Leaderboard

If I can imagine the person being on the Deathlist, I think a thread is okay, like this one. But then, I kind of think we spend too much time about discussing if a thread is right or not.

Just throwing this out there Someone created a thread on Monday on a certain three-piece music combo popular in the 60s. No-one has (yet) berated him for creating it (not that I'm suggesting they should). What's the difference between that thread and this one? I'm genuinely interested to know.

Bosnian wartime leader, close Milosevic's associate and human rights criminal Biljana Plavsic in a serious condition with COVID. Our thoughts are with COVID at the moment.

Another long-time 1917 name on Wikipedia: Carola B. Eisenberg (wiki), Argentine-American psychiatrist, dead at 103. NY Times obituary.

Following a longer period of thoughts and after realizing, that the DDP-hosts do not really enjoy a large number of Nobel laureates in their pool, I have decided to start the first Deathlist-competition dedicated to Nobel laureates: The Nobel Prize Dead Pool The rules are easy: Pick one living Nobel laureate by each category (Physics/Chemistry/Medicine/Physiology/Peace/Literature and Economic Sciences), who you think will die during the following next ten months. This will make six nominated people. No laureate can be chosen twice, so check who was picked by other deadpoolers! People, who accepted the award on behalf of someone or represent an organization are excluded from the contest, the 2021 laureates cannot be chosen since they are unknown until October! This inaugural year will pe shorter, since I had planned to start it from February 1st, the day the nomination period for new laureates ends. But things happened which made this pool to start later. Your team starts from the moment, you sent it in and ends on January 31st, 2022. As source will be accepted the official Nobel Prize website www.nobelprize.org. (The deaths will be mentioned there, so no lost hits to expect!) Since not so many Nobel laureates die during a year - 2017, 2019 and 2020 it had been 9 dead laureates per year, 2018 there were 18 (So do not expect a rushing contest!) – the scoring will honor every hit in a special way. So good luck and enjoy the contest.

In just in time then?

To make it easier, here is a list of all living Nobel laurates (sorry for the German spellings): Chemistry: 2019 John Bannister Goodenough, b. 1922 chosen by frleon 1992 Rudolph Arthur Marcus, b. 1923 chosen by chilean way 1980 Paul Berg, b. 1926 chosen by TomTomTelekom 1990 Elias James Corey, b. 1928 chosen by WEP 1986 John Charles Polanyi, b. 1929 2010 Akira Suzuki, b. 1930 2013 Martin Karplus, b. 1930 chosen by MariNisia 1980 Walter Gilbert, b. 1932 1986 Dudely Robert Hershbach, b. 1932 1991 Richard Robert Ernst, b. 1933 06-08-2021 (87) chosen by Bibliogryphon value: 3.634 points 1996 Robert Floyd Curl jr., b. 1933 2010 Ei-ichi Negishi, b. 1935 06-06-2021 (85) chosen by Salmon Mousse value: 3.836 points 1986 Yuan Tseh Lee, b. 1936 2000 Alan Jay Heeger, b. 1936 2000 Hideki Shirakawa, b. 1936 2007 Gerhard Ertl, b. 1936 1981 Roald Hoffman, b. 1937 1988 Robert Huber, b. 1937 2004 Avram Hershko, b. 1937 2001 Ryoji Noyori, b. 1938 2002 Kurt Wüthrich, b. 1938 2015 Tomas Robert Lindahl, b. 1938 1987 Jean-Marie Pierre Lehn, b. 1939 1989 Sidney Altman, b. 1939 2009 Ada E. Yonath, b. 1939 2013 Arieh Warshel, b. 1940 2017 Joachim Frank, b. 1940 1997 John Ernest Walker, b. 1941 2001 Karl Berry Sharpless, b. 1941 2011 Daniel Shechtman, b. 1941 2018 George Pearson Smith, b. 1941 2019 Michael Stanley Whittingham, b. 1941 2005 Robert Howard Grubbs, b. 194212-19-2021 value: 3.740 points 2016 James Fraser Stoddart, b. 1942 chosen by arghton 2017 Jacques Dubochet, b. 1942 1988 Johann Deisenhofer, b. 1943 2012 Robert Joseph Lefkowitz, b. 1943 2016 Jean-Pierre Sauvage, b. 1944 chosen by Book 2005 Richard Royce Schrock, b. 1945 2017 Richard Henderson, b. 1945 2015 Aziz Sancar, b. 1946 2015 Paul Lawrence Modrich, b. 1946 1989 Thomas Robert Cech, b. 1947 2004 Aaron Ciechanover, b. 1947 2006 Roger David Kornberg, b. 1947 2008 Martin Chalfie, b. 1947 2013 Michael Levitt, b. 1947 1988 Hartmut Michel, b. 1948 2019 Akira Yoshino, b. 1948 2003 Peter Courtland Agre, b. 1949 2016 Bernard Lucas "Ben" Feringa, b. 1951 2018 Gregory Paul Winter, b. 1951 2009 Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, b. 1952 2014 William Esco Moerner, b. 1953 2012 Brian Kent Kobilka, b. 1955 2003 Roderick MacKinnon, b. 1956 2018 Frances Hamilton Arnold, b. 1956 2002 Koichi Tanaka, b. 1959 2014 Robert Eric Betzig, b. 1960 2014 Stefan Walter Hell, b. 1962 2020 Jennifer Anne Doudna Cate, b. 1964 2020 Emmanuelle Marie Charpentier, b. 1968 Peace: 1973 Henry Alfred Kissinger, b. 1923 chosen by TomTomTelekom 2002 James Earl Carter jr., b. 1924 chosen by Bibliogryphon 1980 Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, b. 1931 chosen by MariNisia 1984 Desmond Mpilo Tutu, b. 1931 12-26-2021 (90) chosen by chilean way value: 5.531 points 1990 Michail S. Gorbatschow, b. 1931 chosen by frleon 1989 HRH, 14. Dalai Lama, b. 1935 chosen by Salmon Mousse 1993 Frederik William de Klerk, b. 1936 11-11-2021 (85) chosen by WEP value: 5.645 points (including 8 points bonus for youngest death 2021/2022) 2008 Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari, b. 1937 chosen by arghton 2011 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, b. 1938 2006 Muhammad Yunus, b. 1940 1987 Oscar Arias Sánchez, b. 1941 2005 Mohammed ElBaradei, b. 1942 1983 Lech Wałęsa*, b. 1943 1976 Mairead Corrigan, b. 1944 1998 David Trimble, b. 1944 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi, b. 1945 chosen by Book 2003 Schirin Ebadi, b. 1947 1996 Carlos Felipe Belo, b. 1948 2007 Albert Arnold Gore jr., b. 1948 1996 José Ramos-Horta, b. 1949 1997 Jody Williams, b. 1950 2016 Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, b. 1951 2014 Kailash Satyarthi, b. 1954 2018 Denis Mukengere Mukwege, b. 1955 1992 Rigoberta Menchú Tum, b. 1959 2009 Barack Hussein Obama jr., b. 1961 2011 Leymah Roberta Gbowee, b. 1972 2019 Abiy Ahmed Ali, b. 1976 2011 Tawakkul Karman, b. 1979 2018 Nadia Murad Basee Taha, b. 1993 2014 Malala Yousafzai, b. 1997 Literature: 2013 Alice Ann Munro, b. 1931 chosen by frleon 1986 Wole Soyinka, b. 1934 chosen by TomTomTelekom 1994 Kenzaburō Ōe*, b. 1935 2010 Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, b. 1936 chosen by Book 2000 Gao Xingjian, b. 1940 chosen by chilean way 2003 John Maxwell Coetzee, b. 1940 chosen by Bibliogryphon 2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, b. 1940 2016 Bob Dylan, b. 1941 2019 Peter Handke, b. 1943 chosen by WEP 2020 Louise Elisabeth Glück, b. 1943 chosen by arghton 2014 Jean Patrick Modiano, b. 1945 2004 Elfriede Jelinek, b. 1946 chosen by MariNisia 2015 Swetlana Alexandrowna Alexijewitsch, b. 1948 chosen by Salmon Mousse 2006 Orhan Pamuk, b. 1952 2009 Herta Müller, b. 1953 2012 Mò Yán, b. 1955 2017 Kazuo Ishiguro, b. 1954 2018 Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk, b. 1962 Medicine/Pysiology: 1992 Edmond Henri Fischer, b. 1920 08-27-2021 (101) chosen by MariNisia value: 2.611 points (including1 bonus point for the oldest death 2021/2022) 1977 Roger Charles Guillemin, b. 1924 chosen by chilean way 1981 Torsten Nils Wiesel, b. 1924 1977 Andew Victor Schally, b. 1926 chosen by Salmon Mousse 1962 James Dewey Watson*, b. 1928 chosen by frleon 1978 Werner Arber, b. 1929 2000 Eric Richard Kandel, b. 1929 chosen by WEP 2015 Tu Youyou, b. 1930 2015 William Cecil Campbell, b. 1930 chosen by Book 1978 Hamilton Othanel Smith, b. 1931 2008 Luc Montagnier, b. 1932 chosen by TomTomTelekom 2012 John Bertrand Gurdon, b. 1933 chosen by arghton 1982 Bengt I. Samuelsson*, b. 1934 2015 Satoshi Ōmura, b. 1935 2020 Harvey James Alter, b. 1935 1989 Michael John Bishop, b. 1936 1998 Ferid Murad, b. 1936 2008 Harald zur Hausen, b. 1936 2005 John Robin Warren, b. 1937 2007 Mario Renato Capecchi, b. 1937 1975 David Baltimore, b. 1938 1987 Susumu Tonegawa, b. 1939 1989 Harold Eliot Varmus, b. 1939 chosen by Bibliogryphon 2001 Leland Harrison Hartwell, b. 1939 2014 John Michael O'Keefe, b. 1939 1985 Joseph Leonard Goldstein, b. 1940 1996 Peter Charles Doherty, b. 1940 1985 Michael Stuart Brown, b. 1941 1998 Louis Joseph Ignarro, b. 1941 2007 Martin John Evans, b. 1941 2011 Jules Alphonse Hoffmann, b. 1941 1991 Bert Sakmann, b. 1942 1995 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, b. 1942 1997 Stanley Ben Prusiner, b. 1942 2018 Tasuku Honjo, b. 1942 1993 Richard John Roberts, b. 1943 2001 Richard Timothy Hunt, b. 1943 1991 Erwin Neher, b. 1944 1993 Phillip Allen Sharp, b. 1944 1996 Rolf Martin Zinkernagel, b. 1944 2017 Michael Morris Rosbash, b. 1944 2016 Yoshinori Ōsumi, b. 1945 2017 Jeffrey Connor Hall, b. 1945 2004 Richard Axel, b. 1946 1995 Eric Frank Wieschaus, b. 1947 2002 Howard Robert Horvitz, b. 1947 2004 Linda, b. Buck, b. 1947 2008 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, b. 1947 2009 Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, b. 1948 2013 Randy Wayne Schekman, b. 1948 2018 James "Jim" Patrick Allison, b. 1948 2001 Paul Maxime Nurse, b. 1949 2017 Michael Warren Young, b. 1949 2020 Michael A. Houghton, b. 1949 2013 James Edward Rothman, b. 1950 2005 Barry James Marshall, b. 1951 2009 Jack William Szostak, b. 1952 2020 Charles Moen Rice III., b. 1952 2019 Peter John Ratcliffe, b. 1954 2013 Thomas Christian Südhof, b. 1955 2019 Gregg Leonard Semenza, b. 1956 2011 Bruce Alan Beutler, b. 1957 2019 William George Kaelin jr., b. 1957 2006 Andrew Zachary Fire, b. 1959 2006 Craig Cameron Mello, b. 1960 2009 Carol Widney Greider, b. 1961 2012 Shin'ya Yamanaka, b. 1962 2014 Edvard Ingjald Moser, b. 1962 2014 May-Britt Moser, b. 1963 Physics: 1957 Chen Ning Yang, b. 1922 chosen by chilean way 1974 Anthony Hewish*, b. 1924 09-13-2021 (97) value: 1.429 points 1973 Leo Esaki, b. 1925 1957 Tsung Dao Lee, b. 1926 1975 Benjamin Roy Mottelson, b. 1926 chosen by Salmon Mousse 1987 Karl Alexander Müller, b. 1927 chosen by MariNisia 2000 Herbert Kroemer, b. 1928 chosen by Book 1973 Ivar Giaever, b. 1929 chosen by WEP 2013 Peter Ware Higgs, b. 1929 chosen by Bibliogryphon 2014 Isamu Akasaki, b. 1929 04-01-2021 (92) chosen by TomTomTelekom value: 1.826 points 1972 Leon Neil Cooper*, b. 1930 Last living laureate 1990 Jerome Isaac Friedman, b. 1930 2009 George Elwood Smith, b. 1930 1996 David Morries Lee, b. 1931 2020 Roger Penrose, b. 1931 chosen by frleon 1979 Sheldon Lee Glashow*, b. 1932 2013 François Englert, Baron Englert, b. 1932 2017 Rainer Weiss, b. 1932 1978 Arno Allen Penzias, b. 1933 1979 Steven Weinberg, b. 1933 07-23-2021 (88) value: 1.430 points 1997 Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, b. 1933 1984 Carlo Rubbia, b. 1934 2005 John Lewis Hall, b. 1934 2019 Philip James "Jim" Edwin Peebles, b. 1935 1976 Samuel Chao Chung Ting, b. 1936 1978 Robert Woodrow Wilson, b. 1936 2017 Barry Clark Barish, b. 1936 2003 Anthony James Leggett, b. 1938 2007 Albert Louis François Fert, b. 1938 1998 Daniel Chee Tsui, b. 1939 1973 Brian David Josephson, b. 1940 2008 Toshihide Masukawa, b. 1940 07-23-2021 (88) value: 1.736 points 2017 Kip Stephen Thorne, b. 1940 1993 Joseph Hooton Taylor, b. 1941 2004 David Jonathan Gross, b. 1941 2005 Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch, b. 1941 2016 John Michael Kosterlitz, b. 1942 2019 Michel Gustave Mayor, b. 1942 1985 Klaus von Klitzing, b. 1943 2015 Arthur Bruce McDonald, b. 1943 2008 Makoto Kobayashi, b. 1944 2012 David Jeffrey Wineland, b. 1944 2012 Serge Haroche, b. 1944 2018 Gérard Albert Mourou, b. 1944 1996 Douglas Dean Osheroff, b. 1945 2006 George Fitzgerald Smoot III, b. 1945 1999 Gerardus 't Hooft*, b. 1946 2006 John Cromwell Mather, b. 1946 1986 Gerd Karl Binnig, b. 1947 1997 Steven Chu, b. 1948 1997 William Daniel Philips, b. 1948 1998 Horst Ludwig Störmer, b. 1949 2004 Hugh David Politzer, b. 1949 1987 Johannes Georg Bednorz, b. 1950 1993 Russel Alan Hulse, b. 1950 1998 Robert Betts Laughlin, b. 1950 2001 Carl Edwin Wieman, b. 1951 2004 Frank Anthony Wilczek, b. 1951 2016 Frederick Duncan Michael Haldane, b. 1951 2020 Reinhard Genzel, b. 1952 2014 Shūji Nakamura, b. 1954 chosen by arghton 2001 Wolfgang Ketterle, b. 1957 2010 Andre Konstantinowitsch Geim, b. 1958 2011 Saul Perlmutter, b. 1959 2015 Takaaki Kajita, b. 1959 2018 Donna Theo Strickland, b. 1959 2014 Hiroshi Amano, b. 1960 2001 Eric Allin Cornell, b. 1961 2020 Andrea Mia Ghez, b. 1965 2019 Didier Patrick Queloz, b. 1966 2011 Brian P. Schmidt, b. 1967 2011 Adam Guy Riess, b. 1969 2010 Konstantin Sergejewitsch Nowoselow, b. 1974 Economic Sciences: 1987 Robert Merton Solow, b. 1924 chosen by chilean way 1990 Harry Max Markowitz, b. 1927 chosen by WEP 2002 Vernon Lomax Smith, b. 1927 chosen by arghton 2005 Israel Robert John Aumann, b. 1930 chosen by MariNisia 1999 Robert Alexander Mundell, b. 1932 04-04-2021 (88) value: 4.634 points 1998 Amartya Kumar Sen, b. 1933 chosen by TomTomTelekom 2006 Edmund Strother Phelps, b. 1933 chosen by Book 1990 William Forsyth Sharpe, b. 1934 2002 Daniel Kahneman, b. 1936 1995 Robert Emerson Lucas, b. 1937 2000 Daniel Leigh McFadden, b. 1937 2020 Robert Butler Wilson, b. 1937 2013 Eugene Francis Fama, b. 1939 2001 George Arthur Akerlof, b. 1940 2004 Edward Christian Prescott, b. 1940 2010 Peter Arthur Diamond, b. 1940 1997 Myron Samuel Scholes, b. 1941 2018 William Dawbney Nordhaus, b. 1941 2003 Robert Fry Engle III., b. 1942 chosen by Bibliogryphon 2011 Christopher Albert Sims, b. 1942 2001 Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, b. 1943 2001 Michael Andrew Spence, b. 1943 2004 Finn Erling Kydland, b. 1943 2011 Thomas John Sargent, b. 1943 1997 Robert Cox Merton, b. 1944 2000 James Joseph Hackman, b. 1944 2015 Angus Stewart Deaton, b. 1945 2017 Richard H. Thaler, b. 1945 2013 Robert James Shiller, b. 1946 2010 Christopher Antoniou Pissarides, b. 1948 2016 Oliver Simon D'Arcy Hart, b. 1948 2020 Paul Robert Milgrom, b. 1948 2016 Bengt Robert Holmström, b. 1949 2007 Eric Stark Maskin, b. 1950 2007 Roger Bruce Myerson, b. 1951 2012 Alwin Eliot Roth, b. 1951 2013 Lars Peter Hansen, b. 1952 2008 Paul Robin Krugman, b. 1953 chosen by Salmon Mousse 2014 Jean Marcel Tirole, b. 1953 2018 Paul Michael Romer, b. 1955 2019 Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, b. 1961 2019 Michael Robert Kremer, b. 1964 2019 Esther Caroline Duflo, b. 1972 *last living laureate of that year

^ In before someone pisses and moans about quoting the whole post.

Correct thread discussions finds me wishing @Cat O'Falk well whilst he's seemingly unable to post right now.

Of course. Just giving a reason why I won't be playing. I prefer a level playing field, where people make their selections in isolation and they are not revealed until the game starts.

Teams for 2021/2022: arghton: Physics: Shuji Nakamura Chemistry: J. Fraser Stoddart Medicine: John B. Gurdon Literature: Louise Glück Peace: Martti Ahtisaari Economics Sciences: Vernon Smith Bibliogryohon (3.634 points): Physics: Peter Higgs Chemistry: Richard Ernst died 06-04-2021 / age 87 / 3.634 points Medicine: Harold Varmus Literature: JM Coetzee Peace: Jimmy Carter Economics: Robert F. Engle Book: Physics: Herbert Krömer Chemistry: Jean-Pierre Sauvage Medicine: William Cecil Campbell Literature: Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa Peace: Aung San Suu Kyi Economic Sciences: Edmund Strother Phelps chilean way (5.531 points): Physics: Chen Ning Yang Chemistry: Rudolph Arthur Marcus Medicine: Roger Guillemin Literature: Gao Xingjian Peace: Desmond Tutu died 12-26-2021 / age 91 / 5.531 points Economics: Robert Solow frleon: Physics: Roger Penrose Chemistry: John B. Goodenough Medicine: James D. Watson Literature: Alice Munro Peace: Mikhail Gorbachev Economic Sciences: --- MariNisia (2.161 points): Physics: Karl Alexander Müller Chemistry: Martin Karplus Medicine: Edmond Henri Fischer died 08-27-2021 / age 101 / 2.160 points (+1) Literature: Elfriede Jelinek Peace: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel Economic Sciences: Israel Robert John Aumann Salmon Mousse (3.836 points): Physics: Benjamin Mottelson Chemistry: Ei-ichi Negishi died 06-06-2021 / age 85 / 3.836 points Medicine: Andrew Schally Literature: Svetlana Alexievich Peace: Dalai Lama Economics: Paul Krugman TomTomTelekom (1.826 points): Physics: Isamu Akasaki died 04-01-2021 / age 92 / 1.826 points Chemistry: Paul Berg Medicine: Luc Montagnier Literature: Wole Soyinka Peace: Henry Kissinger Economic Sciences: Amartya Sen WEP (5.637 points): Physics: Ivar Giaever Chemistry: E. J. Corey Medicine: Eric Kandel Literature: Peter Handke Peace: Frederik W. de Klerk died 11-11-2021 / age 85 / 5.637 points (+8) Economic Sciences: Harry Max Markowitz

This was the easy part, now it is getting complicated: The scoring will appear on a first digit base. The first digit will represent the category: As less laureates are alive in a category, as more points you can score. Literature has the least living laureates (18), so here you can score 6.000 points. The second category is Peace (31 living laureates, 5.000 points), and is followed by Economic Sciences (42 living laureates, 4.000 points), Chemistry (63 living laureates, 3.000 points) and Medicine/Physiology (69 living laureates, 2.000 points). Physics has an amount of 73 living Nobel laureates, which makes it worth 1.000 points. The second digit will honor the decade, the laureate was awarded: For everyone from the 2020, you will receive 900 points. The worth of the earlier decades reads as follows: 2010s – 800 points 2000s – 700 points 1990s – 600 points 1980s – 500 points 1970s – 400 points 1960s – 300 points 1950s – 200 points There were no laureates left from the decades before, so a sore of 100 points is not possible! The third digit will show the age of your laureate: In case, you hit is younger than 30, he/she will be worth 90 more points. 30-39 – 80 points 40-49 – 70 points 50-59 – 60 points 60-69 – 50 points 70-79 – 40 points 80-89 – 30 points 90-99 – 20 points 100-??? – 10 points The last digit gives a bonus score: In case, the laureate is the last survivor of his awarding year, there will be a 9 points bonus. The youngest death of the contest will get 8 points (awarded in February 2022!) A laureate from an African country (nationality at time of death!) 7 points A laureate from an Asian country (nationality at time of death!) 6 points A female laureate will bring 5 points. A laureate wo was awarded alone (organizations excluded) 4 points A laureate from a South or Middle American country (nationality at time of death!) 3 points A laureate who comes from Germany (born there or naturalized) 2 points The oldest death of the contest will score 1 point extra (awarded in February 2022!) So for example: The last laureate to die was Paul J Crutzen. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 and died at the age of 87. So he would have been worth 3.630 points. (He died in Germany, but was Dutch, so no bonus!)

How many premature obituaries have we gotten during these few months (ones that are still alive)? Atleast: Mustafa Ben Halim (born 1921) Died later 2021 Kenneth Kaunda (born 1924) Died later 2021 Emmanuel Milingo (born 1930) Baghdad Bob/Comical Ali (born 1940) Peter Lorimer (born 1946) Died later 2021

As Harry said, there is a thread for Astronauts which is perfectly adequate for any news that might arise about Buzz Aldrin. In general, people only merit a dedicated thread of their own if they are regularly newsworthy or controversial in some way. Most others fit into existing topics.

Ian Hislop here, being absolutely right on the money, so to speak, about our wretched govt’s use of money.

That's right! The next update/leaderboard will be posted after hit No.20; Kotto is hit No.18.

@Book So The Quim Reaper and I are currently the two leaders of the side game with nine hits each?

Kent Taylor, founder and former CEO of Texas Roadhouse has died

Updated list on previous post to include IMDb's "living" names for 1922 births. Most are still alive but notably 4 deaths uncovered (2 recent and 2 off the radar), with potentially a 5th being Bridget Sellers (I'm 75% sure that's her death record). It'll be interesting once we get a concrete answer for Disney actress Cate Bauer as she's a serial DDP pick! My money is on still alive.

Absolutely- if he makes it that far. Average survival rate for mesothelioma is around ten months, which would take him to January 2022.

I hadn't heard of him either until he made his DL debut. Sports commentators never become household names outside their country or the language in which they commentate. Oh, and surely he deserved a better front page picture than THAT? RIP

As a sufferer of narcolepsy...

I've just read A Conferate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan for the fourth or fifth time. Worth mentioning if only because Brautigan is all but forgotten today but his rambling style, the way he constantly plays with notions of whether his narrator character is really him, and the short chapters read like a blog sometimes. He wrote it almost fifty years ago. Mebbe worth reviving his work now.

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Oh, no. What a shame it would be if Americans had their balls drop without any Dick there.