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Fucking fuming. I've done Whammageddon totally organically this year, not taken any precautions and left it up to chance. I've been in supermarkets, I've heard bits on the radio, I've run the gauntlet of the Christmas megamix on the parkrun boombox for the past 2 weeks and the gods have smiled on me. And how do I lose it on December 16th? Listening to commentary of Rovers match at Southampton on the radio and during the half time analysis it's playing on the PA system in the f-ing stadium!

For anyone who didn't watch Strictly final. Olly Alexander is going to represent UK in Eurovision next year.

Where the fuck has 2022 2023 gone to? Apparently it's the 1st November 5th November already, so time to set in motion another Crowdsourced Deathlist. The 2022 3 version looks set to finish ahead level with the official Deathlist (though they lacked the help of Gary Burgess actually all the 2023 TCD picks were vaguely sensible). Hey, no one is ever going to know that was copy and pasted from last years thread. Job done. 2023's list saw a number of familiar faces exit, pursued by a bear, from George Alagiah to Rolf Harris, Topol to the Unabomber. So let's see how the class of 2024 do. Will the 2024 edition be able to top our current list? We will see, but for the time being let's go over the rules, shall we? THE RULES Rules 1. Please send a list of celebrities you wish to vote for to msc, during the time period of 5th November to the 31st December 2023. The list must have a minimum of 12 names on it, and a maximum of 50. Yes, this means we are open now, as I'll just forget to officially open it otherwise. This has happened on multiple occasions... Please send them by either PM or via Shadow List thread, not by email, semaphore, Morse code, Deathlist live chat, animated corpses, text messages, or any other means of communication you can think of. And you may only submit via 1 of those two methods above, NOT BOTH METHODS! 2. Your 1st choice will gain 50 points, 2nd 49, etc etc to 50th which will gain 1 point. This is true even if you only send in 12 names, or 13 names, or 49 names. 3. When the deadline passes, all of the points that an individual celebrity gain will be added together, and the top fifty celebrities with the most points overall will go on the Utterly Unofficial Forum List. 4. Feel free to add substitutes at the bottom of the list, which will only be counted if one of your fifty die before January 1st 2024. If for example your number one pick is such a smart one they die before January 1st, then I will give 50 points to your 2nd pick, and so on until 1 point is given to the first substitute. 4b) Anyone who wishes to avoid a Pope Benny the Fuckwit Meltdown and just says "oh put my subs in at the number of the person who died" gets 10 post likes from diego. 5. Do try to make the picks as "Deathlisty" as possible. More Buffy Sainte-Marie, less Chickadee, if you know what I mean. Someone likely to score an obit with one of the major English language news outlets. 6. The deadline for sending in entries is 31st December 2023 at 9 pm GMT. That's 4pm New York Time (31st December) and 8am (1st Jan) Melbourne time to help out non-Brits. This earlier deadline is so there's enough time to complete the list before the new year as well as enjoying some extra time off as well. I am keeping Joey's earlier cut off time for simplicity because did you see what that bloody ex-Pope did? Chaos everywhere. 7. This is essentially a forum game without a winner. It does however put the long held notion by some that the combined minds of the forum know better than the Committee to the test. 8. Who picked whom will remain anonymous. Unless the person announces it of course. 9. The paranoid probably shouldn't send in their DDP unique hopefuls. Whilst I do not intend to steal them away, it would make no sense: if the person then showed up on the list, their chances of being unique would be very slim indeed! 9b. If you do wish to send your DDP unique hopefuls, I won't complain! 10. To keep to the Deathlist spirit, only the top 25 ranked celebrities from the current list of Crowdsourced Deathlist 2023 survivors will be used: Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Joanne Woodward, Glynis Johns, Roberta Flack, James Whale, Frank Field, Rosalynn Carter, Jonnie Irwin, Linda Nolan, Eva Marie Saint, June Spencer, Dick van Dyke, Ruth Buzzi, Nigel Starmer Smith, Andy Taylor, Mel Brooks, Yoko Ono, Sandra Day O'Connor, Jean Marie le Pen, Rob Burrow, Shannen Doherty, Norman Tebbit, Jacques Delors, David Attenborough, Noam Chomsky, Marianne Faithfull, Sonny Rollins, Stanley Baxter, Randy Jackson, Norman Lear, James Earl Jones, Francoise Hardy, James Watson, Vera Miles, the Duke of Kent and David Graham. As usual, this is something for me to worry about, not you. ie: 10a) Our actual collated list will stick to the "25 from the previous year" rule. 10b) As a result, if our top fifty, after all votes have been counted, has more than twenty-five of the 2023 survivors (named for ease in Rule 10), then the lowest ranked excess survivors will be axed from the list in favour of The Fifty-First ranked celebrity and so on... 10c) Since we don't know if that'll be an issue until I actually do the counting, voters don't need to worry about limiting their personal lists to 25 survivors. It'd be nice if they did, but that's life. 11) Please pick living people. Folk do die before 1st January, but there were a few cases of people dead for a number of years chosen last time. Please do not pick animals, or ISIS prisoners, or kids, or any of the usual no go areas. 12) The Deathray Rule. If Deathers is reading this, he is more than welcome to find some way to get his usual 50 points for that bloody weatherman in! If that bloody weatherman doesn't get his formerly traditional 50 from a mystery person (ie, not you, TQR) then this rule will be retired in 12 months time. Anyhow, enjoy. Or not. Will Esther still be telling us That's Life in 2024?

Mod preview is a bastard, innit?

American sculptor Richard Hunt, who is internationally renowned for his public sculptures, died at 88 years: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/renowned-chicago-sculptor-richard-hunt-dies-at-88/3305005/ He won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center.

I would urge people to vote for Bernadette Chirac and get on her on the crowdsourced DeathList.

16/12/23 19:08 hrs 28 Greg Lake — I Believe In Father Christmas 24 The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl — Fairytale Of New York  23 Wizzard — I Wish it could be Christmas Every Day +4 22 Brenda Lee — Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree 21 Kate Bush — December Will Be Magic Again 20 Andy Williams — It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 19 The Pretenders — 2000 Miles 18 Bobby Helms — Jingle Bell Rock 13 The Ronettes — Sleigh Ride  11 Bing Crosby — White Christmas -6 11 Wham! — Last Christmas 

Bullshit theory.You can't fake the steroid use the frequent documented hospitalisations with photo evidence plus on his podcast he goes into levels of detail you simply couldn't fabricate.Plus James lost his first wife to cancer and his wife lost her first husband to cancer and talks in vivid detail how traumatic that was for herself and her young daughter making me near damn certain its not a scam.In his podcast he has also called out the media for taking his statements out of context.For example last year he said he was told last year he may have twelve months or less to live but broadsheets went with "James Whale in his final months".

Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait is a hit for me in this pool. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/kuwait-leader-sheikh-nawaf-al-ahmad-al-sabah-dies-aged-86

An interesting collection, interesting in that your side of The Pond listened to different songs than the left side. The ones at the top (presently) should all be there. The others I don’t even know without listening to them, and I’m an old fuck. Pepe? A Voice in the Wilderness? Get ta fekk. 16/12/23 8:26am 37 Jimmy Dean — Big Bad John  37 Percy Faith — Theme From ‘A Summer Place’ 32 Ricky Nelson — Hello Mary Lou / Travellin’ Man +3 31 The Drifters — Save The Last Dance For Me +1 27 The Allisons — Are You Sure 25 John Leyton — Wild Wind 21 Duane Eddy & The Rebels — Because They’re Young 18 Bobby Darin — Lazy River 16 Billy Fury — Jealousy 12 Duane Eddy & The Rebels — Pepe 10 Johnny Preston — Cradle Of Love 08 Cliff Richard & The Shadows — A Voice In The Wilderness -6

Actually Hollywood Reporter typically gets covered by Yahoo.

Whatever the end result he's finacially strapped and tied up in legal proceedings for a long while. Not great for a guy approaching 80, we're dead poolers before we're conspiracy theorists, right?

Joss Ackland was a first hit for @Youth in Asia but puts @Handrejka only needing Clive Revill to win from One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

My own submission: 1. XXXX XXXXXXXX 2. XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX 3. XXXXXX XXXXX 4. XXXXX XXXXX 5. XXXXX XXXXXXX 6. XXXXXX XXXXX 7. XXXXXX XXXX 8. XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX 9. XXX XXXXXXX 10. XXXXXXX XXXX 11. XXX XXXXXX 12. XXXXXX XXXXXX-XXXXX 13. XXXXXXX XXXXXXX 14. XXXXX XXXXXX 15. XXXXXX XXXXXXX 16. XXXXX XXXXXX 17. XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX 18. XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX 19. XXXXX XXXXXX (XXX XXXXXXXX) 20. XXXXXXXXX XXXXX 21. XXXXX XXXXXX (XXXX XXX XXXX) Bruce Murray disqualified: Sub: Tom Stafford 22. XXXX XXXXXXX 23. XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX 24. XXXXX "XXXXXXXX" XXXXXXXX 25. XXXXX XXXXX 26. XXXXXXX XXXXX 27. XXXXXX XXXXXX 28. XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX 29. XXX X. X. XXXXXXXXX 30. XXXXX XXXXXXX 31. XXX XXXXXXXXX 32. XXXXX "XXXXX" XXXXXXXXX 33. XXXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX 34. XXXXXXXXX XXXXX Jonathan Mills disqualified, sub: Mike Sertich 35. XXXXX XXXXX 36. XXXX "XXXXX XXXX" XXXXXX 37. XXX XXXXXX 38. XXXXX XXXXXX 39. XXXXXX XXXXXXX 40. XXXX XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX 41. XXXXXX XXXXXX 42. XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX 43. XXXX. XXXXX XXXXX 44. XXXXX XXXXX 45. XXXX XXXX 46. XXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX 47. XXXXX XXXXXXX 48. XXXX XXXXXXXX (Joker) 49. XXXX XXXXXXX 50. XXXXX XXXXXXX-XXXXX Subs: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. XXX XXXXXXXXX 6. X.X. XXXXXXX 7. XXXX XXXX 8. XXXX XXXXX 9. XXXXX X 10. XXXXX XXXXXXXX My team without the X: Death By Numbers 2024 1 Jane McAlevey 26 Roberta Flack 2 Bridgette Wilson 27 Andrea Gibson 3 Daniel Hersl 28 Franz Beckenbauer 4 James Whale 29 Jan AP Kaczmarek 5 Brian Barzcyk 30 Harry Edwards 6 Jonnie Irwin 31 Roy Battersby 7 Stuart Gray 32 Steve Mongo McMichael 8 Princess Bajrakitiyahba 33 Alan Greenspan 9 Joe Doering 34 Mike Sertich 10 Charlie Bird 35 Steve McCoy 11 Rob Burrow 36 Rick "Black Bart" Harris 12 Denise Oliver-Velez 37 Lem Barney 13 Dikembe Mutombo 38 Frank Caprio 14 Derek Draper 39 Esther Rantzen 15 Graham Caveney 40 Noam Chomsky 16 Jimmy Carter 41 Adrian Sutton 17 Michael Tilson Thomas 42 Sudarshan Maharaj 18 Sir Henry Mountcharles 43 Cllr. Jason Smith 19 Simon Cowell (SOS Wildlife) 44 Kathy Brown 20 Charlotte Raven 45 Toni Hunt 21 Tom Stafford 46 David Elmore Smith 22 Sean Wallace 47 Craig Maxwell 23 Chuwit Kamolvisit 48 Kris Hallenga 24 Corey "Homicide" Williams 49 Toni Hilland 25 Frank Field 50 Nigel Starmer-Smith

Here he is in one of my locals about a week ago. He looks in fine form. (Photo nicked from the Book of Face - I wasn't there)

As I heard Seth Shostak - sometime head of SETI -say recently, it'll be very hard to wipe out a species. If two people are alive in 2030 we still have Mankind, just a lot less than we once had. I think we'll pollute and over-populate ourselves into an existential crisis, mainly to do with the climate, but survive it into the 22nd Century.

His last drag.

Dr. Benjamin Paolucci, a long-time physician with the Detroit Pistons NBA team, has died. He was 84. He retired from Detroit in 2015 after more than 40 years with the club. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31212310/benjamin-paolucci-former-detroit-pistons-physician-dies-age-84

Hitler was outraged to learn of the death of Bruno Ganz on this day last year, aged 77.

Charles Schulz was less animated after this day 20 years ago, aged 77.

No more places to go for Jim Varney after this day 20 years ago, aged 50.

The Mayor of MacDougal Street left office today in 2002, when Dave Van Ronk died aged 65

Actir Bryan Mosley who played shopkeeper Alf Roberts in Coronation Street died on this day in 1999 aged 67 just six weeks after his long serving character left the tv soap.

IMDB now lists a death date (17 April, 2015) for Evie Garratt. If she was alive she'd have just turned 100 (October 10th), and there's nothing out there about her birthday, so maybe she has died off the grid? Edit: found this