Whistling Past the Graveyard 2015

[J. Walter Weatherman]

2010: 25 players, 174 celebs, 16 deaths
2011: 22 players, 144 celebs, 15 deaths
2012: 18 players, 122 celebs, 15 deaths
2013: 18 players, 119 celebs, 16 deaths
2014: 16 players, 127 celebs, 15 deaths

2015: 14 players, 112 celebs, deaths TBD*
*but probably 15 or 16

Picks
Scoreboard
Status Board

15 fallen heroes in 2014
74 fresh faces for 2015
38 rolled over from 2014
90 escape unscathed

Most Popular: George H.W. Bush (6 picks)
Oldest: Kirk Douglas (98)
Youngest: Leah Still (4)
Lowest Circle of Hell Reserved For: ChuckD

Mean Age: 68
Median Age: 71 (somewhere between Gary Busey and Superstar Billy Graham)

Most Unique Lists: Tonker, CT, Wheezer (9 unique picks)
Least Unique List: Thrill (3 unique picks)

Freshest Lists: Wheezer, TJ Brown (1 name from 2014)
Stalest List: TEC (100% rollover from 2014)


Bonus Babies

ChuckD (51 possible bonus points, 106 overall)
Tonker (40 possible bonus points, 95 overall)


Playing It Straight

TEC (4 possible bonus points, 59 overall)
Butthead (8 possible bonus points, 63 overall)
Huey (9 possible bonus points, 64 overall)


Biggest gainers

George H.W. Bush +4
Gordie Howe +3
Lauren Hill +3
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi +2
B.B. King +2
Carol Channing +2
Dick Van Dyke +2
Francis Cardinal George +2
Rob Ford +2
Stuart Scott +2
Sam Simon +1

(New names for 2015 in italic)


Biggest losers

Wilko Johnson -3
Barbara Bush -2
Bashar al-Assad -2
Brett Favre -2
Chief Keef -2
Ed Asner -2
Jerry Lewis -2
Lil Wayne -2
Muhammad Ali -2
Steve Gleason -2
Bob Dole -1
Clive James -1
Fidel Castro -1
Jimmy Carter -1
Kim Jong-un -1
Kirk Douglas -1
Michael Schumacher -1

(Retired names in italic)


Too Popular, Too Old

George H.W. Bush (-5 bonus)
Bob Dole (-1 bonus)
Carol Channing (-1 bonus)
Dick Van Dyke (-1 bonus)
Gordie Howe (-1 bonus)
Kirk Douglas (-1 bonus)
Valerie Harper (-1 bonus)


Bonus Bubble

Alvin Yellon (probably turns 60 in 2015)
B.B. King (turns 90 on 9/16/2015)
Dick Van Dyke (turns 90 on 12/13/2015)
Frankie Muniz (turns 30 on 12/5/2015)
Jake "The Snake" Roberts (turns 60 on 5/30/2015)
John McVie (turns 70 on 11/26/2015)
Lauren Hill (turns 20 on 10/1/2015)
Sam Simon (turns 60 on 6/6/2015)
Stuart Scott (turns 50 on 7/19/2015)


Age 27 Season

Belle Gibson (turns 27... at some point this year)


Ex-Cardinals

Buddy Ryan
Francis Cardinal George
Gregg Jefferies
Mike Shannon
Red Schoendienst


In the Line of Fire

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Gill Rosenberg
Kim Jong-un
Malala Yousafzai


Highly Questionable Picks

Lauren Hill
Leah Still


Most Likely to Perish at the Hand of a Beltway Newspaper Columnist

Roman Polanski


Dead

Stuart Scott


TJ Brown's Kingdom for a Man Named Bush Stevens

1. Steve Wynn
2. Wynonna Judd
3. Judd Gregg
4. Gregg Jefferies
5. Jeff George
6. George Brett
7. Bret Michaels
8. Mike Shannon, St. Louis Cardinals
9. Cardinal Francis George
10. George H.W. Bush


The Frist Ananal Huard O'Panktoat Aawrd fro Oustnadnig Acheivement int he Flied fo Typong

Fork: "Rob DiBliaso"

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Character Count Overflow Bonus: or, Found When Forced to Stalk the Internet for Al Yellon's DOB...

Writing to Superman: Towards an Understanding of the Social Networks of Comic-Book Fans:

In June 1970 Action Comics #389 published a letter from the fourteen year old Alvin Yellon of Highland Park, Illinois complaining that the letters column was "monopolized" by Vartanoff and others because the editor had a bias for "intellectual" letters. In her letter in Action #393 October 1970 Vartanoff took Yellon to task for this assertion. She informed him, and the collective readership, that her and other letters were chose because:

We work on them. We take the time to be legible, coherent, polite, humorous, and, hopefully, intelligent. All that isn't enough, though. Plenty of "intellectual" letters never make the columns. If someone else happens to write a more thought-provoking letter that month, ours are rejected with the same indifference, as would be a smudgily penciled, unsigned 'I hate yourmag' card. Those are the breaks.

What Yellon may have thought of this take down is unknown since he never seems to have written to a comic again rather shifting his attention to Sports Illustrated where he had a letter published on May 20, 1974 (Yellon 1974).

$29.76, or best offer.

In Action #395 December 1970 Arelene Lo dedicated a poem to Yellon and his ilk who she suggested if "not a master of the written word, or a great literary critic who can point out obscure parallels or do detailed character analysis" then they might try some doggerel verse... The April 1971 issue of Action contained a letter from Martin Pasko who responded with his own poem name checking creators like Denny O'Neil, Mike Friedrich, Gardner Fox and John Broome, thanking Arlene Lo, and saying it was time for a change of subject before someone like Yellon wrote again.

Pasko writes:

...

But before an Alvin Yellon type—or a hundred more like these—

Take pen in hand, enough's enough! Change the subject, someone please!

You have been banned from Action Comics letter columns. You are free to read but not participate.

[PenFoe]

[Saul Goodman]

You have been banned from Action Comics letter columns. You are free to read but not participate.

LSA!

[ChuckD]

You people with your sense of decency or humanity-- this is deadpool.

Seriously, though. I do (and will) feel really guilty about that pick. I'm not rooting for it to happen (but I'm pretty confident it's going to happen).

[ChuckD]

Also, that pic of BC is fucking aces.

[Tinker to Evers to Chance]

[Tonker]

[Wheezer]

[Wheezer]

(but I'm pretty confident it's going to happen)

You're not by any chance under the impression that a neuroblastoma is a brain tumor, are you?

[Brownie]

Point of order: Cardinal George is an ex-Bishop and a current Cardinal. I was trying for an ex-Cardinal named Bishop.

[ChuckD]

You're not by any chance under the impression that a neuroblastoma is a brain tumor, are you?

No.

Point of order: Cardinal George is an ex-Bishop and a current Cardinal. I was trying for an ex-Cardinal named Bishop.

-TEC will tell you that Desmond Bishop is an ex-Arizona Cardinal, now with the 49ers.
-Closest I can see in terms of St Louis Cardinals is Dan Haren, who went to Bishop Amat HS.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Mickey Rooney?  Is he already undead?

[Chuck to Chuck]

Also, this Superman comic was presented in a had cover compilation book of Superman through the ages.  I received that book when I was about 9 and know that story well. I may have to go read it tonight as the book is in Middle Murton's room. Sadly, the letters were not presented.

[CT III]

For the record, the cover to Action Comics 389: