GossipGabe

Here's what the article says TV legend MARY TYLER MOORE spends her sad last days in the grip of dementia, her few lucid moments are spent deciding on her resting place while being reminded of the tragic deaths of her loved ones! With most of her affairs now in order, Mary is left with making the gut-wrenching and difficult decision of whether to be buried or cremated, a family insider told The National ENQUIRER. But the source also revealed the heartbreak behind that decision, as the beloved star, 78, ponders being buried alongside her kid sister, who died of a drug overdose or joining her only son and her younger brother in having her ashes scattered. Mary is wrestling with these decisions with husband Dr. Robert Levine as she lives out her remaining days at their $10 million estate in Greenwich, Conn. The dying star is considering cremation as a tribute to her son, Richie, who died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1980 when he was 24. Again the "sad last days".... last year there was an article about Valerie Harper with the same phrase (I can only see it by Google-newsing "valerie harper sad last days national enquirer"). As long as she can still decide how to die, she can't be at death's door (Wouldn't her guts be burned or buried instead of wrenched?). Also, how can Mary's world be rocked "again" by the death of her brother, when that death occured 24 years ago?I tried to search for "sad last days national enquirer" but Valerie or Mary weren't even in the first seven hits! They applied this cliché to literally every aging celebrity from James Garner and Zsa Zsa to Olivia de Havilland, Maureen O'Hara, Joanne Woodward and Nancy Reagan. I have the feeling that these articles are primarily written by an automated algorythm using pre-defined keywords (dying, tragic, regret etc.) and then fine-tuned by a sad excuse for a journalist.

Hasn't the Eurovision Song Contest become a parody of itself these days? A parody of itself? Maybe that's a bit too strong. But nowadays, the winners would rarely embark on a huge international career in the music industry, like ABBA had done in the heyday of the contest. And yeah, it's not a song contest in the strictest sense, the quality of the music might be of secondary importance, being "interesting" and "different" should be the key to a winning entry. You could list quite a few weird winners from the last decades, like transsexual Dana International in '98, hard rock/heavy metal band Lordi in 2006 and bearded lady Conchita Wurst last year. Electro Velvet might get some points for its novelty value (strange genre: electric swing) and Bianca has an interesting background story with her cystic fibrosis, but I doubt that these will be enough for a podium. On a positive note, they can't do much worse than Jemini...

I've watched about one and a half episodes but I found it pretty boring. If I'd have to watch cartoons, I would choose Futurama, Family Guy and even South Park over the Simpsons any day. That being said, he seemed to be a crazy but fun guy (with some minor character flaws), so I don't think there's any reason to celebrate. I'd save my champagne for the day when Mugabe dies. (As he still looks pretty healthy, it'd seem like an outside bet - but 9 months might be a long time at 91.)

SInce everyone and their dog chose Sam, I hoped he would last at least until his 60th birthday. I didn't make him my joker, but those that did now receive more bonus points than otherwise. I still wouldn't rule out assisted suicide though. The people around him seemed to know it was over. But yes, he might also have fallen in a coma without return. We are probably not going to know.I wouldn't suspect foul play in his case. Remember that his chemo stopped working, he had like 5 operations in 4 days, blood infection, litres of fluid drained from his stomach and lungs. Plus he missed the Super Bowl and the Oscars, despite being a huge football fan and an avid cinema goer. (As for his will to live, he had this animal saving campaign going, so he had something to motivate him even when he was in pain.)

Lots of other news sources report his death now, I guess some are even DDP-compatible. Though an obit was never in doubt. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sam-simon-dead-the-simpsons-cocreator-dies-aged-59-10096742.html

In the end, 41.67% voted for Sam. A clear winner - though it didn't take much skill or detective work to get it right.

Not a surprise, but still kind of sad. I voted for him on the "who will be the second hit?" contest, but was secretly hoping that he'd get a few more weeks and that Mugabe, Bhumibol Adulyadej or Fidel Castro would predecease him. On a related note, congratulations to Vaagheid - who got the day right in addition to winning the contest!

Yes, we know it won't be him. Having said that .... it probably will be him in a way, as no doubt he's got it all prepared, his famous last words and all that shit. I don't know, his girlfriend kinda behaves as if he was dead already, posting selfies of Sam+her together and stating how much she adores(/d) him. Maybe he is unconscious/heavily sedated and preparing for a long journey. At least otherwise it's hard to explain why she should be "reminiscing" instead of spending his last days together.http://t.co/VnjRvdNWyk

Well I see it has already received some rave reviews in the British press. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/eurovision/11457228/Eurovision-2015-Electro-Velvet-will-ensure-we-dont-win.html But staying on topic, it's worth noting that the female part of the duo, Bianca (26) is living with cystic fibrosis, an incurable, hereditary disease that reduces lifespans by 20+ years with large variance. Some people with the condition may die in their twenties (albeit this is now rare), so she could make a weak but potentially lucrative DDP candidate (low likelihood of dying, but many points if she dies). On a related note, the Finnish contestants are middle aged punk rockers "with learning disabilities". One of them looks as if he had a hereditary genetic defect. Of course, even IF... an obit in the UK would be in doubt. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/feb/27/finnish-punk-band-take-punt-eurovision-title

Yeah, and it's also worth noting that it's actually the civil government (the head of which is the president, Hassan Rouhani) that conducts these negotiations with the West. Of course, they needed the approval of the Supreme Leader, but the operative decisions and the talks are left to the civil government. I guess if Khamenei finally passes away, the negotiations may be suspended for a few weeks (til he is buried, mourned and a new Supreme Leader is elected), but it's unlikely to result in a complete U-turn. Unless, of course, there's a successful coup...

Yes, we know it won't be him. Well, some people expect the bad news to be announced on his channel. To be fair, it's possible that he has given the password to his girlfriend so she can break the bad news and close the acct afterwards, but she may need some time to regain her composure after his death. We'll see.

That's kind of understandable. His doctors told him that his chemo stopped working, so they can't do anything for him besides giving him sedatives and painkillers. I guess he also feels depressed 'cause he knows what this means. His quality of life would only get worse from this point and he only has weeks if not days to live. One thing that is common in terminal cancer patients near the end of their lives is that they always feel tired even though they sleep a lot and don't move around much. And in Sam's case, sedatives can also contribute to that since he asks for large (perhaps larger than recommended) doses from his nurses. As he's a terminal patient in constant pain and discomfort, they have no reason to deny his requests since tolerance/addiction is now a lesser concern. But if you still want tweets, you could also follow his staff and friends at http://twitter.com/samsimonnews and his girlfriend at http://twitter.com/katastraphe007 . They might be the first channels to announce his eventual demise...

I'm fine with pronouncing Kerkorian's name, but I had had some trouble with that of their best (current) football player, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, until I learned that an epenthetic schwa can be inserted after the /m/ in his surname. The Armenians still excel at chess by the way, Levon Aronian has been among the best chess players for nearly a decade now, and are always top contenders at the chess olympiads, despite having a population of only 3 million in Armenia (and a large and influential diaspora in the US, they even made it to the famous deathlist ).

I don't blame you - this Kerkorian guy may be quite rich, but not very interesting, unlike his near-namesake. On the other hand, this article seems to be factually inaccurate. I'm pretty sure that Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian) was at least as famous, and she's almost 70 now, she might be a DDP/Deathlist prospect in a few years.

Sorry but how does one unsuccessfully shoot themselves in the head? Either they hit the target or they didn't. SC He shot himself in the head but didn't inflict a fatal wound. It's fairly simple to deduce. that's what he meant but didn't say On a point of pedantry he was successful in shooting himself in the head. I have to go with SC on this one. Did I just say that? Unsuccessfully dying from shooting himself in the head? What would that even mean? He did not actually die. Why not add more clutter? Unsuccessfully trying to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, maybe? Or unsuccessfully trying to split hairs?

Hi there. If you are not sure of the DDP rules, just check them at http://www.deathlist.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=8431 I think they're pretty funny. Being famous just for being sick and likely to die would disqualify her from the main deathlist, picked by the committee members, but not the DDP or Deathrace. I think it's an interesting case, a bit like Henrietta Lacks, she would make a contribution to science through her illness and eventual death.

I think the "full version" is just the version designed for desktop computers and laptops - the normal, regular version of the forum that has all the functions and the buttons. I agree that the "mobile version" that you see on android and apple/i- phones and tablets by default is, er... well, a bit meh. I use it on my smartphone but the edit button and lots of other delicacies are either missing or well hidden - so I switched to the full version on my tablet. No performance issues, the only problem I had was that even the minimum font size is a bit too big so long posts can't fit on one screen. But at least I won't need glasses to use the forums.

By Slavic standards Gorby's a fairly moderate drinker, isn't he? Though he is old and has had other health issues. By Slavic standards, yes - since these standards require a minimum alcohol content of 40% for Vodka, of which they consume quite a lot, he wouldn't be alive at 84 if he wasn't. His successor, Yeltsin was just as old as him and an alcoholic - he was one of the most popular picks at our domestic death pool in the '90s, the fact that he survived til 2007 was a small miracle. Oh and his predecessor, Chernenko was suffering from cirrhosis as well, so he must have been a drunkard as well. Gorbi wasn't, and the commies even launched an anti-alcohol campaign at the beginning of his spell as the paramount leader of the Soviet Union, but it wasn't very successful. On the other hand, the death of his wife 15 years ago deeply saddened him according to his autobiography, and he had to visit the hospital a few times last year.

In some Slavic countries like Russia or Ukraine, the life expectancy for males might be more than 10 years shorter than in developed countries (due to excessive alcohol abuse, among other things), so the candidates don't have to be very old in order to be considered viable suggestions. E.g. Even though Gorbachev is only 84, he outlived his commie-era political rivals (Andropov, Chernenko) by 30 years and his successor, Yeltsin by 8 years. He lost his spouse to leukaemia 15 years ago and his health is said to be failing.

This year for the first time I didn't pick the world's oldest for my DDP team. All her predecessors performed as expected, but mrs Okawa's failure to die last year prompted me to let her go, there were more valuable possibilities. I don't think she'll do a Jeanne Calment (who held the title for 9 years and 205 days), but she may well be around a few more years.She may be around for this year, but she's unlikely to catch up with Calment or even Sarah Knauss. The Gerontology Research Group has some cool tables on supercentenarians with some interesting implications. One of these lists all the verified supercentenarians ranked by age as of 01.01.2014. Of course, such lists always have systematic bias due to the verification process, since older people are seen as more interesting and may be more likely to be verified and more recent candidates can be checked more easily etc. but it's still oretty clear that the number of people in each birth (year) cohort drops rapidly over the age of 110. http://www.grg.org/Adams/B.HTM There was exactly one case at 122 (Calment), one at 119 (Knauss), two at 117, five at 116 and 21 at 115, 67 at 114, 118 at 113, 232 at 112, 415 at 111 and 762 at 110. Assuming that there is indeed a late life mortality plateau, and the 1-year survival rate is roughly constant over the age of 110, we would arrive at a figure between 50 and 60% per cent (415/762 ≈ 232/415 ≈ 0.55; 118/232 ≈ 0.51; 67/118 ≈ 0.57; we discount the cohorts above that due to sample size). Being optimistic, and going with 60% (due to advances in medicine, female gender etc.), the chances of her catching up with Calment could be less than 8 per cent (0.6^5). Similar conclusions could be drawn from the table of living supercentenarians. http://www.grg.org/Adams/E.HTM Of course, it's just a very crude estimate, but even if I had been precise it would be clear that a new longevity record is unlikely in the near future... Real actuarial estimates that don't assume any LLMP are even more pessimistic, and calculate with a 1-year death probability rate just below 1 around age 120. http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html

Indeed! It's a picture with a "John Blaine" who has also written something related on his facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153157465388781 Either it's really the end or Simon is thinking about stopping the treatment or even assisted suicide. "Stopping treatment" would make no sense. Doctors briefed him that the chemo ceased to be effective, and since it wasn't the first drug combo that they tried (the first line treatment also stopped working a while ago), there are likely no viable options left for him (and his doctors) that could extend his life. Any treatment that he still gets is likely palliative in nature (painkillers/sedatives etc.), so stopping them would only make things worse for him. I agree with Shaun of the Dead that he doesn't seem to be the type that'd opt for suicide, and even if he's in pain and discomfort, he'd surely think about his girlfriend ( http://t.co/5zYU0EMQk1 ) and fight til his last breath. On the other hand, he could accidentally overdose ona tivan or opioids since his carers would likely care more about his suffering than the long-term effects of his excessive drug intake.

While I wholeheartedly agree that people with a known illness are usually more interesting suggestions than people who are simply very old (and notable), it might be worth noting that just being a nonagenarian might be a more relevant adverse prognostic indicator than some less serious (or near-harmless) cancer types (like non-metastatic testicular cancer, non-melanoma skin cancers, esp. basal cell carcinoma) that have cure rates of over 90%. The following excellent article, posted by Bibliogryphon in a thread on one of the old people on deathlist points out that people over the age of 96 who are alive at the start of the year have a 1-year baseline mortality rate of 25% and that rate increases to 30% by the age of 100. http://plus.maths.org/content/understanding-uncertainty-how-long-will-you-live#ref Then add the fact that DL2014 only had a success rate of 10/50 (20%) and that nearly everyone dying were ancient people as opposed to younger celebrities like Valerie Harper, Sam Simon and Wilko Johnson who all survived the year despite being declared terminal...

And some people thought that Hurricane Katrina was "divine retribution" for the mortal sins of the residents of New Orleans.

Er, well... he's certainly not the only one. There's everyone's favourite, George Soros, for example. He's also known as "The Man Who Broke the Bank of England" and was largely seen as responsible for the severity of the 1997 financial crisis (speculated against the Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht). He is also a billionaire and donated millions of USDs to help Democrats in their (unsuccessful) bid to remove George Bush Jr. from power, and well known for his advocacy of progressive-liberal causes (like agitating Ukrainians against Russia) in the US as well as in Central and Eastern Europe (where he was born). Turning 85 this year, he could also make a decent candidate in a few years.

I bet if Castro or Mugabe dies we'll get a double dose of sarcasm, to make up for the lack of it in this one. And as for Spock, it weren't just the news people, he got an obit from that infamous son of a Kenyan chief economist as well. I wonder how many other people on this year's list could get something like that. :-)