Christmas is just around the corner, which means there’s only one week left to get your entries in for the
2009 Celebrity Dead Pool !
Entries are flooding in already, you can read all the rules here and email me with your nominations at ilikeportello@gmail.com.
Don’t delay!
With just three weeks remaining of 2008, we're on the downhill run for the 2008 Celebrity Dead Pool, which means . . .
It's time to start thinking about who's going to be dropping off the perch in 2009 !
We've had a some surprising celebrity deaths this year, and you can bet your last dog-eared copy of Who magazine that 2009 will be no exception.
The only question is . . . can YOU pick a winner?
Just like the 2008 Celebrity Dead Pool, the game is very simple.
Simply nominate a list of 10 celebrities you believe are not long for this world, and submit them to me before 12am on 1 January 2009.
You can email your nominations to me at ilikeportello@gmail.com.
And that's it! From then on it's just a ghoulish waiting game.
Entry is free and the prize once again will be a double pass to Village Cinema Gold Class.
And finally there are, of course, some rules.
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Scoring
1. The score awarded for a correctly predicted death will be equal to 100 minus Age at Date of Death.
2. A person's "age" will be defined as their Age Last Birthday. This figure is incremented at the instant of 12am on the date of the person's birthday. This means that if a person dies on their birthday, their age is taken as the age they had just become that day.
3. If a person is over the age of 100 at their date of death, the score will be zero.
4. In the event of dispute about a person's precise age, the issue will be investigated by the moderator (me) and a decision made based on the best available evidence. The moderator's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to.
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The Rules
1. All nominated persons must be human and must be alive as at 12am on 1 January 2009.
2. If you make a nomination and the person dies before 12am on 1 January 2009, you may substitute another name. You have 1 day's grace, and the substitution must happen before 12am on 2 January 2009.
3. Nominated persons must be famous or infamous in their own right, not (for example) because they're sick, or because they're very old, or because they're hideously and tragically deformed, or because they're about to undergo an extraordinary, ground-breaking and very risky operation.
4. For a death to be valid, it must be reported by at least one major mainstream media outlet. Examples include AP, AAP, Reuters, a major national or metropolitan newspaper or a major national or metropolitan TV network. Your blog doesn't count.
5. The death of a local celebrity will only be valid if their death is reported by a national media outlet, or by a major media outlet in another city.
6. If a nominated person is on death row or known to have a terminal illness at the start of the game, no points will be awarded if they die of the expected cause. Similarly, if a nominated person is being held hostage at the start of the game, no points will be awarded if they are killed by their captors or in a rescue attempt. Points will be awarded only if such a nominated person dies from another unrelated cause.
7. Each nomination list may have at most 10 names.
8. No name may appear on a nomination list more than once. You may, however, submit more than one list.
9. Any attempts to influence the result via homicidal acts will result in immediate disqualification.
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Get your nominations in before 1 January, and good luck!
November was a pretty slow month for celebrity deaths.
On the 4th prolific paperback producer Michael Crichton passed away at the age of 66. His legacies include the science fiction classic Westworld, the story of an amusement park where things go horribly wrong. And science fiction classic Jurassic Park, the story of an amusement park where things go . . . wait a minute.
On the 9th Jayden Federline (aka Britney Baby II) was admitted to hospital suffering a “bad reaction” to “something” he “ingested”. Uh-huh. It turned out he was fine. Sorry, Shannon.
On the 10th legendary mathematician Kiyoshi Itō died of respiratory failure at the age of 93. This guy has a whole branch of calculus named after him which enables analysis of complicated stochastic processes like Brownian motion. This is incredibly useful in financial mathematics, but most importantly it’s one of the main components of Douglas Adams' Infinite Improbability Drive.
The 12th saw the death of Mitch Mitchell, original drummer of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. As a kind of anti-tribute to Spinal Tap and their disposable drummers, he was the last to go.
Finally, on the 29th we farewelled Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who won an award for Norway the Sydney Opera House. There is no truth to the rumour that his funeral will be delayed because of cost overruns and poor planning.
Well, that’s it for November and the scores remain as they were last month:
Spoon 17 Kate 16
There’s only one month to go for the 2008 competition, and unless something big happens it looks like it might be Spoon’s year.
But it is the silly season, so it’s not over yet.
