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Date: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 12:37PM
It is with great sadness that we report the tyrannical despot, Deng Xiaoping has passed away.
The current standings are...
Date: 01 Mar 1997 18:18:22 -0600
The score is still
me 1 - yall 0
Tidbits:
Our feature story this month:
HUME CRONYN - ALIVE OR DEAD?
Conflicting reports have him alive/dead. Carol (obviously) thinks he's alive. So does Maureen. My friend Shelly is quite sure he's dead. His recent performance in Marvin's Room sheds no light on the subject.
Cyberinfo is in conflict:
The Internet Movie Database has him dead:
Biographical information for Hume Cronyn:
Date of Birth (location) 18 July 1911, London, Ontario, Canada
Date of death (details) 1995. (cancer)
Spouse Jessica Tandy (? - 1995) (her death)
Trivia Father of Tandy Cronyn.
Notable TV Guest Appearances "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955), as Fritz Oldham, ep. KillWith Kindness (10/21/1956)')
The Dead People Server has him alive:
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Therefor, I recant previously pronouncing him for sure dead. If he should die (again) this year, Carol will get credit.
Thats all for now!
Yours in other people's misery,
JG
Date: 30 Apr 1997 20:58:01 -0500
Subject: May 1st update
Jim.......1 Chris.....1 etc.......0
Congratulations to Chris who moves into a tie for the lead with his pick of Pat Paulsen. Apparently Chris' wife's friend's sister worked at a hospital last year that PP discretely checked into for radiation treatment. This is the kind of insider info that true deadclub afficionados ferret out before making their choices. Good Work!!
Around the horn:
And finally, Al weighs in with some thoughts on Hume Cronyn:
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Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 12:29:11 -0500 (EST)
From: Arscratch@aol.com
To: jaygee@primenet.com
Subject: hume, dead or alive?
this hume cronyn thing has been gnawing at me, so i finally got around to doing a little research in our library at the chicago sun-times. as far as i can tell, hume is ALIVE! in fact, his name comes up several times in our library database for january 1997. he plays "marvin" in the movie "marvin's room" (for which diane keaton was nominated for an oscar this year). roger ebert says he plays the "still-alive" granddad. also, he comes up in several stories from last april, in which he's engaged to some little tart. boy, jessica tandy's body isn't even cold in the grave and the humester's already playin' the field. most important, there are no obits on file for him at the sun-times, a sure-fire sign that he's still (barely) breathing.
hope this info helps.
alan r.
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THANKS ALOT!
Regards!
JG
Date: 01 Jun 1997 14:04:14 -0500
JG.......1 Chris....1 others...0
Lots of folks hanging tough especially James Earl Ray - God Bless Him, in his search for the REAL killers of Martin Luther King.
Matt George almost won the longshot award as Bob Dylan came down with a rare viral infection caused by exposure to airborne poultry feces particles, truly a chicken shit way to go:
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Bob Dylan has called off a European tour after being admitted to a hospital suffering from a potentially life-threatening infection, his publicists say. London media reports said the 56-year-old singer/songwriter was hospitalized in New York but a spokeswoman for Dylan said her office did not know where he was being treated or what his condition was. "This past weekend, Bob Dylan was admitted to hospital suffering from severe chest pains. His condition has been diagnosed as histoplasmosis, a potentially fatal infection which creates swelling in the sac which surrounds the heart," Dylan's London publicists said Wednesday. Dylan will remain in the hospital until his doctors are confident his condition has improved, they added. His New York publicists said they hoped he would be well enough to go through with a U.S. tour slated for August. The singer was due to perform in Ireland, Britain and Switzerland during the summer tour. Van Morrison, who was to appear with him in London June 7, said he would still perform. Dylan recently completed a swing through Canada and the Northeast and last appeared in Los Angeles earlier this month. He released his first album in 1962 and is considered the most influential songwriter of his generation, with such classics as "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Like a Rolling Stone," and "Tangled Up in Blue." Dr. David Pegues, an infectious disease expert at UCLA Medical Center, said histoplasmosis is caused by a fungus, which is extremely common in certain parts of the United States. "It's not unusual," he told Reuters. "If untreated, sure it could kill him ... but it's an eminently treatable and curable illness, and I'm sure Mr. Dylan has the best medical supervision." He said people in Dylan's case would be treated either orally or intravenously with a course of anti-virals, and would be out of action for a few weeks at least. In recent years, Dylan has looked haggard as he fulfilled a grueling touring regimen, and he rarely seemed animated while performing. However some friends reported that he was looking relatively chipper and had even given up smoking.
Have a nice month!
JG
Date: 02 Jul 1997 14:15:16 -0500
Greetings dead club enthusiasts,
The current standings:
Jim.......1 Chris.....1 etc.......0
Half a year has gone by and less than 2% of our population has kicked the bucket. Seems like being in our pool is giving a lot of celebs a new lease on life. Mother Theresa is giving speeches, the Pope is going on tour, and Bob Hope is playing 36 a day (admittedly from the short tees, but hey we'll grant him that).
Cason almost got one point when he THOUGHT he had put down Jacques Cousteau. (Sorry, you had Johnny Cash, different JC.) A complete list of the entries is reprinted at the end of this letter for those who've misplaced their copies. (Omitted from HTML version, see link.)
Also since the year is half over, it's high time to start preparing your lists for next year. JG has been compiling some great names like Brian Keith, Jacques Cousteau, Robert Mitchum and Mike Rokyo, but it seems as soon as I find out someone's sick, they die within the week. Brian Keith's suicide was the height of thoughtlessness; he surely coulda made it to Jan 1st, 1998.
Because of the high-degree of replication on open-pick lists, I'm contemplating holding a draft for next year -- that is once you pick someone, he's yours alone. This will eliminate those situations where Frank Sinatra dies, and everybody moves one step forward. Plus, it'll make for more interesting lists in that there will be a larger population of names. I'm interested in your thoughts on it. The draft is tentatively scheduled for Friday Dec 26th, noon Phoenix time. (Note: this has since changed to the evening, see 1998 info.) This is the day before Jane and I's wedding, so hopefully this will provide an opportunity to participate for those who might not have otherwise been aware of it or wouldn't have got around to it. The logistics will be worked out later, but those who are out of town that day (or everyday) will be able to participate via the internet or long-distance phone. If it is still impossible for someone to participate, I will write a program that solicits your top n picks and encrypts them, and as your turn comes up I will have it say the highest available pick. Because your picks might be getting completely wiped out, your list would have to be quite long. Theoretically, this could be done with no one else present, but I think a draft will be fun.
Yours in death,
Jim
Date: 02 Jul 1997 17:09:58 -0500
Mere minutes after I sent the update, I found out Jimmy Stewart had passed away. Standings:
Jim.......2 Chris.....2 Carol.....1 Jane......1 MattS.....1 Barry.....1 Maueen....1 etc.......0
Let's go folks, no one wants to be an etc. .
Date: 05 Aug 1997 19:31:04 -0500
Standings as of August 1st:
Jim.......2 Chris.....2 Carol.....1 Jane......1 MattS.....1 Barry.....1 Maueen....1 etc.......0
No change from last month.
JG sadly reports that all his top-secret preparations for next year have come unraveled. Ben Hogan, William Burroughs and Jeanne Calment all passed away in the last month leaving me back at square one for my new super-duper secret pick (I don't have one). It's never too soon to start doing your homework. Jane suggests that next year give some kind of handicap for those who can't surf the net and find out who's already dead. To that I say, tough toenails -- ya still got 5 months to prepare. Hope that clears up the confusion. I don't know this Jane person too well, but if you think you can go through life asking for favors because of YOUR lack of effort, let me tell you kiddo, you got a hard lesson to learn. And another thing...
Oh well, that's all for this month.
Peace!
JG
Date: 03 Sep 1997 15:23:57 -0500
Standings as of Sept 1st:
Jim.......2 Chris.....2 Carol.....1 Jane......1 MattS.....1 Barry.....1 Maueen....1 etc.......0
No change from last month.
No one of any consequence that I know of has died recently.
Matt G was threatening for a bit with his solo pick (WEB CORRECTION: Dennis had him too, poor guy) of Fidel Castro, but the Fidster popped up just yesterday chompin a cigar and saying that the rumors of the death of communism were greatly exaggerated. Jane Fonda got the first turboprop down to Havana and watched Brassed Off with him.
Thinking of expanding next year's lists to 20 or 25, thereby unnaturally extending the lifespans of still more celebrities. Perhaps I can get some kind of humanitarian citation.
Would everyone please do a reply to this email, so I can verify that all addresses are current? Thanks.
Til next month.. keep your feet on the ground and keep reachin for the remote.
JG
Date: 02 Oct 1997 13:37:48 -0500
Greetings all!
Current Standings:
Chris.....3 Jim.......3 MattS.....3 Carol.....2 Jane......2 Barry.....2 Maureen...2 Al........1 MattG.....1 Cason.....1 Deadbug...0 :(
Mother Teresa passed away at an inopportune time, resigned to an asterisk in death history. That's OK, _I_ stayed up to watch the funeral. This was good news for everyone in the pool (oops, almost everyone), as she was a consensus All-American. MattS moved into a tie for the lead with his singular pick of Burgess Meredith (WAAACK, WAAACK).
Dead pool picks BobbyD and JP2 decided to test the waters of deadpool fate by appearing together publicly last week. The pope didn't look too groovin' but did quote from a couple of Dylan tunes ("Lay Lady Lay," and "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" I believe it was) during his very abbreviated sermon. Anyway, you don't have to read too much between the lines for the pope's prognosis. Dylan closed the set with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
Momma, take this ring off a me, .....
Pax!
JG
Standings:
Chris 3 Jim 3 MattS 3 Barry 2 Carol 2 Jane 2 Maureen 2 Al 1 Cason 1 MattG 1 Dennis 0
Happy Halloween all you dead-lovin ghosts and goblins. (Or Happy Thanksgiving to all of you with AOL accounts). Nobody scored any stiffs this month despite the passing of John Denver (but not Bob Denver or Denver Pyle -- who is Denver Pyle you ask? you're obviously not doing your 98 research....), Johnny Vandermeer and James Michener (a little hint for 98 participants: if someone turns off their dialysis machine on Dec 25, that's a good pick).
Welcome to MattD, Allan&Mark and AaronL who thanx to word of mouth and the DeadPool's new WWW presence, will be playing with us next year!! Tell all your friends!
Once again, the URL for the dead club is:
(DELETED LINK)
After considerable thought, I have semi-finalized the format for next year's pool. I hope everyone re-ups for next year!! As always, feedback appreciated.
Without further ado:
Rules, Format and Prizes for the 98 Dead Pool
Clipped from HTML version, see (DELETED LINK).
JG
PS for reading this far.. Denver Pyle was Uncle Jesse on Dukes of Hazzard
Greetings!
Chris 3 Jim 3 MattS 3 Barry 2 Carol 2 Jane 2 Maureen 2 Al 1 Cason 1 MattG 1 Dennis 0
As this was my first year running this, I hadn't thought over the details for breaking ties prior to soliciting entries. (not so in 98) Personally, I think the best method would be to give the pot to the first stiff from next year's list, but as I failed to say so ahead of time, I will only do this if all tied participants agree to do so.
Welcome to newest member, Justy, who has already mailed in her picks and entry fee for the 1998 game. Way to be a go getter! Justy's entry will remained sealed until draft night. I'm taking her word that there's 20 bucks in there. Justy's promptness has also now spawned a new rule:
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The Stephane Grappelli rule (named after the jazz great who just passed on):
Persons preregistering via a mailed draft list shall not be penalized should one of their picks die before the draft.
********************
This is to remove potential roadblocks to participation, so I'm sure you all will agree with the beauty of this rule. I will merely cross the newly dead person off the entrant's list while running the draft. Old dead people will still cost you.
Needless to say, it's time to get those lists in order. To repeat,
the 1998 draft will be held
Dec 26, 1997 at 7:00 pm
at Tommy's Pizza 315 E Dunlap, Phoenix.
Everyone is invited! It'll be fun!
Players who will not be attending please mail me your lists!!!!!!
Jim Geary
(DELETED)
(DELETED)
I apparently raised some alarm when I mentioned 200 as a safe number of picks for your list. While I'm sure 200 would be enough, this number is way too high. I will bet anyone that I don't go past 45 on my list. Please don't let the fact that you have to come up with more than 15 names prevent you from joining the pool. I really want you all to participate! Out of towners please account for a little extra time to send in your list early due to that very busy mail week. If the last minute is approaching and you need to make alternative arrangements, contact me and we'll see what we can do.
Have a nice month everyone, and let's get readyyyyy to rumble.
JG
Hi!
The final results for 1997 are
Chris $37 MattS $37 JG $36
a 3-way tie for first with three stiffs each. Since I failed to specify a tiebreak, the money is being split three ways. That won't be the case in 98 where ties are broken by youngest stiff among tied participants.
The 1998 dead pool draft was a booming success. Combining it with the wedding rehearsal dinner brought in lots of new blood. We have 19 participants for 98 -- a prize fund of $380! For those of you who sent me checks months ago, I'll be cashing them next week.
Here are the lineups for the 1998 JG dead pool. Tom Martineau won the drawing of cocktail napkins and made Barry Goldwater the #1 pick. The rest of the lineups are listed in picking order, i.e. Ron got 2nd pick, etc until Amy and Jane picked Robert Downey Jr. and Marlon Brando with the 15th and 16th picks, thereby reversing the order for even numbered rounds.
The 1998 Head-in-the-Sand prize was unanimously awarded to MattG and Denny who combined wits to spend their 4th round pick on dead commy two-timer Francois Mitterand.
Last Modified 2/8/00