New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

Alright, folks. This is the thread for all things death pool 2005. A quick summary of the rules:

*Each player submits 10 celebrity picks to me via PM (do not post them here).

*I will be the final arbitor as to whether someone qualifies as famous. If you have a local celebrity that you wish to pick, or someone who I might not be familiar with, please include an explanation of why the person should qualify as famous for me. The TM anti-Earl Woods rule is in effect this year - no one qualifies as being a celebrity just because they popped out a famous kid. Also death row inmates, Michael Jackson's accuser, etc. do not qualify.

*All picks should be submitted to me by December 31, 2004 at noon EST.

*Death Pool will begin on January 1, 2005 at 12:01 a.m. EST. Pool will close December 31, 2005 at midnight EST.

*I will post a listing of all picks here once they have been tabulated. If you wish to pick anyone of questionable celebrity status, get your list to me early to make sure I accept all picks.

*Ties in final number of deaths picked will battle it out in a tiebreaker named after one of the 2004 pool's least successful entrants. The Hank Chinaski tiebreaker will measure the difference between the ages of the celebrities picked and 100. Celebrities over 100 will not garner tied players any points in the tiebreaker. The younger the dead celebrity, the more points! So go for it and pick Prince Harry if you care to. Or an Olsen twin.

*In the event of any need for rules clarification, I will post those here. In the event of any dispute as to how the rules should work, I will have the final say. Though I may solicit opinions of pool entrants.

*If you pick someone and they die before the pool period starts, you may resubmit a new entry, but no geezer who drops before the beginning time of the pool will count as a hit for you.

*I can't promise that I will catch every single celebrity death during the year, so I urge each of you to watch for stories confirming the death of your selected celebrities. If I miss a published death, just shoot me an e-mail with a link and I'll post the hit on this board.

*Winner gets no monetary reward. What do you think this is - a greedy associates board? But you do get to boast about it for all of calendar year 2006. And maybe you'll end up with unsolicited photos of TITS in you PM box. Hey, it could happen. I'm in negotiations with ABBA on this one.

*Person with the fewest hits during the year will grab from Jack Manfred the Angel of Mercy title.

Good luck!

Woo-hoo!

New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

This is bullshit. Dead is dead is dead is dead. If you pick some motherfucker that kicks, it should count.

Dead or Alive
 

Is there a convenient website to determine if people are already dead? Or does one just have to google all one's choices?

New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

where were you during the SuperBowl pool, or is it just when your interests are at stake that you come on strong?

dtb- www.deadoraliveinfo.com

New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

And people wonder why I love you...

New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

Has anybody picked up _______? If not, I want _______.

ETA: Reading the rules would be a good thing for me to do occasionally.

New and Improved Celebrity Death Pool 2005
 

did you see the word "Celebrity" there in the heading? Now if the person was famous before commiting his/her (oh, let's face it, it will be a "his") heinous crime, like Robert Blake, for example, then he is pickable. Being a bad guy alone is not enough to make you a "Celebrity".

Reminder
 

Get me your picks this week if you want ot participate in Celebrity Death Pool 2005. 9 participants so far.

When the lists are posted, I want the record to note that I initially nominated "The Separation of Church and State" but got negged by ncs.

Of course. That already died last year. So you would have been cheating.

Your 2005 Celebrity Death Pool Picks
 

tm diva
1. Karl Malden
2. Kirk Douglas
3. Gerald Ford
4. Lady Bird Johnson
5. Pope John Paul II
6. Jerry Lewis
7. Brooke Astor
8. Rosa Parks
9. Charlton Heston
10. Billy Graham

AdL
1 - Fidel Castro
2 - Pope JP II
3 - Mick Jagger
4 - Kirk Douglas
5 - Nancy Reagan
6 - Nelson Mandela
7 - Peter Gabriel
8 - Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9 - Ron Artest
10 - William Rehnquist

Aloha
1. Pope John Paul II
2. Mike Tyson
3. Margaret Thatcher
4. Courtney Love
5. Gerald Ford (bonus -- he will be eaten by wolves)
6. Boris Yeltsin
7. Andy Dick
8. Robert Blake
9. Viktor Yushchenko (Ukraine presidential candidate)
10. Mickey Rooney

Dave
1. Joan Rivers
2. Phyllis Diller
3. Dick Clark
4. Rosa Parks
5. Larry Flynt
6. Ron Jeremy
7. John Wayne Bobbitt
8. Heidi Fleiss
9. Danny Bonaduce
10. Jason Giambi

b_n_b
1. Pope John Paul II
2. Abe Vigoda
3. Gerald Ford
4. Lady Bird Johnson
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Chief Justice William Rehnquist
7. Dick Clark
8. Karl Malden
9. Richard Pryor
10. Adam West

Flinty
1. Darryl Strawberry
2. Kirk Douglas
3. Ingmar Bergman
4. Marion Suge Knight
5. Pat Robertson
6. Charles "Cold Dead Hands" Heston
7. Yoko Ono
8. Lady Bird Johnson
9. John "Lavin didn't kill me" Wooden
10. Lindsay Lohan

Diane Keaton
1. Elizabeth Taylor
2. Gene Wilder
3. HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
4. Soupy Sales
5. Don Rickles
6. Stephen Hawking
7. Nelson Mandela
8. John Travolta
9. Mahmoud al-Zahar
(Hamas co-founder & spokesman)
10. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf

dtb
1. The Pope
2. Gerald Ford
3. Lady Bird Johnson
4. Rosa Parks
5. Gen. Pinochet
6. Kirk Douglas
7. Kurt Waldheim (fingers crossed!!)
8. Richard Pryor
9. Ingmar Bergman
10. Elizabeth Taylor

Hank [same as last year]
1. Kirk Douglas
2. Tony Bennett
3. Al Lewis
4. Abe Vigoda
5. Nanette Fabray
6. Pauline Phillips (retired Dear Abby)
7. Jack Lalane
8. Kurt Vonnegut
9. Bob Feller
10. Dennis Rodman

spookyfish
1. Pope John Paul II
2. Zsa Zsa Gabor
3. Phyllis Diller
4. Mel Brooks
5. Bob Barker
6. Phil Rizzuto
7. Hal Holbrook
8. Margaret Thatcher
9. Fidel Castro
10. Studs Terkel

barely_legal
1) Pope John Paul II
2) Margaret Thatcher
3) Charlton Heston
4) William Rehnquist
5) Max Schmeling
6) Tammy Faye
7) Richard Pryor
8) Rosa Parks
9) Liz Taylor
10) Ian Paisley (Irish Reverend and politician)

NFH
1. Rehnquist
2. Louie Anderson
3. Wilford Brimley
4. Liz Taylor
5. Tammy Faye Messner
6. Don Knotts
7. Phyllis Diller
8. Charlton Heston
9. Marty Allen
10. Dom DeLuise

Mmm Burger
1. Pope John Paul II
2. Hal Holbrook
3. Richard Pryor
4. Gerald Ford
5. Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali
6. William F. Buckley
7. Walter Cronkite
8. William Rehnquist
9. John Wooden
10. Jason Giambi

Atticus
1. Red Buttons
2. Pope John Paul II
3. Studs Terkel
4. Gerald Ford
5. Muhammad Ali
6. Simon Wiesenthal
7. Richard Pryor
8. Billy Graham
9. Max Schmeling
10. Brooke Astor

Fugee (aka Angel of Death)
1. Brooke Astor
2. Gloria Stuart
3. Kitty Carlisle Hart
4. Luise Ranier
5. Lady Bird Johnson
6. Max Schmeling
7. Vaclav Havel
8. Stephen Hawking
9. Fidel Castro
10.Eddie Albert

baltassoc
1. Simon Wiesenthal
2. Pope John Paul II
3. Billy Graham
4. Jerry Lewis
5. Kirk Douglas
6. Fidel Castro
7. Lady Bird Johnson
8. Ernest Borgnine
9. Dick Cheney
10. Charlton Heston

Mr Man
1. Pope John Paul II
2. CJ Rehnquist
3. Dick Clark
4. Simon Wiesenthal
5. Max Schmeling
6. Claude Levi-Strauss
7. General Pinochet
8. Byron Nelson
9. Joseph Barbera
10. Charles Lane

ncs
1. CJ Rehnquist
2. Dick Clark
3. Pope JP II
4. Walter Cronkite
5. Rosa Parks
6. Kirk Douglas
7. Lady Bird Johnson
8. Al Lewis
9. Karl Malden
10. Mary Kate Olsen

Jack Manfred [same as last year]
1. Wilford Brimley
2. Gerald Ford
3. Hal Holbrook
4. Lena Horne
5. Ann Jillian
6. Jerry Lewis
7. Sydney Pollack
8. Omar Sharif
9. Maureen Stapleton
10. Gavin Newsom

That's it! 19 players this year. Will any of Hank's (or Jack's) picks die? Will anyone be able to top Fugee's impressive 5 picks from the 2004 pool? Will there be a tie (which would force ncs to do math)?

Stick around.

Shirley Chisholm
 

First celebrity death of the new year?

This is a really sad one -- she was an amazing woman.

Bad Bookie
 

I overlooked the Jack Manfred PM declaring that he wanted to repick his 2004 picks for the 2005 pool. So I am editing my post with the official picks list to add Jack's picks. Good luck to all.

Fitness Celebrity John Basedow
 

Apparently a victim of the tsunami in Thailand.

Since he was not on anyone's list, it makes no difference whether the death is recorded in 2004 or 2005.

My deepest condolences to Paigow.