Thanks for the clarification, amarone.
I want to open the floor for a new rule proposal.
During the period that nominations are open, do not announce non-death
related health news of a celebrity within the thread of the new game. This
rule should not be interpreted to bar players discussing their own picks.
This rule came about because I happened to see the news concerning Theresa Heinz Kerry announcing she has cancer, and I modified my picks to suit. Another player subsequently came along and announced the same news in the new game thread not once, but twice, blowing any chance I might have a unique one.
If you see that Arnold Schwarznegger announce he has Grade 4 cancer and absolutely have to discuss it, the place to do so is in the current game, not the new one. If you’ve seen the news bit, you can rest assured another player has also, and probably played them already.
Discuss.
Mmm, I don’t know, information is information. Whether you get it from the old thread or the new thread doesn’t really seem that important. I feel that the proposed rule is unnecessarily limiting.
Considering you posted your revised list on 12/23, I don’t think it matters who broke the actual news - I learned about the reports of Ms. Heinz Kerry’s breast cancer by Googling her, when I was surprised to see her added to someone’s list.
Posting a name to the current thread is enough to spoil your shot for a unique pick. If you’re not willing to risk that, wait til the 31st. (So says, the guy who had a unique pick of Shirley Temple Black until people saw her name in my list for 2009.) Trying to get people to control news about celebrity health is going to be a mug’s game, when you consider that for most people putting a name on their list is, in itself, often an indication that there’s reason to believe someone is in ill health.
I don’t know, VunderBob. I know where you’re coming from and understand why you’re proposing it, but to me it just seems to fall under “Them’s the breaks”.
Are you serious? I had reserved a spot on my 2009 list for Shirley Temple Black since I read that she broke her arm on her 80th birthday in April 2008.
I can’t claim that everyone used my nomination of her to bring her to mind. But if you look at last year’s thread, I do believe I was the first person to mention her. 
I was very pleased to have a unique pick, actually.
STB comes up most years. It was never going to last 
That’s why the matter is open for discussion. My jaundiced view says it’s common courtesy to keep this under your hat, and a rule shouldn’t be necessary. Maybe a caution is in order, not a hard and fast rule.
I would prefer it if people did not post such news, but don’t see that we can make it a rule. What would the penalty be for transgression?
It would not be accurate to assume that all subsequent picks were copycats though. My list was completed weeks ago, and had many unique picks at that time, but not when I posted it last night. I didn’t copy any one’s list.
I disagree. NOTHING is too tasteless for this game. Or possibly nothing is too tasteless for me, but I digress…
Won’t anyone think of the poor celebrity children dying pointless deaths? I just heard of a genuine 11 year old celebrity-in-her-own-right dying of cancer 89 missed points! That one pick could have catapulted someone from zero into the top ten.
We should give meaning and value to the deaths of celebrity children. You can bet there’s some other Death Pool out there doing it, and profiting from dead kitties and puppies too!
Now, come on. I think we can draw the age line at 18.
I also like the “no political hostages” rule.
As we say, “we’re macabre, but not THAT macabre.”
Now I’m confused. Is it too tasteless? Or too macabre?
Besides, eliminating childhood diseases adds a bit of challenge to it. I know the Lion King Girl had an adult form of cancer, but most kids dying die from childhood diseases, which takes some of the sport out it.
18 seems reasonable.
Now I’m REALLY confused. Which disease kills a child makes it more, or less, sporting?
It’s the George Clooney Rule: We may be bastards, but we’re not fucking bastards.