I thought I was gonna goose-egg this year - then two in rapid succession - I’m hoping for a decent year now.
There are no rules for determining celebrity. From the OP:
The rule of thumb, however, is that the deceased generates a wire story when they
assume room temperature. The Chicken Ranch killer qualifies…
Cherry-popped! (And possibly uniquely.) I feel weird.
Nope. **Rico ** & **zoog ** also have Bill Walsh.
It was with a heavy heart that I report that one of the two legendary Irish singers on my list has passed away. Shane MacGowen is still alive and kicking, but Tommy Makem has heard the pipes, the pipes a-calling. From glen to glen. And down the mountainside. He was 74.
I was going to link to the story then thought, “Why bother? I’m sure no one picked him.” I should have know better.
I only had him as an alternate. I should have known better.
Oh come on. You only get credit for 13. Stop rubbing it in.
Holy crap! Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland (California) Post, was gunned down this morning. It appears to have been a deliberate hit.
Have we had any recent updates of the scores lately?
Rachm Qoch is in the lead, everyone else is a distant second.
How does that qualify as an “update”? Sky is blue, grass is green. 
Well damn, that one saddens me. I can’t count how many times my father took the family to see Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers at the Garden State Arts Center – their music was a staple around the house when I was a child.
Oh we’re off to Dublin, in the Green in the Green,
Where the helmets glisten in the sun,
And the tans they flew like lightning to
The rattle of a Thompson gun
Oh course, I had no idea whatsoever what any of it meant, but I loved singing it nonetheless.
Oh yeah, I had a question. Would Marvin Zindler count as a “death-pool type” celebrity?
I didn’t pick him either. i’m still a virgin, this year anyway.
Kathleen Woodiwiss a famous romance writer has died. I am sure no one had her.
No, but always glad to hear of another dead romance novelist.
Psst. Check posts #1017, 1018 and 1022.
Hal Fishman, who anchored TV news broadcasts in Los Angeles for 47 years, and also appeared in several movies including “Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles,” has died at age 75.
I was going to add him, but he was a last minute drop.