MrWonderful

I'm not even convinced that Trump will agree to actually do the debates, especially if he thinks he will win or is ahead in the polls. The question was asked a few posts ago as to who seems to have the upper hand, and right now, according to the betting odds I've seen, it's a dead-heat. Both Trump and Biden are listed at -105 right now. It's crazy, on the eve of the South Carolina primary (when Biden appeared to look cooked and when Bernie Sanders was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination), Trump's odds to win re-election swelled to -220, the best they had ever been. Within a week, after Biden's momentum from winning in South Carolina and then dominating on Super Tuesday, Trump's odds came back down to -150, still a solid favorite but not nearly as much. And now, a couple of weeks later, we're at an even battle. Of course, this coronavirus crisis and the resulting economic downturn are unexpected things. It did look like the U.S. had a good chance to suffer a recession, but now we might be talking about something much more drastic. But if it turns out that very few people die and if we (America) gets through this relatively well, Trump could get a boost. Of course, if the opposite happens and if a decent portion of our elderly population dies, it could be an absolute Biden landslide. I thought Trump was going to win easily a couple of weeks ago, but there are some signs that Biden has a solid chance. After the moderate wing of the Democratic Party clearly coalesced around him, voter turnout in the primaries was way up compared to 2016, and it wasn't Sanders turning out voters, it was Biden. He's doing significantly better than Hillary Clinton did four years ago in key voting blocs. But, again, this pandemic has the potential to throw a wrench into everything.

Yeah the whole thing seemed like touch and go late last year, and although he's no longer hospitalized, I don't think he's exactly in the clear. Still think this was a good pick, and he will be on my 2021 list (if he's still with us) barring a notable change in his condition.

Good on the committee for getting this hit. I had never heard of who or what Genesis P-Orridge was until I looked it up just now.

I'm not going to pretend that he's at his full capability, but Biden has a better chance to win the general election than Sanders does. It doesn't even matter what I personally prefer, I'm just saying that the American people would not elect Sanders in a general election, even against a deeply unpopular president like Trump. Since it's not a popular vote contest here (laughably), for voters in the states that matter here, they will consider some of Bernie's stances and previous statements as more anti-American than, well, anything that Trump has said or does. It's sad but I absolutely believe that to be true. When it appeared that Sanders was the clear Democratic frontrunner two weeks ago, Trump's betting odds swelled to -220, a high for him. A couple of days after Super Tuesday last week, Trump's odds dropped back down to -160. At this moment, they are back down to -115, almost even-money again, as Biden has surged to -1000 to win the Democratic nomination. Yeah, the Dow suffered a drop and people are panicking over coronavirus, but the Biden surge and Trump's precipitous odds drop in a week are related.

Carter just endorsed Bernie Sanders. Showing once again that he is not good at presidential politics!

She would be the dream for those who want to see Trump defeated (just because she's as close to universally-liked by Democrats as you're going to find), but unless it's completely on the hush-hush, there's no indication that she would agree to it. That said, she is 25-to-1 on a betting site I saw. Amy Klobuchar (+250), Kamala Harris (+350), and Stacey Abrams (+500) were the three favorites I saw, with Elizabeth Warren at 12-to-1.

Woodward.

^ He certainly is. Looks more gaunt than Trebek, I would even argue.

For her sake, I hope it's the latter. If it does happen to be the worst possible news, she's probably still a good bet to survive the year. But there's a chance that she would make an excellent pick for 2021, especially in formats that reward more points for youthful people. To add to that, she did begin her Feb. 25 tweet (that I referenced earlier) by saying that she "had good & bad news today." So it's certainly plausible that the "good news" could be that the doctors think it's benign and that she has a good shot at recovery. Also today, she retweeted a tweet from ace football reporter Adam Schefter. In the tweet, Schefter references a post from Kelly Stafford, the wife of Matthew Stafford, who underwent a 12-hour surgery last year to remove a brain tumor. Kelly Stafford announced that she and Matthew are expecting their fourth child. So perhaps it's Britt's way of telling the world that this isn't a death sentence. Again, for her sake, I hope so. Also reminds me of a 7-minute feature I saw on last night's SportsCenter, where NBA player Jrue Holiday and his wife Lauren were profiled. Lauren Holiday, for those who don't know, used to be a star player on the U.S. women's national soccer team. While pregnant with their first child in 2016, it was discovered that she had a brain tumor, a meningioma. The child was delivered a few weeks early and everything is OK with their daughter now. Lauren underwent the surgery a few weeks after giving birth. And while she's doing reasonably well now, the ordeal was considered life-threatening at the time, and she'll never be the previous version of herself. She still has some bad days.

Having surgery to remove a brain tumor isn't necessarily a death sentence, but I don't think I need to tell y'all how serious it is. And in a Feb. 25 tweet where she talks about making your check-ups, she says to get an MRI early and that "it could have saved me." I don't know about you, but that specific phrasing sounds rather ominous.

From the Hollywood Possibilities thread, I think we need to add James Caan, since he is looking rather frail in those pictures and in a wheelchair. Even if he isn't strictly confined to a wheelchair, he looks gaunt. And at 79, it's not like he's in extreme old age, either. One to watch, for sure.

Damn, Mr. Caan definitely looks quite frail. It's not just that he's in a wheelchair; he looks very thin, and he wasn't ever like that, that I can recall. His legs look like toothpicks. Absolutely one to put on 2021 watch lists.

Damn shame. He was a hell of a player, with a better 7-year peak WAR than that of Omar Vizquel, who very well could end up the Hall Of Fame in the next couple of years. RIP.

I think this singer is much younger, and based on the clue packages on the show, Olivia just doesn't feel right to me.

American college basketball fans, and basketball fans in general, may very well know who Bob Knight is, one of the winningest college coaches ever. He returned to Assembly Hall today for the first time since getting unceremoniously (and deservedly) fired by Indiana in 2000, and he looks very frail. Could be one to watch. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28660306/emotional-bob-knight-ends-20-year-split-indiana

As someone who was a contestant on Sports Jeopardy, I can tell you that this is accurate. A few years ago, I filmed my episode during July, and it aired in November. Same producers, I believe.

Irving Berlin, the famous American composer, made it to 101.

He suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2006, and I believe it slowed him down pretty significantly. From what I gather, 66% of victims of a ruptured brain aneurysm experience permanent neurological damage, and I believe Gammons is in this category. I follow him on Twitter, being a sports fan, and he'll very often compose tweets with grammatical errors and the like. Since it's been 14 years, I agree that he could be one to watch, particularly if he starts covering baseball less, being less active on Twitter, etc. As far as I can tell, he's still actively reporting on information he gets. (For example, he was tweeting about the Mookie Betts trade in the past 48 hours.)

Oh, there's no question. He's on my list for 2020.

This is really smart thinking. Putting her on my 2021 watch list right now. Not Mrs. Costanza!

Going for a longshot with Woodward.

Just for some housekeeping, I wanted to put my 2020 Top 50 as my signature, and I saw here that I accidentally listed Fujimori twice, and omitted Pope Benedict, so I added him to the list on my sig. Carry on.

I'm off to a good start in my annual death pool draft contest with my buddies, with Chris Doleman and arap Moi dying. Those were my two most confident picks, but still, not bad. As a 4-person group, we've hit on 3 deaths total so far, and I've hit two of them. Terry Jones was the other hit.

Sounds like my #3 pick for the year is close to death.

Yeah, even making it 24 months was a statistical surprise. Had he made it to 2021 it would've been pretty shocking. I have a family member that had the same affliction and he died 16 months after the diagnosis. It's just a terrible disease.