Canadian Paul

Happy birthday Honez/Lothar! Birthday sexiness owed upon my return.

From Wrongipedia: I volunteered in a hospice once, and a lot of the people were fairly lively and had lots of fascinating stories to tell. It's a home for the dying, not (necessarily) the near-death. To clarify my statement which MH has pointed out is broadly applicable, I'd wager that she will make it to 2007, but not 2008. Hospice care is expensive, and you don't get sent there unless you're likely to die within a year (even though the certification is for 6 months). I've yet to find video/audio of the interview, but if it's as Windsor has described it, I'd say don't worry about her lasting out this year, and she'll be a good candidate for next.

The truth, I think, lies somewhere in the middle always. Surviving to see 2007? Most likely. Surviving to see 2008? Not as likely.

So what are you doing next Mr. Vidal? I'm going to Disneyworld Cuba!

1996 World Food Bank prize recipient Henry Beachell is dead. Picked by Never Came To Maryport for the CPDP, but as there is not a single online news obit for him thusfar, even this theme team pick is yet to be worth points.

Now why would you go ahead and tell everyone about that. Not too much to worry about I suppose. What he has, he'll likely either die before 2006 or plod along slowly for the next several years. UK obit virtually assured though, since his death would have a significant impact on the makeup of the Senate... You can hardly keep that one a secret, it's all over CNN at the moment Too late in the day for me to start ambulance-chasing. You can't pick 'em all... Not worth chasing in my opinion. He could always pull a Pinochet, but there's probably better candidates out there.

"Edward Upward" almost 23,000 Google hits, "Tammy Faye" almost 500,000 Google hits. Stanley Kunitz, 131,000. Lou Rawls 543,000. Alfredo di Stefano, 33,000. Ronnie Biggs, 53,900. I actually agree with you mostly TF, I'm just being a sh*t disturber because it's kinda fun. Seriously though, to point out that it's fairly hit and miss when it comes to "famous."

I'd never heard of George Best before I came to this site? Does that make him obscure? No, it just means I don't watch British football, and I'm sure no one would have had a problem with putting him on the list. It's all relative, you can't say someone is obscure just because YOU have never heard of them. Furthermore, with the exception of Hughes, all of those are at least as famous as, say, Niemeyer, Kunitz, Levi-Strauss, Rayner, Melly etc. in the global sense... some of them may be known very well in Britain, but relative to the world, they're just as famous as DeBakey, Hsue-shen or Upward and would probably make for better threads than a few of them too...

Thanks all, I'm doing fine. Time to get over mourning his death and move on to celebrating his life and all that. The plan is for my first birthday drink to be dedicated to him next month, among other things. I'm fairly spiritual (not religious, I know how people hate it when people call themselves "spiritual," but whatever) so, you know, Rainbow Bridge in a half century and all that.

I like this one, very unwell as of late and quiet since his blood clot. While I don't doubt that she'll get a UK obit, I'd say not famous enough for DL standards (at least, that's what I guess the committee will say) Preparing a lawsuit against Kanye West, so I guess he plans on being around for a while. Another one I like, and thus suggested above. Interesting and frail. Dead as noted. A good one I think, but I believe DL is trying to steer away from centenarians this coming year...

99 years old today! Just, you know, in case anyone cared.

Another one that I was watching. I don't think there'll be much guilt in picking this fellow, and with a tumor on his liver, he's not likely to last very long. UK obit almost certain I'd say.

My cat was put to sleep today, which was a bit of surprise. Two days ago he was fine, last night he was very ill. Today he is gone. I wrote him an obit on my Facebook though, so I feel pretty much alright I guess. His 14th birthday would have been celebrated on my 21st birthday next month, so I suppose he was of a good age. Still, when you're only 21 and you've known someone/something for 13 years of your life almost, that's a good chunk of your life considering that I can't remember much about the first few years. Anyhow, I'll be fine. Just don't expect me to be as... uh... CPish as usual for a little bit...

No. Anyhow, more strain on the old man as he's caught in the middle of a debae about his final resting place.

Now why would you go ahead and tell everyone about that. Not too much to worry about I suppose. What he has, he'll likely either die before 2006 or plod along slowly for the next several years. UK obit virtually assured though, since his death would have a significant impact on the makeup of the Senate...

His condition was reported in at least on UK newspaper, so I'd imagine his death would be too. He's certainly famous enough, and I'm not even a sports fan in the least. For DL though... I'm not sure he'd meet the high standards, not as universally famous as Lou Rawls, but more famous in his respective field. Irrelevant now: dead.

Ok, I'm convinced. He's on my provisional DDP 2007 team. regards, Hein I'm a bit wary, since Papon was released a few years back and has held on since... but it's definitely one I'll have to think about. It's not like Papon is in excellent health either...

OK, Part II. Shamir is 91, if that makes any difference, but otherwise doing very poorly and unable to recognize visitors. Felt is reportedly described as "lucid," but still fairly ill. I've had my eye on him for a while too... his health status is fairly ambiguous in his little blog, but he'd no doubt make an interesting addition Forsythe was recovering well last I heard. I'll have to recheck the Thorpe thread, but I believe someone posted a news story about him getting around a bit... Raabe is still touring, so I'm not sure how good of a pick he'd make (although he'd at least be interesting). Obiang is not as cut and dry as that wikipedia quote makes it seem, he's no doubt ill, but he still makes weekly visits to foreign nations. Fontaine/de Havilland's mother lived to be almost 100 and both were doing quite well of late, so the odds are actually against one passing next year. Heimlich I believe is still doing this and that, if I remember his thread correctly.

OK, my two cents Part I. People that haven't been mentioned yet: George Melly (afflicted with everything under the sun) Tsien Hsue-shen (Chinese rocket scientist hospitalized for the past few years) Ronnie Biggs (still unwell in jail) Abdul Qadeer Khan (very close to dying according to his family, bullshit according to government officials) John Archibald Wheeler (nominating my favourite physicist again!) Billy Graham (preacher who plans on dying with his boots on - which is likely to be soon) Gore Vidal (supposedly written his last memoir and is waiting for the "exit" to catch up to him) Jean of Luxembourg (85, not necessarily in ill-health, but it's nice to have a royal on the list) I'm not saying that I'd put all those people on my list, but then again, I only have 20 spots, not 50. Part II coming momentarily is my opinion on other nominations, whether you want it or not.

His condition was reported in at least on UK newspaper, so I'd imagine his death would be too. He's certainly famous enough, and I'm not even a sports fan in the least. For DL though... I'm not sure he'd meet the high standards, not as universally famous as Lou Rawls, but more famous in his respective field.

Bored actually. I was tired of the monotony of writing X Years Old Today! on everyone's birthday. I promise it won't happen again, since I don't disagree with you that it's fairly silly.

What if it's used in a sarcastic sense instead of meaning to be endearing ie: "Augusto Pinochet sure got justice, dying at only 91 years young." versus "My great-grandma is 104 years young!" ?

New news - Evel Knievel suing Kanye West. Looks as if he's got some life left in him yet.

Former PA governor Raymond Shafer, 89. I only bring him up because if the UK will give him an obit, then it's open season on any governor or cabinet member. Makes me wish I had been paying attention when Alexander Trowbridge died to see if he got one too...

Happy Birthday Bou! I think that this is a picture of Banshee's Scream! EDIT: Didn't notice that it was VSB from H's birthday too... So happy birthday! Next year I'll switch around the birthday sexiness, unless you prefer this