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GossipGabe

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Everything posted by GossipGabe

  1. GossipGabe

    Ideas and Possibilities for 2019

    If one were to go for famous centenarians, maths professor Richard Kenneth Guy might be worth considering. http://math.ucalgary.ca/math_unitis/profiles/richard-guy Although his obitability for DDP purposes is far from being guaranteed (+: Being British; Being a centenarian; Co-authoring a book with John H. Conway on Mathematical Games; –: Working in Canada; Not your typical celebrity scientist; no single great achievement like Fermat's last Theorem for A. Wiles), he could easily fit in some nerdy/science-y theme teams. (Apologies if he has been mentioned before, his name could be written in multiple ways [R. K. Guy, Richard K Guy, RK Guy ...] and I can't be arsed to search for all of them.)
  2. GossipGabe

    Curse Of The Eurovision

    Not unexpected, but still sad. Of course, she's also gotten some British obits: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/lys-assia-dead-94-eurovision-12247584
  3. GossipGabe

    Ideas and Possibilities for 2019

    While it indeed sounds a bit odd, it makes sense from a purely technical (taxonomical) point of view, since humans are great apes and thus part of the Kingdom of Animalia (sometimes anglicised as animals).
  4. GossipGabe

    Ideas and Possibilities for 2019

    If you are just going for old actors, I'd rather consider retired legends Gene Hackman, Sean Connery and the still active (but also ancient) Clint Eastwood, all more than a decade older than Harrison Ford. But can't one of these three, or maybe all three of them outlive Ford? Yes, why not. But as of yet, I don't know of anything that would make this particularly likely.
  5. GossipGabe

    Stephen Hawking

    You can call it a "random death", but it was not unexpected. It's a small miracle that he could live a near-normal lifespan with a severe form of motor neurone disease (that he had for 50 years), and had numerous (serious) health scares (mainly bouts of pneumonia) since 1985. (But it was certainly a "big death", R.I.P.)
  6. GossipGabe

    John McCain

    Then we're gonna learn that he must be an imposter, since the real Dalai Lama is exiled from Tibet (and would be arrested if he ever entered the PRC). Unless we accept the PRC's claims that the whole (or at least the Northern part) of Arunachal Pradash where this traitor his Majesty resides is South Tibet and is rightfully theirs.
  7. GossipGabe

    Ideas and Possibilities for 2019

    While I agree that a decade sounds way too optimistic, and he might be telling some white lies about his prognosis, he did claim that the figure came from a "consultant" (presumably an MD): Of course, he is pretty vague about this claim, and even if it really came from an MD, this figure might not be meaningful at all if the consultant had referred to median survival times for "typical" patients (since they might be much luckier than him), but he could have had more information about the grade and genetic profile of Bill's cancer than us. IF it's relatively indolent / slow growing or very sensitive to chemotherapy / hormonal therapy, he might survive for 2 years (with some luck).
  8. GossipGabe

    Time Added

    Shevchenko was Ukrainian though.
  9. GossipGabe

    Time Added

    Since Marc-Vivien Foé? Although that was more dramatic since he died on the pitch. (Honorable mention goes to Antonio Puerta, but he was perhaps not at the height of his career yet.)
  10. GossipGabe

    Ridiculous Arguments

    ← Always ready to kill a joke with a sérieuse argument:
  11. GossipGabe

    Ideas and Possibilities for 2019

    He is not on the list yet, but whether or not he'd be in the future depends mostly on whether the cancer would return (and spread). By the way, even though prostate cancer is rarely a death sentence, the prognosis might be worse if the cancer is high grade or if it has spread. In Fry's case, we know a lot of details – and while some of these suggest a favourable prognosis (no distant metastases, all apparent cancer was successfully resected), others might be worrying (the cancer appears to have been locally advanced – 11 lymph nodes were removed along with his prostate; high grade/aggressive tumour – was given a Gleason score of 9 out of 10).
  12. GossipGabe

    Stephen Fry

    Yes, prostate cancer is not always fatal, but the BBC article/Fry's account is still interesting, because it goes into unusual detail about his results: +successful surgery that appears to have removed all cancer +no distant metastasis –aggressive cancer: Gleason score of 9 out of 10 –locally advanced: 11 lymph nodes were removed
  13. GossipGabe

    Franco Zeffirelli

    And lately also for allegations of sexual assault: OTOH, these days it would be easier to list all the elderly male celebrities that were not accused of sexually assaulting others than those that were accused (Stan Lee, George H. W. Bush, Kirk Douglas, Franco Zeffirelli...)
  14. GossipGabe

    Billy Graham

    While that might be true, it might be worth stressing that among Evangelical preachers, he might have been one of the more palatable folks. Quoting the BBC:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13374487 In that hilarious Fred Phelps video I cited above, Phelps called Graham a "Hell-bound false prophet" (and an Armenian heretic) because in his opinion Billy "told sugary lies" when he taught that "God hates the sin, not the sinner". Anyways, I'd be curious whether the Westboro Baptist Church will keep Fred's promise and really picket his funeral with their good old "God hates America" and "God hates fags" signs, just to remind us that even though Phelps and Graham are dead, there are still enough bigotted idiots to take their place.
  15. GossipGabe

    Billy Graham

    So he outlived his younger colleague, Fred Phelps by 3 years and 11 months. Let us use this opportunity to cite a few lines from Fred's "premature eulogy" (or should I say "cacology") to Billy: Thanks for the detailed explanation Fred – I would never have found out the meaning without you!
  16. GossipGabe

    Former First Ladies

    If it was what they wrote (scar tissue removal to clear up the remnants of a successful cyst surgery), then it was an inconsequential routine procedure. So nothing to see here... unless it was something bigger and they wouldn't tell to protect her privacy.
  17. GossipGabe

    Silent Era People

    Even though it is an early talkie, it's not even a borderline case. Although there are some genuine borderline cases, but even they are swiftly purged from these lists by purists. One example is the obscure German-Hungarian actress Petra Unkel (imdb) who has no death dates on Wikipedia or imdb, and had a minor role as a 4-year old child in Napoleon at St. Helena according to her imdb page. Still, she didn't make the cut (since imdb is not considered a reliable source on Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_surviving_silent_film_actors&type=revision&diff=756213163&oldid=755294316
  18. GossipGabe

    Silent Era People

    M is a sound film from 1931, so it doesn't count. While WW2 was devastating for Germany (and most Central European countries), I think you are overestimating its death toll. But indeed, any actor alive today must have been a child actor in the silent era, and I'm not sure how many German silent films featured children as protagonists. (I guess, most of them would feature in uncredited, minor rules, which means that finding them would be hard, since the usual sources (IMDB, Wikipedia) are much less reliable/useful for non-British/American films/actors.)
  19. GossipGabe

    Silent Era People

    Silent era actresses are relics of the past, most of the people that watched these films are either dead themselves or very old. If she had died in her 20s, she would've gotten more obits. (Undoubtedly, some silent films, like those starring Chaplin are still watched today, but Lassie Lou was not Chaplin.)
  20. GossipGabe

    José José

    AFAIK, a party pooper is +5 pts (all the other bonuses [unique, drop 40, unnatural] are just +3). But he could still die today (although it's pretty unlikely).
  21. GossipGabe

    Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark

    IDK. Browsing through his Wikipedia page, the guy was a really pretentious jerk. All he cared about were titles and his place in the pecking order, throwing a tantrum and running abroad when his son (not him) was asked to host an event on behalf of the queen, loudly complaining that he was never given the title of "king" etc. He even refused to be buried with his wife because of that, in spite of the fact that the husband of a queen regnant is (and was) called a prince consort practically everywhere; except perhaps in some backward countries centuries ago where/when women weren't considered fit to rule (cf. Salic law).
  22. GossipGabe

    Henrik, Prince Consort of Denmark

    Lots of "if's", but if it's just an infection and a benign lung tumour, he could maybe survive a critical period and the thread might last for a few weeks. (But I admit that a quick death seems more likely.)
  23. GossipGabe

    John McCain

    I don't judge a book by its cover... That being said, I broadly agree with MadHatter that it's a lousy "piece" (hence the shudder quotes) and I wasn't really "arguing" about it, just wondering about his seemingly strange interpretation of DeathList rankings.
  24. GossipGabe

    John McCain

    Interesting "piece" that cites the Deathlist as one of its sources: I'd be curious where that "7th most likely to die" figure comes from. I mean, I know he is number 8 on this year's list, but that has little to do with the likelihood of death (e.g. Errol Christie was only #49 on last year's list, although he was thought to be a "dead cert"). EDIT: I also checked the Drop Forty, but it seems he was #6 there. Close, but no cigar.
  25. GossipGabe

    Only Famous For Being Ill And Dying

    Not really. If she's been given 3 months to live around Christmas, then: 20th of December (0 months) > 20th of January (1 month) > 20th of February (2 months) > 20th of March (3 months). And these are just rough estimates anyways, and might have been given with a treatment scenario (e.g. 3 months with no treatment, 7 months with optimum treatment [chemo+radioth.]). Anyways, I think she's quite likely to die before December, I'd worry more about the obit chances.
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