gcreptile

Pictures from his last public appearance three weeks ago, you never would have guessed... http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/johan-cruyffs-last-public-appearance-7622409

Move aside, here's a prime target for Shameless 2017: Jacci Woodcock, terminally ill "right-to-work" campaigner. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/mar/18/terminally-ill-campaigner-fighting-for-right-to-work

There's a thread for him, so here it is: http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2016/03/ali-macgraw-and-ryan-oneals-chemistry-still-sizzles-in-love-letters/ He has a main role in a play at the moment. No sign of any illness.

Gary Shandling dead at 66 http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/garry-shandling-dead-larry-sanders-show-show-1201738601/ I thought he was terribly unfunny. But then I might have caught only the bad stuff, like "What planet are you from"...

Shatner turned 85 yesterday.

Did the doctors pull wool over our eyes or was it a very sudden downturn? Quite a surprise... This seems to be a year where everyone with cancer actually dies, as a contrast to last year when many of the usual suspects survived. Doesn't bode well for Diski (though that would not be a surprise anymore), or let's see, who else is left of the usual suspects, Sharon Jones, Caroline Aherne and the like.

As I said, all your gambles are moving in your favour. I think you're the new favorite now.

He's a crisis actor. Google it. Interesting stuff, though I ..probably... don't believe it.

April's Vanity Fair will have an update on the Sumner Redstone story: http://jezebel.com/sumner-redstones-final-days-are-one-big-dramatic-and-p-1766430474 He is now being fed through a feeding tube and communicates through grunts and moans that only one male nurse can interpret... He also really wants to get it on one for one last time.

This mormon missionary has survived three terror attacks: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3505243/It-s-blessing-God-s-alive-American-Mormon-injured-brush-terrorism-Brussels-surviving-Boston-bombing-Paris-attacks.html This morning, my favorite german news site had the count at two, now it's three. Soon, it's goin gto turn out that he is a walking ISIS magnet.

War veteran and Guardian columnist/TV pundit Harry Leslie Smith has lost quite a bit of weight, in my opinion: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2016/mar/23/we-welcomed-refugees-in-1945-we-cant-abandon-them-today-video

I think this is the best place to post this, there is an update on Harlem Renaissance dancer Alice Barker, who was a pick for me in this contest: http://www.alicebarkernotbaker.com/new-years-photos-and-an-update/#comments She's still alive. "Some days are better than others", but she's still loving music. Now there's going to be a play about her life.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-20/denmark-s-former-prime-minister-anker-joergensen-dies-at-93 This article says that the social-democratic party announced his death without providing details. So the exact time of death might remain unknown. Edit: My extremely silly suggestion: Since he definitely died on the 20th, and the game covers about 3/4th of that day, make him a hit and give out three fourths of the points.

At the end of last year, I couldn't imagine that such a prominent man would simply die of cancer, so young, and so quickly. But maybe he wasn't as wealthy and/or well-connected as I thought. Maybe he really was a buffoon.

Bill Clinton mentions "the awful legacy of the past 8 years": http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-clinton-awful-legacy-8-years Afterwards, he explained that he meant the republican Congress (which has only been in republican control for 2 years, and two of those 8 years was in full democratic control). Or did he forget it was the year 2016?

Yeah, I just read about him again. Wonder if he'll obit. Once that HBO 1-hour special is telecast, it's an absolute given. The fact Ellen got involved almost makes it a lock already imho. SC Ah yes, glad you're keeping us up-to-date on this one. It had fallen off my radar.

German: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/leute/rob-ford-ex-buergermeister-von-toronto-gestorben-a-1083676.html

My team: Team name: "O" (that is, the letter O) 1. Vera Caslvaska (joker) [going for the slavic grand-slam here] 2. George Bush Sr. 3. Robert Mugabe 4. Helmut Kohl 5. ZsaZsa Gabor 6. Peter Esterhazy 7. Billy Graham (the evangelical) 8. Mikis Theodorakis 9. Sumner Redstone 10. King Michael of Romania 11. Joao Havelange 12. Kirk Douglas 13. Little Richard 14. Muhammad Ali 15. Javier Perez de Cuellar 16. Yoshiro Nakamatsu 17. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 18. Joe Jackson (Jackson family despot) 19. Rob Ford 20. Atal Bihari Vajpayee Replacements: Ilse Aichinger, Merle Haggard Replacement joker in case Caslavska dies before: Yoshiro Nakamatsu

Tease. Did he have surgery with complications?

Prince writes his memoirs: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/19/prince-memoir-2017-release-the-beautiful-ones In my opinion, he could die any day of some kind of freaky, embarrassing accident. Though in this case, he was apparently made an offer he couldn't refuse. He announced it at some kind of event in New York City. Also in attendance, Harry Belafonte.

Yes, congratulations to those who took a risk on him. Thomas Jefferson Survives is looking better with each day, now that all his gambles are turning to his favour. I thought he was a 50:50 case and changed his "expected points value" almost weekly. So in Dezember he was worth 5 expected points for me (10 base pts*50% of dying*100% chance of obit - no chance for unique points). That was exactly where I aimed to make a cut between those picks for the DDP and those for other pools. So he ended up in my Shaun's Deadpool team (that one rewards younger picks more).

There's a double-death in german politics today, as former christian democratic regional prime minister Lothar Späth also died: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/lothar-spaeth-meister-des-verdraengens-a-1083112.html He was a rival of Helmut Kohl at one point, but failed to topple him in the 80s. After german reunification, he got a shot at a second career by managing Jenoptik, a german optical (?) company salvaged from the wreckage of communist East Germany that was then turned into a very successful international company by him. And then he became a political talk show host. Probably not enough for an english obit, but more or less a household name in Germany. His advanced dementia had just been announced a week ago.

Yeah, he was a DDP pick in 2015 and probably would have been a bigger favourite amongst the main teams if he hadn't announced remission in, what, October 2014? So he was forgotten in 2016? He was making public appearances in late 2015/early 2016, but shortly later, he announced that the leukemia was back. I wasn't shocked at his death, but it was a bit of a risk in late 2015.

Jake Lamotta

A couple of points for me for Cliff Michelmore.