16 replies to this topic

[Estuarian Float]

I'm curious to hear the picks who everyone dropped from their lists at the last minute.

I almost included Hulk Hogan in my DDP because I've been hearing on the news that he's suicidal. Then before submitting my DDP, I checked his wiki one more time, and found that his attempted suicide was in 2007. I don't remember who I replaced him with though.

[Octopus of Odstock]

Ah, here's a good thread - one that we can put who we missed out on in print, not just randomly say it (I'm one of the worst for this, admitted) sometime later in the year;

Coming very close & just pipped at the last minute were:
Girjia Prasad Koirala
Geir H. Haarde
Les Leston
Annette Funicello
Chris Woodhead
R. Sargent Shriver/Evelyn Dall

Haarde missed out as the news about him was not brilliant, but he is still meeting dignataries. Leston missed out because I got burnt by Arundell's lack of an obit & thought Wynne might be a beteer proposition. Woodhead missed out as I think he'll more likely go in 2011. Shriver & Dall missed out as I didnt want to put another dementia-riddled nonagenarian after Shamir & Wisdom in the top 20.

Funicello I think I left out by accident, but I'll live with it & Koirala... just didn't fancy it as much as someone scummy like Mears, Nielson etc.

[time]

I almost went with Rohan Kanhai, but then decided I had too many cricketers... can't remember which celeb I put in instead though. Maybe Ray Alan.

[Magere Hein]

Here are a few of the candidates I dismissed, mostly because I couldn't find much health-related news on them:

• Mikhail Gorbachev
  
• Simon van der Meer
  
• Vasily Smyslov
  
• Friðrik Ólafsson

regards,
Hein

[Handrejka]

Bob Block
Walter Scheel
Ilse Aichinger
Oswald Morris
Jovanka Broz

I know there were more but can't remember now

[Canadian Paul]

I like this thread too:

Ethan Zohn (originally my joker, but he was declared cancer-free)
Lisa Ray (seems like she may be alive 25 years from now)
Laurent Fignon (tumors regressed by 17%, even if not cured he might make it to 2011)
Jose Alencar (Cancer stable at the moment, and he seems tough enough to last another year)
Jenn Lyon
Moe Benoit
Jim Stynes
Paul Quarrington
Nick Charles (all unlikely to get obits + not sure how sick Quarrington actually is)
John Shelton Wilder (indeed died, but no UK obit as expected)

I'm currently wondering if William Tenn, who I did pick, will get an obit, but I think he should get a mention somewhere...

[DevonDeathTrip]

Margaret Moth - Camerawoman. I agonised over including her or not for ages - at least three or four minutes - and decided she probably wouldn't get an obit. She was going to be my secret, unique and young pick, but I had to let her go. (For some reason I'm getting that awful Barry Manilow song in my head now ..."You made me so happy, oh Margaret / Well you came and you gave without taking / but I sent you away, oh Margaret" )

Bishop Richard Williamson - He seems to be awfully busy for a man who is supposed to be dying of cancer.

Alex Higgins - I managed to convince myself that just because he looks like death warmed up, that doesn't actually mean he really is going to die this year. He is the illest looking man in Christendom IMO.

[themaninblack]

DevonDeathTrip, on Jan 4 2010, 07:52 PM, said:

Margaret Moth - Camerawoman. I agonised over including her or not for ages - at least three or four minutes - and decided she probably wouldn't get an obit. She was going to be my secret, unique and young pick, but I had to let her go. (For some reason I'm getting that awful Barry Manilow song in my head now ..."You made me so happy, oh Margaret / Well you came and you gave without taking / but I sent you away, oh Margaret" )

Bishop Richard Williamson - He seems to be awfully busy for a man who is supposed to be dying of cancer.

Alex Higgins - I managed to convince myself that just because he looks like death warmed up, that doesn't actually mean he really is going to die this year. He is the illest looking man in Christendom IMO.

She's no unique pick, Or at least she could be for someone else, DDT...

[Estuarian Float]

There was another who I cut at the last minute. His name is Donald Wildmon. I was sure if I picked him that he would be a unique, and now I find a team on the DDP named 'Carne and Sarne, Plus Eighteen' who picked him. That was a surprise.

[Spade_Cooley]

DJ Too Tuff. I went back and forth on whether to have him in my team as captain or not at all, but erred on the side of caution. If Roc Raida's death didn't even make the Guardian music section, then it's probably safe to say that the bar for UK obituaries for mid-range hip-hop DJs is pretty high.

[CarolAnn]

I cut my whole list.

[Estuarian Float]

Just remembered this old thread of mine. Now if I could remember who I cut in the last days last December...


One person I had written down as one of my very few "definitelies" was Derryn Hinch. It wasnt until hours before deadline that I dug a little deeper and found out he had a liver transplant and successful recovery. Got lucky with that one..

I kind of wanted to pick Robert Dennerly because he seemed like a surefire hit. But I dont really know what Argyle is.. so I worried on the obit part.

I tried desperately to fit Guy Innes-Ker on my team. Unfortunately I didnt know that he would be a good replacement for either Norman Spinrad OR Nile Rodgers, so my tough choice between him and Superstar Billy got him left out. Hoping I dont regret that.

And the one I most regretfully left out, Joe Paterno. An easy 6 points, but I left him off my list in pursuit of bigger points with younger picks. I got greedy there.

[angryGreatness]

I also dropped JoePa in favor of more likely and younger picks. I managed to put him on my theme team though.

I also dropped Jim Stynes (Figured he'd live a bit longer), Gregory Powell (Too obscure), James Murphy (Tumor is benign), and a couple others I can't remember.

Wish I kept JoePa and Stynes on, especially since Russell Means is cancer-free.

[the_engineer]

al megrahi
etta james
courtney love

I dropped these three for:

ric flair
michael le vell
michael barrymore

I didn't realise how ill etta was and also I think al megrahi will last a couple of years yet . Courtney love was a similar gamble to michael barrymore drug induced or suicide .Ric flair im pretty sure he will die in the ring his face is bright purple.

[CaptainChorizo]

I dropped Russell Means when I saw on his wikipedia page that he is now cancer free.
I dropped Gary Carter thinking he might not get a UK Obit.


I added Penny Marshall entirely based on a National Enquirer article in Oct saying she has only months to live. They were the ones initially to stand by the story of her having cancer when her publicists denied so I guess I am putting my points in the hands of the credibilty of a tabloid paper.
Then I went back and forth on Scott Hall the last week of December then decided to stick with that pick cause I think he will end up the big name wrestler who goes this year.

[Octopus of Odstock]

I felt Carter wouldn't get a UK obit so he never really made the final cut.

The 5 that missed out were Geoffrey Hughes, Reg Pressley, President Sanha of G-Bissau, Adolfo Suarez and James Garner. Sanha was a stupid miss really, but I read that he was "recovering". Hughes is making a recovery from cancer, Pressley seemed over the worst of his immediate illness, Suarez for no other reason that I had 20 people already in there.

The likes of Stynes et. al, I just thought they wouldn't get an obit either. That's why I'm in mid-table.

[Phantom]

I cut Frank Carson, Bob Holness and Earl Scruggs because I mislaid my list so I forgot all about them.
Well to be honest I have about 3 or 4 lists that I need to go through and take out the duplicates

Although some changes I did make
dropped
Pierre Cardin
Harlan Ellison

for
Vidal Sassoon
Anita Eckberg