 7th oldest validated living person in Japan.

21 entrants (20 quickest off the mark plus your host and - ahem - master, Maryportfuncity). Competition opens on 1 June with the aim of getting a winner by midsummer's day. This is Maryport’s Midsummer Madness Dead Pool 2023 (That’ll be MMMDP to you lot!) MMMDP 2022 - That masterlist in full (can you tell what it is yet?) MMMDP Hall of Fame: 2016 – Spade Cooley (Jerome Lewis) 2 June 2017 - CaptainChorizo (Errol Christie) 11 June 2018 – The Dead Cow (Irene Jones) 1 June 2019 - Clorox Bleachman (Ani Yudhoyono) 1 June 2020 – Toast (Willie Thorne) 17 June 2021 –Perhaps (Nacho Laun) 1 June 2022 – Drol (Zeta Emilianidou) 6 June 2023 - An Fear Beag (Beverley Shade) 2 June MASTERLIST 1. Sergio Rico (Perhaps) 2. Johnnie Irwin (Bibliogryphon) 3. Munawwar Rana (GC Reptile) 4. Beverley Shade (An Fear Beag) 5. Cresencia Garcia (TheSpinosaurus) 6. Graham Caveney (msc) 7. Christy Dignam (Steve) 8. Phyllida Law (YorkshireBanker) 9. Joanne Woodward (Grimgrass) 10. Maria Branyas Morera (Great Uncle Bulgaria) 11. Manohar Joshi. (Drol) 12. Teresa Taylor (theoldlady) 13. Jimmy Carter (TQR) 14. David McCallum (Time) 15. Rick Joyner (Spade Cooley) 16. Hu Qili (arghton) 17. Frank Field MP (Summer in Transyvania) 18. Harrison Ruffin Tyler (Death Impends) 19. Esther Rantzen (Commtech Sio Bibble) 20. El Dandy (Captain Chorizo) 21. Dianne Feinstein (Captain Hemlock) 22. Alwen Harris (MPFC)

Minor health update, he's trying to work out in his home gym to keep fit: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12092961/A-Place-Suns-Jonnie-Irwin-shares-health-update-amid-terminal-cancer-battle.html I can't see the weight he's pushing though.

MMMDP #3 Form Guide Jimmy Carter The former president of the USA (1926-1933) has been enjoying his weekend getaway at hospice care so much, he's been returning there again and again. Could his expected massive consumption of margaritas and home-grown peanuts lead to a final stroke of the pen (or something)?

Non of yer half-baked shite here, proper rules forged over years of intense competition and sound dead pool management, or summat 21 entrants (20 quickest off the mark plus your host and - ahem – master, Maryportfuncity). Competition opens on 1 June with the aim of getting a winner by midsummer's day. Maryport’s Midsummer Madness Dead Pool 2023 (That’ll be MMMDP to you lot!) And those Rules in Full: 1 - The object of the MMMDP is to WIN. 2 - To enter the MMMDP a contestant must have: A candidate not selected by another other entrant. A “candidate” in this context means a living person aged 18 or over who remains alive at midnight on May 31st and is considered likely to cease living soon after and also be capable of gaining a qualifying obit – see rule 9 below – upon death. The only exception to this rule are persons residing on death row with an execution falling within June 2023 (feel free to risk a death rower due to take the final walk from 1 July). 3 - Entries open at 9-00am BST on 31st May and close at midnight on 31 May. Entry can only be made by posting the name of a candidate on the MMMDP thread on the Deathlist. 4 – The competition is deemed to be open at 00-00-01 (i.e. the first second of the day) BST hrs on 1 June 2023. 5 – Competition ceases on the death of the first nominated pick on the list of candidates and the winner is the dead pooler who has selected said candidate. 5a – In the event that all 21 selections remain breathing as of midnight on 21 June competition ceases anyway and the selections are deemed to have won. It is likely – but not mandatory – in these circumstances that DL posters who have not entered will heap mockery and abuse on the 21 entrants who have failed to select a stiff despite the highly permissive policy of entrants and qualifying obits of MMMDP. 6 – Entry is limited to 21 players (twenty who are obliged to post entries on the MMMDP thread and Maryport who reserves a right of entry as the master of ceremonies for this endeavour). Presumably the artistic intent is obvious but in case you missed it the idea is to get 21 players to compete for a death within 21 days thereby giving us a victory by midsummer’s day at the latest. If you’re snoozin’ you’re losing. 6a – Because he has forced his own entry Maryport guarantees to respect the first 20 qualifying picks and only enter a candidate unselected by the others. Thereby ensuring the really hot selections go to others. 7 - In the event that two players select the same candidate the allocation of the pick will go to the player who first posted an entry for that candidate – even if the entry times are within the same minute. 8 – In the event that two players tie for victory on the basis of picks expiring on the same day all efforts will be made to ascertain a winner on the basis of the actual time of death. For these purposes local time of death will be translated to GMT if required. 9 - An "obit" in the context of the MMMDP is any news report in English from a reliable source. Such sources include - but are not limited to - UK national press, UK national broadcast organisations, foreign press and broadcast organisations with an English language thread to their communication, trade press in English, local news organisations reporting in English and coverage in specialist online sites, such as those monitoring the well-being of super-centenarians. Where dispute arises over the qualifying nature of a news source for obit purposes MPFC's decision is final. But he wants fast and furious competition and is generally very amenable to low hanging dead pool fruit of all varieties. 10 – The Raymond Hewlett Memorial Award applies to the MMMDP. In honour of everybody's favourite Maddie-implicated paedo scum a candidate widely believed to be alive when the winner is declared and subsequently proven to have died previously will be awarded victory in the event that a MMMDP qualifying obit subsequently appears for said candidate. In the event that a MMMDP qualifying obit for the candidate is subsequently proven to have existed prior to commencement of the MMMDP the initial victory will be voided. RHME assisted victory is only available during competition, and in the event that competition is ended before discovery of a qualifying RHME candidate no revision of the final result will occur. Similarly, if some lucky candidate is awarded RHME victory and this victory – once declared – is proven to be spurious by late discovery of a qualifying obit; the lucky winner will be allowed to keep his/her lucky win. With this in mind rule 10a has been drawn up. Given the lengthy build-up and rapid victories of past years the least we should get from the one-day period is some entertaining banter on the thread if some desperate entrant is busily digging on little visited websites for confirmation of death of a “well known” breeder of gerbils or the like! 10a – To ensure smooth operation of rule 10 the period for discovery of result altering obits is deemed to be 48 hours plus the remainder of the calendar day in which victory is first claimed. In other words two days and a part of another day. 11 - If an obited death occurs during play of the MMMDP and is missed despite MPFC's best efforts to stay in touch and/or the spirited efforts of MMMDP participants and said death is missed in totting up points, after which a winner is declared, then this death will not count for competition purposes. The same is true in the case of a known death gathering a late obit and therefore allowing some other competitor to be declared a winner. All disputes relating to rule 11 will be resolved by the astute judgement of MPFC and there is no appeals procedure (though all sides of opinion are warmly invited to liven up the MMMDP thread by venting their fury). 12 - In the event that Deathlist editing options or other online trickery is discovered to have been employed in the editing of entries, those duly fingered for such cheating will be removed from the MMMDP and banned for life from subsequent entry into MMMDPs. 13 – In the unlikely event that a pick selected on 31 May fails to mark the start line the entrant selecting said pick will still be deemed to have entered the competition and will have until midnight 1 June to select a new pick (unselected by other entrants). Should the entrant fail to do so no other entrant will be allowed in as a replacement. 14 - A prize will be awarded as follows: i: Should the winner agree to attend a DLCon with MPFC a double measure of alcoholic drinks (pints, wine or spirits) will be supplied by MPFC along with much hearty congratulations and back-slapping. ii: A carefully chosen and appropriate prize will be posted to the winner (such as the DVD copy of the original Death Race movie supplied to the 2009 Deathrace). iii: MPFC will make a charitable donation to a cause of the winner's choice (as has been the case with all but one of the previous winnings of the Deathrace). This course of action is highly encouraged and is known to show dead poolers as something other than the sicko scum many ranters believe us to be. AND FINALLY... On completion of MMMDP activities the thread will get lively for a short while as losing contestants and spectactors offer well-deserved congratulations to the skilful and highly talented new champion, after which time it is expected that the cooling corpse of the thread will be allowed to gently sink into oblivion.

Aye, given the private ambulance excitement surely we're well past the right time to announce owt now - all very interesting. If it was there to deal with a death has his missus gone and the family are keeping it under wraps until Rolf joins in the fun, or summat?

Dvora Kedar dvead at 98.

Frank Gorshin died on this day 18 years ago, aged 72. - Gorshin's TV career began in the late '50s, often appearing on drama shows such as The Untouchables and Hennesey. - In 1957, Gorshin was in a serious car crash that left him comatose for four days, causing him to lose a role in a movie in order to recover. One newspaper falsely reported that he died. - Gorshin was also known for his impression work, particularly those of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. He would guest star on The Ed Sullivan Show twelve times- one of these was the episode that began Beatlemania (February 9, 1964). - Gorshin's most famous role was as the Riddler in the Adam West Batman show, and he was the first villain Batman fought in the series premiere. When he was unavailable, John Astin replaced him for two episodes, much to Gorshin's ire. - Gorshin was also known for his role as Bele in the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"- people erroneously believe he was nominated for an Emmy for this. - Voice roles that Gorshin was known for include Reverend Jack Cheese in Ren and Stimpy, Hugo Strange in the 2004 Batman cartoon, and Sir 1023 in Rudolph's Shiny New Year. - In later years, Gorshin would star in the play Say Goodnight, Gracie as George Burns. His final performance was in April of 2005- while on a flight from Memphis to Los Angeles headed for the next venue, Gorshin experienced difficulty breathing, and he died three weeks later from undiagnosed lung cancer; Gorshin was known to smoke five packs of cigarettes a day.

Tue 17 May 59 Elvis Presley – Rock-A-Hula Baby/Can´t Help Falling In Love 51 The Tornados – Telstar 51 B. Bumble & The Stingers – Nut Rocker 35 The Beatles – From Me To You -6 27 The Shadows – Wonderful Land +4 07 Elvis Presley – (You're The) Devil In Disguise

Marlene Hagge-Vossler, a Hall of Fame golfer and the last surviving founder of the LPGA, has died. She was 89. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/golf/obit-marlene-hagge-vossler-lpga-1.6845729

WW2 veteran, notable for visiting Hiroshima after the atomic blast in 1945 as part of the occupation forces, Joseph Nagy (1923-2023) passed away just yesterday at the age of 100, and was a major pillar to his community of Fanwood, New Jersey, where he lived for the past 60 years, and even received a key to the city by the mayor. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fanwood-mourns-the-loss-of-wwii-veteran-joe-nagy-100/ar-AA1bgjfE

Am I the only one who was introduced to Henry Kissinger through him being mentioned in a couple of Basil's rants in Fawlty Towers?

79th anniversary of the Dambusters raid today led to Today on Radio four talking to 100 year old John Bell, last survivor of bomber command in action and sometime member of the squadron who blew the dams. Sounded mentally alert, with a reassuring gravelly tone to his voice that sounded very much like an idling Rolls Royce Merlin Engine on the wing of a Lancaster, or summat.

Ronnie James Dio died on this day 13 years ago, aged 67. - Dio's actual last name was Padavona; he took his stage name from mobster Johnny Dio. - Dio formed his first band when he was 15, called The Vegas Kings. It soon changed its name to "Ronnie and the Rumblers", "Ronnie and the Redcaps", and "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets", before dropping Ronnie's name in 1967 to become "The Electric Elves", then "The Elves", and finally just "Elf" in 1972 (a total of six name changes over 15 years for those keeping count). - After Elf disbanded in 1975, Dio and three other band members joined Rainbow; he left in 1979 to replace Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. - Dio quit Black Sabbath in 1982 and formed a self-titled band, with his signature song being released the following year: - In 2006, Dio would reunite with his Black Sabbath bandmembers to form Heaven & Hell- Ozzy Osbourne had returned to Black Sabbath, and this was effectively the same 1979 lineup, just under a different moniker. - Dio Brando, the main antagonist of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga and anime, was partially named after Ronnie James Dio (the "Brando" comes from Marlon Brando). - Dio announced he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in November of 2009 (surprised he was omitted from the 2010 list), and died six months later.

There was also obscure South Dakotan senator Tim Johnson on the 2007 Deathlist Anywho, I've merged the various Feinstein conversations from the politics thread into here.

16.05.23 61 B. Bumble & The Stingers – Nut Rocker 58 Elvis Presley – Rock-A-Hula Baby/Can´t Help Falling In Love 53 The Tornados – Telstar 27 The Beatles – From Me To You -6 20 Elvis Presley – Return To Sender +4 18 Elvis Presley – (You're The) Devil In Disguise 17 The Shadows – Wonderful Land I listened to them all again (yes, even Rock-A-Hula Baby), and voting purely on what I like rather than what's expedient.

American actor Tobey Maguire celebrates his 47th birthday today. Probably best known for playing Peter Parker aka Spiderman in the movie franchise between 2002 and 2007 . His other films include Woody Allens Deconstructing Harry (1997), Fear a d loathing in Las Vegas (1998) alongside Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, Oscar winning film The Cider House rules (1999) with Michael Caine and Charlize Theron and The Great Gatsby (2013) co-starring with his pal Leonardo DiCaprio. Mary McAleese , former President of Ireland from 1997-2011 turns 71 today.

In America, anyone over 45 will remember this gem: