gcreptile

Liz Smith is very well known in the UK as a comedy actress who habitually played dotty old ladies. By her own admission, she has always looked like a little old lady! She has appeared in many popular sitcoms and would be instantly recognisable to most Brits, even if they didn't remember her name. She retired several years ago and is said to be in poor health. Lester Piggott is far from boring. He was for many years the champion flat race jockey with record numbers of Classic wins, and was known even to people who did not follow horse racing. He is famously tight-fisted, and shockingly was jailed for tax evasion some years ago. He is not much in the limelight these days, but holds legendary status in the UK and Ireland. That said, I have not heard anything that suggests he is likely to keel over any time soon. Ah, good to know, thanks. From my point of view, I'm having trouble with Liz Smith because my internet searches always prefer the US gossip lady.

Ah, but it also shows up in the UK edition. You can go to the UK edition and search for him, you'll find him. Interestingly, there is a US sports sub-category, under home => sports => US sports. I didn't know about that. That made the obit much more likely. Ah well, that's why I said I need another year to fine-tune my obitability sense. Congratulations to those who picked him!

Ah, that's Andy Borowitz though, and this time, I'm not going to fall for it.

One reason why I cannot really make my own Shadowlist is that I can't quite make my mind up about the standards that should apply to it. Should I just go for hits and beat the committee or should I also follow their own considerations when it comes to general obitability and/or notoriety plus UK relationship? Well, and then what I think are "their" considerations could also be my own faulty interpretation. For example, I guess that they are going for "relevant" people, but then they also have Liz Smith (?), or the occasional low-hanging fruit (possibly Woodhead, or Erich Priepke, or even Luise Rainer). And some picks that are simply boring and not exactly logical (Javier Perez de Cuellar, Lester Piggott). I guess the personal eccentricities of the committee members also factor in. Personally, I think they should go for interesting, widely obitable personalities, who maybe die not in this year, but in the next or the second-next at latest. They should also pick people that attract page views, that have interesting lives and so on.. Ronnie Biggs was a perfect pick for that, and I'm not sure, but I think that his case got me to the Deathlist. Anyway, I think neither Pat Harington nor Joey Feek were misses, neither Andrew Smith nor Michel Delpech nor any cancer celebrity. Kitty Kallen maaaaaybe. David Bowie, can't really fault them for that. Noone really knew about his apporaching death unless you believed the rumours around 2010 and thought that his heart attack in 2004 was the sign of a relatively short life. But I wouldn't have given him a slot for so many years built on rumours. That said, I complain AGAIN about not having Howard Marks, Hugh Hefner and Robert Mugabe on the list. All are widely obitable and have had interesting lives. They might not all die this year, if I had to guess it's going to be 2 out of 3 in random combination, but these misses will be unfortunate. I think they'll also regret not having Helmut Kohl on there. And they might have included Jenny Diski, too. There should be people on the list who are sort-of "in" on the "joke" of deadpooling, in that they discuss their own death very publicly. Edit: Ah, and I forgot about Sumner Redstone.

Charlie Sheen goes off his HIV medication, against the advice of his doctor, to seek alternative treatment in Mexico: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/charlie-sheen-reveals-hiv-now-7169397 Now the virus is detectable in his blood again... I'm guessing someone promised him a complete cure, and he's risking it because noone wants to sleep with him anymore, after his HIV reveal.

Howard Marks should have had this slot! Seriously, they chose an american celebrity with a less dangerous and less progressed cancer over the british celebrity with terminal cancer.

Thanks again, YoungWillz: Bill Del Monte: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-obit-1906-quake-survivor-20160111-story.html Edit: By the way, who won last year? I know it wasn't me...

You can die on purpose? Yeah, I guess it stretches credibility, though I wouldn't rule out the effects of willpower to hasten or delay one's death by a day or two.

His biographer says that he had six heart attacks in recent years: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-bowie-dead-rock-legend-7156795 However, she also believes that he died on monday on purpose.

Very good list! I only have minor contributions. Lindsey Buckingham for 1949, just to complete "classic" Fleetwood Mac. Possibly the two main guys from Kraftwerk? They would obit, but then there is no real name recognition with the individual members of the band. They are, Florian Schneider-Esleben (born 1947) and Ralf Hütter (born 1946) (hence, the album Ralf & Florian). Ah, maybe Damo Suzuki (born 1950, with a few rumours of bad health), frontman of the most popular line-up of Can. After all, the Anglo-american press loves Krautrock, even more than the general german public itself.

Second biggest omission of the Deathlist after prefering Chong over Marks, in my opinion. Though I realise he might not sell the home because he's physically declining, but mentally instead. I can imagine him doddering around the house in an unchanged bathrobe for years.

Yes, on New Years Eve, that is, after the Deathrace deadline, an article about him made use of the word 'recovery': http://www.racer.com/north-american-racing/item/124867-american-racing-legend-adamowicz-fighting-brain-cancer Instead of days, he might well have weeks or months left. Probably not years though. Adamowicz is DI's (i.e. the current Deathrace leader's) joker, could be significant, eh? I like to think that for the Deathrace you basically only need 5-6 "locks". If they die within the first month, you've won. The other 14-15 picks can be gambles. So if one of your gambles turns out to be a dud, it's no biggie. But then I would have thought that Adamowicz would be a lock (didn't make him my joker by coincidnece), and that might be significant, because otherwise Death Impends would be the big favourite to win at this point, needing only Adamowicz and a second hit to win. Without him, DI, DDT and SC all still need three hits to win, with all the "walking corpses" already dead. And if Adamowicz is a dud, it reduces the potential of the teams who picked him by a 20th. So Sir Creep and me are similarly slighty disadvantaged. Hmm... I guess that makes DDT the statistical favorite at this point. Yeah, woops. Thought the early Dec update on him meant Adamowicz was fading away and would've only made 2016 by a nose if he made it. Though tbh I still think Bruce Langhorne and Monty Brinson (both of whom I'm the only one to pick in the Deathrace) are likely gone by the month's end, so I'd need another on top of that but my hopes aren't dashed quite yet. Honestly, I could not imagine that there was any different way that statement could have been interpreted than the way you and I did.

Bad luck there with Delpech, having fellow frenchmen Boulez and Concorde test pilot die in the same week. But then they also made space for Courrèges (spelling?). Well, I guess there's still a realistic chance that his death gets a one-sentence mention in the usually generous coverage of the Isle of Wight festival in June.

Ok...hmmm ... Joey Feek this week, Ronald Mulkearns this month. Martin Crowe or René Angelil. I guess Angelil is about a month or two away from death. Martin Crowe, hard to know... Caslavska has been looking worse in every new picture. Kris Travis is the same... Ok, which of these four has been chosen the least? Caslavska, it is.

Daily Mail Obit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3392954/Florence-King-writer-known-sharp-wit-dies-80.html The Daily Mail now pretty much copy/pastes everything from AP, UK relationship be damned, I guess. The only exception I can think of at the moment, was university president John Schlegel, a hit for Sir Creep and me in Shaun's Deadpool last year. Now we're coming to a point where random American or even latin american celebrity xyz has a better chance of obiting than local UK celebrities or ..ahem... Michel Delpech.

Hmm, indeed, if I had to guess, I'd say the rumours back in 2010 were right and he had it before. Then, when it returned, it was terminal and so he made this last album as a final statement, full of allusions to death. The liver can still work at 10% functionality, wasn't it? So it makes sense that he could keep going for quite a while with cancer, and then basically collapsed within a couple of days as the liver function abruptly stopped. They say he had already collapsed at the premiere of his Lazarus video. And the director of the video Ivo van Hove said that "I knew that it was the last time I'd seen Bowie alive". http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/shock-and-condolences-as-netherlands-reacts-to-david-bowies-death

One of the main Berlin newspapers just reposted their 2002 interview of Bowie about his Berlin days. He talked about wanting to meet Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream again. Froese, of course, died last year aged 70. And that reminds me that Iggy Pop surely doesn't have much time left. 68 now, so maybe 1-2 years?

By the way, first verse of the final song of his final abum: I know something is very wrong The pulse returns for prodigal sons The blackout's hearts with flowered news With skull designs upon my shoes Now with hindsight, he literally said that he was a walking man with terminal illness and a heart problem. There were a couple of other hints, especially in the song Lazarus, the final video, which, as we know NOW, was meant to be taken literally, i.e. Bowie is literally on his dying bed. Well, well.. at Lou Reed's death I said that we're entering now the time when the big ones die away. Our modern celebrity culture began with the Beatles or maybe Elvis Presley. Well... Lennon and Presley died unnatural deaths. George Harrison only slightly premature. But Reed at 70, Lemmy at 70, Bowie at 69... The hits will keep on coming. I know Keith RIchards is a vegan now, and Ozzy Osbourne has some genetic mutation, but what about Jagger, Plant/Page, Townsend and so on and on...

Going through this thread...there were rumours of liver cancer a while ago. On the other hand, they say that his cancer fight officially lasted 18 months. But could it be that he actually had it, beat it, and then it returned?

As a huge Bowie fan, I wanted to resurrect his thread on his birthday, then thought it would be post-whoring. His new album had a couple of ominous signs that I wanted to mention then, never believed it was a signal of something THAT immediate though.

My favorite artist. Huge personal influence, I might not even be living in Berlin right now if it wasn't for him. I will have to chew on this one for quite a while. Thank you for the music... and the other stuff..

No way! I am completely devastated. Beyond words...

Second hit for my terminal illness fame theme team: Kelly Morris http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brave-mum-who-miracle-baby-7152412

About Rose Marie, yes to RadGuy and DeathImpends. The last picture I saw of her was not looking good. She's old and there's been no real news about her for 2 years. Also she was on Hollywood Squares and I feel somewhat confident in those old and silent picks since I've had success with Jin Youzhi in this competition last year. I was looking for some person to die roughly February/March with some bonus potential. So, no inside information, just another gamble.

Yes, on New Years Eve, that is, after the Deathrace deadline, an article about him made use of the word 'recovery': http://www.racer.com/north-american-racing/item/124867-american-racing-legend-adamowicz-fighting-brain-cancer Instead of days, he might well have weeks or months left. Probably not years though. Adamowicz is DI's (i.e. the current Deathrace leader's) joker, could be significant, eh? I like to think that for the Deathrace you basically only need 5-6 "locks". If they die within the first month, you've won. The other 14-15 picks can be gambles. So if one of your gambles turns out to be a dud, it's no biggie. But then I would have thought that Adamowicz would be a lock (didn't make him my joker by coincidnece), and that might be significant, because otherwise Death Impends would be the big favourite to win at this point, needing only Adamowicz and a second hit to win. Without him, DI, DDT and SC all still need three hits to win, with all the "walking corpses" already dead. And if Adamowicz is a dud, it reduces the potential of the teams who picked him by a 20th. So Sir Creep and me are similarly slighty disadvantaged. Hmm... I guess that makes DDT the statistical favorite at this point.