Tomb raider

(For our puzzled english-speaking DL-friends: that is not Dutch either...)

Baantjer is now officially dead in english too...

The PNDP is now increasing the lead over Deathlist: novelist Appie Baantjer, the list's no. 29, has passed away, aged 86. It means Vaagheid can now celebrate his 8th hit, congratulations!!

Seven is too optimistic, I'd say no more than six.

Dutch judo champion and IOC-member Anton Geesink, in 1961 the first non-Japanese world champion and Olympic gold medal winner in Tokio (!) 1964, has died, aged 76. (English obit coming up.)

Hmm, this is an interesting list. I never actually knew what the absence register could imply, but I understand it to be a kind of unpaid leave, meant for Lords that are too frail, ill or busy to show up regularly. I think it's a remarkably short list, considered that there are over 700 members, many of whom never participate as well. Has it been successful in previous years in predicting upcoming deaths, I wonder?

Dutch and Belgian news sources mention the death of diet-guru Michel Montignac (66). His diet was highly controversial, it certainly did not secure its founder a long lifespan.

He was a candidate back in 2004, one of DL's better years, but seems to have slipped under the radar since.Dictators seem to go on forever....I wonder if it will be all change or more of the same in Zimbabwe after he dies? Difficult to predict, that. The prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, seems a nice bloke, but should he become prez (not bloody likely) he might turn out a nasty dictator himself. regards, Hein Never ceases to amaze me how absolute power corrupts absolutely...Let's hope that Tsvangirai doesn't fall prey to corruption if he becomes president(big if!). I think it's quite likely that Tsvangirai will gain the presidency - after a lot of turmoil to get rid of Mugabe's cronies in the Zanu-PF, that is. Not sure as to whether Tsvangirai will make a big difference, but he seems a more likeable chap than Mugabe (who doesn't?!) so I would give him a chance.

Considering her age, it really is a miss, I agree. But I must admit that her name didn't ring any bells here...

I prepared a quite witty repost, stating that the death of the title characters had never stopped the reruns of Matlock and Columbo, only to find out that Andy Griffith and Peter Falk are still alive... Oops! They're not even that old, 84 and 82, considered that they already looked ancient back then, didn't they? Peter Falk is suffering from severe dementia, as mentioned elsewhere on the forum, though. Completely missed that, but it makes him a strong favourite for the DL 2011, I suppose. The list of terminated ridiculously stupid police drama series is sheer endless, now I think of it. The death of Horst Tappert relieved us from Derrick, Inspector Morse died with John Thaw and Jake had to retire after the Fatman William Conrad passed. One of the most annoying detective series of the last decennium is Monk - I watched an episode last week (this one, to be specific) and it was pathetic. Can't think of any reason why Monk was so popular in the US.

I'm not completely sure which smiley to pick here... Decided to go for this one: . Surely, this post is one for the Tasteless Top Ten?

Ah, Magere Hein showed us how to find your first post (see the 'howto'-topic)! I'd been hanging around at DL for some time, but decided to register and respond to some criticism related to Brooke Astor and Ruby Muhammad. As Astor secured us a hit back in 2007 and Muhammad has been ignored ever since, I very much doubt that anyone will ever feel the urge to revive that thread, though.

How the hell do people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot...? (Though I must admit that I've no recollection of my first post either...)

Deathpooling is not a science. No-one is to blame for picking the wrong (i.e.: non-dying) celebs, we've just been unlucky on several occasions. Of course: you could argue it's about being well-informed too, but there's no way anyone of us could have known that al-Megrahi's or Biggs' health issues had been exaggerated - which was clearly the case. I suspected a deathpool-hating conspiracy too, but this year's fine NDP-performance seems to contradict that.

Well, maybe not your lot but it's a very slow year for those on my NLDP team! Well, last year did yield a bumper crop of souls! I suppose this lull in big name dispatches was only to be expected.I wonder if we'll have any major shocks in the premature, unexpected stakes before the year is out? I feel this thread is useless. It seems like year people are complaining that it is a slow year (oftenly even naming it the slowest year yet) but when the year ends it seems not as bad as everyone made it out to be. I agree that people will complain, no matter what, but it is a remarkably slow year, the slowest since 1991, in fact... By august 19th, the previous deathlists had the following number of hits (the year's total in brackets): 2009: 7 (12) 2008: 11 (14) 2007: 9 (10) 2006: 7 (13) 2005: 8 (12) 2004: 8 (12) 2003: 9 (14) 2002: 8 (10) 2001: 8 (10) 2000: 9 (10) 1999: 8 (10) 1998: 6 (8) 1997: 4 (9) 1996: 7 (7) 1995: 5 (9) 1994: 7 (9) 1993: 4 (5, out of 56 picks) 1992: 4 (5, out of 37 picks) 1991: 0 (0, out of 40 picks) 1990: 3 (3, out of 43 picks) 1989: 2 (3, out of 32 picks) 1988: ? (?) 1987: 1 (1, out of 31 picks) In 'modern times', that is: after the introduction of the 50-picks-limit in 1994, we had an average of 7,5 hits by this time of year, out of an annual average of 10,5. I'd say that we would be exceptionally lucky to reach double figures this year, let alone to break the record.

Then again, she could surprise us! I had believed her to be a goner back in July when she was first admitted to hospital, But realistically speaking, she'll probably be dead by next week at the latest-I predict next Tuesday. Anybody else care to share their own predictions? She'll outlive the month, and probably the next one too. My guess would be that she carks it on october 1st.

Michael... who?! And yes, I did check the guy's wikipage and none of those cheap crappy sh*te movies and series rang any bell here. (His death would incite a wonderful pun, though...) I might as well nominate Brittany Murphy, were it not that she seemed an adorable girl. Can't blame her for being talentless after all.

It's ta-ta for Zsa Zsa.

For our english-speaking friends - some of them engaged in the NDP too - a translation of the Telegraaf-article: And he's dead! (I'll keep an eye on an english obit.) Congratulations, Vaagheid, a fine pick!

Not sure how fast a Peruvian trial goes, but there might be DL-potential in the end, as the authorities are considering to reintroduce the death penalty. Especially for Joran! His mother must be so proud...

He took his bloody time though... Ah, the Holy DL-tease is still touching a nerve... Yes, the suspense could have killed me. regards, Hein Ah... those were the days... It's almost cruel for a DL-pick to drop dead without warning! The ones that keep us in suspense for a while - for months or years, preferably - are the memorable ones. Zsa Zsa and the Lockerbie-chap have the most potential on this years list, I suppose. EDIT: Oops, I almost forgot Biggsie!

He took his bloody time though... Ah, the Holy DL-tease is still touching a nerve...

A few people have survived the last rites......Niki Lauda for one. And she is summat of a drama queen, way better at that than she ever was at the acting game. Then again, I've a hunch she's toast in a matter of days. Martin Sheen another... Pope John Paul II too, in 1981. Didn't survive the second time, in 2005, though.

He has another claim to fame in that he thinks he is a Prince because he was adopted...at the age of 27...by some old Germanic Princess. Sounds like a twat. It's even worse: he was 37, he's not a prince, his real name isn't even Frédéric and he married a woman 30 years his senior who's famous just because she had great looks - three centuries ago. It's all rather sad, though the uniform does look good on him.

Looks like she's been re-admitted to hospital with "complications". They removed a blood clot. As she's in shock, doesn't eat or respond to visitors, things are looking grim for the diva. For some reason, Im more intrigued by her husband than by the ailing star herself. He withdrew from the California Governor election, which is a shame as he would certainly have added some colour to it. One of the highlights of his platform was to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage, for quite remarkable reasons: "He says he believes in marriage between a man and woman, but also defends the constitution which says equal rights for all. "Let them be as miserable as the rest of us."" Wow! That's something for a man who's only claim to fame is being married to a celeb. I just checked his program, and it doesn't look that bad. He wanted to lower drinking age to 18, open the US-Mexican border, legalize pot, make university college free and - as I mentioned before - he defended gay marriage. I'm not proud of it, but I could have voted for this guy!