gcreptile

I'm shocked. Metal isn't my kind of music, but the man was a legend.

Back from Christmas holidays, and wow, at that hit from Mr. Cooley. The god/s of death must like him. Ah well, suits other players right for not getting 100pts this year. Though in my opinion, Martin Crowe has to drop dead any day now, but of course, with 3 days left (or even less in New Zealand?), it's getting really, really unlikely (but not as unlikely as Sadhana dying on Christmas a whole year after her health emergency and only being 74 years old).

Indeed, my prospective "B" team had her. I didn't quite find her main team worthy, because of her age, her likely un-uniqueness, and that she received a bit of care for her breast cancer after her hospitalization. I mean, science is slowly getting breast cancer under control. So I thought there was "only" a 80% chance of her dying, instead of 100%.

Has Mugabe' wife taken over control of the country in a palace coup? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/23/grace-mugabe-zimbabwe-taken-over-morgan-tsvangirai

So during the year, I slowly realized that research is necessary to be good at this. The first time I realized that was when I wondered "Who the fuck is Lauren Hill?" And the second time was when I saw that the news of Percy Sledge's cancer benefit dated back to July 2014. So I knew that I need to have some kind of database all throughout the year, which I then started in April, when my paper list got too chaotic, on Excel. Now the race is on to get 1000 names before Dec 31st, I am at 989 now. But I will be away for the next couple of days which will leave me with 2-3 days to get 11 more names, plus the last research on the people that are currently on my teams. However, 108 people of these 989 are already dead, so maybe that milestone doesn't really count.

I lost two of mine this month, Ken McHugh and Heather McManamy.

Chong gives a reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3xvxn1/hey_man_im_tommy_chong_12_of_cheech_chong/ I'm not sure if he talks about his cancer there, it' so much to read and I think he's not a good pick (yet).

French Art critic and poet himself, Alain Jouffroy dead at 87: https://news.artnet.com/people/alain-jouffroy-has-died-397872 He 'rebelled against the absence of rebellion' and made himself irrelevant.

Have you been viewing that page on your phone? I've found that if I view it via the "mobile view" option rather than desktop, it doesn't update. No, I can already see Baron Ezra's death and the recent update for the 23rd. Funnily, I literally just found another obit which isn't on Wikipedia yet, Angela McEwan: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-angela-mcewan-nebraska-dead-20151222-story.html But she doesn't have a Wikipedia page, so it's not sure someone is going to add her.

^^ lol, a couple of cute misspellings, Joey Freak, and Peter sails. I believe it's the auto-correct.

Lee Kerslake of Uriah Heep has bone and prostate cancer, but they managed to find some treatment that works for now: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/lee-kerslake-cancer/

A bit of an uproar in the german media today because Germany's most reliable "lifestyle" magazine "Bunte" reports that mein Führer Michael Schumacher can walk again. His manager denies... A german link if you care: http://web.de/magazine/sport/formel-1/michael-schumacher/bild-korrigiert-bunte-michael-schumacher-31223252

I have a team ready, will submit it after Christmas. But maybe start a new thread for it? Too much slack means people forget.

So I finished "On China" by Henry Kissinger. Certainly an interesting read, Kissinger is fairly ideology-free so while his part in history occasionally looks like that of a remorseless bastard, he provides relatively unbiased insights. Mao Zedong was a real trickster, it seems to be. And I think he managed to charm Kissinger in a way it isn't obvious to him. I also read books by Egon Bahr and Helmut Schmidt this year, so let's see if my reading is the spell of death.

They are giving him weak drinks to prevent him from drinking something stronger: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367442/Paul-Gascoigne-rushed-hospital-collapsing-pool-blood-luxury-health-spa-guests-reveal-stank-booze.html

Banned from Fifa for 8 years, livestream here: http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/dec/21/sepp-blatter-michel-platini-banned-from-football-by-fifa-live-updates The Guardian describes him with the look of a broken man, "unwell", and "frail". Hmm...

Hmm, the article says that he had new ones made in 2009, but they were a "botch". But I didn't follow him that closely, so I couldn't tell...

Looool, there's a documentary coming up about him getting new teeth, titled "A wreck reborn": http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/dec/20/shane-macgowan-a-wreck-reborn-new-teeth-tv-special The article implies that he will be able to eat apples again. But the new teeth might also damage his distinctive vocals.

Don Newcombe, african-american baseball legend, 89, battles poor health, had stroke this year, has a history of cancer and alcoholism: http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-don-newcombe-plaschke-20151220-column.html

London property developer/real estate mogul Harry Hyams dead at 87: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/12060129/Property-developer-Harry-Hyams-has-died-aged-87.html

Ah well, take it as a confirmation of your instincts. That's what I try to do in these cases.

Oh great, that puts the number of people on my DDP team who went through death scares this year at 5, not counting Charlie Sheen's AIDS scandal, or Alexis Tsipras surviving and winning 3 national elections. After all, Gazza is not going to die from this, either...

Rather quick... That wasn't 'ordinary' Alzheimer's, I tell you, it might have been... Lewy Body Dementia... Edit: With both Hill and Janner dying today, maybe the trifecta will be completed with Tony Booth?

Great german conductor Kurt Masur dead at 88: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/19/kurt-masur-conductor-new-york-philharmonic-dies-88 Oh, NOW I remember the name of the conductor who was featured on the few classical CDs I bought. Ah well, was of no use for 2016 anyway...

This story is getting good: Yesterday, there were lots of death rumours but eventually the family denied her death: http://pulse.ng/local/alison-madueke-ex-minister-is-not-dead-family-confirms-id4475978.html Now, it has been revealed that there was a plot to secretly get her out of the UK and to start a new life on a caribbean island: http://pulse.ng/local/diezani-ex-minister-for-petroleum-alleged-plots-to-flee-uk-unveiled-id4479970.html So... did she fake her cancer so that she could fake her death and live a life under a new identity?