I like this time of year because all the lists come out. The Best of… The Worst of… It goes on and on and on. I tend not to get reflective, myself. Not anymore. I've seen too many years now to think that any given year, either the past or the upcoming one, is going to be dramatically different. Which isn't to say that I wouldn't like 2012 to be a superlative year, but if it isn't, I'm sure it won't suck.
So I have no Best of or Worst of thoughts of my own. I just have my dead pool. My little morbid year end summary.
Last year, I provided a list of several people I thought would die in 2011. Let's see how I did.
My long list:
- Zsa-Zsa Gabor – still alive
- Bob Barker – still alive
- Mike Wallace – still alive
- Jack LaLanne – died 1/24/11
- Harry Morgan – died 12/7/11
- Olivia de Havilland – still alive
- Michael Dukakis – still alive
- Billy Graham – still alive, barely
- Betty Garrett – died 2/12/11
- Eli Wallach – still alive
- Stan Musial – still alive
- Abe Vagoda – still alive
- Nancy Reagan – still alive
- Both Kirk and Michael Douglas – both still alive
- Aretha Franklin – still alilve
- Al Jarreau – still alive
- Margaret Thatcher – still alive
- Norman Lear – still alive
- Jean Stapleton – still alive
- Yogi Berra – still alive
- James Garner – still alive
- Lauren Becall – still alive
- Jack Klugman – still alive
- Both Mickey and Andy Rooney – Mickey's alive; Andy, not so much (died 11/4/11)
- Jeff Conaway – died 5/27/11
- Both Garry and Penny Marshall – both still alive
- Dick Clark – still alive
- Gene Wilder – still alive
- Fidel Castro – still alive
On the whole, my predictions were not too good.
Then, last year, I did a "competition" list for the "Dead Pool" game. There IS an actual "Dead Pool" game. What you do is pick ten famous people to die in a given year. If they die, then you take 100 minus their age when they died. So if someone 75 years old dies, you get 25 points. Someone 98 years old dies? Oh! That's a two pointer. Person with the highest number on January 1, 2012, wins.
Obviously, the goal is to pick someone younger who is likely to die. Although realistically, the younger they are, the more UNlikely they are to die. That's the trick of the game.
Here was last year's entries:
- Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 2/06/1917)
- Billy Graham (born 11/7/1918)
- Dick Clark (born 11/30/1929)
- Al Jarreau (born 3/12/1940)
- Dick Cheney (born 1/30/1941)
- Aretha Franklin (born 3/25/1942)
- Penny Marshall (born 10/15/1942)
- Michael Douglas (born 9/25/1944)
- Jeff Conaway (born 10/5/1950)
- Amy Winehouse (born 9/14/1983)
I get zero points for Gabor, Graham, Clark, Jarreau, Cheney, Franklin, Marshall, and Douglas, since they all lived. I scored bigtime with the two youngest on my list — Jeff Conaway and Amy Winehouse.
With Jeff, I got 40 points (he died at the age of 60).
With Amy, I got 73 points (she died at the age of 27).
Final score: 113 points. Which is really good.
And now it's time for my new lists. First the long one — ones that I simply think will die. I naturally carry over many from last year, but some are now off the list, and others are on:
- Zsa-Zsa Gabor
- Olivia de Havilland
- Billy Graham
- Eli Wallach
- Stan Musial
- Al Jarreau
- Norman Lear
- Jean Stapleton
- Yogi Berra
- Lauren Becall
- Jack Klugman
- Mickey Rooney
- Fidel Castro
- Ernest Borgnine
- Pete Seeger
- Nanette Fabray
- Monty Hall
- Sid Caesar
- Rose Marie
- Jerry Lewis
And now for my competitive Dead Pool list (I reserve the right to change this up to 12/31/11):
- Eli Wallach (born 12/07/1915)
- Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 2/06/1917)
- Billy Graham (born 11/7/1918)
- Margaret Thatcher (born 10/13/1925)
- James Garner (born 4/7/1928)
- Dick Cheney (born 1/30/1941)
- Penny Marshall (born 10/15/1942)
- Robin Gibb (born 12/22/1949)
- George Michael (born 6/25/1963)
- Charlie Sheen (born 9/3/1965)
And Lindsay Lohan, consider yourself lucky cuz you're a shoe-in for these things.