Meanwhile in other dead guy news, John Barton the co-founder and director of the Royal Shakespeare Company has died.
The link doesn’t work for me. Does he still count?
Try this?
Former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner spies no more.
C’mon, you’re a 99er like me! You know full well that “all this on-and-on SDMB-style argument” is what we DO here, it’s what we live for! 
I’m guessing there was a smiley missing there, because basset hound finished a pretty close 3rd in 2017 with 303 points, and got the award for most corpses. The other two didn’t do badly either - GIGObuster finished 11th and Team Dirt was 18th.
Ahh, the ambulance chasers. Thanks. Smart move.
Jessica Falkholt dies, and there’s a ton of news articles about it, and her? Give them the points. If a non-celebrity dies in an accident there isn’t much written.
She’s a celebrity.
ETA: if you accept this statement as true, “If a non-celebrity dies in an accident there isn’t much written”, then its logical contrapositive is also true: if there are many articles written, then a celebrity has died.
QED
Perhaps rules 4 and 14 need revising:
**Rule 4: If you have any questions about who is or is not a celebrity, feel free to post to the thread or PM me. This is why we include 3 alternates, so if a pick is designated to be invalid, your first alternate will be elevated to your list.
Rule 14: Determination of who is a celebrity will remain a subjective matter, but generally defined as “the person has some known presence in the form of a Wikipedia Page and/or notoriety in the news or such” and their fame or celebrity cannot be based solely on their having a terminal illness". Sole possession of a Wikipedia page will not constitute “celebrity”. If questioned, the person who posted that individual may be required provide such evidence.
Questions may be raised about the appropriateness of a pick at any point after a list is posted, even after 1/1/18. Alternates picks play an important role, as “questionable” picks may be disqualified post-posting.**
First (minor) suggestion is to group those rules together since they address who is/not a celebrity. Further, I suggest revising the rules to give a deadline, say 15 Jan, for anyone to question a submitted name, and then another deadline, perhaps three days after questioning or 15 Jan, whichever is later, to make the final determination.
That gives at least 15 days for this community to review, question, and determine celebrity status of any name on anyone’s list. Hopefully before said person dies, but that may not be avoidable.
I call it the Jessica Falkholt corollary.
Actually no. Otherwise there would be no need for a rule stating that no one famous for being sick can be picked. If non- famous people who become sick or die never get an article written about them then there wouldn’t have been a need for the rule. QED
From all appearances this was a case of the media picking up on it because it was a horrificly tragic event and by the way one of them was a pretty young actress who was on a soap for a few episodes. It wasn’t “famous actress dies.”
Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen’s names were in hundreds of articles after their deaths on the set of the Twight Zone. They were both actors. By your logic that would make them celebrities.
Unfortunately that means some random poster will have to pour over every entry and research them. It may be the best solution but it’s not a good one. In the case random poster would see that this actress had a bunch of articles written about her. He would have to know to look to see that she didn’t have a wiki page before her accident. Who is going to do that?
Notice I haven’t brought up an objection to Spanky Manikan? Unless you speak Tagalog he is hardly a celebrity. But in his own country he was so by our rules he counts. We don’t have a huge Philippine readership so chances are anyone who picked him only knew him from articles saying he was sick. But the way we’ve played the game he counts.
It doesn’t mean that “some random poster will have to pour over every entry and research them“. It augments already existing rules by
- setting a deadline after which all names submitted are “celebrities”
- allowing for open review by everyone in the game
If a submitted name does not pass either test, it’s not a celebrity. Simple, teally, and we all have a chance to review. If we don’t review, oh well, that submittal is a celebrity, and we play on.
ETA: And about Spanky Manikan, the open review phase, if that submittal is questioned, allows the submitter to defend his/her submittal.
Open review does happen. Sometimes it goes on for a while. Last year, there was an ongoing discussion about Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and whether he was actually dead. Before that, last year or the year before, there was a tussle over a college basketball player and whether she warranted celebrity status, which happened after she died. The whole point of this board is argument and discussion – the deadline idea sounds wrong to me because it would stifle that.
Picks were made, a celebrity died, the pick was questioned, the Death Pool Maestro ruled “it’s a celebrity” based on the person having “some known presence in the form of… notoriety in the news or such”. Unless it is my own pick (in which case I would defer to Baker), I used the “how does it feel in my tummy” grading system (akin to international sporting judges in sports like figure skating or freestyle skiing), which is highly subjective, but quite consistent (just give it time).
Not sure what all the fuss is… notoriety in the news or such allows for a pretty wide definition of “celebrity” and we are not paying money or competing for a cash prize… if I recall, Rachm Qoch (in 2009) listed 13 political prisoners no one had ever heard of, but they were all in prison on a hunger strike… luckily, none died, thus, ending his reign…
It’s a game, and I think we are on equal level with the NFL in defining “exactly what is a catch”, so lets’ move on…
I wish RQ still played, even though he(?) was kicking our asses every year. It was fun to read his list at the beginning of the year, knowing those folks were near-certainly toast.
The man had a time machine. He was probably arrested…will be arrested…for violating some Universal Time Protocol.
Peter Wynegard, inspiration for Austin Powers, dead at 90.
He was also the inspiration for the Marvel supervillian Mastermind(Jason Wyngarde)
I remember that his picks pissed off a lot of people and may have led to some not playing the game anymore.
In this case it’s because the “notoriety in the news” came from the accident that ultimately killed her. But it’s your call I won’t bring it up again.
Alison Shearmur, producer on the “Hunger Games” and “Rogue One,” has died at 54 after a battle with lung cancer.
Actress Dorothy Malone-age 93.