Wormfarmer

tol - thank you for your interest. Yes, I plan on having a 23-24 edition. I will be starting a new thread in the next week or so, and plan to start accepting entries once I put this one to bed Aug 11. Look for a deadline to submit of Aug 31. Pool will run for the 12 months following, with only a few minor tweaks which I hope will improve the game. This one is quite exciting!

I see he did die the same day you submitted your team. But I doubt you would have included him if you'd known he was dead, at the risk of a controversy. So, your word that it was just a lucky coincidence is good in my book. I will start posting teams and scores after the game closes for entries, early August at the latest.

I did provide an example, but the example followed the rules set forth. So there were rules AND an example. Not quite sure what you did, Sir C . . . Herb Alpert might be a restaurant owner, but I know him as a trumpeter and leader of the Tijuana Brass (er, musician). Looks like you spent some time on this, which is great, but everyone else is on the right track and you took a hard left at Zorbat station . . . .I have tried to clarify my opening rules to keep others from leaving the tracks. I like your effort here, but I know that if we went with wide open categories we would end up with many names outside the realm of what I consider legitimate celebrities/known figures. Maybe a future game!

Here is another issue. Due to the linking of all names submitted in a tic tac toe grid, replacing a name that dies before the game starts in not a simple feat. It will likely require a re-structuring of part or all of an entry. So I am proposing a start date for this game of July 7, on which day scoring will commence. Entries are not due at this time, but teams will be active once posted, so that early entrants do not have to restructure their whole entries as we accumulate hits throughout July. I suppose this is a bit of incentive not to wait until the last minute to submit.

Now that we have an entry, I will post mine as well. This is an acceptable format: jacques delors/bobby shantz/dick van dyke/1925 (sub in mahathir mohamad) henry kissinger/harrison schmitt/hal linden/H jimmy carter/robert solow/eva marie saint/1924 politicians/ s /actors I didn't think this was likely, but only a few entries in and already there is a redundancy conflict. After posting my team, I went to my PM and found that another player had submitted the same trio I used for politicians! Eff me! So I am swapping out jacques delors for mahathir mohamad. I was lucky to find another name to fit both categories on short notice, and not have to restructure my whole grid. Carry on . . . . .

I have made it 8 categories because I fully intended for writers/authors/journalists to be there. Also, royalty and politicians fall under the world leaders category, which I have amended above to label "politicians" instead of political leaders. I am going to keep the categories at 8 because part of the design of this pool is to be creative within the restrictions of the categories. I don't want so much leeway that we include the very marginally famous (or totally nonfamous), because they have a cancer blog or are a relative of someone who . . . . . blah blah etc. Maybe we can expand things if there are future editions. Let's see how this goes for now.

Done. Sorry I missed them. Includes journalists and authors and newspeople. Meant for it to be there when I was thinking up categories.

Derek Martin Biddy Baxter Dianne Feinstein 1933 Joss Ackland James L Buckley Jacques Delors J Perhaps Doreen Mantle Stanley Baxter Valdas Adamkus 1926 actors B politicians Joan Plowright Milan Kundera Leroy Van Dyke 1929 Joyce Randolph Joe Kinnear John Farnham J MariNisia M Emmet Walsh Sandy Koufax Steve Lawrence 1935 actors K musicians Amanda Barrie Try Sutrisno Jose Mujica 1935 Phyllida Law Prunela Scales Paul Biya P Commtech Sio Bibble Joanne Woodward George Soros Douglas Hurd 1930 actors S politicians Quincy Jones Yoko Ono Michael Heseltine 1933 Torben Ulrich Tom Oliver Terence Higgins T time Richard Bonynge Edna O'Brien James Baker 1930 musicians O politicians Jimmy Carter Dub Jones Edward Field 1924 Dianne Feinstein Derek Jacob David Ferry D diego Jean Marie Le Pen Tom Jones William Kennedy 1928 politicians J authors Margaret Kerry Frank Gehry Violetta Chamorro 1929 Rob Burrow Roger Guillemin Robert Nixon R ladyfiona Carl Erskine Helen Gallagher Valda Adamkus 1926 athletes G politicians Newt Gingrich Jane Rossington Fred Schmidt 1943 Evo Morales Esther Rantzen Eugen Ekman E Gooseberry Crumble Roy Beggs Robert Redford Roy Emerson 1936 politicians R athletes Henri Pescarolo John Blaha Brian Wilson 1942 Jack Nicklaus Jerry Bruckheimer Johnny Mathis J TheSpinosaurus George Eastham Brian Blessed Kris Kristofferson 1936 athletes B musicians Mahathir Mohamad Bobby Shantz Dick Van Dyke 1925 Henry Kissinger Harrison Schmitt Hal Linden H Wormfarmer Jimmy Carter Robert Solow Eva Marie Saint 1924 politicians S actors Henry Kissinger Bob Barker Glynis Johns 1923 Song Ping Stanley Baxter Shannen Doherty S polar duck Jacques Delors b.'25 Alan Bergman b. '25 June Lockhart b. '25 1924 politicians B actors Barbara Knox Mike Stoller Yuri Oganessian 1933 John Woodvine June Spencer James Watson J Bibliogryphon Virginia Mckenna William Shatner Roger Penrose 1931 actors S scientists Glynis Johns Bob Barker Henry Kissinger 1923 Joanne Woodward James Bolam Jimmy Carter J Buffalo Phil David Graham Andras Biro Jacques Delors 1925 actors B politicians Dianne Feinstein Barrie Chase Yoko Ono 1933 Sir Patrick Duffy Bruce Dern Bruce Dickinson D Dying Probably James L Buckley Bob Barker Silvia Infantas 1923 politicians B musicians David Attenborough Roger Corman Doreen Mantle 1926 Roger Penrose Rosalynn Carter Ryan O'Neal R Toast Torsten Wiesel Jimmy Carter William Russell 1924 scientists C actors

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Tic-Tac-Toe Tag. We have 14 players, as it looks like I scared off Sir Creep with my category limitations and he never resubmitted a team. Scoring commenced in mid July, 2023. It looks like Politicians were the most popular category, with 10 teams selecting them as a trio, followed by actors, with 8. Six of the 7 categories were chosen at least once, leaving only religious figures out in the wind. The letter J was the most chosen first name (5 times), and B was the most popular surname, with 4 takers. I just discovered that Dying Probably swapped the row/columns for first/last names, but I don't see any harm nor advantage, and since I missed it when posting the teams, it will stand. For year of birth trios, 1924 and 1933 led the way with 4 picks each. The youngest trio chosen was born in 1943, and the oldest in 1923, making them centenarians this year. I think it's a very interesting set of entries and we'll see how the scoring plays out. Good luck and I'll update scoring at least once a month or as needed. SCORING TABLE - - First to 30 points wins! Buffalo Phil 28 - a tic and two tacs, has hit 7 of 9 names in the grid Perhaps 22 - a tac and a toe Toast 20 - two tics, has hit 6 of 9 Diego 13 Polar Duck 12 Dying Probably 11 MariNisia 5 ladyfiona 4 Wormfarmer 3 Time 3 Spinosaurus 1 bibliogryphon 1 Buffalo Phil has a whopping 7 hits but hasn't yet cleared 30 points. This illustrates the importance of the center square, which is required to get the toe, which is the quickest way to 30 points! BOLD = Three teams now within one hit striking distance of the win! Only two players left not on the scoreboard - Commtech and Gooseberry

IA bit slow on the uptake. I was called out on this in the past, so I spoke without proper cogitation.....

Here it is again.....why does anyone give a hoot what someone elses like content is? Is this a competitive thing? Are there prizes getting handed out for this? I like that "likes" can be used to express support for an idea without adding pages of entries to a thread, that the rest of us have to scroll through. What is the problem here, people?

Doddie Weir died in November, which would give me 140 points and a total of 1260. I would move up 2 places on the board, but still a miserable performance by all weights and measures. I love this format, but still suck at it. New strategy in mind for next year. Mark my words: I will improve!!!

Is there any limit to the number of hits you can get in a span of 5 days? Then I'll add Al Jaffee to my growing list.

I will piggyback along with BP's hit named above and add a shout for Ben Ferencs' death (April 7) to be added to both our scores. Hey, nice choices, BP! -WF

Anyone else share the hit for Augie Nieto with me?

This seems like it might be a particularly slow month with a lot of zero to zero ties. I guess that means a lot of matches decided by random coin flips, which is not particularly sporting. I suppose all involved need to submit teams prior to knowing the outcome of the flips in case he/she is a winner? That might be some wasted time and research for those not moving on. Based on my last rule suggestion (for a different pool) I have made a police riot shield to prepare myself for all the negative backlash that I will get for proposing an improvement on this (in my opinion). A few 0 to 0 tiebreaker ideas: Fewest times joker was picked by other teams in that round total score to date in the game (all previous rounds) most solos on team Age of joker (lower age wins) lowest age of top (three, or other number) names on your list Each of these could also be applied to ties in which the hits were the same on each team. I'm ready for you to fire your fruits and veggies . . . .

Joe Satriani's Unstoppable Momentum. Top Hits of the 1950's - compiled by Casey Kasem. Mama Cass Elliot and Dave Mason's album circa 1973, along with some other Cass Elliot classics. Plus making my own cd that will be the Best 25 Hard Rock Songs of all time. Almost done with that one and just above I find one of the songs posted - Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas. Nicely done TQR!

Sorry, I was unclear. What I meant was, for ease of scoring, shouldn't the lists be posted so that when a name dies, you get the point score right next to the name, instead of having to convert the #11 name to the point value that #11 gives you when you count down from 25? It seems an unnecessary complication. But carry on. Just an observation.

pts 25 Randy Jackson 24 Donald Trump 23 Vladimir Putin 22 Phil Collins 21 Ozzy Osbourne 20 Yoko Ono 19 Buzz Aldrin 18 Clint Eastwood 17 Willie Nelson 16 Stanley Baxter 15 Rolf Harris 14 Bobby Charlton 13 Burt Bacharach 13 pts (see, easy) 12 Harry Belafonte 11 David Attenborough 10 Billy Connolly 9 Bill Cosby 8 Roberta Flack 7 Francoise Hardy 6 Nigel Starmer-Smith 5 Tony Bennett 4 Prunella Scales 3 Joanne Woodward 2 Bob Barker 1 Dick Van Dyke alt michael J Fox alt Shane MacGowan My list reflects the number of points I will score if that person dies. So I most think that Randy Jackson will survive the year, right? Isn't everyone else numbering their lists incorrectly?

One ticket please.

Thank you! I fixed the errors and added Mark Souder which results in a big jump to T2nd for Banana. However, I have not scored for Mike Davis (yet). There are literally 50 people named Mike Davis on wiki and none of them are listed as columnists, which is my only clue based on a couple of entries. There was a UCLA based author named Mike Davis that died, but are you guys digging that deep? I hesitate to give credit with that much ambiguity. It was pretty likely that somebody named Mike Davis was going to die this year! Comments?

Updated a couple of days ago. First page of thread. Enjoy.

Wormfarmer's 2023 AJ Foyt andy taylor augie nieto barbara babcock barbara barrie barbara walters bill cosby bobby caldwell brian knobbs brian wilson chuck wepner dan rather emperor akihito francoise hardy frank field (Baron of Birkinhead) gary pinkel george alagiah gianluca vialli JOKER jack hanna james earl jones james whale jason becker jim duggan jim otto joanne woodward joe a. ratzinger kat bjelland kate keltie khaleda zia larry pressler linda nolan liza minelli norm coleman otis taylor pat robertson paul hogan peter max ric flair rob burrow rosalyn drexler rosie grier shane macgowan shannen doherty sid krofft sinbad steve mcmichael ted kaczinski terri garr than shwe wilfred benitez subs red farmer chuck wepner boris spassky samson burke

The aforementioned was my joker . . . . could we have a leader change?? I'd enjoy being out front even for a little while . . . . .

Sorry, but I can only give you half credit for close . . . . .