The Rules:
For each person on your list that dies, you get 100 points. No points will be awarded nor taken away for anyone that doesn't die.
Each person who dies gets an additional point for every year younger than 75 years old. Similarly, for every year older 75 years old, you will be docked one point. So if a 50-year old dies, you would add 25 points, and if a 90-year-old dies, you would take off 15 points.
If your pick has a terminal illness or is in otherwise grave health as reported by the trustworthy world media as of the time of your pick, you lose 50 points. Fidel Castro, for example, would count for 50 points, since it is widely reported (and accepted) that he has terminal cancer. Someone like Terry Schiavo would be another example of someone who would cost you 50 points. Cases such as known heart disease will not count against you (e.g.: Dick Cheney)
To keep people from all picking the same people, you will be penalized 5 points for someone on your list appearing on another list. For example, if you and 6 other people pick, say, Adam Sandler, you would get 25 points deducted from your would-have been score.
And here are my picks. I have until 12:01 on Jan.1 to change them, if anyone has any ideas. I've mixed it up with some young (Whitney Houston) and old (Brooke Astor). Also, while I know there is a bit of a sick aspect to this game, it really pains me to put some of them on the list. I think Aretha is the greatest singer of the 20th century and that Joni Mitchell has written some of the best songs of the last fifty years.
My Picks
1. Farrah Fawcett
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Estelle Getty
4. Ladybird Johnson
5. Whitney Houston
6. John Goodman
7. Joni Mitchell
8. Harold Pinter
9. Jack Kervorkian
10. Elizabeth Taylor
11. Billy Graham
12. Brooke Astor
13. Dick Clarke
14. John Forsythe
15. Zsa Zsa Gabor
My Explanation
Fawcett has cancer. Franklin and Mitchell are fairly young, but both smoke like chimneys and Franklin is fat. Goodman is obese. Houston is messed up and could screw up. Pinter has cancer. So does Kervorkian. Taylor needs no explanation. Both Getty and Graham have Parkinson's. Astor is 104. Clarke looks pretty bad. Forsythe and Gabor have been sick.
Syria From The Outside
-
Jenna Krajeski looks at how the Syrian conflict has bled into Turkey: It
has cost Turkey seven hundred and fifty million dollars to host the
[Syrian] refug...
2 minutes ago
14 comments:
Honestly, I would pick Bobby Brown over Whitney Houston. She filed for divorce, and he doesn't do much by himself except get into trouble. Also, what about that british guy that kate moss was dating? He looks like a train wreck waiting to happen.
Walter Cronkite...Keith Richards...Nicole Richie...Jean Stapleton...comedian Artie Lange...Snoop Dogg...Rupert Murdoch...Stephen King...Larry King...
Just a few suggestions.
Well, you picked all the good ones..The thing that makes me cry is all the sex symbols that allowed me to survive puberty that are old and near death..Where does that put me?..Where is my Farrah poster?
Anyone knows the health status of Sofia Loren and Brigitte Bardot?
On second thought,I dont want to know!
Hmmm - these are good, but you might want to toss in Ricardo Montalban, Walter Cronkite, Phyllis Diller, Mickey Rooney and Lena Horne to cover your bases. I'd add Art Rooney and Mike Wallace, but I think they're too curmudgeonly to die.
Gee. What a fun game. The cliche is that celebrities always die in threes - James Brown, Gerald Ford, and soon-to-be-executed Saddam. But, I don't have any suggestions on who might be next.
you people are all sick! Could this be more insensitive? How can I be the only one offended by this? (and Epiph, and I mean this in the best light, surprised that it would be you doing this!)
ZC:
It's all in fun, because the only thing we can do about death is laugh it off. But, I do understand how someone could be offended. You need a bit of a dark sense of humor... which I do. My favorite movie isn't Heathers for nothing!
actually, I'm okay not having a dark sense of humor (except at work; as a social worker you can't survivie if you can't laugh about painful things). But I respectfully disagree about *laughing it off* being the only thing you can do about death.
Interesting to see this side of you tho :)
I'm disappointed, too, that you play the celebrity death game, that you put money on people dying who are real people to me and the people who love them, people for whom I'll cry when they do die...but I love ya anyway. Happy New Year and let's hope nobody is voting on your demise in 2007.
I don't put any money on it, nor do I cheer it - in fact, I'd be pretty upset if many of those on my list pass. I've always had a pretty dark sense of humor, and been fairly obsessive about death, so it shouldn't be a surprise to any reader here.
But, to each his own... I think it's pretty silly that you're disappointed.
Leave Joni Mitchell alone! Don't wish death on her. Put Maggie Thatcher on your list instead ;-)
I love Joni Mitchell; she's in my top ten or fifteen favorite singer/songwriters of all time. But, I find her silence in recent years strange, and you know she's a chain smoker. :)
I thought about Thatcher, she's a good pick, but so many people chose her that I wouldn't get much of an advantage there.
well Einstein, she is quite vocal as of September 2007. I'd say Joni is one of those longevity to 100 years of age with a 4.5 pack per day habit.
The reason some find this game offensive is that they have been conditioned to value human life so greatly, especially in comparison to animals. We never mourn for the cows we eat when we stop at Burger King, or the turkey on thanksgiving. Humans are animals, and are of equal importance. We will all die, and we are all in the process of dying as our hearts beat.
Anyway, I've added Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Moore, Rob Reiner, Robin Williams, and Osama Bin Laden. With some luck, these and more shall perish!
Post a Comment