The Brain

You have neatly summarised all of the reasons why DL is boring. I'll just ignore it from now on, after 21 years of watching. If the mutated game is interesting to you, I genuinely wish you plenty of fun.

You are using DL as a tracking device – and you are entitled to enjoy your own game – but DL was conceived as a game of skillful selection, and continues to be reported that way by the Committee with a "success" being the death of someone whose name is in their list. To me, getting someone's year of death correct once in 18 attempts is an embarrassing failure. With my rule, we don't need to miss anybody if the big names are picked close to their actual death.

I agree with that, but another big problem is the way the Committee leans on several people until they die of old age. It's just cyber-squatting their names. They picked Kirk Douglas 18 times until he couldn't hang on anymore. That's a no-skill game. Names should be permanently retired after 6 tries.

This is not a moral victory for DeathList. Leaning on a guy for 18 years is what I call cyber squatting. Anything over 7 appearances is simply cowardice in the selection process. Let's see some skillful selections.

Irreverent in the true spirit of Deathlist.

Not at all. Emotions have been locked in for a few weeks, based on personalities & policies. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the 2 major parties (Liberal & Labor) have never been so disliked. The death of someone who was deposed more than 27 years ago because his decision making process went wobbly will not change anything. OTOH, his deposer (Paul Keating) has been shooting off at the mouth recently, and might make a difference. A significant minority of us have already voted because we'll be away from our home districts on Saturday.

Correct. My father (who is 8 months older than Murray) quit smoking in 1960 because of the known cancer risk, and is still alive & kicking. The previous generation wasn't aware, so I don't accuse them of anything. I mentioned Graham's (possible) cause of death at age 66 only as a reason why Murray should anticipate a ripe old age like his mother's. (I've never seen Murray with a cigarette, so it seems a lesson was learnt).

Murray seems to be chasing after the age of his mother Elsie: 101-102. His father Graham carked it at only 66 years – perhaps related to the fact that he was often photographed with a cigarette or pipe in his mouth. For comparison, Graham's older broth er Eric reached 89 years.

I had been hoping for a full recovery for her, but now that you've rekindled such an unpleasant memory, I'm not so enthusiastic.

I still think the doomsayers have it right, that she has "only weeks to live." About 1,600 of them.

Australian TV advert which might appeal to your sense of humour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFD6iiavcrk (Australian idiom "out in the woop woop" = hundreds of km from human uncivilisation).

Election is the process by which Donald Trump became US President. Add your own national Prime Minister or President to the disaster list. It's been said that every time there's a Royal Visit to Australia, the republican movement takes a hit. Seeing Donald Trump on the TV news adds to the effect.

Anybody who can evade the retaliatory spears of Australian Aborigines can't be in bad shape.

Always polite, Toast. It's the only way to get respect.