Death Impends

42 George Michael — Careless Whisper 42 Nena – 99 Red Balloons 39 Madonna – Into The Groove 34 Feargal Sharkey – A Good Heart 27 Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax 27 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins – Easy Lover 27 Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) +1 27 Midge Ure – If I Was +2 25 Dead or Alive – You spin me round (like a record) +1 22 Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes 21 Frankie goes to Hollywood – The power of love 21 Duran Duran – The Reflex 21 Chaka Khan – I feel for you 21 Foreigner – I want to know what love is 21 Wham - Wake me up before you go go 20 Jim Diamond – I should have known better 19 Shakin´ Stevens – Merry Christmas everyone 19 Wham – Freedom 18 Wham – I`m your man 17 Phyllis Nelson – Move Closer 12 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde – I got you babe -3 11 Paul Hardcastle – 19 9 Jennifer Rush – The power of love 9 Sister Sledge – Frankie 8 Whitney Houston – Saving all my love for you -3 7 David Bowie & Mick Jagger – Dancing in the street Bringing Hello back from the dead is a horror story on par with any zombie apocalypse film, so duly remedied. Along with all the other updates SC missed out on.

The letters of the day are Q and O: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11671923/Sesame-Street-creator-Sesame-Workshop-founder-Lloyd-Morrisett-dead-93.html

Yeah it's... very underwhelming, that given Wonder's capabilities his only UK charttoppers were schmaltzy gunk. Whereas he'd be getting plenty of upvotes from me had he had any #1s in the 70s.

29 George Michael – Careless Whisper +1 28 Madonna – Into the groove 26 Eurythmics – There must be an angel (playing with my heart) +1 24 Nena — 99 red balloons +1 22 Whitney Houston – Saving all my love for you 21 Wham – Wake me up before you go go 21 Dead or Alive – You spin me round (like a record) 21 Feargal Sharkey — A good heart 21 Duran Duran — The Reflex 21 Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes 21 Midge Ure - If I Was 21 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins – Easy Lover 21 Frankie goes to Hollywood – The power of love 21 Chaka Khan – I feel for you +1 20 Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace 20 Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax 20 Stevie Wonder – I just called to say I love you 20 Wham – Freedom 20 Jim Diamond – I should have known better 20 Foreigner – I want to know what love is 20 Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – I know him so well 20 Phyllis Nelson – Move closer 20 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde – I got you babe 20 Jennifer Rush – The power of love 20 Shakin´ Stevens – Merry Christmas everyone 20 Wham — I`m your man 18 Paul Hardcastle – 19 18 Sister Sledge – Frankie 16 Lionel Richie – Hello -1 12 Crowd - You'll Never Walk Alone 12 David Bowie & Mick Jagger – Dancing in the street 0 Band Aid - Do They Know it's Christmas? -5

Megrahi had a whopping 118 jokers to his name in 2010.

66 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 54 Madness – House of Fun 44 Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the heart 30 The Jam – Town called Malice / Precious +4 25 Men at Work – Down Under -6 23 The Police — Every breath you take 13 Irene Cara — Fame

Reptile had flagged her as an awaiting QO name in committee PM but I deferred to the public post in this thread when compiling the obit watch, so that slipped me by. Added her to the obit watch now.

Zeman's Drop 40 appearance last time basically hinged on many expecting him to be the quick-and-easy world leader hit ala arap Moi or Menem. That didn't happen, and as a "dies some point in the next three years" pick he doesn't generate much excitement.

Part of why I'm holding off until end of month to set up the TTL, so any name issues or general mixups can be sorted first.

We're up. Teams, celebs picked, Drop 40 all posted (I previously alluded to there being a joint tie at 40th, but two of these names had an inflated total due to a few duplicate teams - it's just 40 names). Obits posted for the first two weeks - Crosby and co will wait until next weekend. 2022 archived. List of the Missed up, as is a (currently blank) List of the Lost. TTL waits until later in the month. There's obviously still kinks to be sorted out but that will be handled in due time. But for now, we're here. I said it on the DDP site itself and I'll reiterate here: In addition to the 2023 committee of @gcreptile, @Banana, and I, @Grim Up North was also invaluable in helping during the entry period and first couple of weeks of the year, in both teaching Banana all the ins-and-outs of the team entry process and the many quirks of our system, as well as assisting the committee with new celeb data entry. Additionally @Whitehouse contributed to the new celebs in a voluntary capacity. Having that task divided between five people indubitably made it far less daunting than last year, and we thank the assistance.

As with last year, keeping in with interests of transparency, here are names we DQed from the 2023 DDP, including names that were queried about but not actually submitted: Elena Huelva - Mentioned upthread, although her social media following was sufficient, too much of that following was based on her illness Natalie Fornasier - We already discussed her before as well, given multiple teams picked her. Does not meet our social media criteria Roger Kliger - Doctor in a Massachusetts right-to-die case. There are a few too many right-to-die court cases now, that not every single plaintiff should count, especially when it's at the state level Nicola Waters - Similar to above, an MND campaigner but without any extraordinarily high profile Lubov Mihailivna - "Elderly Ukrainian woman who collects wood in Cherson". Not even Google could easily find this red carpet-er Colette Soulages - Pierre's widow, with no real media profile or any claims to fame of her own Nadja Seipel - Another that falls afoul of our social media rules Eric Coulam - Young lad planning assisted suicide, not even a court case or activist Georgie Allyn Barrett - Aspiring showjumper but with no recorded notability as a showjumper, and does not pass social media criteria Sam Watson - Andy Murray's stepmother, that's about it Grandma Joy Ryan - Grandmother crisscrossing the US to visit many of its national parks. A harmless pick, but another that doesn't pass social media rules Marianne Simard - Terminally ill woman who published a few songs after her illness. But the attention the music received is near nonexistent Past DQ Laura Nuttall was submitted on one team, which was also brought up in this thread. Also, one deadpooler submitted themselves as a pick! If you yourself are not at least vaguely notable, please do not do so.

Lynryd Skynyrd was named after their gym teacher.

62 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 62 Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the heart 56 Madness – House of Fun 36 The Jam – Town called Malice +4 29 Men at Work – Down Under 28 The Police – Every breath you take 13 Irene Cara – Fame  12 Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know? 07 David Bowie – Let's Dance -3 04 Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me? -3

61 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 60 Bonnie Tyler — Total Eclipse of the heart 43 Madness – House of Fun 42 The Jam — Town called Malice +4 29 Men at Work – Down Under 27 Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me? 26 The Police – Every breath you take 22 Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know? 17 Flying Pickets – Only You -4 14 Irene Cara — Fame 12 David Bowie – Let's Dance -2 02 Eddy Grant – I Don't Wanna Dance

Yoon Jeong-hee QO: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/prolific-south-korean-actor-yoon-195756442.html

57 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 52 Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart 47 Madness – House of Fun 38 The Jam — Town called Malice +4 37 Men at Work – Down Under 28 David Bowie – Let's Dance 28 The Police – Every breath you take 26 Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know? 24 Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me? 20 Eddy Grant – I Don't Wanna Dance -3 19 Flying Pickets – Only You -3 16 Irene Cara — Fame +2 05 KC & the Sunshine Band – Give It Up -3

I have a preliminary LotM page that will go up when we're up and running and currently have: Gangsta Boo Lise Norgaard David Gold Miiko Taka K. Alex Muller Patriarch Irenaios George Pell Lisa Marie Presley Robbie Knievel Gino Odjick Jim Molan As misses. One or two might've slipped by. Can't seem to find any record of Paul Johnson being a past pick?

Jack Klugman was on four consecutive DLs then dropped the year he died.

Picked in the DDP for the first time this year.

We have a preliminary D40. Seems it'll be a Drop 42 as three big-name celebs are at joint 40, though if a missing team is found down the sofa this could change. As it stands 33 of Sean's names are on it. 3 of the other 7 would've made it if they were on an extra 2-3 teams. The other 4 were on 15 teams tops.

53 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 52 Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart 48 Madness – House of fun 44 Men at Work – Down Under 44 The Jam – Town called Malice +4 36 Eddy Grant – I Don't Wanna Dance 30 KC & the Sunshine Band – Give it up 30 Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know? 27 The Police – Every breath you take 25 Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me? 22 Flying Pickets – Only You 21 David Bowie – Let's Dance 19 Spandau Ballet – True -6 16 Irene Cara — Fame

Nice feeling to still win a pool even after being retired from proper research. Goes to show that sometimes all you need is a bunch of personally-relevant oldies (Storch, Pitman, Clary etc) checking out in the second half of the year. Plus winning with a team that had Superstar Billy Graham on it gives me bragging rights for all eternity.

47 Kraftwerk – The Model / Computer Love 46 The Jam – A town called Malice 42 Men at Work – Down Under +2 41 Madness – House of fun 38 Bonnie Tyler — Total eclipse of the heart +2 37 Eddy Grant - I Don't Wanna Dance 33 David Bowie – Let's Dance 32 Flying Pickets – Only you 31 The Police – Every breath you take 31 Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me? 30 Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know? 30 KC & the Sunshine Band – Give it up 27 Spandau Ballet – True 22 Irene Cara — Fame 16 Kajagoogoo – Too shy 6 Paul Young – Wherever I lay my hat (that's my home) -3 5 Phil Collins – You can´t hurry love -3

Uh oh. I hate writing Survivor obituaries

She was already on the DDP last year, actually, just listed as Soeur Andre rather than Lucile Randon.