msc

I don't mind B-teams as on the whole it's usually people who want to segregate away their "fascinating lives" picks and, since those wouldn't get picked otherwise often, they tend to be the most interesting to write about! The ones I don't get are those that are almost copies of their original team. Clearly an attempt to game the Drop 40 but 1) its presumably quite dull 2) it has never successfully "gamed" the Drop 40 so is a waste of time*! Pan Breed was split into 3 parts this year but will probaby return to main team, not the LOTM typed team and proper theme team again in January. There's a theme team I've been holding on to for years, and 2020 has killed the proposed joker so I ought to get on with it! *Eyes are kept on this, obviously.

Hence the great tagline for the Dead Pop Stars thread.

tbf if we expanded the QO radar any further Reptile would pining for the New York Times again! There's equally about 6 names not mentioned yet on my shortlist too (another Fatima Ali/Rayya Elias moment coming when everyone hid the same name like a French farce?) but at the rate of reveal, that'll be 0 by Jan 1st! Mind you, with the focus on co-running the DDP my actual deadpool team "research" is nearly non-existent...

Sssh don't give away the secret centuries old secret Masonic deadpool research secrets of Google translate...

We all have our deadpool sphere hobbies. Willz's is Doctor Who, Ulitzer's is politics, drol's is very old religious people and/or Asian politicians (bonus points if they are both!)

If its in a Lucy Worsley show its probably wrong.

Compared to George III... (OK. OK, I was glancing quickly and gave him Anne's age instead...)

Mind the long running tradition of either the Monarch or their spouse outliving one of their own kids too. I can't mind if it goes all the way to Elizabeth I (who didn't have any) but it goes close enough... Since Libby I, the only ones to miss this are William III and Edward VIII (nae weans) and George I who died young.

Yeah if this works it'll cut the entry time per team down by...about 80% or so.

And then there were 3 (shortlist names not brought up in the last week)...

You might remember him from such DDP hits... My great moment of inspiration for the year in the DDP obits. Well, that and Steiner Decliner which went over the heads of nearly everyone...

The swearing/kids thing is easy. Just say "Err, don't repeat that". Always works.. Although tbh a few months ago I got told by a stern teacher that the wean had said "its pishing down" in school and my reaction was to burst out laughing. PS Oh ffs, guess whats on tonights House of Cards? The fucking Emoji round.

FAO Deathray Look, I know he got banned but we all know he'll see this with at least 3 socks before Christmas. Britbox are celebrating Corrie's 60th by putting up a bunch of Greatest Moments clipshows and their "20 best episodes". Dunno if this is up his street but I can't think of anyone else who it might interest...

I don't read emoji talk (its the one round in House of Games I am hopeless at) so I haven't a clue what he said to Lardy. Billy Connolly swears like a trooper and is fucking funny. Also tbh I don't give a shit how many posts someone has, but how much of a cunt or lack of a cunt folk are.

Since people keep asking, here is a list of 2020 picks from A to F that would be disallowed under the 2021 rules: Doug Allen Julie Allen Dolores Aviero Lynda Bailey Barbara Bamford Leanne Barrett Jennifer Bell Simona Birdsell Anne Brokenbaw M|area Burke Roberta Burton Karl Butler Mckennah Carter Hayley Casey Bethan Close Ria Collins Vicki Eastaugh Bruce Evans Anthony Faituna Pete Felton Lisa Fry (Then I got depressed, but you should get the general picture by now...) Would need a better look at their credentials or lack of: Criscilla Anderson

"Consumer resistance" is the one great line Eric Saward ever wrote. Shame about the million others.... 1 min in, Martin Slavin's Space Adventures, one of the best bits of incidental music the BBC used to use over and over. Also during filming of that scene, lunch break was called, leaving the poor sods on the top level stuck in their costumes and having to go without their lunch!

Usually when I'm looking for a specific post for something and click on the wrong bit.

That woman doesn't look like she qualifies - unless Croatian longevity is worryingly low! - but I'm pretty sure a theme team of Covid survivors is easily possible with names that would be fine anyhow. Michael Rosen for example.

My memory of that documentary was that David Cameron looked as though he'd already achieved something great just by forming government, which was a warning sign for his utter fecklessness at the task. (Which isn't a political lens view - people don't argue if Maggie was competent, more what her policies were; Major managed to win an election everyone assumed doomed, other Tory leaders have show aptitude for the job at least that Cameron proved he lacked on a regular basis.) There was so many stupid plots going on at the time. The Lib Dems understood very little - when they went for the deal with Cameron they settled for very little overall. The Lib Dem team didn't like Brown. One of them Labour team (coughEdBallscough) didn't like the Lib Dems, so they were sparky from the off. Some on the Labour side thought it a good election to lose (usually always bollocks) and others were looking for David fn Milband to replace Brown. (But as usual, David Miliband was hiding in a loo shitting himself at the thought of being decisive...) The head of the civil service (Gus O'Donnell at the time iirc) hurried along negotiations as the money markets were doing their usual panic (and this was right after Greece went bust so there was a lot of international money panic). Gordon Brown felt (tbf not unreasonably) that the Prime Minister had first go at putting together a coalition. There was also the frankly ludicrous suggestion put about in the press that he resigned immediately before a successor was decided, which as you know is not how Prime Ministerial succession works - there can be no vaccuum - unless Lord Palmerston dies in office. By the time he realised the other parties viewed the election as a referendum on himself, it was too late. (And what was that offer of AV? The Lib Dems spent twenty years asking for PR, lets offer a completely different system all together...) The problem for Clegg was partly that he didn't realise the symbolism of u-turning on the student tuition pledge, and he didn't know how to spin the 2010 decision as a success (ie as a graduate tax that only the well off pay) and he didn't realise how toxic the Tory party were to a vast number of his own voters. When experienced heads tried to warn him against "being too cosy" (Kennedy, Campbell, Ashdown) he was distrustful. When the polling went against them, he distrusted that. When the locals and the devolved elections were massacres, he thought it temporary. His main team, much like Corbyns 4 years later, believed the electorate were on their side until the exit poll dropped. (As John Curtice later put it, dropping from 24% of the vote to 8% and believing you can hold 70% of your seats is somewhat foolish!) There was more of this but due to household duties my train of thought has now died. Don't all cheer at once!

If it helps, the guinea pig in the trial was me, whose tech skills are so low my computer does actually say no!

There wasn't enough time last Christmas with us learning a system by scratch to change anything but it was top of the agenda for 2021. At the moment it cuts out the Mirror sob stories types (basically the names who would get @ in their name) but it will no doubt be tweaked as actually putting it into practice stress tests any gaps! (However by that point it'll be a matter for my successor, as I plan to find one for 2022 in the first half of 2021)

As mentioned previously, those picks are BANNED as of 1/1/2021. Because I fucking hated them and all, and now I (and Grim/Reptile) had the power to ban them.

midnight UK time, 31st December. There has been some Jan 1st leniency in the past from various previous hosts but if Grim and Rep are hard on the technology side by then, I am very much the bad cop when it comes to "oops I left it down the back of the sofa" excuses!

A dedication, looking it up. Although this is a bit circular as I can't imagine a reference to a Memorial Cup without a line about how "(name on cup) was a footballer who played for (team) and died in January 2021....etc etc"