Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

As we head into our seventh big year of Lawtalkers death pools, once again I post the rules for all who wish to enter:

(Same rules as last year. And the year before. And I think the year before that, though I'm not sure when the Hank Chinaski tie-breaker rule was added on.)

*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 a celebrity. 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 (unless they were famous prior to committing their special crime -- the OJ/Saddam Hussein exception), Michael Jackson's accuser, etc. do not qualify.

*All picks should be submitted to me by December 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

*Death Pool will begin on January 1, 2011 at 12:01 a.m. EST. Pool will close December 31, 2011 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 the Hank Chinaski tiebreaker, which 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 (though if on your 2009 pool list, they wil count in that pool).

*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 2011. Boasting is always fun!

*Person (or people) with the fewest hits during the year will grab the Angel of Mercy title.

*In case you care, here is the rundown of winners of prior Celebrity Death Pools:

2004 - Fugee
2005 - barely_legal
2006 - Mr. Man
2007 - tmdiva
2008 - tmdiva
2009 - barely_legal
2010 - ?? Diane Keaton holds the lead in a tiebreaker with ncs and Jack Manfred

*Have fun and good luck!

your faithful deathpooltrix,
ncs

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Don't forget to get your picks in to me this week!! Just a friendly reminder.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

I think I'm due some angel of mercy cred for the last few years.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Me too. I think celebs should pay me to put them on my list because it ups the odds of them sticking around for another year. :rolleyes:

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

You see, you and I are NICE people.

Picks!
 

After a disappointing day at the Rose Bowl, I give you your 2011 death pool picks...

Greedy, Greedy, Greedy
1. Billy Graham
2. Harry Morgan
3. Sargent Shriver
4. Dick Clark
5. Kim Jong-Il
6. Queen Elizabeth
7. Pete Seeger
8. Ravi Shankar
9. Olivia de Haviland
10. Fidel Castro

Adder
1. Keith Richards
2. Mick Jagger
3. Lindsay Lohan
4. Amy Winehouse
5. Mischa Barton
6. Michael Douglas
7. Kirk Douglas
8. Aretha Franklin
9. Zsa Zsa Gabor
10. Jerry Lewis

Hank Chinaski
1. Kirk Douglas
2. Tony Bennett
3. Carol channing
4. Abe Vigoda
5. Betty Ford
6. David Crosby
7. Jack Lalane
8. Peter O'Toole
9. Fidel Castro
10. Billy Graham

Gattigap
1. Betty Ford
2. Michael Douglas
3. Mickey Rooney
4. Billy Graham
5. Zsa Zsa Gabor
6. Fidel Castro
7. Ray Bradbury
8. Margaret Thatcher
9. Angela Lansbury
10. Jerry Lewis

bold_n_brazen
1. Abe Vigoda
2. Kirk Douglas
3. Zsa Zsa Gabor
4. Monty Hall
5. Dick Clark
6. Harry Morgan
7. Bob Barker
8. Billy Graham
9. Mohammed Ali
10. Judge Joseph Wapner

barely_legal Angel of Death 2005, 2009
1. Oscar Niemeyer
2. Billy Graham
3. Fidel Castro
4. Kim Jong Il
5. Margaret Thatcher
6. Michael Douglas
7. John Daly
8. Robert Mugabe
9. Betty Ford
10. Ariel Sharon

Jack Manfred
1. Rev. Billy Graham
2. Olivia DeHavilland
3. Liza Minelli
4. Mickey Rooney
5. Betty Ford
6. Zsa Zsa Gabor
7. Ravi Shankar
8. Eli Wallach
9. Phyllis Diller
10. Pete Seeger

learnedmano
1. Artie Lange
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Dolores Hope
4. Fidel Castro
5. Zsa Zsa Gabor
6. Jack Klugman
7. Ernest Borgnine
8. Phyllis Diller
9. Mike Wallace
10. Lindsay Lohan

tmdiva Angel of Death 2007, 2008
1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Billy Graham
3. Ariel Sharon
4. Zsa Zsa Gabor
5. Nancy Reagan
6. Kim Jong Il
7. Prince Philip
8. Seve Ballesteros
9. Aretha Franklin
10. Michael Douglas

LessinSF
1. Fidel Castro
2. Yitzhak Shamir
3. David Hasselhof
4. Billy Graham
5. John Demanjuk
6. Ariel Sharon
7. Sun Myung Moon
8. Louis Farrakan
9. Nancy Reagan
10. Kim Jong Il

Miss Maine
1. Fidel Castro
2. Kim Jong-Il
3. Bob Barker
4. Mohammid Ali
5. Nancy Reagan
6. Elizabeth Taylor
7. Zsa Zsa Gabor
8. Ariel Sharon
9. Betty Ford
10. Delores Hope

Flinty_McFlint
1. Lindsay Lohan
2. Kirk Douglas
3. Fidel Castro
4. Kim Jong-il
5. Pat Robertson
6. Steve Jobs
7. Mindy McCready
8. Dick Clark
9. Michael Douglas
10. Amy Winehouse

SlaveNoMore
1. Kirk Douglas
2. Zsa Zsa Gabor
3. Fidel Castro
4. Kim Jong-Il
5. Eli Wallach
6. Betty Ford
7. Nelson Mandela
8. Margaret Thatcher
9. Jack Klugman
10. Jake LaMotta

Diane_Keaton Angel of Death 2010
1. Louis Farrakhan - former leader of the Nation of Islam
2. Prime Minster of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning
3. Fidel Castro
4. Former Jamaica Prime Minister, Edward Philip George Seaga
5. Haji Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub – former Chief Minister and former Governor of Sarawak, a state in Malaysia.
6. Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf
7. Ariel Sharon
8. Hamas Chief, Mahmoud al-Zahar
9. Osama Bin Laden
10. Peter O'Toole

Fugee Angel of Death 2004
1. Zsa Zsa Gabor
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Dolores Hope
4. Oscar Niemeyer
5. Stephen Hawking
6. Harmon Killebrew (baseball Hall of Famer)
7. Elizabeth Taylor
8. Muhammed Ali
9. Jeff Conaway
10. Roger Ebert


Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Kim Jong-Il
3. Fidel Castro
4. Seve Ballesteros
5. Zsa Zsa Gabor
6. Billy Graham
7. John Demjanjuk
8. Nancy Reagan
9. Michael Douglas
10. Kirk Douglas

Atticus Grinch
1. Dick Clark
2. Nelson Mandela
3. Nancy Reagan
4. Kim Jong Il
5. Jack Lalane
6. Betty Ford
7. Pope Benedict
8. Shirley Temple Black
9. Fidel Castro
10. Billy Graham

Mr. Man Angel of Death 2006
1. Fidel Castro
2. Kirk Douglas
3. Michael Douglas
4. Billy Graham
5. Jack Kevorkian
6. Oscar Niemeyer
7. Seve Ballasteros
8. Harry Morgan
9. Nelson Mandela
10. BB King

notcasesensitive
1. Seve Ballasteros
2. Fidel Castro
3. Kirk Douglas
4. Michael Douglas
5. Aretha Franklin
6. Zsa Zsa Gabor
7. Stephen Hawking
8. Nelson Mandela
9. Sargent Shriver
10. Ariel Sharon

19 entrants. Good luck everyone and happy celebrity death watching!!

Re: Picks!
 

Peter O'Toole cracks me up

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Burger and I share 7 picks. Would have been 8 if I hadn't dropped Fidel Castro (he looked pretty darn healthy the last time he made an appearance; I'll be mad if he kicks it this year).

tm

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

burger copied 8 of your picks; he doesn't share them. I vote we kick him out. Thoughts?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Well, I just checked, and we had 8 in common last year. John Wooden died, and we both replaced him with Michael Douglas. I dropped Fidel Castro, and he didn't. Maybe great minds just think alike? Although I just looked back to 2009, and there is considerably less overlap there. Huh.

tm

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

I dropped Ariel Sharon. I figured that when they moved him home it meant he was going to die immediately (which he didn't), but it turns out they put tons of money into renovating his house so he could live comfortably there. Bad investment?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

The victim of theft surely should be able to have her feelings known as to punishment, but society as a whole is harmed by the presence of the thief and the victim does not have absolute power to forgive. Here the copying taints the entire game.

I vote we sanction burger by being banned for 1 year, then let him back in only with picks that no one else has made the prior year.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

How do we deal with Ty on PB? He lifts all his posts from spurious blogs....WTF?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Why do you assume I'm the one copying?

Why are you bothering to persist in this humorless detour?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Rss ipsa....., no?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

First celebrity death of the year and none of us had him.

Pete Postlethwaite

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

zsa zsa is in trouble

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Sigh. And she could have won me my first title last year. Now everybody has her. Why, Zsa, why?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Anne Francis was there in silver underwear....

http://www.philly.com/philly/enterta...sdiesat80.html


.... but now she's dead.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

I guess that's how this year is going to go.

I had her on my 2010 list but took her off. :( I'm sure whoever I added in her place will be hale and hearty through all of 2011.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Query: If someone dies in 2010, but the Obit doesn't get published in the NYTimes until 2011, what year does it count for?:confused::confused:

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Depends. Are they claiming to be estate-tax free?

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Diane Keaton picked the wrong Pakistani official but maybe just a provincial governor wouldn't qualify as a celebrity.

Salman Taseer

Gerry Rafferty
 

Dead at 63. Just one more year and he'd have been happy.

Re: Gerry Rafferty
 

Sad. I continue to hold that mankind has yet to invent an activity, pleasant or unpleasant, that isn't improved by doing it with "Baker Street" on the headphones. And I include deity fisting with twee, ironic and vaguely boyish YouTube novelty vocalists.

Re: Gerry Rafferty
 

I've been listening to the background music. It's quite good. And impresses the irl friends that I know the guitar guy.

Re: Gerry Rafferty
 

I was listening to RadioDisney this morning, in order to stay in touch with my younger fans, and noticed that between songs and as background they play Too Short's "Blow the Whistle". I think that is good background muzak, which I may co-opt for my office.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Remarkably, NCS let me pick a provincial governor in Malaysia for one of my 2011 pick. I believe she has grown fond of me over the years.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

I thought Flash Gordon was there in those (and Claude Rains was the invisible man?)

Re: Picks!
 

He fits in though.
http://theland.antgear.com/peter_otoole.jpg

First dead blackbirds in Arkansas....
 

Now this...... [sniff]:(:(:(:(

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

That bastard Flinty has insider information. There needs to be an insider trading investigation in re Apple.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

I read this and I also read on MSNBC that Sargent Shriver is in a DC-area hospital with undisclosed ailments. He's been on my list for the last 5 years or so...

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

For years I sauna'd, on an almost daily basis, with one of his kids. I can try to dig up some inside scoop for you, if you'd like....:o

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Squicky.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Unless it was Maria.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

There is a banner up on TPM indicating Sgt Shriver has died.

How incredibly unusual. I've got one.

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Obit.

GGG and I are on the board with one hit. This also wraps up my Kennedy-Shriver trifecta (at one point I had Ted, Eunice and Sargent on my list all at the same time -- Ted and Eunice at least had the courtesy to die in the same year).

Re: Your 2011 Celebrity Death Pool! 7th Annual!
 

Right, thanks for my back on that one! :):):):D