gcreptile

This was the only place where I picked him, but it does put me at a glorious 22/50. Not sure John Key is still in it though, or around, or alive? But I think there have been absences before.

Sadly not, there are lots of other people with hits in this update. Current rankings are: Funeralopolis at 18 Banana at 17 Radguy, JoeyRuss, Death Impends, Summer in Transylvania and me at 15 Gooseberry Crumble, Grim Up North, msc, Perhaps and Cpt. Chorizo at 14.

This all cries for an update, don't you think? Today's hits are Mohamed Al-Fayed and Faye Fantarrow. Al-Fayed was not your usual old vaguely aristocratic British businessman, he was a born Egyptian who worked his way up into the highest circles of society and into the periphery of the royal family. He did so by partnerships with Haiti's dictator Papa Doc, working with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, and helping Dubai transform into the plastic paradise it is today. He was a hit for a couple of people, Toast, RadGuy, and again, Gooseberry Crumble among them. Faye Fantarrow was a young woman who was just breaking into the music business, had her record deal, published a few songs, and then got cancer and died. Yes, we know such cases exist, we don't like it, but still we occasionally pick them in games like this. She was looking and sounding stable in the first half of the year, so Banana dropped her out. Missed chance, but not dramatic (yet). Otherwise, the pack scores as you'll see. Jango Edwards eventually got his Telegraph obit and some lucky players get their points. Mary Louise McLaws was a unique hit for me here and in the DDP. Yes, I almost went all in for this one, should have had her in my DDP main team... As Death Impends correctly put it, she was the Anthony Fauci of Australia during the COVID pandemic and so, an accidental national celebrity. Next up, two more Deathlist hits and hugely popular names, Michael Parkinson and Bob Barker. You've seen the obits, you wrote them yourself, lots of you score. Barker was even jokered a few times. Then we get to Yevgeny Prigozhin. I mean, I kind of announced I might be subbing him in here, but then didn't do it. My mistake. Some of you were cleverer. Yes, some people are just evil. Terry Funk was also a hit, here for two players, Cpt. Chorizo and ghosts of christmas past. Next up, Henry Dickerson, aka typical Yahoo something-with-baseball-or-basketball hit. Several players score. Then we get to Justin Yerbury, aka the ALS researcher with ALS. He died because his wife let him die, and didn't let him rot alive hooked up on machines. Two people score, msc and Perhaps. What next... Diego scores a unique hit with popular drug lord actor Mark Margolis. Thankfully, he lasted long enough to finish filming Better Call Saul, and I am amazed that he managed to actually appear more youthful in the prequel as he was approaching death. Then we have Michela Murgia whose end-stage cancer fight was already going on for a while but she only appeared on the radar mid-year close to death. She got the Guardian obit, and yes, I found her LGBT books in a bookstore in Florence, in the main shopping window, so I guess she was a bigger name. Next hit is British actress Doreen Mantle. I can't quite get into these British TV obits, not my forté (much like wrestling). But she was a unique hit for Toast, well done. Another surprise hit is René Weller who got the obit from the pugilist main media outfit The Sun. NOT a unique hit for Book, but for Therewillbedeaths7. His death was universally expected, the obit was the question. Typical tragic boxer story, and to be honest, most boxers dont get very old. Dementia caught up with him, but he was a bit of a tabloid mess before that already. He spent money faster than it got in. To each their own... Highest-scoring unique hit is Rodion Amirov for Summer in Transylvania. Well done. We know sarcoma can be pretty brutal on young people. He seemed to do a little better a few months before his death, but the disease is very treacherous. Now we get to the stage where I wonder if these names are already in.... Federico Bahamontes is a unique hit for etib80. First Spanish winner of the Tour De France, an all-around cycling icon. Did I already mention Malaysian pro-democracy activist Haris Ibrahim? Well, he's dead, and my second unique hit in this update. Well, and I guess this is it. It's getting a little unwieldy, isn't it? Looks like (almost?) everyone got points in this update.... Some more than others, and the biggest winner in this update might actually be me. There's still some suspense left as most of Banana's competitors still have their joker back in hand, be it Jonnie Irwin, Johnny Ruffo, or, well, Kate Keltie. Now let me see if we got another hit while I wrote this update... Rank Team Score 1 Banana 992 2 Funeralopolis 850 3 gcreptile 844 4 RadGuy 812 5 JoeyRuss 798 6 Perhaps 772 7 msc 747 8 Grim Up North 704 9 Cpt. Chorizo 702 10 Summer in Transylvania 689 11 Salmon Mousse 683 12 Book 667 13 An Fear Beag 636 14 Death Impends 586 15 ThereWillBeDeaths7 557 16 Toast 546 17 wannamaker 541 18 Buffalo Phil 535 19 DeathBecomesThem 470 20 Gooseberry Crumble 469 20 DevonDeathTrip 469 22 The Spinosaurus 468 23 The Daredevil 465 24 Joltin Joe 456 25 Drol 450 26 Mr. Wonderful 429 27 TheOldLady 416 28 GuyFromFuture 415 28 Thatcher 415 30 Wormfarmer 412 31 Sean 404 32 TheUnknownMan 403 33 TheQuimReaper 398 33 YoungWillz 398 35 Hell 395 36 Torva Messor 381 37 tracy 374 38 MortalCaso 372 39 Cpt. Hemlock 368 40 Predictor 350 41 The Old Crem 344 42 Charles De Gaulle 326 43 Etushipushingupdaisies 325 44 Annami 321 45 Diego 315 46 John Key 302 47 Liz Lemon 298 48 MariNisia 269 49 Nick 267 50 chilean way 265 51 JoeMoneypenny 254 52 CalebH 237 53 Lady Fiona 208 54 Mr. Custard 206 55 Great Uncle Bulgaria 204 56 Bibliogryphon 191 57 Pedro67 185 58 Ghostofchristmaspast 167 59 etib80 166 60 Famous6Eva 147 61 sam081 120

I don't entirely believe it until the BBC says so... but I ..think... it's true.

So after 2/3rds of the year, we are at 210 hits so far. August was another fine month with 24 hits - keeping pretty much following some kind of linear trend. It does seem like a record will be reached fairly easily. We'd need 71 more hits in 122 days. Curiously though how it clashes with the fairly low top score with nobody having reached triple digits. But then, points and hits seem to be spread fairly evenly across a lot of teams. Jonnie Irwin, James Whale, Steve McMichael, Frank Field, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Simon Cowell, maybe Linda Nolan, Rob Burrow, and maybe Johnny Ruffo are the canon names who have not yet died this year but might still throw the scoreboard into disorder. As long as they live, the gates for a random winner who just happens to pick the right Drop 40 names (:cough: Shane MacGowan :cough:, or Jimmy Carter) remain pretty open.

August 26th.... just in case anyone played her for ABC... I didn't because I thought she seemed on the mend. Possibly my B-team is DDP team of the month? Possibly beaten by Banana's B-team. This is the year of the B-teams and second choices... Edit: Ah, Banana's B-team has her, too. Shades of the year my B-team did better than my main team. Maybe both of us might end up regretting we should have divided the names differently, me for a 2nd time.

Nigerian Afrobeat star Peter King has apparently died at 84: https://thebladengr.com/2023/08/31/nigerian-music-legend-peter-king-dies-at-84/

Here's my team, hope it's all right. Good luck to everyone and thanks Wormfarmer for hosting. ABC Pool A - Jenny Appleford - if not accepted: Andrea Gibson B - Rob Burrow C - Graham Caveney D - Joe Doering E - Amy Ettinger F - Frank Field G - Roland Griffiths H - Rick "Black Bart" Harris I - Jonnie Irwin J - Johnny Ruffo K - Kirsty Smitten - if not accepted: Bob Knight L - Jeanette Lee M - Dikembe Mutombo N - Linda Nolan O - Seiji Ozawa P - John Pender Q - Qapik Attagutsiak R - Ruschell Boone S - Steve McMichael T - Michael Tilson Thomas U - Yosh Uchida V - Paul Vachon W - James Whale X - Xaviera Hollander Y - Cale Yarborough Z - Zoleka Mandela

Rob Burrow was recently hospitalised because of pneumonia but "bounced back": https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12464463/Wife-Rugby-League-hero-Rob-Burrow-vows-fight-against-motor-neurone-disease.html

They really should make a deal that sees Feinstein and McConnell off together. It's a bit like a prisoner's dilemma.

Here's the new video, he somehow looks older than 81, kind of like on his deathbed, only standing up:

Currently up on the Guardian live updates: Kremlin says Prigozhin plane crash may have been caused deliberately The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the investigation into the plane crash which killed the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others last week included the possibility that it was caused deliberately, Reuters reports. “It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version – you know what we are talking about – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Perfect example for what I said above, "different versions are being considered", and then the "deliberate atrocity", which is basically saying, "maybe we killed him, but we don't say that we did it". I mean, who else would kill Prigozhin deliberately? It's all about throwing bullshit at the wall.

Dubstep producer Christine Clements, aka Vaccine, has died rather suddenly at 43: https://www.nme.com/news/music/dubstep-producer-christine-clements-aka-vaccine-dies-aged-43-3490894 I put it here because there's no real "electronic music" (that isn't pop) thread.

Lively update from a couple of days ago: https://www.lancs.live/news/celebs-tv/linda-nolan-shares-update-cancer-27591499 Good and bad in there. Not a "weeks left" situation. Can she make 4 more months? I slightly tend to say "yes".

Russia's tactics have not necessarily been about presenting an alternative, but about destroying established positions. Their lies taken all together dont make sense but each single one attacks the truth a little bit. The strategy of "Zersetzung". World media pretty quickly decided that Prigozhin was in fact dead. It would be a typical russian strategy to sow doubt with several competing stories. Especially because the murder reflects extremely badly on Putin.

Oh that's bizarre, considering the post of his supposed girlfriend I quoted in the Reddit thread above.

Former Bachelorette contestant Josh Seiter has died at 36: https://deadline.com/2023/08/josh-seiter-dead-the-bachelorette-contestant-1235530094/ A mental health case. This reddit thread goes deeper into all the weird events of his final years:

Florence Welsh, aka Florence + The Machine had life-saving surgery for a reason she doesn't want to disclose yet: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/27/florence-welch-reveals-she-had-life-saving-emergency-surgery

It actually clears up that he wasn't that impacted by his stroke on live TV. His face is fine.

Jayanta Mahapatra receiving award at Tata Steel literature: http://2018.tatalitlive.in/exhibitors/tata-literature-live-poet-laureate-award/ Well, with Bob Barker dead, I am sitting on my Henry Kissinger dud. Hopefully, I have built enough of a cushion.

Willie Coyle, possibly "Scotland's finest Bridge player", dead at 85: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/08/26/willie-coyle-greatest-scots-bridge-player-died-obituary/

Alright, maybe not a 2024 name after all....

I see there's an editing war on Wikipedia. He's been dead twice dead and resurrected twice at least. But then, do we really know if anybody is REALLY dead? Has anybody seen, say, QE II's corpse? Maybe she got an adenachrome infusion and has reverted to a youthful stage. But nobody is supposed to know...

Sadly not. I also dont have Igor Girkin, he only was a sub, if I recall correctly.

Aah, finally a first hit for my "Russia descends into chaos" theme team. 15 pts for that one. Hope it's the beginning of something great. Update has to wait until I'm back from Italy.