Spade_Cooley

There was a tweet recently (maybe even from Tenay himself?) saying that someone had set up a Christmastime FaceTime chat between Tenay and West. I took that as an indicator that, being as we've not heard a whisper from West since around March, that it was a goodbye chat.

Anyone want to check in on Bill Steel?

Hey, for the 48 hours up until that DDP deadline I'm allowed to treat these actual living, sentient human beings like they were video game NPCs. I can go back to developing a conscience on January 1st.

Indie wrestler Jaysin Strife dead at 37. Had worked as a jobber for both WWE and AEW, so no worries about a QO. My 2023 team now has a gaping hole in it.

3. Queen 2. Pele 1. Every time that fat silver expert appears on "Flog It" and 1,000 people google his name.

And there we were all thinking Zandra Rhodes would be sewn up first.

Maude Apatow turns 27 in 2024.

And I believe this means the 2022 David Quantick's Showbiz Pals break the record for the top-scoring DDP season.

RIP Pele, you walked (with the original dickpill ads) so every modern-day podcaster (with BlueChew) could run.

And that makes me wonder, what exactly would David Frost/Paddy Ashdown/that Welsh rugby commentator say about Rory Bremner dying? (takes glasses out of pocket)

Were you weighing up secular Norwegian comedienne Shabana Rehman for your 2023 DDP? Well, bad luck: she's dead at 46. Was one of those "100% sure she'll die, 30% sure she'll QO" picks for me - I'd have been more aggressive on her in years gone by, but I felt like maybe Nadia Toffa's lack of a QO was a precedent. We'll see.

OK, not to psyche myself too much out of picking a decent team, but my prediction for 2023 - without naming specific names. I think this will be a very tight DDP year, with several teams having a legit shot at winning right until the wire. There'll definitely be one very casual team among the top 5, maybe even the podium, while there'll also be several "name" DDP teams that have nightmare seasons. The fact that there's, to borrow a term from fantasy football, a template forming means that it's going to be down to either a) the Bilton/Doherty/Alagiah-style picks that have been circling for years and which finally die in 2023 b) the ability to take a brave stand and not pick one of the obvious names (for instance, if 2022 was 2023 I could easily see it being won by someone who didn't pick Frank Field when everyone else in the top 20 had them). I've got a 20 I'm happy with but I keep seeing those obvious names and going "well maybe Gianluca Vialli can manage another 12 months in palliative care..... could I replace him with this South African soap opera star?"

Big Pope-a.

iirc, the additional bonus points for Drop 40 picks came around from period where both (I think?) Muhammad Ali and the guitarist from Surfer Blood both died, and T-Mib's irritation that the latter was much more significant to the DDP when their respective levels of fame were considered. I definitely feel now that FFBI has been heavily kneecapped, if not eliminated completely (an impossible task, but the level of strictness the committee are operating on seems fame to me) that the D40 bonus should be lowered, but that's a discussion for 2024 now.

You do realise Pele dying now helps any decent deadpooler in 2023, right? Everyone will have him if he makes it to the starting block, he's basically a free square.

Nobody will ever beat TikToker Jonas Bridges doing a little dance to DJ Snake while his grandfather was breathing his last in the background:

Big loss that, made one of the five best games on the C64 (International Karate +) and one of the five best games on the Amiga (Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker).

A nice healthy routine of cutting down on sugar, carbs, and fucking his own cousin.

Has the Committee met yet? If not, in the spirit of Christmas giving let me throw away a DL-y name that won't make my final 20 for the DDP - Dr Ruth used to be a very, very regular tweeter, but not a peep from her since August. 95 next year.

German players were smart enough to make sure their bonfire was fully extinguished before going to bed.

Cohen, of course, one of that elite group: footballers whose only career silverware was a World Cup medal.

Pele was in I Am Bolt with Ziggy Marley who was in Shark Tale with Peter Falk.

I'm pretty confident he's making it until 2023, and I'm also pretty confident there's no point in his wife getting him a Valentine's gift.

You yourself would know the stories about when The Beatles first went to the States, and wanted to meet all these great blues and early RnR musicians who'd inspired them, only to find out they were working as bus boys at rundown diners.

Hall of Fame martial artist Rick Joslin reveals that his cancer is now terminal.