gcreptile

A question: The player of the month, does it only include a single team, or actual player? One of my aims this year was to become "player of the month" once. And my combined teams have scored more than anyone else.

He'd rival Frank Zappa and Tupac with posthumous releases. Neil Young has - sort of - been pulling the same stunt whilst still breathing, selected archive releases of key gigs and other items previously market-tested by bootleggers; he even has a professional archivist on his staff basically creating Neil Young's history with Neil Young's overseeing of the whole thing. Neil Young has been a lot more productive than David Bowie was in the latter years. Following his heart attack about 10 years ago, Bowie took a backseat as it were, producing some stuff but then again we don't know what else he was up to other than that couple of albums he released during that time. Neil Young on the other hand has released 11 albums in as many years. Fan theory alert: My own theory was that Bowie deliberately chose to wait 10 years between albums Reality and The Next Day because he wanted to do a "disappearing act", like his great idol Scott Walker of The Walker Brothers. Walker literally vanished from public view between 1985 and 1995, so I believed that Bowie timed his break precisely in that fashion (Reality released in 2003, The Next Day released in 2013). And I also believe that in these 10 years of semi-retirement he probably continued to record a lot. So there may be 4-5 albums plus the earlier stuff. The Next Day still sounded very much like Heathen or Reality. However, now I also believe that the cancer rumours in 2010 were true. And "The Next Day" might have been recorded as a sign of relief after Bowie beat it. "Here I am, not quite dying..."

Bowie planned his posthumous album releases years in advance: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/david-bowie-album-expected-2017-7227996 This man, unbelievable...

Heather Shannon of Australian indie band the Jezabels needs emergency treatment for ovarian cancer that was diagnosed three years ago: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3411715/The-Jezabels-cancel-world-tour-keyboardist-Heather-Shannon-undergoes-emergency-treatment-ovarian-cancer.html The Carey Lander of 2016?

Kenny Sansom told to go to rehab, but he says no, no, no: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/told-die-living-grim-single-7223808 Edit: He drinks about nine bottles of wine a day!!

Re. Craig Strickland Didn't SIr Creep ask about his case before? I replied that the person has to "generally believed to be alive" to count, but now I can't find that rule anymore, did it change with the new year? Anyway, now the relevant rule is this one: Pick 20 different celebrities who are alive as at 1st January 2016, but who, in your opinion, will no longer be with us by 31st December 2016 "Alive" means drawing breath, not decomposing, that kind of thing. My interpretation is that he does not count, because we cannot be sure that he was "alive", i.e. a suitable pick. Since we cannot exclude that he was already dead in 2015, he doesn't count. In fact, the rule is now stricter than the "generally believed to be alive" rule. Natalie Cole would have counted under the latter rule, but wouldn't count anymore, in my opinion.

Was it Mustafa Koc who died in Gobbler's Knob? There really is a place called Gobbler's Knob???

I'd guess it's going to be a German as well, because of the "Volkssturm" in the final months of the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkssturm That's when the children had to die for Hitler as well. While I'm not sure and too lazy to find out, there might be WW II veterans born as late as 1932.

If you're having them, I'm going for Amelia Earhart & Lord Lucan. And Shergar. There's obviously wiggle-room in the rules! ok then I'm taking Suzy Lamplugh, Jimmy Hoffa and D.B. Cooper Or Amelia Earhart! Or Czar Alexander I Edit: Eh, sorry time...I only saw Phantom's escalation.

Did God create just this one universe or all parallel ones as well? The whole MULTIVERSE?

None of the categories fit, I think... First Danish electronic music composer Else Marie Pade has died at 91: http://www.mixmag.net/read/first-ever-danish-electronic-music-composer-else-marie-pade-dies-news

Edmonde Charles-Roux, french resistance fighter, turned editor of Elle and Vogue, turned acclaimed author of "To Forget Palermo" has died at 95: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/21/world/europe/ap-eu-france-obit-charles-roux.html?_r=0

Kevin Junior, main force behind The Chamber Strings, dead at 46: http://pitchfork.com/news/63026-kevin-junior-of-the-chamber-strings-has-died/ He had a history of heart problems.

There was a time when you chided me for marginally relevant obits. I had prepared to post the obit of a locally famous english barber, but then things settled down.

Wolfgang Schnur, "discoverer" and early mentor of Angela Merkel died on the 16th, my third hit: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wolfgang-schnur-ist-tot-krebs-a-1072932.html Why is my Hare's Deadpool team doing better than my deathrace team??? Edit: Just so that you know what this guy did... He was part of the revolutionary movement that toppled the dictatorship in East Germany. He was about to become the first democratically elected prime minister of East Germany when it was suddenly discovered that he was a STASI informant. The political scene of East Germany is still full of people with this kind of past, and it isn't even quite clear what Merkel did and by how much she was involved. I could even imagine the odd DDP qualifying obit for him, but it was just too much of a gamble, in spite of his terminal prostate cancer.

February 13th, because I want it that way.

Mostly only two sides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War Though it is still confusing to me how the republic sort of morphed into a socialist/communist force. Suddenly there was no more middle ground.

Spanish Civil War, the one Hemingway was in and wrote about. Fascists vs. Republicans. Fascists win, Franco comes to power. Maybe the veteran in California was on the losing side?

Hellooooo? He's 92, and still walking alone and in control of his appearance. He wears a leather jacket!!

Eminent french writer Michel Tournier dead at 91: http://artdaily.com/news/84459/French-author-Michel-Tournier-dies-at-91#.Vp4nQCrhCUk His best-known work was "The Erl King".

Ok, my first attempt here: 1. Helen Fawkes 2. Dick Van Dyke 3. Daisy Berkowitz 4. Caroline Aherne 5. Clive James 6. Prince Philip 7. Joost Van Der Westhuizen 8. Rob Ford 9. Ian Brady 10. Henry Kissinger 11. Doris Day 12. Jenny Diski 13. Fidel Castro 14. Jimmy Carter 15. George H. W. Bush 16. Valerie Harper 17. Mary Tyler Moore 18. Liz Dawn 19. Chuck Berry 20. Bruce Forsyth 21. Jerry Lewis 22. Howard Marks 23. Vera Lynn 24. Stephen Hawking 25. Paul Gascoigne Good luck everyone!

David Gest, who was shortly being confused with David Bowie and believed dead, now leaves Celebrity Big Brother for health reasons: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/18/david-gest-leaves-celebrity-big-brother-davd-bowie

Sumner Redstone's health mystery reaches the Guardian in an article that makes the case for his inclusion in the Death List, including the cute remark that Redstone believed that "he's not going to die": http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/18/sumner-redstone-health-viacom-cbs-lawsuit

After a problematic 2015 he feels good again, and this tour may not be his last: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/17/ennio-morricone-hateful-eight-oscar-nomination-interview-60-years-of-music

UK magician Dynamo suffers from Crohn's Disease and thinks about how dying on stage could be good for his legacy: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/dynamo-dying-on-stage-would-be-good-for-the-legacy/