CastAway

Alternatively in the News 1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee 2. Lata Mangeshkar 3. Dilip Kumar 4. Marieke Vervoort (Joker) 5. John McCain 6. Leah Bracknell 7. Alberto Fujimori 8. Rayya Elias 9. Stefan Karl Stefansson 10. Greg Gilbert 11. Billy Graham 12. Simon Ricketts 13. Dennis Norden 14. Junrey Balawing 15. Catherine Nevin 16. Stephen Hawking 17. Clarissa Eden 18. Christine King Farris 19. Vera Miles 20. Valerie Harper Theme Team 1: Ice Dancing 1. Élise Béliveau 2. Jim Conachar 3. Don Cherry 4. Alan Rittinger 5. Hazel McCallion 6. Ted Lindsay 7. Red Kelly 8. Jim Morrison 9. Howie Meeker 10. Emile Francis 11. Steve Wojciechowski 12. Kelly Burnett 13. John ‘Chick’ Webster (Joker) 14. Alan Rittinger 15. Ivan Irwin 16. Larry Kwong 17. Frank Ashworth 18. Tom McGrattan 19. Ray Hannigan 20. Johnny Peirson Theme Team 2: Nobely Dying 1. Tu Youyou 2. Satoshi Omura 3. Alice Munro 4. Akira Suzuki 5. Mario Vargas Llosa 6. Sydney Brenner (Joker) 7. J.M. Coetzee 8. Kofi Annan 9. Hideki Shirakawa 10. Toni Morrison 11. FW de Klerk 12. Aung San Suu Kyi 13. Wole Soyinka 14. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji 15. Martinus Veltman 16. Masatoshi Koshiba 17. Rainer Weiss 18. Isamu Akasaki 19. Francois Englert 20. Martin Karplus --- Elias is my first hit of the lot.

I'll be in this year as well! Also, the jokers from my DDP theme teams aren't on your list at the moment - John ‘Chick’ Webster Sydney Brenner

Putting my Jan deaths here (obits linked on their names): Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva, no. 738 on my list Rayya Elias, no. 246 on my list Salvador Borrego, no. 97 on my list Marjorie Holt, no. 585 on my list Tom Luken, no. 622 on my list Doug Barnard Jr., no. 506 on my list John V. Tunney, no. 414 on my list Frankie Muse Freeman, no. 154 on my list Jessica Falkholt, no. 1788 on my list Clara Marangoni, no. 116 on my list Anna Campori, no. 219 on my list Marjorie Holt, no. 585 on my list Baroness Olive Nicol, no. 1047 on my list John 'Chick' Webster, no. 1512 on my list Max Labovitch, no. 1518 on my list (not sure if this counts as a proper obit, please let me know if it doesn't)

Tony Calder, music promoter and executive who worked with a variety of bands, including The Beatles and Rolling Stones, has died aged 74.

Jon Paul Steur, former child actor who was one of the child actors who portrayed the role of Alexander Rozhenko (son of Worf) is Star Trek: TNG, has died aged 33.

Yup, I'm having the same issue with Larry Winn Jr. - his obits just started coming in, but he apparently died on the 31st of December. Do I pull in a sub or is he a hit?

So, source for death reports is some twitter bot called the Just Died Bot, which scrapes Wiki for news of celeb deaths and tweets RIP messages. My guess? Someone messed with JEJ's Wiki entry, it was up for long enough that the bot sent out the message, and it caught the notice of a couple of twitter users - rumours have mostly died out after the first hour or so.

Random Twitter people saying he died of complications from diabetes, but until something credible emerges, this just seems like another hoax - nothing from the usual gossip rags, which I'd expect to be leading the charge is the news was real, tbh.

Wouk, once again. I'm bringing this in from my last year's insistence that it'll be Wouk next (he has to go soon, right? RIGHT?)

First time doing this, and I may have rushed my lists out, but I got them out!

Finished my list and sent it to you @Deathray

Eric Garner's 27 year old daughter, Erica, is in the hospital in a coma after suffering a heart attack. Given the fact that her dad was a victim of police brutality, plus the fact that she's been an outspoken activist against police brutality I'd expect a QO.

Animation Magazine confirms

Freddie Marsden is dead. Guardian obit: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/dec/20/guardianobituaries.pop

Dan Johnson, member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, has died via suicide by gunshot. Two days before his suicide Johnson was accused of molesting his daughter's friend when she was 17, and the Kentucky Republican party had called for his resignation, which he refused to give. Guardian, CNN, Time, The Sun, BBC

Thanks! Also re: claim to fame requirement, does being very old count as a claim to fame?

Thank you!

Quick question: what counts as a valid obit? Any English language, or just any obit at all? I've got the start of about another 100 or so entries to my list, but I doubt many of them will get English language obits...

Members of Parliament and pastors calling on Amber Rudd to ban Franklin Graham from entering the country next year as he currently plans to. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/franklin-graham-blackpool-lancashire-trip_us_5a2ad4a6e4b0a290f05056e1?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009 How this affects his dad, IDK, but thought it was somewhat relevant all the same.

Could I have a name change please? CastAway, if that's available?

Should note that as a regular columnist for the NYT - her last column was on Nov 21st this year, give or take a few days - I wouldn't be surprised if she got a QO. She's got one from the NYT on lock anyhow, and that should be enough for some of the non-DDP pools. Also, she still has the disease, given her column is about living w/ ovarian cancer.

Javier Perez de Cuellar, because if he croaks before the end of the year the DL gets another hit and that would just be fun.

Re: claim to fame requirement, does being very old count as a claim to fame?

I'll attempt creating a list for this, I think. Can't promise I'll actually end up getting one in, but trying to create a list should be entertaining in and of itself. If said list creation does happen, I might steal FixedBusiness' idea of a Google doc with the list that's then linked here - would probably be easier to keep track of anyhow.

French novelist, philosopher and journalist Jean d’Ormesson has died aged 92. NYT Obit