Raskolnikov

But if she is to get an obit, there will be a huge haul of points awarded for her demise - even though she is not famous in the slightest. The term 'celebrity dead pool' is thrown about quite alot in the DDP, and Joanne Evans simply is not a celebrity. Thus risk or no risk, she should not be a valid pick on a celebrity deadpool. Fairplay to those who chose her this year (especially if you get the points). Given that there is no rule against it, you simply used good initiative. However, in the future people like Joanne should be banned. PS. If you want an obit for her, instead of emailing the media about poor Joanne, you should email them enraged at the sick bastards who put her on deadpools. It might just be more newsworthy. I'm inclined to agree with you Windsor, especially having experienced similar problems in the deadpool I run. Perhaps, as well as the 'List of the Missed' and the 'List of the Lost' there could be a new link to a 'List of the Banned' which could be updated on a rolling basis throughout the year, as and when local sob stories emerge. Any name that appears in this list would then be ineligible for selection, and if anyone goes ahead and picks them regardless, then they can either be refused entry, or (less draconian) they have automatically forfeited one member of their team, and must do with 19, and their sub is not allowed to be used. As for who decides which names go on this List, well, I can't think of everything can I?

His deadpooling skills are truly awesome. Is anyone gonna grass him as one who might have hung around under another name? have no insider knowledge here but, is he - like - Tempus or someone? Being compared to Mr Fugit? I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. No, I can honestly say that I'm not the reincarnated spirit of any legend from the DL's past, but am merely a humble newcomer, who has got very, very lucky so far in the DDP. That said, I'm not a novice at deadpooling and as TMIB alluded to, I do run a deadpool with some old mates from school (including Tonight Matthew...), and that seems to have stood me in good stead so far. The trouble is, having got off to such a blinding start, there really is only one way for my team to go. But hell, I'm certainly going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Just beat me to it... The amazing debut of Heaven Knows They're Miserable Now continues... This is unbelievable! I'm starting to worry that I might need to provide alibis for my whereabouts over the past 18 days given how they've been dropping like flies.

It's nearly 24 hours since her "death" was reported and there is still virtually nothing to corroborate the reports, although it looks pretty certain that she has died. The only mention I've found, is this brief comment on an obscure cd website, and DDP points certainly won't be awarded for that!

Just a minor observation. McGoohan died on the 13th not the 14th, so CarolAnn should have an extra point.

Ahem. Without wishing to appear too smug, Heaven Knows They're Miserable Now is my team. But in the spirit of modesty, I firmly believe that deadpooling success is roughly 20% research, and 80% luck. And I think I've used up 75% of my luck already!

This is the sort of bulletin we could do with on a more regular basis. Looks like the splendidly named Omar Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon, could be one to keep a close watch on, with some even suggesting he is HIV positive. Yar'Adua, Bouteflika, and Paul Biya of Cameroon also get a mention.

Well that's most reassuring as I'm tall and thin myself, but I rather think Robert Wadlow would disagree with you. And for what it's worth, I can't see Lee going any time soon.

Supposedly he is showing "slight" improvement. Then again, I seem to recall plenty of reports this time last year saying that Suharto was improving...

Former Newcastle player Tommy Casey, who also represented Northern Ireland at the 1958 World Cup has died.

Sir Bobby Robson got my vote.

And I make that bonus points in the DDP for dying on the 13th.

Wow, Aussies have so much time on their hands they actually officially appoint their National Treasures, instead of just calling them out in the redtops, like we do here in Blighty. This sounded like a good idea until I checked out the list, The Kangaroo Court and there's like about a hundred of them. Rolf Harris, Dame Edna, Russell Crowe, Greg Norman and Nicole Kidman are all on there, but when you annoint about a third of the population as National Treasures, it loses some of its specialness. So who are Britain's National Treasures? Besides Chezza Cole, I mean. Thatcher and Branson, according to the Torygraph. Jools Holland?! f**k right off. Some might say Babs Windsor or Michael Palin, but I say Clive Dunn. I've often heard Sir Trevor McDonald referred to as a National Treasure. However, AA Gill manged to succinctly sum up my feelings towards the man in this article fom last year.

Definitely. She probably doesn't appreciate the irony of calling herself a staunch Catholic whilst simultaneously announcing that she's being trying for seven years to get herself pregnant outside of wedlock.

Breaking news. Veteran BBC presenter David Vine has died of a heart attack.

My old headmaster wrote hymns, and as far as I know, still does. But given that he's only in his early forties it's unlikely that he'll be dying anytime soon. Shame, as he was a right tosser. As a totally random aside, how do newly written hymns get introduced to the lay congregation as surely it will take a few listens to get to know the tune properly. Is there some sort of itunes for parishioners where they can download the latest releases? Or is there somewhere online they can pay a monthly donation to in order to receive a free copy of 'Now That's What I Call Songs of Worship' every four months?

Apparently "he's struggling but ok". Glad we've cleared that up then.

It's probably about time I declared a vested interest in this thread seeing as I work for a well known chain of bookshops, so humour me while I ramble on with a few suggestions. Diana Athill recently turned 91 and has just won the biography category of the Costa Book of the Year Awards for her account of what it's like to be old and approaching death. Not only is she a nonagenarian, but she is also deaf and has problems with mobility although according to this article, she still drives (badly by the sounds of it). Away from Diana, there seems to be a build up of veteran British authors going on at Penguin Publishing. Sir John Mortimer and Dick Francis have their own threads, but you can also add PD James and Richard Adams to the list. James seems to be in good health at the moment, but the occasional picture of Adams I have seen over the past couple of years shows him looking extremely frail. Of the four, I would say Mortimer is closest to carking it, and next time I see our sales rep from Penguin I'll casually enquire after his health, and perhaps one of the others if it doesn't look too suspicious. There are also a clutch of bestselling author's in the 75-80 age bracket who should be creeping onto deadpooler's radars over the next few years. Most notable among them I would say, are, Clive Cussler (77), Wilbur Smith (76), Jack Higgins (79), Chinua Achebe (78), Quentin Blake (76), John Julius Norwich (79), and David Eddings (77). Out of those, the one to keep a closest eye on would be Achebe as he has been confined to a wheelchair since 1990 following a car accident. Having said that, there does seem to be a recent trend of at least one high profile Science-Fiction author falling prey to the Grim Reaper per year, with David Gemmell going in 2006, Robert Jordan in 2007, and Arthur C. Clarke going last year, as well as Pratchett going down with Alzheimer's, so, assuming Eddings isn't this year's victim, he could be one to consider in future. And just to conclude. Prolific author of naval fiction Douglas Reeman is 84, Nobel prize winner Doris Lessing is 89, Nina Bawden turns 84 next week, Rosamunde Pilcher is also 84, K.M. Peyton, who wrote the Flambards series, and who I thought died years ago, is 79, and children's author Eva Ibbotson is 83. Unfortunately I don't have any detailed info on the health of any of them as author's tend to keep themselves very much to themselves as proved by Michael Crichton and George MacDonald Fraser, but hey, I've put their names out there for you to investigate in more detail should you wish. And here endeth my epistle.

Why thankyou MPFC. I was thinking about posting in this thread the other day, but at the time it felt uncomfortably close to Blind Date's "What's your name and where do you come from?" I actually stumbled upon the site some time ago and must confess to having been an intermittent lurker ever since. Not really sure why it's taken me so long to sign up properly, or indeed to yield to the vocation that is deadpooling as this is the first year I've entered the DDP despite having run an informal deadpool with some mates for the last couple of years (one of whom is the twisted genius behind 'Tonight Matthew, I'm Going to be Badly Torn Boy' on the DDP). And just to clarify. I am a 'he', and I have the trophy wife to prove it.

And I'm not one of them And neither am I.... But incredibly, I am, so form an orderly queue to start hurling insults at me here. You swine sir! How much did you bribe OoO with? The telephone numbers of a few IT geeks to help speed the upload of the site seemed to do the trick.

I'd like to be able to say that the star of this excellent football video is me, but unfortunately I'm lacking both the chutzpah, and, more crucially the skill.

And I'm not one of them And neither am I.... But incredibly, I am, so form an orderly queue to start hurling insults at me here.

A raft of top players from the BDO (they're the one's currently playing on BBC for those of you ignorant about darts) including Fordham look set to switch to the rival PDC circuit according to this most reliable of sources. I can't see him achieving much given the generally higher standard of play in the PDC but best of luck to him anyway. You've also got to wonder what this latest group of defections is going to do for the health of Stalinist BDO supremo Olly Croft, who's no spring chicken.

Had I stumbled upon this article earlier, I may well have given serious consideration to including Dick on my DDP team this year. It dates from around the same time as OoO's article, and despite continuing to work, he does sound hilariously accident prone in recent years. It also concludes by saying that he's already planned the epitaph for his headstone.