Octopus of Odstock

Er.. Isn't that what the Ideas & Possibilities thread (not the sticky, the one done by CP) was set-up for? Most people use it, so why not DL, as that was the reason why it was created. But in case anyone is too lazy to check that out, two I will name: John Mortimer - in hospital regularly in 08 Eunice Kennedy Shriver - very frail & her husband is ill with dementia. If he passes, she is likely to follow him swiftly.

Bliss? She was a nobody. Michael Crichton & Reg Varney were much better known than her. Varney is the biggest name to go since Makeba, but BC Alum won't have heard of him because ol'Reg wasn't American. I am hoping that if ANYONE on the DDP dies, whether it be Norman Wisdom or Patrick Swayze or whomever, that they do it in the next 10 days, otherwise I'll have a nervous breakdown. Please please, please Castro, Sharon, Thatcher et al just last 40 more days or so. Ta.

Nice? It was utterly hilarious. Surely the funniest cup upset of all-time. The "oh-so-mighty-we-are-the-best" Leeds can't even beat a (albeit excellent) village team. The look on the faces of the Leeds fans after the final whistle has made my year. Probably the same fans who were either 1) beating people up year after year or 2) mocking Reading for being a "village team" 3 seasons ago. Happy days!

The good news is that we already have a healthy 12 teams entered before December. The bad news is that three of them have selected someone already dead. Here we go again...

Cheers, Windsor, and apologies to all for having two posts in a row, but I wanted to put a separate reply to this. That's a possibility, yes, and one which I will consider along the other ideas. My instant guesses of people who I'd choose is Rude Kid & Fallen Sparrow, and then probably one veteran of the old days, one former winner, and maybe one new entry, picked by random. I do really want to sort this out but rather than make a snap decision, I'd rather get the whole 2009 processing & updating out of the way, and then I should have about 8 or 9 months to sort this out, hopefully as democratically as possible. But I appreciate that Windsor & it's certainly one of the better ideas so far. There is another option which is all players simply vote for what is allowed & what isn't & the majority view is taken. Then I could say everyone had their chance to vote & it would be clearer what would be allowed & what not. PS TMIB, don't worry about it.

No, executions are still banned & will stay banned. But people can still pick people on death row if they really want, but if they are executed, no points. If they cark it due to cancer or heart attack or any other cause other than execution, they get points.

TMIB, sorry but I am stressed. I thought that you were trying to answer for me and in my stressed mode, I felt that with this, I needed to answer first before people weighed in with their view. However, I believe that most of my points, whilst perhaps harshly or bluntly put across, are fair & were clear in the rules. If you & Godot had any idea about the sheer workload, time & effort the preparation setting up the new game takes & above all, the completely irritating, anal emails I am getting daily asking all manners of stupid questions which I directly tried to answer in the e-mail two weeks ago, I think you would be pretty frazzled too. It’s the unseen part of the DDP which is just thoroughly annoying & drove RK & SB up the wall too. It’s hard to believe such stupidity. I have already, for example, banned one team from entering next year. They have entered their team for 2009. Not once, but THREE times. I have said to them, that I cannot accept it until the competition starts, for a number of processing reasons. They threw a wobbly & were rude, so I said to them “if you don’t read the rules, and play by them, then I can throw you out.” So I did – and that’s what I have been dealing with lately. It’s getting to a stage where I start wondering is all this time, effort & criticism (not so much here, but I am getting e-mails saying “why haven’t you done this”, “why is the famous for being ill rule not in” etc etc) is worth it. That’ll pass come February, but it’s stress time now & increases the doubts. Quite frankly, I don’t give a sh*t anymore who people pick. I have tried to give sensible, well-thought answers into who is acceptable, who isn’t, what is acceptable & what not. I have tried to be democratic, but maybe Welshman is right, maybe I should be dicatatorial & hang the consequences. But I doubt it, because that’s not me, and also the DDP is not “mine”. I’m merely the custodian for a length of time – the DDP is everyone’s I feel, including Rude Kid, Siegfried Baboon & Big Iain, all of which have more “right” to the game than me. Maybe I’ve injected something into the game which is “mine” but I have never felt the DDP is “mine” like I do with my motorsport website. Anyway, pick who you bloody like. Hostages, assisted suicides, terminally ill nobodies, 115 year olds, Patrick Swayze, Trudi Bloody Endersby, the entire cast of Hollyoaks, Ali Baba & the 40 thieves (would need two teams, I know….).. I don’t care. If they’re over 18 & not already dead, they’re in. Apologies again for the harshness TMIB, but as regards the moral rights & wrongs & who is a good pick and who isn’t… I don’t give a sh*t any more & I am fed up with debates on this about who is good & who isn’t – I’ve done that to death & said my bit. Maybe that’s for another thread, but until I have come up with a foolproof plan, then it’s virtually free-for-all for who you can pick. I don't mind criticism, I don't mind debate, but out & out rudeness (again, not here, but on the e-mails) means an instant ban. That's why Tempus was banned from the DDP, although that is another story completely (but I can expand somewhere else) and relevant more to RK & SB. As he wasn't rude to me, he can re-enter, although I doubt he is still around to do so. And considering what got him banned, it's probably for the best. But I was a bit snappy, and that's not me, so apologies TMIB.

TMIB, Why is DDT stirring? DDT, firstly, yes. TMIB, the rules are quite clear. When they are on death row & are executed, is when no points are awarded. It was in the email sent about a week or so ago. It looks as if no-one has read it, so perhaps I need to include a large font when I include the entry form rules this weekend. Besides, it has already happened with Tom Fox (dead) & Gilad Shalit (alive.. possibly). Picking hostages goes both ways though, of course - Norman Kember is still alive & well. And yes, it would qualify for "unnatural causes". Hostages aren't perhaps the most comfortable of picks to choose, but I have & will continue to allow them for the foreseeable future. (And this is precisely WHY a rule, if brought in, has to be watertight. Do hostages come in for "famous for being ill etc"? But that's another debate, and one, that for now, has no relevance here).

Well, he's on my list for this year, but not for 2009, so I suppose another hit would be nice & cement my top 10 place. But the rumours have been circulating (and denied) for a while....

That's right, for 2009 anyway. I'll look at something easy to understand & 100% watertight for 2010, if I'm still running it then. PS I hope to have the 2009 game "open" on Saturday night all being well, if not, it will be Sunday morning.

Castro looks like Nigel Hawthorne in that picture.

Chesterfield player Derek Niven has had cancer treatment & is awaiting the results. As are many DDP'rs.

Number 15 in my 2009 DDP team, John Michael Hayes, has died, aged 89. Dammit. I put him in, one as he would probably have been an unique hit & secondly, in a DVD documentary about Rear Window, he looked incredibly frail. But alas, 50 days early, he has gone. Not many news obits (only Blogs) so maybe it's a good thing he's died in 2008 as a result. Ah well, promotion for General Jaruzelski then.....

Oh no, Ray Stubbs is a bigger twat AND he can't even read football scores. The man is king of twats.

Take Eli Wallach off the Deathlist, firstly. Add/Keep: Wendy Richard Basil D'Oliveira Sir John Mortimer Little Richard Helmut Kohl Edwin Morgan Wojeciech Jaruzelski Annette Funicello Eunice Kennedy Shriver & Robert Sargent Shriver (husband & wife hit) Alberto Fujimori Jade Goody King Sihanouk Amy Winehouse Farrah Fawcett Sir Cyril Smith Ted Kennedy Kenny Richey Gough Whitlam James Garner All of the above are good DL material because they are famous enough, but most should have more exciting threads potentially then the likes of de Laurentiis or Lom...

Godot, personally I would love to ban all those "famous for being ill" right out - but remember, there's potentially 500 teams entering, I'm up against strict deadlines to get games open & haven't really the time or patience any more to work out if Purdy counts, Martin doesn't - Endersby counts, Ainscow doesn't, Darwin does, Mevsimler doesn't etc. Even less patience to explain how these people count, but these don't Bear in mind, a lot of people just play this casually and don't give a toss about whether people are right or not morally. Also bear in mind, 400 odd teams are pretty satisfied with the current status quo. But it's a dead pool, for f**k's sake, I can't really moralise or expect people too. Is picking Seve Ballestros morally better because he is famous? The poor chap is still relatively young, very popular, yet many DDP'rs are licking their lips with relish with his picking. If you can come up with an easy, cast-iron selection process, then I'll put it in for 2010, but as I said in the 2009 DDP thread AND in my e-mail for the 2009 rules, it's just a rather nasty can of worms which will come back to bite everyone, most of all me. However - if anyone picks a team solely of famous for being ill, or picks a team with a majority of famous for being ill, I'll ask them to rethink. If people want to name one or two.. so be it. But - MPFC please note - a team packed full of famous for being ill is pretty likely to be declined. As for me, I won't pick any of these people or Seve. I'm going to stick with elderly people (and some not quite so elderly) who are actually famous. Some of them aren't even ill. I've got to tone my team down, it's rather embarassing when I get so many hits & I run the game. Remember, "famous for being ill" doesn't just mean terminal illness. It means unknown until a negative situation thrust them into the spotlight. Hence it includes the McCann's, the Darwins, Ian Huntley etc - it's a slightly broader line when you delve through it.

If only it were that simple. "Famous for being ill" doesn't just mean a terminal illness. Where do you fit Wendy Ainscow, or John Hogan or Barry Austin or that lady who wants to go to that suicide clinic in Switzerland? What about the likes of Karen Matthews or the mother of Baby P? They're not terminally ill, but do they fall under the same bracket? Randy Pausch was known to "some" people and had a Wikipedia page BEFORE his terminal illness diagnosis. Famous or non famous? As Twelvetrees said, it's not an easy choice to make, and rather than have mass confusion & lots more work & headaches, let's just allow them in. Chances are though with a lot of the "famous for being ill": Don't get Obits anyway - ie Jones Are already dead but didn't get any press Live on for much longer than the press say they do (Tomlinson, Taylor etc etc) so it often gets balanced out anyway.

Thanks Banshees. Nothing new is going to come in now - it's not fair, considering I've just sent an e-mail saying "no change and more obit sources". However I'll consider 2010 options, if I'm still doing it by then. Ultimately though, things are moving along pretty nicely. Only about 1% of those playing are peeved off, and everyone else seems content enough, so I'll leave it as it is for now. To be honest, the famous for being ill issue isn't really settled at all, but feedback since the e-mail is that there is consensus that there doesn't seem to be an easy way to decide it.

yeah, so now you have to really watch it when you insult Reading FC again, TMIB BWA HA HA HA

Well, as a brand new mod, that nice Mr DWB offered me a wonderous glimpse into the world of luxury, ladies & life beyond being a mere member of DL. "you don't have to do anything, won't take up any time at all" was the gist of his sales patter. The reality... As if I haven't got enough to do, I now get constant e-mails from The Unknown Man* to clear spam & ban the spammer (which I can't do anyway). Yay! Promotion my arse! There are certain bonuses to be a mod though, I must admit though, which makes most of it worthwhile. * TUM, no offence, but if I see it when I'm posting, I'll delete it. I have 65,001 things to do before 2009, most of them DDP related, so if I'm not logged on when the spammer strikes, please just report to a mod who is. Otherwise, those 65,001 things get pushed further back and back.

It's really quite remarkable - combined age, 330, yet still here 90 years on. They said 10 years ago - no chance, no veterans. Now they're saying almost certainly. With men like Patch it's not difficult to see him going 5 more years at this rate. It's almost hard to believe. I thought Patch looked very well for his age. And Stone probably would've tried walking but for his recent broken hip. The fact that he can go in for major surgery at 108 & still attend... incredible. Choules, too, was looking good too. But Patch is remarkable - as the last veteran of the trenches (and Paesschandale) anywhere in the world, he truly is a piece of living history.

Young? Oh bless you, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day!

Although I am a poppy wearer, and always will be, and beleive quite strongly in wearing one, it irritates the hell out of me that every single TV show insists, no matter what the clothes worn, that a poppy be on there. I think it should be a matter of choice, and if people don't wear them, that should be their choice too. I actually think it cheapens the meaning of the poppy, not make it more significant. However, I think the "Daily Mail element" means if someone didn't wear a poppy on TV, they'd get lambasted and hung out to dry. It would be nice if everyone felt they should wear one, but I don't like the fact that everyone is MADE to wear one.. that's just wrong.

Well, I could never come due to work (and knew this quite early on), and indeed never indicated I was coming to this one, and told people I wasn't as well, so I hope this didn't cause any bad issues. Just a suggestion - and only a suggestion - Somewhere near Luton? Good for all the Scots as they could get flights down to the airport. Good for all the Londoners as easy reach, but without London pub prices Good for those in France, Germany, Spain & most of Central (and indeed with the Czech Republic, Slovakia & Poland), Eastern Europe. On the M1 & by the A5, so not too bad for those driving. Has three train stations there too, so that's got to help people too. Now, I don't suggest this because I used to live there, and live 15 miles away - but because it seems a decent compromise. And of course, whilst I wouldn't organise the get-together, I do know plenty of pubs/restaurants round the area - not Luton itself, it's too shitty - including some very very nice country pubs where you can get pissed as a fart & eat & still have change for £20!

Has congestive heart problems, which is not good anyway, but even less so, when you are 95, and suffered a major stroke (not dementia, as often described) as Mr Felt has. I suggest DL keep him on for 2009.