This Looks Bad
 

He could use some dental work.

The real problem with this pool is the huge number of people to choose from who, conceivably, might be dead before 2005. Two more that recently hit my radar are Jack Lalane and Barbara bel Geddes. Who knew they are still around?

Mercedes McCambridge dies at 85
 

Well, I didn't know who she was other than she was the voice of the demon child in the Exorcist, but she did Magnum PI if that helps with ther "notoriety." Won Academy awards for All the King's Men and Giant.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4549729/

Courtney Love Picks Looking Better Every Day
 

Damn, wish I had picked her -- she's like a car careening out of control down the Pacific Coast Highway, bumper clicking along the guardrails, while the ocean swirls a thousand feet below:

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...T&SECTION=HOME

(Spree: Courtney makes a bizarre, breast-baring "Letterman" appearance, and then gets arrested for conking a guy with a mikestand in an after-hours club)

Courtney Love Picks Looking Better Every Day
 

and I bet you believe Jessica Simpson really thought Chicken of the Sea was chicken. This is a woman who needs to be in the spotlight and will do anything for the attention since her thirty minutes are up.

Clear Channel killed the MTV Star
 

No one had 'em, and he's not much of a celeb., but somehow this seems like the end of an era. Some era, at least.

MTV VJ JJ Jackson dead at 62.

Mercedes McCambridge dies at 85
 

I think her son shot his wife and two daughters and then himself a few years back. But that may have been someone else in the Exorcist.

Mercedes McCambridge dies at 85
 

yeah. that made the obit that I read. along with her two divorces and serious battles with alcoholism. I'm guessing she didn't write that obit herself. I think I'd have glossed over some of that. details.

Mercedes McCambridge dies at 85
 

Holy shit, are you serious? did it also talk about the realtor leaving the bloodstains in the house as a "selling point"?

eta oh, didn't read the link, it was in that. sorry. but, seriously, knew that about the murders/suicide thing. played with the grandkids (pre-mortem, obviously) sometimes. I think the son got caught embezzling or was about to get caught or something. Sad.

Last Tour de France winner since Lance dies
 

ROME - Former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani’s death was caused by cocaine poisoning that appears to have been accidental, according to a coroner’s report.

The ANSA news agency reported that Giuseppe Fortuni determined Pantani died of “acute cocaine poisoning.”

What in the hell is accidental cocaine poisoning?

Pantani was found dead in his hotel room Feb. 14. About 10 bottles of tranquilizers were found in the room, some of them empty, others just open, police said.

Pantani’s 1998 Tour de France victory was the last by a rider other than Lance Armstrong.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4562757/

Sales of mascara dropped significantly
 

Tammy Faye Baker has lung cancer. She recently appeared on the WB reality show “The Surreal Life,” costarring with former rapper Vanilla Ice, ex-porn star Ron Jeremy and others.


http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...8a.hmedium.jpg
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4558403/

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

Maybe an overdose where the person ingested the cocaine instead of snorting it?

When the Fugee Dad was in the hospital last week (he had pneumonia, is fine now), I met the family of an accidental overdoser who probably met the criteria of poisoning. This kid (18) was not a user (at least according to his family for what that's worth) but was out with his friend and a really hot girl. The chick had drugs on her when they were stopped by the cops. Idiot kid, in a seriously misguided (and ultimately fruitless attempt) at chivalry or to get laid by said hot girl, swallows her stash so she won't go to jail. They get arrested anyway and after an hour, the cops notice he is rigid and unresponsive so they take him to the ER where they kept him from being an accidental drug poisoning death.

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

I doubt pantani was covering for someone. I think the word accidental was used here to make clear the conclusion that it was not intentional, i.e., not a suicide. He intentionally took the drugs, but intended only to get high, not kill himself. think len bias.

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

It wasn't the word accidental that I thought was odd, it was "poisoning." So you think they meant by poisoning that it wasn't an overdose per se but that the amount he took killed him?

I just thought the hospital story was interesting anyway and wanted to "share."

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

Not buying the "accidental" line on this story. 10 bottles of open and/or empty tranquilizers and more cocaine than Tony Montana could have possibly snorted - sounds like suicide.

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

I sure hope he gets laid, after all the trouble he went to.

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

Oh, I definitely agree (or he was really, really, stupid and unrealisitc about what amount of drugs he needed for ahigh).

But my guess is there's strong political pressure in Italy to find it was not suicide. Isn't there also a problem with suicide in the catholic church ? (I assume he's catholic).

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

If you call being damned to eternal punishment a problem, then yes.

Some here on these boards call that "the office."

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

'Tain't necessarily so. While many great plays and books have hinged on a devout mother's anguish at the former practice of burying suicides at the crossroads rather than on sacred ground, the current catechism is not so harsh.

Link (emphasis added).

Accidental Cocaine Poisoning
 

Usually my eyes completely glaze over when you and others on the board delve into these complex theological discussions, but I appreciate you posting this.

Good Times
 

ETA b/c I am clueless. Wrong board.

R E S P E C T find out what it means to me
 

Aretha Franklin hospitalized

NEW YORK - Aretha Franklin has been hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment and is in stable condition, her publicist said Monday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4582159/

Another one to watch.
 

Last night, one of the shows did a short piece on Richard Pryor. He looks really bad. The MS has certainly done a number on him -- he is in the wheelchair and can barely speak above a whisper. He's also put on a lot of weight. I found the whole thing really shocking. It was really sad to see him like that, because he was just so damn funny.

Does anyone have him?

Another one to watch.
 

Yes.

Game on!
 

Whitney's apparently checked herself out of rehab (if she ever got there in the first place)...

Link

Another one bites the dust.
 

Peter Ustinov is dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi....ap/index.html

ETA: Apparently Jan of Jan & Dean is dead too.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Musi....ap/index.html

Edited yet again to add: Damn, beaten to the punch!

Another one bites the dust.
 

Also Jan of Jan & Dean. No hits yet however. And we are almost a month into the competition. Tick tick tick.

Another one bites the dust.
 

I wondered if anyone had Ustinov. I get the sneaking suspicion that everyone on my list is guaranteed to make it to the New Year.

Another one bites the dust...
 

Anyone have Alistair Cook?

Heard it on the radio this morning, but can't find an on-line cite.

Another one bites the dust...
 

Another one bites the dust...
 

Fugee had Mr. Cooke and now leads us all. Good job.

Concentrate
 

Art James of Concentration and Family Feud Challenge died at the age of 74. I loved Concentration.

Art James

OH yeah, and Peter Gotti's girlfriend.
Of an "apparent suicide"

Mickey D's
 

Dammit dammit dammit. This one would have been so easy. Like Dave from Wendy's.

Fast-food chain McDonald's (MCD, news, msgs) Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Cantalupo, 60, died of an apparent heart attack this morning.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...9.asp?GT1=3256

Mickey D's: "Supersize Me!"
 

I wonder if he was on the McDonald's diet.

Mickey D's: "Supersize Me!"
 

Give me Big Mac, give me fries to go.

Mickey D's: "Supersize Me!"
 

If he'd been eating solely the new healthy adult Happy Meals as a sort of test, McD's going to have some marketing problems.

Longest living creator of record book dies!
 

http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/pages/main
Ross McWhirter died of a heart attack Wednesday, at 78. His twin brother was killed in 1975 by the IRA. Together they started Guiness Book of World Records. If we had UK contestants this might have been an expected pick.

Points
 

If I recall, a couple of people picked her.

Estee Lauder.

Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them.

Points
 

Congrats to str8, flinty and ncs.

I was surprised to see that Aveda is part of the Estee Lauder empire. And here I thought it was a super-independent Minnesota venture. But no, not since late 1997.

Points
 

somewhere people are crying...... this feels so wrong, but i must admit my overriding emotion is simply disappointment in my picks.

Points
 

Confirmed. 3 hits on Estee Lauder. And here I thought karma might keep anyone on our respective lists from actually dying this year.

Flinty, str8 and I are tied at 1.