w/o counting the entries, post #240 in the current years ghoul pool was made at 6 pm on 12/26/08. there was a lull for a couple of days as post #243 was not made until 10 am on 12/28/08. It looks like the number of posts is on pace with last year.
BTW, dang you, Loach, you took my other secret stealth pick.
I don’t know how the number of entries stacks up to last year, but DP 2009 hit 241 posts at 7:46 PM on 12-26-2008, so posting wise, we are about a day behind.
But in terms of entries, we are about 15 behind. The pool was in the Games Room last year also, so I doubt the drop is caused by a move from MPSIMS. Still, I could put an ad in MPSIMS if the mods don’t mind.
Posting is down in general, I think – we had about a third fewer people in the Secret Santa this year compared to last, for instance. We really did lose a bunch of members during the Unpleasantness last spring. The stats-obsessed among you could go through the '09 list, see who hasn’t posted a list for '10, then check to see if those who are on the former but not the latter have been around in the last six months.
ETA: I’m happy to give you permission to post an announcement in MPSIMS, but I don’t think it will make a huge difference.
John Kerry’s spouse has cancer.
First time participant. Let’s see.
Ann “not a vampire at all” Coulter
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - I’m hoping for a single day double score
Bill Clinton - ex president
Daniel Dennett - philosopher
Gary Busey - on the basis that he looks like a junky and a nut job
Glen Beck - on the basis that he is an ‘ex’ junky and a nut job
Jan Peter Balkenende - Dutch prime minister
Jenson Button - F1 Champion
Patrick Moore - noted astronomer, xylophone player and radical
Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands
Richard “the hamster” Hammond - reckless driver and TV presenter
Sir David Attenborough - naturalist
plain list:
Ann Coulter
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Bill Clinton
Daniel Dennett
Gary Busey
Glen Beck
Jan Peter Balkenende
Jenson Button
Patrick Moore
Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands
Richard Hammond
David Attenborough
Alternates:
Eric Idle
David Hasselhoff
Bill O’Reilly
I’ll join in again this year, after skipping last year.
Here’s the un-numbered version
Amy Winehouse
Mary-Kate Olsen
Elizabeth Edwards
Tiger Woods
Lindsay Lohan
Billy Graham
Joaquin Phoenix
Fidel Castro
John Madden
Charlotte Rae
Steven Tyler
Glenn Beck
Dick Clark
In case of emergency, please substitute Pope Benedict XVI as an alternate.
I’ve lurked on this game for years now. Time to get in on the fun! Let’s see if any famous people around my age die this year…
Ben Affleck
Cameron Diaz
Carmen Electra
Denise Richards
Eminem
Claire Forlani
Geri Halliwell
Gwyneth Paltrow
Jennifer Garner
Jenny McCarthy
Jeremy London
Jude Law
Michael Chang
Alternates:
Wyclef Jean
Jennie Garth
Jonny Lee Miller
(I haven’t been keeping up…I hope none of them are already dead!)
What the heck, I’ll play. I’ve been dead-pooling for many years at sites that specialize in it, didn’t realize there was a game here until recently…TRM
Stephen Hawking
Roger Ebert
Peter Falk
Ernie Harwell
Dick Clark
Robert Byrd
Steve Jobs
Elizabeth Taylor
Ron Santo
Bryant Gumbel
Billy Graham
Amy Winehouse
Britney Spears
I really want to play but I just can’t shake the “bad karma” feeling. And after how shitty 2009 was for me, I really don’t need any more bad karma.
If John Madden isn’t on someone’s list already, I suggest adding him. Just have a feeling…
Fidel Castro
Dick Cheney
Roger Ebert
Elizabeth Edwards
Annette Funicello
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Billy Graham
Kim Jong-Il
Art Linkletter
Barack Obama
Fred Phelps
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Nancy Reagan
Alternates:
Muhammed Ali
Hugh Hefner
Margaret Thatcher
I don’t really keep up with these things, so for all I know, a few of these might already be dead . . . or should be.
Fidel Castro
Peter Falk
Ariel Sharon
Maggie Smith
Tariq Aziz
Bernie Madoff
Kim Jong Il
Jim Calhoun
Umaru Yar’Adua
Penn Jillette
Urban Meyer
John Mayer
Adam Lambert
Alternate
Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi
Fidel Castro, August 13, 1926
Peter Falk, September 16, 1927
Ariel Sharon, February 27, 1928
Maggie Smith, December 28, 1934
Tariq Aziz, April 28, 1936
Bernie Madoff, April 29, 1938
Kim Jong Il, February 16, 1941
Jim Calhoun, May 10, 1942 (UConn Men’s Basketball Coach)
Umaru Yar’Adua, July 9, 1951 (President of Nigeria)
Penn Jillette, March 5, 1955
Urban Meyer, July 10, 1964 (University of Florida football coach)
John Mayer, October 16, 1977
Adam Lambert, January 29, 1982
Alternate
Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, April 1, 1952 (Lockerbie Bomber)
Victoria Beckham
Chuck Berry
Sylvia Browne
Olivia DeHavilland
Fats Domino
Lola Falana
Annette Funicello
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Andy Griffith
David Hasselhoff
Jack Klugman
Pauline Phillips
Amy Winehouse
Alternates:
Joan Fontaine
Roger Ebert
Mary Tyler Moore
For checking out those famous alive people, who may be famous dead people, here are a couple of sites. Dead or Alive? and Who’s Alive and Who’s Dead Lots of overlap, but they mainly cover different areas.
There are sites that specialize in dead pools? I would Google them, but I would be depressed about how badly I would do at them. 
Courtney Love
Fidel Castro
Clint Eastwood
George W. Bush
Chuck Berry
Stephen King
Muhammed Ali
Bob Barker
Hugh Hefner
Norm McDonald
Steven Tyler
Nicole Ritchie
Andy Dick
Alternates:
J.D. Salinger
Britney Spears
Keith Richards
HM Queen Elizabeth II
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Kevin Rudd
Barack Obama
Gough Whitlam, former Australian PM
Baroness Thatcher
Hazel Hawke, former wife of Bob Hawke, former Australian PM
Dame Joan Sutherland
Angela Lansbury
Nicole Kidman
Mel Gibson
Fidel Castro
OJ Simpson
Bryant Gumbel
Ron Jeremy
George Wendt
Suge Knight
Wink Martindale
Burt Young
Roger Ebert
Omar Abdel-Rahman
Mike Tyson
David Hasselhoff
Kim Jong-Il
Gary Busey
Elizabeth Edwards
Alternates:
Steve Jobs
Paul Prudhomme
I had some carryover from last year, and a few spots to fill in from a whopping five deaths from last year, and a couple of replacements.
First time player, long time ghoul.
Louis Jourdan
Sidney Poitier
Don Rickles
Henry Kissinger
Robert Mugave
Eli Wallach
Harry Morgan
Stan Lee – of Marvel Comics fame
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Abe Vigoda – to die, to really die! That must be glorious!
Larry King
Bob Barker
Mel Brooks
Best of luck to all you stiffs!
You need to provide a list without commentary (names only) for Amarone to slurp into his database.
Alright, I’ve been giving it some thought, and I’m renouncing my leeching ways. Mostly because I don’t have a clue who Pat Burns, Kurt Angle,Vernon Baker or Connie Newton Needham are. So I’m going back to my losing … or possibly Nostrodamus like … ways of only picking relatively young and ostensibly fit celbrities. Going for the Holy Shit! factor.
In fact, I think I’ll use a method. Each celebrity will be born on the first of a month. All months will be represented. And a final 13th pick will just be a crazy, kooky, devil-may-care, jejuene, all bets are off, wild-card, random, I don’t even know what ‘jejuene’ means, off the top of my head, spontaneous, nutsy pick.
New list (with age they will be in 2010):
Jan 1: Verne Troyer (41), actor (there are no small roles, only small actors … heh heh)
Feb 1: Phil Ivey (34), professional poker player
Mar 1: Mark-Paul Gosselaar (36), actor, won’t be Saved by the Bell
Apr 1: Joe Francis, (37) professional ogler (Girls Gone Wild [for alcohol and weed])
May 1: Wes Welker (29), New England Patriot (football, not MinuteMen)
Jun 1: Alanis Morissette (36), singer, and wouldn’t *that *be ironic … don’t you think?
Jul 1: Forrest Griffin (31), UFC fighter and all around bad-ass.
Aug 1: Tempestt Bledsoe (37), ex-Cosby kid, current Taco Bell manager for all I know.
Sep 1: Scott Speedman (35), actor, who’ve I’ve never really heard of but there aren’t a lot of young famous people born on September 1st.
Oct 1: Zach Galifianakis(41), actor / piano playing comedian
Nov 1: Coco Crisp (31), baseball player with coolest name ever
Dec 1: Jared Fogle (33), ex-fat-guy, Subway shill.
And what the hell, for the wild card we may as well go for the big Holy Shit: Barack Hussein Obama (49), politician.
If I hit all of these, I will score 830 points! Top that!
Clean list to follow…