gcreptile

Ha, you're right, I'm sorry.... I thought he looked appropriately wrinkled enough to be D'estaing.

Here is a recent photo of him and his reaction to the death of Jean D'Ormesson: https://fr.news.yahoo.com/lettre-ouverte-valéry-giscard-d-214546744.html

I am in the process of including all those new names from other people for the team score calculations into my longlist. I do the same for the new DeathList candidates... Now the 2000th member of my longlist (including people dead and alive) is..... Valery Giscard D'estaing. Edit: In 2015 I added a bit more than 600 names to the list. In 2016 about 800. In 2017 only about 500 - the well is running dry?

With a slightly different angle, they could start with Kevin Spacey and end with Harvey Weinstein.

I once had the idea of a "safe" main team, and a "risky" main team, when I thought to myself that last year's B-Team could have won if I had replaced some of the fringier names with Leah Bracknell or Errol Christie. There would have been an overlap between the two of about 10 names. But then it didn't feel right. Needless to say, neither team would have won anything because Leah Bracknell would have been the joker on all of them.... I also briefly considered submitting one safe team WITH Stefan Karl Stefansson and Greg Gilbert, and one without them, mostly the one you see now. But I decided against it as well... Still, the rules are the rules (and the non-rules). I think there's no need to withdraw, even if Patrick Cryne's possible entry into the Drop 40 hurts my main team's chances.

Ok, I can post a first Top Ten, but this is all very preliminary. Many good teams are probably still missing (Bucket of Blood, Crossing The Styx, etc....) And the Drop 40 and unique hits aren't out yet. Once they are all out and Spade has it all set up, I'll expand the Top Ten to a Top Twenty, but I first need to include these new teams. Hopefully, they don't have a lot of completely new names... 1. Still Life - 155,488 2. The Love Boat - 153,931 3. Thomas Jefferson Survives - 152,023 4. To Kill a Gabor Sister - 150,915 5. Day in the Death - 150,369 6. GUN away - 147,5025 7. GUN fishing - 146,6905 - hmm... 8. Drollercoaster - 146,5655 9. The Living End - 146,275 10. Poochie Died on the Way Back to his Home Planet - 145,5165 At this early stage, the scores are higher than they were at the same stage last year, by about 10 points.

As I am going through the teams already posted, I wonder who is going to make the Drop 40. Well, the obvious entries are in. I did not expect Linda Nolan to make it, but it seems she will. Possibly Dean Francis and Patrick Cryne as well. But there is a difference between the active forum members (posting their teams) and the other DDP players. Out of a bit more than 30 teams I've calculated scores for, Rayya Elias was picked 21 times. But who outside of our circle knew about her? A Drop 40 member will need to be on about 35 teams. That will be interesting to see. Same goes for Patrick Cryne with 16 people who have picked him so far. A bit of a fringe name. Similar situation though a bit less extreme for Dean Francis, also picked 16 times, but at least a bit more well-known. Tessa Jowell was picked 17 times, so I guess she will be in. And I have Marieke Vervoort at 22. She will make it.

If I cheat, and count all my teams together, then Rayya Elias and Thomas Monson are hits 64 and 65 for me. The Love Boat in its 4th year is now at 31 hits.

He gets a visit from the Crocodile: https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/pics-zimbabwes-new-president-visits-ailing-opposition-chief-20180105

Charlie Panigoniak, "legendary" Inuit singer/songwriter, has Parkinson's and "pre-dementia": http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/legendary-but-ailing-inuit-singer-pleads-for-help-to-keep-heat-lights-on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Panigoniak

This article from yesterday mentions Cas Willow by name but fails to mention that she's dead: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/wedding-industry-gears-up-for-boom-in-samesex-marriages/news-story/e7b8ccd54c42efc1f9f6210998bfa959

Well, then.... Italian jockey Daniele Porcu, dead after a short cancer fight at 34: https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/225433/cancer-takes-italian-jockey-daniele-porcu-at-34

Dutch/Kiwi former 5000m world record holder and silver medal winner at the 1976 Olympic games who then turned local politician and also became an internet meme, Dick Quax, has throat cancer since 2013, has undergone all kinds of treatment already, and it's currently being managed after it had initially spread to lungs and brain: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11962735 He got his cancer Michael Douglas-style.

UK/Aussie TV "legend" Cornelia Frances has bladder cancer, and had other health problems in 2017: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/tv-legend-cornelia-frances-in-fight-for-life-against-cancer/news-story/5d5b287c7ff416c53856fac107072893

BBC video on last year's Shameless pick Juan Pedro Franco, still miraculously alive, and apparently doing better: http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-42581917/the-world-s-most-obese-man-s-attempt-to-lose-weight

I wonder if Cryne and Elias are going to make it. It will be close. They are only names for insiders (forum members). But among those almost everyone picked them.

You are extremely quick.... He is infamous for a certain speech that caused his resignation. In that speech he played Devil's Advocate and "impersonated" the ordinary German in the Third Reich, feeling ever so slightly jealous of the Jews, and secretly amused by their plight. A rhetorical device inacceptable in the 80s.

I read the BBC for such things: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42575155

Exactly. As you can see on the previous page, I had her with 7,53 expected points, already pretty high (wasn''t 100% sure she'd obit, and I very, very rarely assign a 100% probability of dying to anyone.). But now it increases to 9, so everyone's score increases by 1,47pts. Drol gets the effect twice, so 2,94pts more for him. If she makes the Drop 40 everyone gets an additional 3 pts, or even 6 for Drol. I will update all scores Sunday or so, will do it step by step. MPFC and msc's teams are next (I have a feeling his B-team will score higher than the A-team).

I will participate, too, of course! Love it... I also applied for hosting, but the spot was already taken :).

Hmm, had the name written down... ah, now I remember....she wanted to get a statue built for her mother in her local town.

And she wasn't even the first hit!

First pardoned, now leaving the clinic.

Less than two months from doing pretty well to being dead... RIP. I assume a Guardian obit will come first. Probably even written by Liz Gilbert.