Dead Pool '09

All right, so here's the deal.

At the venerable Mr. Passantino's suggestion, we're going to change it up slightly this year and have people pick 15 names instead of 10.

Originally I was going to say that eligible celebrities include anyone with a NNDB entry, but I'm not confident that that site includes top Australian cricketers, for instance. So let's open it up to Wikipedia, too, with the caveat that picking extremely obscure or local celebrities will probably be frowned upon.

Also: humans only.

As usual, points are awarded based on the formula (100 - [age at death]). So picking Dakota Fanning (at 14) gets you a lot more points than picking Karl Malden (at 96).

Please post your lists to this thread by January 8. No lists will be accepted after that date. If someone dies before Jan. 8, only the people who have already submitted lists will be able to collect points.

Good luck.

OK, so here we go:

1. Alex Higgins
2. Basil D'Oliveira
3. Bobby Heenan
4. Fidel Castro
5. Gore Vidal
6. Jeremy Thorpe
7. Patrick McGoohan
8. Roberto Saviano
9. Ronnie Biggs
10. Russell Watson
11. Shih Ming-Teh
12. Sir Bobby Robson
13. Ian Cundy
14. Zdravko Tolimir
15. Željko Šturanović

irving penn
fidel castro
barbara bush
b.b. king
lauren bacall
gordie howe
yogi berra ;_;
Margaret Thatcher
Robert Mugabe
O.J. Simpson
Elizabeth Edwards
Billy Graham
J. D. Salinger
Ted Kennedy
The Patrick Swayze

this reminds me: I gotta pay a visit to Amy W. before it's too late

Can we use this thread to talk about the videos of Amy Winehouse dancing naked or not?

no and don't make one

Originally I was going to say that eligible celebrities include anyone with a NNDB entry, but I'm not confident that that site includes top Australian cricketers, for instance. So let's open it up to Wikipedia, too, with the caveat that picking extremely obscure or local celebrities will probably be frowned upon.

I don't like this rule change, given that ILXors generally don't give a fuck what is and isn't frowned upon. I think anyone with a Wikipedia entry opens it up too much.

One rule is "anyone who gets an obituary printed in a national newspaper"

Or has their death reported by AP/PA/Reuters.

Barbara Billingsley
Maurice Sendak
Lois Lowry
Judy Blume
Jasper Johns
Robin Guthrie
Ivo Watts-Russell
Twiggy
Mort Walker
Al Jaffee
I.M. Pei
Elie Wiesel
Art Linkletter
John Eisenhower
Cory Doctorow

Fidel Castro
Gene Hackman
Mikhail Gorbachev
Billy Graham
Nancy Reagan
Lena Horne
Jasper Johns
Ernest Borgnine
Larry Hagman
Fats Domino
Little Richard
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Patrick Swayze
Steve Jobs
Ted Kennedy

oooo steve jobs...

also Little Richard will live forever.

I did not realize Zsa Zsa was older than the Queen

WHY TWIGGY

waht

I don't like this rule change, given that ILXors generally don't give a fuck what is and isn't frowned upon. I think anyone with a Wikipedia entry opens it up too much.

You may be right. I don't feel particularly strongly about this, so if we want to stick with NNDB or go by the "obit in a national newspaper" rule, that's fine. I guess I'm just hoping people use their best judgment when it comes to this.

wHY GORBY

Oh, I must've forgotten that Twiggy, also known as "Immortal Woman He," is one of the eight immortals of Taoist mythology. I'll just have to live with my mistake.

1. mikhail gorbachev
2. olivia de havilland
3. patrick swayze
4. babi badalov
5. andy dick
6. kirk douglas
7. blake edwards
8. peter falk
9. amy winehouse
10. daisaku ikeda
11. bob barker
12. helen levitt
13. phyllis diller
14. jake lamotta
15. kristen nygaard

aruba, you shall be forgiven
after all,it was Tw-gy Who said:

"This is what should be done By one who is skilled in goodness, And who knows how to smile with one's eyes: Let them be able and upright, Straightforward and gentle in speech. Humble and not conceited, Contented and easily satisfied. Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways. Peaceful and calm, and wise and fierce, Not proud and demanding in nature. Let them not do the slightest thing That Tyra would later reprove."

if only Miss J were that eloquent

Cory Doctorow

Is he going be crushed by a giant steam-punk replica of an ipod?

No, quadruple heart attack when a girl finally talks to him.

ballooning accident/inoperable rope burn after trying to "bring xkcd into the real world"

1. John Ashbery
2. George HW Bush
3. Jerry Lee Lewis
4. Ray Price
5. Roger Ebert
6. Gore Vidal
7. R. Crumb
8. Bill Wyman
9. Ryan Adams
10. Eunice Kennedy Shriver
11. Shane MacGowan
12. Mary Kate Olsen
13. Charlie Louvin
14. Betty Ford
15. Garbiel Garcia Marquez

Why R. Crumb?

I've just got a feeling.

ebert :(

Wendy Richard
Patrick Swayze
Kirk Douglas
Norman Wisdom
Margaret Thatcher
Vera Lynn
Clive Dunn
Bobby Robson
ZsaZsa Gabor
JD Salinger
BB King
Patrick Moore
Gore Vidal
Ken Russell
Amy Winehouse

I wish gore vidal would come up here and explain to all of us why he deserves to make it through 2009

He was good in Family Guy.

Early list, in case somebody kicks off from new year's revelry. I might change a name or two before the 8th.

Farrah Fawcett
George Steinbrenner
Robert Novak
Patrick Swayze
Kelsey Grammer
Kim Jong-Il
Steve Jobs
Ted Kennedy
Annette Funicello
Seve Ballesteros
Ariel Sharon
Fidel Castro
Elizabeth Edwards
Roger Ebert
Amy Winehouse

Yogi Berra
Frank Broyles
Robert Byrd
Chi Cheng
Walter Cronkite
Peter Falk
Billy Graham
Paul Harvey
Don Hewitt
Steve Jobs
BB King
Sam Moore
Arial Sharon
Patrick Swayze
Elizabeth Taylor

And if Mike Wallace and Andy Rooney both die, I'll be pissed. I couldn't justify picking the whole 60 Minutes set though.

Ariel Sharon

He hasn't been sentient for the past 3 years. Judges, is this allowable?

So, Amy Winehouse is this year's Britney?

If she can dance naked, she can life another year.

she gained some weight lately, ditched the ratty beehive and started rocking her own natural jewfro
I say she will survive

Ariel Sharon is not dead, though. Terri Schiavo ballots weren't counted until 2005.

And oh. I forgot to put Claiborne Pell on my list, do-over ;-)

Patrick Swayze
Fidel Castro
Robert Novak
Ted Kennedy
Ariel Sharon
Robin Williams
Betty White
Keith Richards
James Earl Jones
Dick Clark
Bob Barker
Barack Obama
Sean Connery
Omar Sharif
Haley Joel Osment

1. Jose Saramago
2. Merce Cunningham
3. Lucian Freud
4. Elaine Stritch
5. Camille Paglia
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Lindsey Lohan
8. Robert Wyatt
9. Larry David
10. Jean Luc Godard
11. Faye Dunaway
12. Mick Fleetwood
13. Noam Chomsky
14. Eamon Dunphy
15. Harmony Korine

14. Eamon Dunphy

^^^only death on any of these lists that would be a true tragedy

whatever

Judges, is this allowable?

Of course. I've had him on my list for the last couple of years.

Susan Atkins
Shirley Temple Black
Fidel Castro
Gary Coleman
Marianne Faithfull
Louis Farrakhan
Jack Kervorkian
Artie Lange
Sara Jane Moore
Nancy Reagan
Carl Reiner
Patrick Swayze
Amy Winehouse
Alan Young

Phyllis Schlafly
Donald Sinden
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Clement Freud
Partick Swayze
Anna Wing
Liz Dawn
Olivia de Havilland
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Margaret Thatcher
Jade Goody
Ronnie Biggs
Joseph Wiseman
Patrick Moore
Mare Winningham

John Harris. RIP.

scott weiland
joyce carol oates
bob newhart
macauley culkin
lemmy (of motorhead)
harold bloom
dick cheney
bil keane
william "refrigerator" perry
anne rice
holger czukay
liza minnelli
tuesday weld
thomas pynchon
nancy sinatra

I get halfway through doing my list and each time I abandon it because it's too much like wishing death upon someone...

Susan Atkins
J. G. Ballard
Blake Edwards
Peter Falk
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Annette Funicello
Jake LaMotta
Edwin Newman
Carroll Shelby
Herman Wouk
Scott Carpenter
Kenneth Anger
Sandy Koufax
Les Paul
Lyndon LaRouche

Ariel Sharon
Wendy Richard
Liz Dawn
Paul Gascoigne
Farrah Fawcett
Elizabeth Taylor
Jade Goody
Margaret Thatcher
Alex Higgins
Larry Hagman
Muhammad Ali
Ian Brady
Ian Huntley
Doris Day
Patrick Swayze

does the scoreboard only list people with 10 points minimum? i had helen levitt on my list, earning me a whopping four points

Sorry about that. Yeah, I've only been updating when I hear of someone who's died and I suspect that someone may have picked that person. Like I said, I'll do an extensive review soon to catch people like Levitt. You're in luck, though -- she was 95, so you get FIVE points!

Swayze has "gone home to die" according to reports so there'll be a few 43 pointers coming up.

next year, any choice with terminal illness should be disqualified

^insurance executive^

Passantino would be hosed without the ability to just google people with cancer.

exactly, but he'd have to come up with outside-the-box suggestions like that Italian journalist who wrote Gomorrah as his stock option, not his punt

I dunno, I think that rule would be tough to enforce.

Everyone else has the ability to google celebrities with cancer, you know. Just depends which ones you pick.

But that takes the fun out of randomly guessing and then spending the rest of the year seeing that person on telly and wondering if you want them to die or not.

Swayze's death puts four new people on the leaderboard. Doesn't change the order much near the top, since nearly everyone had Swayze on their list. I say "nearly," however, because Dom, unbelievably, did not. Which makes this a much tighter race than I was anticipating, as ailsa is only 15 points behind now.

does anyone other than me still have 0 points? i guess probably so

woah ailsa. shit just got real.

dom just didn't want to live in a world w/o swayze

Ain't how the game is played, brah. It's a cold, cold world.

I also just did some housekeeping and found that Mark G. picked someone who died back in January, so that's been updated, too.

Oh and Nick, you're one of five contestants with zero points.

Following his release from prison, Biggs' health improved, leading to suggestions that he might soon be moved from hospital to a nursing home. In response to claims that Biggs' state of health was faked, his lawyer stated, "This man is going to die, there is going to be no Lazarus coming back from the dead, he is ill, he is seriously ill." However, Biggs himself stated, "I've got a bit of living to do yet. I might even surprise them all by lasting until Christmas, that would be fantastic."

Until Christmas. I guess that still counts as within the year.

My Passantinoesque tactics are paying off. Ian Brady's trying to get off home to die as well, according to a headline I saw in a shop yesterday, but I suspect, like Al-Megrahi, he's going to hang on until January to spite me. Yes, me personally. Dom's probably spending his enforced retirement in a hospice administering personal care to everyone not on his list.

RIP Patrick Swayze, obv.

This Dead Pool and the one running at work were my first thought on hearing the news this morning. I'm an evil selfish man.

Anyone have Keith Floyd?

DavidM.

Got it.

Anyone else have Susan Atkins?

I do.

Joe Wiseman's been gone for a few weeks now.

All right, got it. 9 points for you.

i don't see ted kennedy on dom's list, but it's on his spreadsheet list?

He changed his list, Ted's on there.

The end is drawing near.

Oh Maggie Jones, well-loved actress... if only you'd held on a few more weeks... I'd have had a 25 right off the bat! Goodly darn you!

ps. RIP

The end is drawing near.

― krakow

when do we have to put our picks in for next year?

I'll start a thread on New Year's Day, probably. (Also will tally up winners for 2009.)

I'm going on holiday with limited internet access. Let me know if it's ten or fifteen, and I'm email you a list today at some point if that's OK.

am i the only person who went 0/15 this year? i'm tempted to roll my 2009 list over to 2010

I think 15 worked well -- more people on the leaderboard -- so let's do it again in 2010.

As usual, I'll give people until the 8th of the month to submit lists.

i would like to join this

Is everybody ok with posting their lists here as they come up with them, or would it be more interesting/have less overlap if everybody kept them secret until after the deadline? If we wanted to keep them secret, they could be emailed to jaymc not to be opened until the deadline, or a disinterested third party who could forward them to jaymc after deadline.

I admit there are always a couple of names I add after seeing other people's lists.

[Is everybody ok with posting their lists here as they come up with them]

...or we could come up w/ a Dead Pool 10 thred? (bonus pts for calling it "Dead Pool x"

yeah, I meant in a new thread -- the question mainly is do you want lists to be public or private

I just sent mine to jaymc via webmaily thing.

mostly because I don't want to sit in an internet cafe on holiday googling for celebrities with cancer.

Hmmm, I didn't see the debate here until just now. Tbh, I'm OK with keeping the lists public, but if you'd rather e-mail them to me, that's fine, too.

Btw, I still have to do a final tallying, but the preliminary winner of this year's pool was DOM PASSANTINO: 6 of his 15 picks kicked the bucket, for a total of 204 points.

cautionary tale

Correction: SEVEN of Dom's picks died (I missed Susan Atkins), for a total of 243 points.

TOP TEN

1. Dom (243 points, 7/15)
2. ailsa (189 points, 4/15)
3. JTS (141 points, 4/15)
4. WmC (126 points, 4/15)
5. ? (102 points, 3/15)
6. Tuomas (93 points, 2/15)
7. Billy Dods (90 points, 3/15)
8. robertwolf8080 (88 points, 3/15)
9. kingkongvsgodzilla (82 points, 2/15)
10. jaymc (80 points, 3/15)

Honorable mention goes to Pleasant Plains, who had only 75 points but 4/15.

See the rest here.

In a sense, didn't Dom, too, die in 2009?

so it's true what they say about the hunter getting captured by the game.

I feel proud of my placing and resolve to do even better this year. Die celebrity bitches die!

Dom's result is impressive because he knows how to play the game, and so won. Tuomas's result is in a way even more impressive, because Michael Jackson was 50 points worth of random guessing. What are th' freakin odds?