DevonDeathTrip

My was submitted last night after I'd sobered up a bit. At the precise moment I pressed "send", the moon disappeared behind a cloud and I heard a dog howling in the distance. Spooky.

I considered taking a mad gamble on the DDP next year by picking the six Indian men arrested for the rape and murder of the woman whose recent death has caused such an outcry there. They must stand a reasonable chance of getting convicted, sentenced to death and executed all within in the next twelve months, their demises perhaps accelerated by the public's demands for justice? I decided not to be silly in the end, but if anyone else is struggling for ideas, I can think of worse things to do than picking this deserving half dozen. That's presuming they've been named in the media...

I was planning to give my team some consideration this evening, but instead opted to drink much gin and construct a large goose from Lego. I'll give it some more thought in the morning. Something isn't right with the beak.

I'm not sure this is the right thread, but General Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded George Bush's US forces during the first Gulf War, has died.

I'll be playing next year, keeping up my ever present run. One day I'll win it, I know I will. I think it might only be myself and fellow deadpooling desperados Rotten Ali and MPFC who have taken part in all of the HDPs. Anyone else?

What will become of Ptolemy?

Robert Ebert has updated his Facebook page this evening: He was recently in the news after breaking his hip in a fall, but that post makes me wonder if he is alluding to something more troublesome.

Yes, that's pretty much how to do it. I can't help wondering if keen deadpoolers are just setting themselves up to fail by writing huge lists - too much perspiration and not enough inspiration?

UK obit for Dr Anthonia Onuoha.

I'm not sure picking Anthonia Onuoha for this year's DDP was one of my smartest moves. She's dead, but she isn't seeing anything at all in the way of obit action yet...

I agree. This sort of talk reminds me a bit of the gentleman in China, who leapt to his death from a third floor window as he thought his microwave was about to explode. I'm not sure I can really expand on that, except to say that reorganising this form would be a similarly unnecessary thing to do.

She's probably not good deadpooling material, but author, poet, religious pluralist and mystic voyager Marilynn Hughes is suffering from congestive heart failure, lupus and a malfunctioning pancreas. She is the founder of the Out of Body Travel Foundation. Their website should be getting increased hits in these austere times, as people look for an alternative to conventional package holidays.

I'm a huge Doris Lessing fan and I'll be saddened when she goes, but she would make an excellent DL candidate. Incidently, Lessing's feline namesake died recently. As she has written three books about cats, could this be a sign?

. Kenny Morgans has died, aged 73.

I'd just like to make my annual spirited bid to get Sister Wendy Beckett on the DL. She lives in a rickety old caravan, gets up at 1.30am for mammoth praying sessions and lives on a diet of gruel. This could cause her swift demise, that or she'll live to be 110. Either way we cannot afford to ignore her. She is also - IMHO - the owner of one of Britain's greatest minds and has a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Not that this has anything to do with the price of fish.

The Today Programme this morning interviewed the venerable Goons producer Charles Chilton, 95, about the early days of the BBC. He sounded a bit wheezy, but pretty alert. Perhaps anyone with the energy to face John Humphrys before 9am might not be a worthy dead pool pick for a few years to come.

Clark Terry is seriously ill with heart problems. He's currently "smiling and joking with friends" in the intensive care unit of a Kansas hospital. If he happens to survive until next year, I think he would be a good inclusion for the 2009 DL. Since the last update above, Clark Terry has had both of his legs amputated due to diabetic complications.

Mormon potato physiologist Robert Kunk, 99, has died.

Nelson Mandela. A vulture told me the other day.

Last October, the National Enquirer gave Penny Marshall six months to live. Thirteen months later, nothing has changed:

Oh dear God. This is like the end of days. I hope we can find the strength to carry on . RIP Clive. Richard O'Sullivan, a forum turns it's lonely eyes to you....

According to, ahem, "The Alien-UFOs Discussion Forum" : Rochus Misch, the last survivor of Hitler's bunker, is seriously ill in a Berlin Hospital.

A Pelican In The Wilderness also picked Patriarch Maxim, so two of their total of four hits have died today.

Ray Price is suffering from pancreatic cancer.

I stand by my original guess.