msc

I think, where anything to happen, he'd get a front page spot ala Dusty Rhodes or Roddy Piper or when Ric Flair was ill. He's easily one of the most popular stars this century, especially with kids, and also a former WWE Champ to boot. The timing of this is uncanny too - reports Jeff might be the Rumble opponent for Roman Reigns, Freddie Prinze Jr bringing up that HHH (still recovery from his own HA) had been against Jeff's main event push as he was "utterly unreliable" then a few days later - relapse. Hopefully he'll recover though - he has two young kids and had done well to go nearly a decade sober. The fact that the last main eventer to be fired for refusing rehab wound up dead six months later isn't a great precedent, however.

I'm out to the Whamageddon version of a self-inflicted gunshot to the foot. The wean is super excited about Christmas, so I turned over to the music channel for them. 5 mins later, Wham come on and I was like "Oh yeah, forgot".

Alas, they do. (A popular supermarket)* stocks it and has done since the early 90s, when my mum steadfastly refused to entertain child msc's amusement at the front cover and buy a copy! *Hey, I didn't name which one.

Chris Jericho hospitalised in Swansea for a sudden "non-covid, treatable health condition" during his Fozzy tour. Now he's in his middle aged spread and still trying to go like he was in his 20s, one to keep a loose eye on. EDIT - In my defence, I assumed any wrestling news would be in this thread!

I will be blunt. If they lose North Shropshire they are losing the next election. It's too big a swing needed, and there is no good news on the horizon, just winter, more covid and various own goals that linger in the press for weeks. I don't think they are going to lose North Shropshire, but yeah, when the public go fuck off to a government it can be sudden and painful but it never reverses, and this lot are on thin ice at the moment. (Also, I do note the sudden jump in Labour polling as soon as Starmer decided to, you know, do some opposing. If that doesn't teach them a lesson, nowt will!)

Trying to think where to put a book illustrator. Chris Achilleos has died aged 74. A renowned book cover artist, his art was on the cover of thousands of SF/fantasy books in the 1980s and 90s, mostly famous the TARGET Doctor Who novelisations, the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and Star Trek tie in novels. He also worked with Whitesnake (the Lovehunter cover) and was a regular cover artist for the Radio Times.

Well, it is Napoli. Only visited briefly as it was on a transport route to Rome years ago. They've got a home game with Leicester tonight btw. I remember the advice given to me decades ago about going to the stadium in Naples. "Stay in the home crowd and do not speak!" Napoli fans had a bit of a reputation!

Josh Duggar of that reality show found guilty of child porn collecting. No url as the story is horrific enough as is. Will probably be on a few DDP teams hoping for unnatural causes and frankly, good luck to them.

One to keep an eye on, alas. After nearly a decade of sobriety, Jeff Hardy has relapsed badly, had a weird in ring incident during a show recently, and has now been fired by WWE for refusing to go to rehab. Given his addictions nearly killed him in the past.

I believe Willz had 30 this year. The person with the most unique picks in this years DDP is of course WEP with around 1.5 billion of the buggers...

2020 - Pan Breed/Here's Who You Could Have Won*/Curtain - 27 (boosted by my "old folks of interest" team considerably) The Crumble Trio - 38. Even with a team designed to get solos off the LOTL, a crushing win for the Gooseberry Threesome there! I have no idea how to judge unique chances tbh. In 2016, I think that Rayya Elias was a cheeky unique off the forum. On Jan 1st, it turned out 8 other teams thought exactly the same! Whereas I never assumed Ally McLaws would be unique in a million years. Bar the Drop,40, which you can take an educated stab at, the other bonuses are a bit of pot luck to me so I just put in my team and am pleasantly surprised! *As DI admitted confusion recently, for non-Brits, the B-team/Old Folks team name is a Bullseye reference. Although I never picked Jim Bowen for the sodding team, ever. Bit of a miss, that!

Those 3 plus Ben Halim = 256 that I'm aware of.

I introduce you to the gold standard of deadpool advent. Step 1 - "Oh brilliant, I've found a proper A lister off the radar who is dying and will get an obit. Joker time!" Step 2 - "OK, hang on, maybe they aren't as famous as I thought." Step 3 - "OK, maybe that obit isn't as guaranteed as I thought." Step 4 - "OK, maybe there might be a sniff of the Walter Mitty about their fame levels." Step 5 - Don't pick the person. Step 6 - Wake up on New Years Day to find out Spade Cooley has them on his team as a 14 point unique pick. Step 7 - They die on January 3rd, and get obits from everyone. Mail, Sun, BBC, Sky. Even Boris Johnson stops a press conference to say how sad he is they died. Step 8 - A regular like Willz or Toast or Joey will go "Oh yeah they were really famous in their field but I didn't know they were ill." Step 9 - Feel foolish Step 10 - Repeat next December. I'm currently at Step 4 on a pick. I know how this dance goes!

The primary source is usually seen as biased by Wiki editors. I've known folk with wildly inaccurate information on Wiki who have pointed this out. For example, someone's birth date and marriage date were off by years. They mentioned this, got told to supply proof. They said they could provide copies of the birth certificate, got told that was "original research" to boot and not reliable information, but a random website that cobbled crap information off a fanzine 30 years ago (made up) was reliable and stuck on Wiki for years instead. The more I learn of Wiki editors, the less a mystery it appears that the internet was adamant that Andre Maranne died in 1992, despite the fact that he was still replying to fanmail and any one of those online editors could have knocked on his door and had a cup of tea in the near 30 years between that date and his actual death! In short, Wiki editors are anal fuckwits.

Oh, damn, he's starting to show his age now, and is a lot frailer compared to 10 months ago. At his age there is 1 in 10 chance of recovering from a stroke fully, a considerably shorter than the 3 year average for surviving a serious one, and vastly increased chances of a secondary. This has high odds of KOing his chance to becoming a centenarian now, and imo he is highly highly Deathlisty. EDIT - For search purposes, Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig star David Graham, 96, should go on the 2022 Deathlist.

Ah yes, that was an Abba hit, no? Boulez Deux (aha).

Hah, he is very quick on the upload. It was more the timing that Meltzer announced 25 mins earlier, and then, suddenly, just as I went to press "submit reply": "New post by Thatcher". The timing was almost psychic.

Lars Hogh out (RIP), Vic Elford in, thanks.

Big one. Blackjack Lanza dead. WWE Legend Blackjack Lanza Passes Away - Wrestling Inc. HOW, THATCHER? HOW????

Actual news on a DL pick, Jacques Delors misses 25th anniversary bash for his Institute and a dinner held in his own honour, due to being in poor health.

Internal Papal politics too, with Francis "needing" to hold on until Benny is dead, so his acolytes powerbase diminishes and they don't have a say in his succession.

He's not dead but visible red LED light inventor Nick Holoynak is still alive and just turned 93 a few weeks ago. The Queen has reminded us all he exists by giving him an award for his discovery in 1962, the Queen Elizabeth Price for Engineering, as apparently his invention did a lot to bring about energy efficient lightbulbs. Also, he didn't get the Nobel Prize for this, but apparently the team who worked on his discovery did. Anyhow, alive, not able to travel due to covid but eminently obitable one day.

He survived his stroke, but I mean, its basically that he's no longer the old school manic Tim Curry anymore, he's massive stroke survivor Tim Curry, and some fans can't cope with that drastic life change. imo having survived a few years now, he's OK till the next big health issue.

Well, yeah, I know you think Indian politicians are hardy bastards when it comes to health problems, but surviving a helicopter smash would be a prima facie case for witchcraft.

Remarkable work by Ulitzer, yes. Lots of names falling down the back of the sofa there. Trying to put faces to names to some of the less famous here. Sondra James was on TV earlier this year in What We Do in the Shadows. She played the aged mother of the vampires next door neighbour, who it turns out was a close friend of Nadja's when she was a wee girl. Good show, I recommend it. Mark Bailey one of the dwindling cast from the Adam West Batman. He played a henchman to Zsa Zsa Gabor! (He's Apollo below) Clyde Baldo has been in a number of US TV shows in recent years (Fosse/Verdun and Gotham for example) and has, for me, one of those "oh yeah, that guy" faces. As well as being Pete's mum on Mad Men, Channing Chase had a recurring role in the 90s in ER and is one of those old faces from back in the day.