2006 Dead Pool

[beenben]

OT 2006 Dead Pool Post

I posted last year looking for names to use in my dead pool. Before I detail my picks, first a word about it being creepy or immoral.

I participate because I am a news junky. Neither I nor anyone playing is going to kill anybody to win a few hundred bucks (plus it makes you ineligible for the prize money - LOL). These people are old, sick, or hopefully both. It does feel kind of weird when you're hoping that one of your picks dies soon; and it feels kind of good-weird when one of them dies. But everyone dies at some point and the game is just about predicting who is most likely to die next year.

The way the game works is, I get points if one of my picks dies, and I get more points if I'm the only person to pick them, fewer points if two of us picked him, down to 1/3 of the points for a solo hit if eight or more people picked the person. Extra points if they're young, first or last to die during the year, commit suicide, oldest to die, and youngest to die. I try to avoid people that are just old. The ideal pick is somewhat quirky so that few or no others pick the person, yet famous enough for the death to be noted in major papers, have some sort of an illness which makes them likely to die. Just being old doesn't do much for me- your life expectancy at 100 is 2.6 years. That means on average, people aged one hundred are going to live well past the end of the game.

In previous years, I looked for picks toward the end of the year and just ended up going with too many old people. But I noticed that certain people in the game consistently did better than I did so this year I resolved to look for ideas throughout the year, as they seemed to have researched some good picks. Then I also did some searching to find additional names. Particularly, I decided to focus on Sumo because I figured their life expectancy isn't too long (turns out that it's age 41).

Without further ado, here are the picks, why they are famous, and why I picked them, and any other comments:

+W Mark Felt. Deep Throat. Old and didn't look so good on TV. probably not the best pick.

+ John Silvertand. Horse trainer of Afleet Alex. terminal cancer.

+ I had William Proxmire but he died toward the end of 2005 so I replaced him with socialite Brooke Astore, who is just old.

+Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi. Baath Party chairman. terminally ill

+ Orlando Thomas. former football player. terminally illl.

+ Jane Tomlinson. author / athlete / marathoner. I forget what her issue is, but five teams picked her last year. I'm thinking cancer or terminally ill.

+ Futagoyama. former sumo wrestler. age 55. average life expectancy for a sumo- 41. also, in and out of the hospital. Also, probably a unique pick.

+ Patsy Ramsey (Jon benet's mom) fighting cancer

+ Anthony Russo, criminal / politician (3 types of cancer)

+ Charles Haughey, former Prime Minister (Taoisich) Ireland (prostate cancer spread to liver)

+ tammy faye baker . criminal / televangelist (redundant?) cancer (supposedly)

+ Albert Hamilton Gordon. businessman and philanthropist (age 105 - just old)

+ Margaret Thatcher. former UK PM series of strokes have rendered her unable to complete a sentence.

+ Keith LeClair, baseball manager, Lou Gherig's diagnosed 2002 which makes him likely to go next year.

+ John "Eathquake" Tenta sumo and all star wrestler. advanced cancer

+ Gary Glitter. singer / accused criminal . I don't think the Vietnamese death penalty takes as long as ours.

+ Elanor Mondale. entertainment reporter. Brain cancer.

+liz taylor. actress. holed up in her house which has been turned into a private hospital.

+falaci oriana. author. I think I just picked him because a couple of the usually successful people picked him last year.

+Azumazeki.. sumo. just old (for a sumo)

+philip D'arcy Hart. medical researcher. age 106.

+don ho. singer. had heart surgery that was not approved in the U.S.

+corin redgrave. actor. bad heart attack.

+charity sunshine. soprano. has an often fatal lung disease, pulmonary hypertension

+sister rose thering. featured in a documentary. has same disease as charity sunshine

For those of you keeping count, that was 25. Now if one of those dies, I activate one of five people on my taxi squad. They are:

Hugues Cuenod, swiss tenor. (age 104)
Johanes Heesters. german film actor (age 104)
Jiri Fischer. hockey. heart problems
billy joel. singer/songwriter/piano man. alcoholic
gerald ford. former POTUS. briefly hospitalized. oldest living ex POTUS.


Happy New Year and may you and your's stay off of my list.

[stickman]

How about Dick Clark? He looked terrible last night.

[DrPublo]

How is Magic Johnson not on your list? He's had AIDS for ever...his clock must be running out.

The Doc

[Oblivious]

I think Magic has yet to develop AIDS.

[splittter]

For the record, Gary Glitter is no longer facing the death penalty, just 12 years in prison if convicted. Although vietnamese prisons can't be that healthy places to live, so he might still be a good bet.

[dlk9s]

[ QUOTE ]
I think Magic has yet to develop AIDS.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct. He only had HIV, not AIDS. As far as I know, the HIV is somehow not in his system anymore. If it is, it's barely there. From what I understand, he's quite healthy.

[beenben]

It took a while for my picks to start dying. I've now had 6 people die and many were worth a lot of points. -

Phillip D'arcy Hart was also 106, and likely 2b the oldest stiff of the year which is worth a few extra points. (22 total points)

Also dead (points) are Sister Rose Thering (18), Charles Haughey (5), Keith LeClair(17), Patsy Ramsey (13), and John "earthquake" Tenta (17).

This puts me in about 12th place, around 100 behind the leader. If several of my other point worthy picks die, I could move up significantly as the people ahead of me generally did not duplicate my picks. I think I have a small chance of making second place and reasonable chance of making the $$ (top ten). It's mathmatically possible for me to get 1st, but unlikely.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
likely 2b the oldest stiff of the year

[/ QUOTE ]
Please don't do this. You looked-up all these figures about your ongoing investigation into this game, but you can't type those 3 extra characters?
-Sam

[beenben]

and you wrote 124 characters to complain about it?

[FCBLComish]

[ QUOTE ]
and you wrote 124 characters to complain about it?

[/ QUOTE ]

And you counted them?