msc

I remember her, she's a Pan Breed favourite!

In no particular order: Kirk Douglas Clive James Rev Billy Graham George Bush Sr Prince Philip Valerie Harper Joost van der Westhuizen Jimmy Carter Olivia de Haviland Vera Lynn Bruce Forsyth Paul Gascoigne Doris Day Peter Sallis Glen Campbell Jerry Lewis Robert Mugabe Ian Brady Gordon Banks Tony Booth Denis Norden Mary Tyler Moore Dick Van Dyke Stephen Hawking Chuck Berry Gord Downie (hopefully) Leah Bracknell Stefan Karl Sara Coward Queen Elizabeth II Steve Hewlett (making a worse drop for some) King Michael of Romania Leslie Philips Former Pope Benedict XVI Jacques Chirac John Noakes Sean Connery Sidney Poitier Clint Eastwood Terry Jones

I'd just like to say that I really like that the Italian Deathlist still denotes new people with a star. I liked that. Shame it's gone on the front page.

I forgot about this, but I guess I'm Pope Francis then. Forcing everyone's game to improve, really - it's either that or lose by landslide. I also suppose this means someone will eventually up their research game so much, they turn into an unstoppable deadpooler who beats you, just as you stopped the likes of OoO and DDT in their tracks, and they crushed Fallen Sparrow and the earlier deadpoolers, but who knows when that'll happen.

Going strictly by memory here, but around 2005ish, she had a nasty health issue - a mega-stroke or something like that - and wasn't expected to live. She did, obviously, but was very frail for a number of years. Went back to acting, etc, though. Source was Doctor Who forum which no longer exists - she was in Terror of the Vervoids, you see - so reliant on my memories of it. Much of this is hidden away on private forums, like Ingrid Pitts long health issues, or Nick Courtney's pancreatic cancer battle. Anyhow, whatever it was, she appears to have gotten over it.

Although that said, lots of distortion here, but you can just about hear the voice of Helmuth von Moltke, Prussian Army Chief of Staff during the Austro-Prussian War! He died in 1891! "Bringing a long dead voice back from the grave" indeed. There's also Tennyson with creepy CGI (version used in the uni was strictly audio), and one out there of Robert Browning, best bit being where he says he can't remember his own poetry.

I know what you mean, Spade. I'm quite fond of old architecture, especially that which daft council people had torn down to build office blocks. Anyhow, one I am quite fond of in Glasgow City Centre, had the misfortune of being demolished before I was born. There's very few pics of it, and my parents didn't remember it. Finally, I asked Gran one day about it. "Yeah, I remember it", she said, "Their sandwiches were awful! And overpriced!" You've never going to get that sort of day to day recalled disdain from the history books. Need to find my copy of Studs Terkel's stuff.

Beyond the old favourites of the Committee, and the punt picks, a good 22 out of 50 are there on health reasons. Though as I point out whenever this comes up, the public face of the Committee - Mr Reaper - has openly admitted that he prefers the "out of nowhere" hits on old folk who were seemingly healthy. It's his list, not ours. If you wanted a list, you could submit one to the Crowdsourced Deathlist. It's not a perfect list, but it's highly democratic and there still tends to be a crossover.

Check rule 10 of the Deathrace which makes it clear enough that to qualify as a team member the pick must be alive at "00-01 hrs 1 Jan" That said - Soares appears to have life; not that he knows much about it. Wiki says he "is" not "was" and there are no fawning obits just yet. Barring Wiki and rumours (the former anyone can edit, the latter we got about the Queen, and she's still going), Rule 11 seems to be accurate for Soares if it now turns out he died on the 31st. Widely believed to be still alive, no obits to the contrary, surely?

Yeah, it was quite interesting, well worth a listen imo.

Oh I hope you get an obit on your joker too!

Once more I gain a loose prediction for the main teams announced so far. Only counting those I consider fairly dead certs, and not counting those which are 50/50 obits. In 2016, I underestimated everyone's tally. Also not pretending to guess uniques, Drop 40s, etc... Although one thing to notice - a lot of us have taken big risks, DDP wise, on 50/50ers and folk likely to die but questionably obitable. So fortune may favour one of the brave... For comparison, last years cert's top 9: David Quantick Heading Nowhere Pan Breed (!) Going Underground Eesti Thomas Jefferson Survives Switch Still Life The Living End TL/DR: Bert's the sleeper Chorizo type this year, imo.

So are we best friends or enemies? I thought surely I had a solo hit there. Grrrrr lol SC She's on all the top teams: I do like the idea of everyone on here keeping the same name secret, it has an element of farce to it.

Eddie Long's in my reserve DDP team. He looks fucked, but I was wary of picking him for the main Pan Breed team based solely on pics and no firm actual knowledge of what the fucks up with him.

Paul Krugman tweets the death of Sir Anthony Atkinson, noted British economist/academic.

I stand by my comments from last April. Heh, I just showed that to The Wife as she didn't see it at the time. Her response? "Oh, you and your soapbox!"

I think he's certainly improved the rest of us. It's just that he's improving at an equal or faster rate. 2015 was the missed opportunity for anyone to take him down. Still, lots of very strong looking teams in 2017 been announced so far.

Well done MPFC convincing 2016 win.

That's exactly what we had too.

You talking to me or RadGuy? You, though technically it covers RadGuy too.

Ah but you've got around 12-13 likely hits - compare that to the 40-50 teams who scored 0/20 last year.

Falling for Rick Davies isn't as bad as those who fell for the Scott Thorson terminal ass cancer one though. Or Jasper Carrot. Or fucking Ryan arsehole Buell. Besides, if his cancer returns with a vengeance (as has been known to happen) you'll be laughing. I remember well that year many of us poor sods picked Seve Ballesteros as our number one in the Inverse Deadpool...

^ Oh, would you look at that... *innocent face*

Some random behind the scenery Leah Bracknell – A dead cert, as seen by her strong backing. First few lists, she was wombling about in the 40-50 spot, then in December, a sudden rush of strong votes dragged her up to 4th place. When Zsa Zsa went, we had three people within touching distance of the top: Sallis, Kirk and Rev Billy. Bracknell swept past them all. Kirk Douglas – A usual suspect King Michael of Romania – Appeared fairly strongly on a number of lists – most likely a goner. Peter Sallis – Challenged for the top spot until mid-December. Frail and little updates. Prince Philip – Popular enough without ever being top popular. Glen Campbell - Nearly double the number of points he got in 2016. Said to be in the final stages, a decent chance of a hit. Better get my Rhinestone Cowboy puns ready. Rev Billy Graham – Less people picked him, he scored over 270 less points than 2016, and fell 5 places. A case of “well he has to go on the list” rather than any conviction, I wonder? Bruce Forsyth – One of the big movers from 2016, with over double the votes and points. His frail health is well documented Tony Booth – Less points from 2016 but a higher placing! On far more lists too, Shaun’s (mostly) one man job to make folk notice Booth’s plight working wonders both here and on the Deathlist. Robert Mugabe – Qualified with no fuss. 21 positions and 113 points better off than 2016. Increased confidence in a sleeper pick? Jacques Chirac – Had his hospital stay last year, which surely was responsible for his rise: no nominations whatsoever in 2016, 11th place in 2017! Yet, the Deathlist doesn’t share this optimism... Gord Downie – A dead cert, and actually the person I gave my 50 to, way back at the start. I thought that might sneak him on the list... Sneak? He bloody romped it. Helmut Kohl – Less support but those who did tended to go big, so he remains in the same place as last year. Desmond Tutu – Another “big points” when it mattered person. George Bush Sr – Jumps up a single position. Olivia de Havilland – Ran out of steamy considerably in the last half of the lists. Leslie Philips – A slow but steady increase for Leslie. His walkabout in 2016 didn’t give him that many more votes. Former Pope Benedict XVI – Showed up on more lists after a post about his frailty in mid-December. Was likely to qualify before then, but that sealed it. Vera Lynn – Another “always going to qualify but without much conviction” candidate. In fact at one stage it looked like she might not even do that, before she rebounded. Joost van der Westhuizen – Never a massive favourite, but appeared on enough lists to keep him ticking along. Sir Colin Meads - I don’t want to say he came from nowhere, but he nabbed 114 of his 218 points, in the last 48 hours of 2016! Most likely a dead cert, though. Jimmy Carter – Much less support than last year, but 90% of the lists with Carter in 2016 came when people thought he was dying. Glynis Johns – Strong support, appearing on 8 lists. Clive James – Considerably less support, had very much the feel of someone who the forum had lost confidence in, yet he racked up enough 15-20 points that the sole big points delivery was enough. Gina Lollobrigida – Who? Acording to death Impends, I asked that very question last year too. Apparently she’s an actress. Also, she’s very popular with a number of you. Herman Wouk – Another “enough numbers in small doses” type. Ian Brady – Actually most of his points came before the terminal ill thing in December. Danielle Darrieux - She got 125 points from 3 people combined! So when one of our number gave her 47 points on 30th December, she went from boarderline to guaranteed qualification. As that person was aiming to improve the female representation on the list, they certainly succeeded with this one. Stefan Karl – Not number one. On six lists, but popular on those he showed on. Queen Elizabeth II – I gave her my 49 points at the start. Even then, it took a late burst due to these rumours. Fats Domino – 90 points in the last 3 days of 2016 brought him roaring onto the lsit when I was getting ready to talk about Patricia Hitchcock. Sidney Poitier – Scored big and early, then got forgotten. Denis Norden – Scored big an dearly, then got mostly forgotten. Ian St John – Had been a borderline case until 58 points came his way on the 29th December. I think he’s in worse shape than it sounds. Clare Hollingworth – Was going to qualify via 5 lists, but then a massive bunch of points from the very last person to send in a list qualified her in style. Sumner Redstone – One of those who didn’t have much enthusiasm. Mikhail Gorbachev – Another of those. Errol Christie – Qualified via a number of high rankings. John Noakes – Qualified via being on more lists than Liz Dawn. Joanne Woodward – Qualfication assured by the aforementioned “List of Ladies”. She had been in 50th place prior to that, as a forum heavyweight gave her 18 points the day before. Sara Coward – An unusual one. She got 48 points from me, 50 points from someone else, and her remaining points from one more person! One of the reasons I put my team in first was to try and avoid that sort of thing. So if she doesn’t die in 2017, err, my bad! Peter Skellern – The very last voter qualified Skellern with a big vote. John Wetton – The very last voter gave Wetton 49 points and qualified him out of nowhere. Gerald Kaufman – The very last voter gave Kaufman 50 points and qualified him out of nowhere. Monica Vitti - 28 points on the List of Ladies was enough to book her a spot, though she had support from several others in mid to high places. June Foray – She got 47 points from one person, who wasn’t Death Impends. That, along with the other two votes, secured a high enough spot that she was never in doubt. Geoffrey Bayldon – Very frail sadly, and an actor I am very fond of. Our first sub on the 25 rule. Qualified by our very last posters with a 47 pointer, and genuinely on seeing the name that far up the list, I let out a loud cheer! Jill Gascoine – Another sub, and another person who owes their spot to our last voter! Zhou Youguang – Popular early on, snuck on. Nanette Fabray - Appeared on four lists, but did enough to sneak on the list. Sinead O’Connor nearly managed to avoid appearing on any lists whatsoever. Valerie Harper’s had the biggest fall from 23rd to DQ’d. Stephen Hawking went from 26th in 2016, to under 20 votes in 2017. I felt most bad for Liz Dawn who got 145 points but was DQ’d due to being the 26th person carried over, and elsewhere Diana Athill and Franco Zeffirelli were on the list from the time I started it until the very last person voted! Here’s a final oddity for now – Kate Middleton got more votes (12) than Dambusters director Michael Anderson (11)! I wont name the last poster (they can if they wish), but blimey, I think six spots on this list are solely down to them sending a list at about 6pm on Hogmanay!

Aye, it was the main factor in me picking Van Zandvliet. Inoperable liver cancer's nasty, add in kidney cancer (though that was treated iirc), but in one of his interviews mid-summer, he casually mentioned that his brain cancer was glioblastoma. It's like a Street Fighter KO combo... I seem to recall him mentioning that whatever was up with his liver and kidneys might've not been cancer after all, though he wasn't completely sure. But that didn't matter, as glioblastoma means he's fecked regardless... Iirc they thought it was kidney cancer he had, but when they cleaned that up, it turned out he had a Grade IV metastatic glioblastoma.