msc

That was a bluff btw, it was Piers Sellers. Now it's a Deathlist favourite of sorts. Nearly every team has subs coming into play already.

Quite literally the Oliver Sacks of 2016 then.

Breaking news - Carrie Fisher has massive heart attack on plane.

*checks Google* Aha, "non-musician might die next year" indeed, I'm making him or her my joker now!

It's right that I thought people shied away from them. I don't know what Maryport thinks on the matter.

Didn't think executions were allowed. Otherwise folk would load up on those scheduled for early January.

Actually when I look over my shortlist I find the same 16 names lock into my team in my head. It's a matter of assorting the other potentially wonderful candidates into four spots, and swearing as locks snuff it before January 1st.

Got to wait for the peyote, no?

Oh it's a long standing tradition that folk I drop snuff it the following year: Coase and Clerides in 2013, Martinus and Jardine in 2014, Woodhead and Cole in 2015, and even Aherne and Briggs in 2016. That's a better statistical jinx than the Deathlist, probably, who are good at that kind of thing. On an entirely unrelated note, neither Keith Farnham or the Bishop Robinson will be making my 2017 team.

Harry Mac was one of the original Cmme members, and later there was Cowboy Ronnie. Also, Mr Stats. Oh, the whole thing is written by me and Maryport in a cunning disguise. We love that Sandy Gall, he's sticking around. Lucky no one noticed us totally forgetting about Howard Marks. Phew!

Pogues manager Frank Murray dead of a heart attack.

I've drafted teams for Hares, Deathrace, etc. Willz was even nice enough to adjudicate on the acceptability of a potential Hares pick, without blabbing it to other contestants. (Wont be unique anyhow, but still...) As for the DDP, I'm just going to grab the first twenty names I see on Twitter, and hope that they are celebrities, humans and ill.

It's Spade. It's what he does.

A remarkable coincidence I've just noticed. I'll be looking out for who the Deathlist Committee select in the number 14 spot on the 2017 list, as it turns out that spot has form. Not only has it produced fifteen hits (surely a record for an individual spot on the list), but such is the regularity of people listed in that spot dying soon after, only two people have ever held it to date and are still with us: Mike Ditka and Herman Wouk. Otherwise... 1987 – Barbara Cartland (d. 2000) 1989 – Mike Ditka (alive) 1990 - Ronald Reagan (d. 2004) 1991 – Denis Compton (d. 1997) 1992 – Joe Fagan (d. 2001) 1993 – Bill Bixby (HIT) 1994 – Fidel Castro (d. 2016) 1995 – Dean Martin (HIT) 1996 – Tim Gullikson (HIT) 1997 – Hastings Banda (HIT) 1998 – Joan Hickson (HIT) 1999 – Quentin Crisp (HIT) 2000 – Ian Dury (HIT) 2001 – Lord Longford (HIT) 2002 – Spike Milligan (HIT) 2003 – Edward Teller (HIT) 2004 – Henri Cartier Bresson (HIT) 2005 – John Mills (HIT) 2006 – Patrick Moore (d. 2012) 2007 – Claude Levi-Strauss (d. 2009) 2008 – Alexander Solzehnitsyn (HIT) 2009 – Seve Ballesteros (d. 2011) 2010 – Herman Wouk (alive) 2011 – Geoffrey Hughes (d. 2012) 2012 – Patty Andrews (d. 2013) 2013 – Gough Whitlam (d. 2014) 2014 – Chris Woodhead (d. 2015) 2015 – Patrick Macnee (HIT) 2016 – Nancy Reagan (HIT) The last six had one Christmas left in their lives, and Seve looked to avoid it before his cancer came right back. It's just a statistical coincidence, but having seen it, I'm interested to see if it holds up. Also, short of a deluge in the last 9 days, Deathlist 2016 will be the least successful year in which the Number One spot provides a hit this century, and since 1996 in general. It's been the harbinger of 12/50 at the very least each time this century, there's a stat which is going to fall by the wayside. Bit like the Republicans never getting Penn.

There's one like that I was going to mention on the forum, but just plain forgot. They've been mentioned on here before though, and are unlikely to make my final team as it's 50/50 they see 2018 in my eyes.

It's just that forum folk have got really good at tracking down news of someone dying if it exists.

Never really spent much time in that bit of town. There was a pub down the road from The Waterloo next to a chip ship. We tried it once, food was awful. Anyhow, it burned down a few weeks later. (No connection, honest, just Glasgow for you!) Being a pseudy bastard, I was better acquainted with the pubs in the West End, the Bon Accord being a particular favourite.

Tends to be public safety with Wellington or something like that. The council used to spend a fortune removing the traffic cone, and every single time they did, it was back up there within ten minutes. Though, even a drunk Glaswegian (oxymoron, I know) would notice a pissed Santa fallling off that horse towards them. Chap's done it a few times, just goes up there and waves to the kids.

Nevermind, I snooped some more and found her last name. Just to say I had a look and found her full name within 40 seconds. Wont be on my list though. Yeah, I dropped a number of folk who were in remission only to for them to drop dead. Bit of a poor show after my vote of confidence in their health, really. Though if I'd paid more attention to Thomas Fekete pursuing homeopathic treatment, I'd have kept him, and then this "will he make 2017 or wont he" game one of my picks is playing would have had somewhat more effect on the DDP! I'd make Mr Remission (well, there are a few of them) 50/50 to go in 2017, worth a bunch of points if you get the gamble right.

Guardian Obit: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/21/ilse-aichinger-obituary Ah, wonderful. I was just bemoaning to a Guardian pal about their lack of an obit for her the other week. This must have been in the works already though.

This is narrowing the suspects for the recent annual Thatcher crony January death. 2014 - MacAlpine, 2015 - Leon, 2016 - Cecil Parkinson, 2017 - ?

Then I could play a teacher I don't like on the DDP One of my teachers died a few months ago, and would actually have got a QO in last years DDP. Small world.

Twitter becomes a QO. List of the Lost retires.

FT can be read if you search for their news story within the Google News page itself. Telegraph can be read with a non-pay membership. Although their site is a sod to log into on Firefox.

Charles would be a great boost to deadpools, given his support for homeopathy.