The Dead Cow

As 2017 is now over, I can announce Drol as the winner of the Inverse Dead Pool 2017! Here is the final scoreboard 1st - Drol - 25 points 2nd - Shaun of the Dead - 44 points 3rd - Grim Up North - 45 points =4th - Bert Trautmann - 52 points =4th - CaptainChorizo - 52 points 6th - gcreptile - 55 points 7th - Book - 56 points 8th - The Unknown Man - 57 points 9th - Bibliogryphon - 58 points 10th - msc - 60 points 11th - The Mad Hatter - 61 points 12th - Dr_T - 65 points =13th - Garn2 - 66 points =13th - YoungWillz - 66 points 15th - WednesdayAddams - 68 points 16th - Death Impends - 69 points 17th - Phantom of the Midway - 71 points 18th - Toast - 79 points =19th - esher - 87 points =19th - Pedro67 - 87 points =21st - Deathray - 88 points =21st - Joeyruss - 88 points 23rd - rockhopperpenguin - 97 points =24th - CharonsCrew - 99 points =24th - GraveDanger - 99 points 26th - Switch - 106 points 27th - Dead Cow - 118 points 28th - Angels - 134 points Congratulations @drol, an excellent performance in a year brimming with hits. I say this every year, but this was certainly the best Inverse Dead Pool yet, and it's been a pleasure to host this wonderful dead pool for another year. Unfortunately, it will also be my last year as host, and as such we'll need a new host to carry this dead pool forward in the upcoming year(s). So I'm passing the baton on to @Death Impends, who I'm sure will make a superb host and continue to keep this game alive. Thanks to everyone who competed, I hope you'll all join in again for 2018. Happy New Year and good night.

Aye, looking back he doesn't seem so bad, that Halibut hater.

Inspired by MPFC's recent revelation in the jokes thread. Enter 'Halibut' into the forum search bar and uncover every post where the word 'Muslim' has been replaced with 'Halibut' and enjoy.

Maybe throw in Yusuf's bezzie marra as well.

500 Still Life, Destination Eschaton and new B-team Still More Life, have all been sent to the master. Both main team and B team consist of a combination of certs and gambles, young and old, popular picks and potential uniques, 'futharc's and 'twelfth's, and it will be interesting to see how they both fare. Obviously, I won't reveal them until tomorrow, but I shall reveal Destination Eschaton now, considering it doesn't stand a chance. 1. Saul Kripke 2. Mary Midgley 3. Gayatri Spivak 4. Daniel Dennett 5. Thomas Nagel 6. Slavoj Zizek 7. Peter Kreeft 8. Mary Warnock 9. Jurgen Habernas 10. Gillo Dorfles 11. Noam Chomsky 12. Onora O'Neill 13. Alasdair MacIntyre 14. Martha Nussbaum 15. Alain Badiou 16. Simon Blackburn 17. John Searle 18. Anthony Kenny 19. Judith Butler 20. Sandra Harding Subs 1. Hans Albert 2. David Chalmers 3. Kanye West Good luck folks.

Not quite, he did a podcast back in August and sounded alright there. Though I do think his health has deteriorated significantly in the past year, he mentioned in one of his articles that he had recently possessed a wheelchair due to his mobility worsening. Then of course he stopped writing for the Guardian, due to not being able to keep up with deadlines, presumably because of his illness. Definitely one for the 2018 Deathlist I would think. Mind, I wouldn't be too fussed if he went in the next 24 hours.

Sure, add mine please, if you don't mind.

Another random selection of old/ill folk which I'll call my shadow list for 2018. 1. John McCain 2. Clive James 3. Tessa Jowell 4. Charlotte Rae 5. June Whitfield 6. Denis Norden 7. Alberto Fujimori 8. Barbara Bush 9. George H.W. Bush 10. Mary Midgley 11. Dave Bartholomew 12. Little Richard 13. Noam Chomsky 14. Michael Morpergo 15. Michael Moorcock 16. Michael Moore 17. Michael Moriarty 18. Stephen Sondheim 19. Prunella Scales 20. Valerie Harper 21. Leah Bracknell 22. Yoko Ono 23. Nobby Stiles 24. Mark E Smith 25. Baroness Jane Campbell 26. Douglas Hurd 27. Genesis P-Orridge 28. Stan Lee 29. Gershon Kingsley 30. John Hume 31. Neil Simon 32. Olivia Newton-John 33. Dan Rather 34. Doris Day 35. Rev. Billy Graham 36. Prince Henrik of Denmark 37. Morgan Tsvangirai 38. Ian Holm 39. Franco Zefirelli 40. John McCrirrick 41. Jim Bowen 42. Brian Wilson 43. Loretta Lynn 44. Roberta Flack 45. Willie Nelson 46. Vera Lynn 47. I.M. Pei 48. Margaret Atwood 49. Ursula K Le Guin 50. David Thomas

Ah, see I've always used the OED when playing Scrabble, which doesn't recognise it as so. But even still, an alternative spelling of the word can still be used to score more than 'twelfth' and impress your opponents with your knowledge of Norse runic writing systems.

Except the correct spelling is either 'futhark' or 'futhork', both of which actually score more than 'twelfth'. Edit: Unless if you meant 'futhorc', that would score less.

Erica Garner's dead

Entered hospice care earlier this month.

My team's just been sent to MPFC. Also aiming for gold next year, though I expect tough competition.

It would be, but I was always too shy to ask.

Yeah, but it's really not that bad. Before this year the Drop 40 was never revealed until usually the second update of the year, so I would have to through and figure out all 50 of the picks. Now that was hell. But really, I just scroll through all the picks and look for the ones that were picked by a significant number of teams, then I'd Ctrl-F their name in the teams list to quickly find out how many teams picked them. I'd note this down and then continue until I've gone through all the picks and I have the top 50. Usually takes an hour or two.

1. France Gall 2. Marieke Vervoort 3. John McCain 4. Charlotte Rae 5. Vanessa Marquez 6. Joey Jordison 7. Rolf Harris 8. Javier Perez de Cuellar 9. Rose West 10. Clive James Subs 1. Joe Redner 2. Devin Lima

Well given the information you've provided us we're all now capable of unearthing the fact that Vittorio Cecchi Gori is in a critical condition after suffering a stroke anyhow. So why not?

His son Kenji has been posting videos of his father since his release. Here's Alberto receiving the news of his pardon And here he is wishing you a merry Christmas He seems frail, but I think he'll survive this hospitalisation and see 2018 with relative ease. Should definitely be considered for the 2018 Deathlist though.

Leon Bernicoff, star of Gogglebox, has died aged 83.

Dead, aged 74.

Haha, well I can only wish to feel a little less dead. Just to clarify, it's nothing life-threatening and I shouldn't be considered for dead pooling purposes. It's just side effects of medication are making me rather lethargic, hopefully they'll wear off soon enough.

Marieke Vervoort update Things are sounding dire, and she's readying herself for euthanasia. It's a harrowing read, she's obviously suffering tremendously.

A long-overdue update following the death of the King of Romania. Three teams took the Michael and are royally reprimanded for their misjudgment. Changes to the scoreboard are insignificant. Drol continues his reign in the final days of this competition, will he be King of the IDP come January 1st? Here are the scores! 1st - Drol - 25 points 2nd - Shaun of the Dead - 44 points 3rd - Grim Up North - 45 points =4th - Bert Trautmann - 52 points =4th - CaptainChorizo - 52 points 6th - gcreptile - 55 points 7th - Book - 56 points 8th - The Unknown Man - 57 points 9th - Bibliogryphon - 58 points 10th - msc - 60 points 11th - The Mad Hatter - 61 points 12th - Dr_T - 65 points =13th - Garn2 - 66 points =13th - YoungWillz - 66 points 15th - WednesdayAddams - 68 points 16th - Death Impends - 69 points 17th - Phantom of the Midway - 71 points 18th - Toast - 79 points =19th - esher - 87 points =19th - Pedro67 - 87 points =21st - Deathray - 88 points =21st - Joeyruss - 88 points 23rd - rockhopperpenguin - 97 points =24th - CharonsCrew - 99 points =24th - GraveDanger - 99 points 26th - Switch - 106 points 27th - Dead Cow - 118 points 28th - Angels - 134 points ... In other news, I am considering stepping down as host of the Inverse Dead Pool. Unfortunately, uni work and health issues have rendered me inefficient, so I think it's for the best that someone else takes over. The decision is not yet final, so I'll let you folks know come New Year's Day, but in the meantime, if you'd be interested in hosting the IDP just let me know.

Still Life 2018 is looking just about ready as well. A nice mixture of Drop 40 favourites, likely cult picks and a couple of FFBI names. Aiming for an improvement on this year's performance, but a top 20 finish will suit me just fine. As for Destination Eschaton, my philosophical theme team, It'll likely return next year as well, though I'll not be putting any thought into it.

Those of you still searching for a suitable replacement for Johnny Hallyday in your DP teams need look no further than Oliver Dragojevic. The 70-year old Croatian cultural icon was diagnosed with lung cancer back in August and has spent the past couple of weeks hospitalised after being forced to cancel some concerts.