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I organized a dead pool for about 10 years between a couple of friends and myself until they eventually dropped out. But I enjoyed it because it was small and manageable enough. This is a new idea I haven't seen before and I hope to get a dozen entries to try it out. The pool starts now and ends on June 30, 2018. No entry fee the first year since it is a trial run, but no prizes either. The rules: Submit a list of 26 soon-to-croak people. The first name or last name of the first person must begin with an A. Second person with a B. You get the idea. You can enter at any time until I have 12 entries, then it will be closed. One list per customer, please. Qualifying names will be those getting an obit by sources used by the Windy City Deadpool, also found on its own thread at this site. That pool, in turn, uses the obit sources of the Derby Dead Pool, but adds US sources ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox networks to make it more Yank friendly. Since I am a Yank, I kind of like that. I will also throw in CNN, The New York Times and the LA Times as legit obit sources. Since I do not regularly access any of the British/European obit sources, I will rely on any overseas contestants to police their own obits if they are not likely to pop up in the US sources. Scoring: A hit with the first name beginning with the appropriately corresponding letter, (all letters except as below) - 1 pt A hit with the last name beginning with the appropriately corresponding letter, (all letters except as below) - 2 pts A hit with the first name . . . A, E, I, O, U, V, Y - 2 pts A hit with the last name . . . A, E, I, O, U, V, Y - 3 pts A hit with the first or last name . . . Q, X, Z - 4 pts A hit with the first AND last name (all letters not listed) - 4 pts A hit with the first AND last name (all listed letters) - 8 pts Bonus pts: Person was born in the year 1937 or later - 2 pts IF we get 12 entries, I will start awarding bonus points for solos (3 pts), and duos (1 pt). They will be awarded retroactively if the hit occurs before the last entry comes in. Example: if someone gets a solo hit with Zadora Zephyr, who was born in 1940 (assuming 12 entries), the score would be 8+2+3=13 (the best you could do with one hit). Ties will be broken by the date the final score is reached. That is, if 3 folks end up with 18 points, the person that got to 18 on the earliest date will be the winner. Finally, there is always a disadvantage to posting a list early in that early lists can be picked over by everyone else who joins after. (Is it a problem? I don't know) But as an incentive to get your list in early, you can choose four names to protect for the rest of the game. That is, select any four names on your list which cannot be used by anyone submitting a list after yours (names already on submitted lists stay on). Indicate these 4 names by writing "protected" after them. It is your responsibility to peruse the protected names already submitted before submitting your list. I hope folks will find this interesting enough to play. Here is my inaugural list, with my 4 protected names: 1. eman ahmed 2. Barbara bush - PROTECTED 3. rod carew 4. gord downie 5. errol christie 6. Helen fawkes 7. billy graham 8. bobby "the brain" heenan 9. I. M. Pei 10. clive james 11. barys kit - PROTECTED NO QO 12. don lusk 13. Robert mugabe 14. Catherine nevin 15. gino odjick 16. leslie phillips 17. nabeel qureshi - PROTECTED NO QO 18. charlotte rae 19. mel stottlemyer, sr. 20. ruthie tompson 21. bobby unser 22. paul van zandvliet 23. herman wouk 24. xaviera hollander 25. yasuhiro nakasone 26. zoltan sarosy - PROTECTED NO QO