gcreptile

Ah! There is my post about my feeling that Ali would die this year. I should trust my feelings more, I would have scored with Prince and Merle Haggard if I did.

An update on Sharon Jones with most of the information we "need": http://www.pollstar.com/news_article.aspx?ID=825902

Inevitable, but still sad. RIP...

Great... now the terror has reached Germany.

Neat, the Wikiepedia rule is exactly as I suggested here myself.

Predictably dead, at only 49: http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/07/us-rep-mark-takai-of-hawaii-dies/ The first death this year that had me thinking "one for 2017".

I don't know him, but at first glance, he looks as if he saw Christian Bale in American Psycho and said: Yep, that's who I want to be.

Still in prison, but has surgery on a benign brain tumour: http://www.news1130.com/2016/07/16/panamas-manuel-noriega-to-have-surgery-on-brain-tumour/

He couldn't attend an AIDS conference because of ill health: http://www.enca.com/south-africa/tutu-urges-activists-to-unite

Here's a more friendly picture of him: https://www.statnews.com/2016/07/20/james-watson-cancer/ He had recent heart surgery which impacts his memory. But he can still play tennis.

Does this obit count for Robert Dorr, since it appeared in the Associated Press section of that paper? http://www.the-journal.com/article/20160707/AP/307079745/Robert-Dorr-author-of-military-histories-dies-at-76 There was a bit of a precedent with John Schlegel in 2015.

Garry Marshall: https://forums.deathlist.net/topic/8629-the-dead-of-2016/?p=271905 ITV Obit: http://www.itv.com/news/2016-07-20/pretty-woman-director-garry-marshall-dies-at-81/ Why the hell would anyone have had an 81-year old Garry Marshall (unless a theme team)??? Dude wasn't even sick, died of pneumonia and therefore wasn't sick on Jan 1. It sure as hell had Better been a theme team or a close relative of Marshall's, only those two situations don't demand further explanation. SC Obscure but will pull an obit is exactly the type of person that should be picked for DDP. Rack in those unique points. On that note has anyone ever managed to pull 20 unique picks on a team? I think so yes, I once looked for it, since I also like to hunt for uniques. Coincidentally, I wondered earlier today whether it is possible to field a Theme Team with the Theme "people I think will be unique hits". And then I'd like not to score for them, if they aren't unique.

Man with axe on a train in Bavaria: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/18/about-20-people-injured-in-axe-attack-on-train-in-germany So far, 20 injured, attacker shot.

He says Mugabe is worse than cancer: https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2016/07/18/my-cancer-better-than-mugabe-s-misrule And he also claims to be on the road to recovery after surgery - ready to challenge Mugabe in 2018.

Last week Shameless pick Mark Nurthen died: https://www.gofundme.com/u4f6bw9g?viewupdates=1&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=body_photo&utm_campaign=upd_n In spite of his connection to Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh there has been no obit yet. I suspect, Shameless might have been a bit more successful obit-wise if this had not been such a big news-year, or in the case of, for example "Christmas Dad with cancer Andy Haworth", a year of huge deaths (since Andy Haworth died sometime between Bowie and Rickman).

Economist Karl Case, who had brushed the mainstream with his Case-Shiller index of housing prices, is dead and was either 69 or 70 years old: http://finance.yahoo.com/video/economist-karl-case-dies-110600193.html

Former governor and senator of Minnesota, Wendell Anderson, dead at 83: http://www.kvrr.com/news/local-news/Former-Minnesota-Governor-Passes-Away/40754240

South African rally driver Gugu Zulu dies while climing the Kilimanjaro for a Nelson Mandela charity event: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36823937

Her most recent tweet sounds a bit like good bye. Today? Tomorrow?

He had skin cancer surgery last week. He's doing well he says. http://app.handelsblatt.com/fussball-fifa-blatter-hat-krebs-operation-ueberstanden-es-geht-ihm-gut/13854724.html?mwl=ok(german Link, mobile version)

My random comments on the general state of the race: still hard to predict the winner. The unlikely events will decide it (Baghdadi killed, Delpech getting an obit). But what is going to happen without these events? On principle, TJS "should" win. A rock-solid team which, like about five other teams, would have won in any other year but this one. It's like having a pair of kings pre-flop in a Texas Hold'em game, but others with lots of chances of a flush or a straight. I also declared Captain Chorizo a favourite at one point. That shows how close it is, how the race might depend on a single name, possibly even on those "average" quality picks, Nakamatsu, or van der Westhuizen (high risk, high reward). I also believe that Bishop Robinson is very likely to die this year. Edit: Maybe this year's hit bonanza was just a coincidence, but I rather believe that this year has seen a new level of deadpooling. Next year will continue that trend (though there is the possibility that the many holdouts and low scores of 2015 all merely delayed their results into 2016). Maybe soon it might be appropriate to field 25-man teams? Or maybe stricter obit rules will shrink the candidates' pool.

With Bonnie Brown, The Love Boat crosses the 100point-mark. Msc's analysis would put it at sixth place with 128pts (Caslavska, Christie, Kincaid) and without the dark horse Gary Haggarty (and my outrageous gambles Storrar and Yeaman). That would be a great result in my second year in the DDP. The Kincaid/Granger case shows why I have to abandon my "each name in one dead pool only" rule. I knew they would both be hits, but I decided to spread the "talent" across my three teams. It's probably going to result in the Theme Team victory (Shameless' first and probably final appearance) but with Brown being my 23rd Hit this year, more would have been possible. Maybe my B-Team is to blame.

Popular DDP pick Peter Esterhazy is dead: http://www.welt.de/kultur/article157059139/Peter-Esterhazy-gestorben.html(link in german) Pancreatic cancer gets them all... (except Vera Caslavska, for now...)

Paul Di'Anno, former frontman of Iron Maiden, does NOT battle cancer for a third time, but he's had an infected abcess around/on/in (?) his lungs: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/paul-dianno-cancer/ He's responding to treatment. He's also in a wheelchair because of double knee-replacement surgery.

Hungarian Scientist Rudolf Kalman, inventor of the Kalman filter, dead at 86: http://hungarytoday.hu/news/renowned-hungarian-scientis-rudolf-kalman-dies-aged-86-46732 The filter was a mathematical technique that got applied in the Apollo program and the US Space Shuttle program. He also was a professor at Stanford.