[sean connery]
The game is afoot!
[/sean connery]
Is this guy really a celebrity? If so, then I’ve screwed up as I knew about him but didn’t think he would pass the “celebrity test”, although I do not see anything in the rules that defines “celebrity”.
Shirley Chisholm, first black woman elected to Congress, died on Saturday. She wanted to be remembered as a woman with guts. I’m too young to remember, but from what I’ve read (presidencial bid in 1972), I’d have to say,
Yeah, Shirley, you go! RIP.
In the 2004 thread, before I had entered, I asked about what constitutes a celebrity. It boiled down to “would their death be noted by more than immediate family and friends/would it be newsworthy?” But several said no person on the list has ever been challenged based solely on the question of how “celebrated” they are.
Well, the fact that you knew about him lends credence to his standing as a celebrity.
I figure being a correspondent for the BBC by itself qualifies someone as a celebrity. Mr. Noble was this for sometime and reported numerous stories for the Beeb before he got sick. Since then, his stature has certainly risen in the world (or at least in Britain). I know what you mean though. There is no hard and fast rule about it. Somebody picked a golf caddy last year. Sounds iffy to me, but then again, I don’t know crap about golf so maybe he was really well-known in that culture.
The way I see it, a person is a celebrity if his death is reported on by the major press (e.g. AP, BBC, ABC, CBC, etc…). And I think it’s cheap to pick someone who is famous solely for being sick (though there is no rule against it). Since Noble had his BBC gig beforehand I figure he’s fair game. No one would argue the Sam Donaldson shouldn’t count (though I’ll bet few Brits are familiar with him). Strangely, I don’t think anyone picked him though - despite his well publicized struggle with brain cancer.
A person I passed on because he didn’t pass my “fame” test was Peter Chesterfield. He was a one-time actor who appeared on various TV shows in Britain including the EastEnders. His story is here. Simply put, I don’t think he ever had more than one appearance in any of the TV shows he was in and is famous only for being ill (well that and the whole hit-man thing). He’s 50 sure-fire points, but I thought that was just too cheap to count, though his death will probably be newsworthy in Britain.
Nobody picked either Chisholm or Matsui.
I felt that despite working for the BBC, he is only really known for his being sick. He is not a correspondent like Sam Donaldson - he is merely a writer for the BBC online service. I am British, use the BBC web site as my main source of news, and I had never heard of him until the BBC chose to run the diaries of his battle against cancer.
Anyway, no biggie either way.
Defining who is a celebrity and who isn’t it tough. I would never have thought of sporting personalities as celebrities because I don’t follow any sports (and try to avoid all mentions of them) and therefore I have zero name recognition of sporting personalities - but since pretty much all other people do consider them celebrities, I wouldn’t argue against it and I would expect each of us to accept the nominations of sporting celebs from other countries even though we’ve never heard of them. Therefore, the way I see it is that as long as someone can provide a link to an online newspaper obituary that tells you the person’s age at death, then that’s most of what you need to prove that they were a celebrity. This BBC guy you’re discussing is someone I’ve never heard of but it’s apparent that he has minor celebrity status in some circles and I feel that would pretty much qualify him. YMMV. If you do select a “minor” celebrity, then perhaps you should be prepared for the points to be challenged in the event of his/her death but I think most of us take a “Well, you had obviously heard of him/her” view.
It’s always possible that someday someone will abuse this and we’ll have to restrict entrants to people listed on Wikipedia/IMDB/… but until then I think most of us are prepared to take each other’s word for it, especially as you’ll probably be asked to provide a cite if they die.
I would like to point out something.
This thread is already 10 pages long and it is only January 3.
It is going to be a MONSTER by the summer.
By any chance of another Hamster Rebellion that sparked the Winter of Lost Content, has any one saved this thread to disc?
Also, it cannot be said enough our wonderful host for the Dead Pool 2005 is wonderful and he needs to change his user name to something I can remember, like Mr. Dead Pool Guy or ** Grimmie**. 
I am still working on typing all the submissions into a file on a disk. Can anyone give me advice on how to set up a free website? I want to eventually have everyone’s picks posted somewhere so that everyone can see them. Someone else did it last year and I think it’s my responsibility.
And by the way, I’m a chick! a girl! a skirt! a dame! a broad, see? Not a bloke. 
I could help out with that. Here’s a site that offers free hosting: hostrave.com. I’m not familiar with it, but it would probably suit with no ads, unmetered bandwidth and access to a mySQL database.
My list, IIRC had 6 or 7 picks of Iraqi VIPs.
:smack:
I have trouble with pronouns. From here on, everyone will be referred to as: Them/they/it. So as not to offend anyone, or, more importantly, put my big foot into my mouth.
Nobody picked Ali Al-Haidri.
Nobody picked Will Eisner.
Just popping in to express my amazement that, for the 3rd or 4th year in a row, I have somehow completely missed this thread until after January has started. @*%^# Rassin Frassin &%!@#@)#%^ Hostickle Pfeffer!!%@#$@%!! Freaking stupid deadlines! :mad: :mad: :mad:
Wow. And you do dead pools? I think I’m in love.
With a handle like a35362 I’m dissapointed in us for not knowing sooner. I, too, now have amorous feelings for your cyptic letter-numbers name…
Call me Mr. Zamboni, or just Your Highness. Really, though, you can refer to me as him, he, or his, or all three at once to muddle things a bit.
It’s only January 5th and we’ve had our first Iraqi authority casualty of the year (see above) and now our first rap-related death. Not that anyone picked AJ Abdallah.
What I need to find is an Iraqi, gangsta rapper who edits an anti-Putin newspaper.