gcreptile

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.

Another weird yahoo uk sports obit for Michel Delpech in french, this time about his funeral: https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/video/michel-delpech-inhum%C3%A9-%C3%A0-paris-193800625.html To be honest, it was probably the right decision to exclude yahoo, judging by their standards of journalistic rigour. But Delpech might be the first victim of the new rules. I guess, I'll let Spade do the work of finding an indirect obit, as he's probably got more skin in the game and he needs the obit to stay ahead of DDT.

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.

The Saudi situation has become very interesting and will get even more interesting. Iran has basically beaten Saudi Arabia in the diplomatic game. Oil prices are collapsing. The House of Saud is unstable. Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen to deflect from its own internal struggles, and Iran, with the help from Bush Jr. bombing away Saddam Hussein, has gained a huge influence in Iraq, building a bridge to Syria and Lebanon. There is unrest among the Shiites in eastern Saudi Arabia and Iran is on a reconciliation course with Iraq. Plus, there is the matter of Saudi Arabai indirectly supporting or even creating ISIS. Geopolitically, Saudi Arabia might have seen the most significant changes among all countries in 2015, only rivaled by the Ukraine.

I voted for Schmidt. It was a head vs heart decision, my heart said Mr.Spock.

I believe this will be a heavy year for "indirect" obits. Not just Andrew Smith, but also the Australian bishops Geoffrey Robinson and Ronald Mulkearns, whose deaths will be mentioned during the ongoing child abuse trial. Similarly, Gary Haggarty, probably. And it's slowly looking like Michel Delpech will also need one to count, most reasonably during the Isle of Wight festival in June.

So apparently, they caught "El Chapo", alive! http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/el-chapo-captured-mexican-president-says-1.2729452

English opera singer Marion Studholme, from the days when Opera was still a more egalitarian enjoyment, dead at 85: http://slippedisc.com/2016/01/a-wonderful-english-opera-singer-has-died/

Ah, the competition is too strong. Too many good picks in other teams. She might die in February but the game might be over before that.

There was another life sign of dancer Alice Barker in late 2015, can't believe she's still alive:

Dicey obit of the year Andrew Smith readmitted to hospital on Wednesday, family asks for prayers: http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2016/01/06/andrew-smith-back-hospital-amid-plea-prayers/78372206/

Ah ok, no problem. I didn't really look at the background of the show and just assumed that such a jack-of-all-trades like Harrington Jr. would have done some miming in that context. Edit: I didn't even know that there's a specific english meaning to the word. The more you learn...

The National Enquirer gets one right! https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjYtMuzl5jKAhUKDCwKHXRgCv4QqQIIKigAMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalenquirer.com%2Fcelebrity%2FPat-Harrington-Schneider-Alzheimers-health&usg=AFQjCNGoNiszDyuteQtwY_R0JpVfl-W0Nw&bvm=bv.110151844,d.bGg Err... Pat Harrington article there, for those who can access it

A tip of the hat to Spade, who saw that Pat Harrington Jr. is dead, and the reason why he was a "Must-have" for this competition is that he was both on Hollywood Squares: http://www.tv.com/shows/the-hollywood-squares-1966/october-23-29-1978-2-366413/ as well as in a pantomime: https://www.mptvimages.com/images/71275

Aaahh... even in intensive care. Edit: He suffered a fall. So not necessarily fatal, but let's see...

Let's see if I get points for Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros. The Deathrace would have been better place for him, but I submitted one day too soon. Let's see if his fame in the Latino community gets him a CNN obit.

Mhmm, the combo of cancer now in brain + recently suffered a stroke + hasn't posted to his usually chirpy Instagram since Dec. 26 (well, apparently there was something else since then, but it was so out there it had to be deleted) + a Playmate ex-wife of has has had to make comments on his Dec. 26 photo just to relay the latest on him means I don't anticipate him seeing the month's end. Yes, I agree. There's also this general feeling of "acceptance" on his Instagram. The same that I feel on Kris Travis's twitter feed (It's not public anymore, booo!).

The National Enquirer's sister outfit Radar Online has a literal "SAD LAST DAYS" story about Monty Brinson now, I'm inclined to believe them.

Ah, the Wikipedia entry is just a requirement to be a valid pick. The obit still needs to appear to make it count. For example, Pat Harrington Jr. can be chosen for your team, but whether he obits is unclear. There's still a risk of picking too marginal people. I also think that a huge appeal of this game is knowing more about culture and the little details behind history. One of my favorite examples is Jackie Kennedy's assistant who died last year with daily mail obit., Providencia Paredes, which I think is an interesting tidbit of history. For this reason, I would not like to disqualify "fame by association" picks, like also René Angelil or Monty Brinson, who has very marginal Reality TV fame himself, but is mostly associated with Kim Richards, a major reality TV star and child star (and press magnet) in her own right. Rowena Kincaid is now probably on one notability level with Colin Bloomfield. Can't really cut them out either. Kate Granger is now an MBE, of course. Legit pick. Disclaimer: My main team would still be 'robbed' of Linda Horan though. While she is a long-time labor activist, it wasn't really the activism that got her into the daily mail twice. Maybe the one-in-a-million exclusive morningstaronline obit appears, but that probability is very low.

According to news site nu.nl she's much better and back to work, whatever that is: Boyfriend thought Yfke Sturm wouldn't survive water sport accident. (24 December 2015) Yfke? Short for I Fucked Ye? In some circles, 'water sports' has a second meaning...

Last year, Germany and especially Australia were ravaged by the reaper. It looks like it's France's turn this year: Delpech, Boulez, Galabru and the Concorde test pilot.

Pierre Boulez, the greatest (formerly) living classical musical theorist, conductor and composer, has died at 90: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35241250