msc

I had Castro in 7th place, though I did design my entire team as a jinx to try and "take one for the team", as it were.

I was looking up something on my phone five minutes ago. The wife walks in and says "Oh, alright, who's dead now?" And to think I said "no one". He'll be updated ASAP.

Yeah, I had just enough time to think "What dumb no-namer has bumped Castro's thread?" before I saw Willz's post. Blimey.

Suicide according to the Mail. Hmmm, Yewtree-ish type things, perhaps?

They drew a blank, but I know Aitchison's work on a google, he illustrated most (all?) of the Ladybird kids books which were in every single library I ever visited growing up.

Thomas Taylor, Lord Taylor of Blackburn dies aged 87 after crashing his mobility scooter into a van. He was previously suspended from the Lords for the cash for influence scandal in 2009. Background details by the Lancashire Telegraph in January:

I feel as confident in Val Kilmer being in better health than reported, as I did back in December 2012 when I said Reg Presley and Hugo Chavez shouldn't go on the Deathlist because they probably weren't that ill, and I was confident of that one.

You think Marks was bad, you should have seen the furore over Hitchens.

Not true, unless you are distinguishing between actors and actresses, which seems to be no longer the done thing. Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar in 1940 for 'Gone With The Wind', over 20 years before Poitier. I was distinguishing between actors and actresses -I was aware of Hattie. That's amazing - you sounded just like joeyruss then. I was going to say, but thought I'd missed something. Which isn't unheard of.

Nah, he's definitely not DL worthy. While undoubtedly a fascinating and inspirational character given what he's had to deal with in his life, he was only ever a journeyman who luckily had his journeyman days during the time ITV had boxing on regularly so he got plenty of TV coverage. If he's remembered today, it's because he had a worse chin than Roger Ebert. I thought as much, but yeah, my knowledge of boxing doesn't extend much beyond Bruno, Tyson, Ali...

Yeah, the thing about Errol Christie is... How famous is he? That's a question for the boxing fans, incidentally.

No, he's right there. *innocent face*

So, with that out of the way, who would I cut/add/etc? Just a bit of fun, as Peter Snow would say... CUT Paul Gascoigne (he could go tomorrow, he could go in twenty years, like any alcoholic. Short of proper ill health, get rid...) Lester Piggott (not ill enough) Tommy Chong (recovering) Mary Tyler Moore (These feel self-evident enough...) Stephen Hawking Stan Lee Robert M Pirsig Sandy Gall Doug Ellis Bob Dole Clive James James Randi Liz Smith (Think they'll see 2018) Murry Walker Henry Kissinger Gordon Banks Richard Adams (the "need to cut it down to 25" people) KEEP Zsa Zsa/de Havilland/Rev Billy/Wouk/Javier Perez/Kirk D/Prince Philip/Fidel Castro - the folk who aren't leaving till they die. Peter Sallis - think he's iller than reported. Lord Carrington Joost van der Westhuizen - 6th year MND, and looking ghastly. Prunella Scales - feel this would be regretted if dropped Jimmy Carter/George Bush Sr - Presidents don't get dropped. 93 year old Presidents especially... Vera Lynn - 100 next year, allegedly frail Leslie Philips - not very well, as strokes, radio silence and those photos show Fats Domino - the annual "surely he must go this year?" pick that drops as soon as he is dropped Desmond Tutu Glen Campbell - 2017 feels his year Jake lamotta Denis Norden Jimmy Greaves Jacques Chirac - quite clearly rather ill John Noakes - ditto with Scales, 2016 was clearly a year early. Brucie - Yeah, he's "one of ours", as MPFC likes to say. RETURNEES Robert Mugabe Hosni Mubarak Doris Day Helmut Kohl (I think they've "done a Megrahi" on him and it'll turn out inspired...) Valerie Harper (she does still have terminal cancer after all) Nicholas Parsons (50th anniversary of JAM, life's like that...) Pierre Cardin Sean Connery (they get too many chances left, I don't think) Queen Elizabeth II (because the risk of missing out on her is too big, to my mind) NEWCOMERS (Which I'll split the remaining sixteen in 8 people known to be ill, and 8 interesting Deathlisty names...) DEATHLISTY ENOUGH* AND SICK ENOUGH AA Gill Len Hawkes Ian St John Leah Bracknell Colin Meads Gord Downie (from what I can make out, about as known here as Warren Zevon was) Piers Sellers (I've been skeptical elsewhere, but f**k it, hes a British astronaut, tones of missions, and dying...) Tony Booth *I've decided to take Pirsig/Woodhead as a fame bar. **I expect none of these people to show up on the actual 2017 Deathlist. FAMOUS AND DEATHLISTY Sidney Poitier Honor Blackman Robert Hardy (of course...) Barbara Bush David Attenborough Mel Brooks Former Pope Benedict XVI Freddie Jones Most likely 0/25 on the non-2016 names, but then, that's life for you.

He was joking... Anyhow, apparently for 2012 I suggested Sid Waddell and Frank Carson. For 2015, I suggested Jimmy Hill and Tony Booth. Trying to follow up this 75% success rate of serious replies to this thread, I'll look into my crystal ball and suggest...Winnie Ewing and Kenneth Cope. Both not well, last I heard, and the latter has a gimme headline waiting for him.

Right at this moment, or at some point over the last 30 years? The latter list includes Harry Mac (no longer posts here), welshman (hence his tagline), and a few others. Currently, haven't a clue, because I've not been paying attention, beyond Grim, of course. Paul B likes to use the royal We, but he's a Scot...

I was having a wee trawl of the List of the Lost, to see if I could find anything. While I couldn't, I thought this was very unlucky for Bert: the Daily Mail implying but not stating that the Majestik magician chap is dead. I mean, the album is about loss, and it's dedicated to four dead people, but the word "dead" is never used.

I want to bring attention to an elephant in the room among writers, which is the health of Philip Pullman. For those who don't know of him, he's a writer of young adult novels, and a highly regarded one at that. Anyhow, here's what I know: 1. He's ill. Apparently very ill. 2. In 2010, he had to pull out of the Hay festival, at short notice, due to ill health. 3. In 2012, he had to cancel an appearance with Neil Gaiman. Gaiman made this tweet about it at the time. 4. Circa 2013, he was involved in a photo shoot for the BBC, but wasn't expected to make it due to being "seriously ill", and was in massive amounts of pain. 5. Last year, he made the following comments to The New Statesman: In short, he's ill, he's been ill for a number of years, and a lot of in the know folk are worried about him, but I don't know specifically what's up.

Never heard of him. Is he your grandfather's best friend? He's related to Joey Freak, I think.

I still think this could be solved by a Fantasy booking the Deathlist thread. Then all year round folk could do these "25 I'd axe" etc role playing to their hearts content, and leave the Ideas thread for actual Ideas. That's just me, though.

Yep, Zsa Zsa Gabor may even die one day. Sorry, I've taken the conversation into the sphere of pure fantasy...

Democrats can't win the Senate in 2018 - they need a swing of 5 seat, and only 8 Republican seats are up for grabs then. Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, Nebraska, Mississippi and Arizona. That's not going to happen. Whereas, without looking into great detail, the Dems look in trouble in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana, the seats which are up in 2018 they already hold. When you're in this position, you don't want a midterm where you own 24 of the 33 seats up for grabs. And if they do as badly as they tend to in mid-terms then, then we're looking at Republican control of the Senate till beyond 2020.

Can't think what you mean...

A smart strategy would have been for the Democrats to actually campaign in Wisconsin, but the horse is out of the stable on that one now! They may try your theory out, but I am reminded that they tried it in 2000-04, and then ran John Kerry for the Presidency. That the 2004 election was so close, I can't decide if it shows up Bush or Kerry more... Seemingly in recent history, whenever the Democrats try to crown someone (Hilary, Gore), they lose. Whenever they run a shit candidate (Dukakis, Kerry), they lose. When they go with the flow and let some unheralded person build momentum in the primaries (Bill C, Obama, even Carter), they win. I'm going to guess the next Democratic US President will be someone most of us non-Americans haven't even heard of right now.

No. There is a precedent for the loser of the Electoral College (and the popular vote!) winning the Presidency, but that was in 1824, when Clay voted in Quincy Adams over Jackson. For some reason, I can't see Paul Ryan doing the same!

I dunno msc, you might. I totally read that reply in the voice of the policeman talking to Bugs Bunny at the end of Bugs and Thugs. "He's not in this stove!" "Aha, he's hiding in the stove!" "If my friend Rocky was in this stove, would I turn on the gas?" "You might, rabbit, you might..."