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8 row(s) meet your search criteria for March , 2006.

What a Legacy - March 29, 2006

To conclude my 1st Quarter's posting, I present former Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, a man that has been the primary perpetrator of filling my inbox with Yahoo news alerts more than any other of my picks. Here are some of the recent quotes about him or his presidency:

It's interesting that his Wikipedia entry has a whole section on Yeltsin's Alcholism. This one story caught my eye. In a meeting with then-President Clinton:

Yeltsin was so drunk when he arrived in the airport in September 1994 that he could barely get off the plane. The same night Yeltsin was staggering around in his underpants shouting for pizza. According to (U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe)Talbott, that was a huge problem..

That was a problem? Who hasn't done that? Besides, it's not like he was prancing around the Oval Office with an Intern's face in his lap.

Yeltsin's worth 50 points and is on 5 rosters - but only two other players have blogged about him. He's also likely good for a couple of bonus prizes, especially the $25 wine.com gift for the First Drunk to Die.

#  | 04:32 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)

A Most Wonderful Phrase - March 29, 2006

One of the most beautiful phrases in the Wall Street world is "sure thing". I'm sure that rings true for many other worlds - Spring Break in Florida for instance - and it's true for Dead Pools too.

Karl Malden is one of my "sure thing" picks - at least that's what I thought in December when I made up my roster..... December of 2004.

He made the team because of his appearance at the 2004 Screen Actors Guild award show where he was bestowed a Lifetime Acheivement Award. He sat there watching all the love being bestowed upon him with dark glasses on sitting in a chair and leaning on a cane. He did not speak, and did not get up to the stage to get his award. He looked awful. I made a note, and he made my 2005 team (good Dead Poolers have a "little black book").

He's not a high volume news pick, and I've left him until the end of the quarter because he's done nothing newsworthy. In fact, if you take out the entries for TV listings, the number of alerts I got on him this quarter is likely in the single digits. He does have a drink named after him, although I don't know why. He's also got an entry on Urban Dictionary, which includes an act of perversion SO profound and disgusting, that decorum prohibits listing it here - even if this is a Dead Pool.

He did have a key role in one of my favorite war movies of all time, Patton, where he played General Omar Bradley, the General who surpassed Patton's rank over the course of the war and was a good friend to Patton.

Malden just turned 94 years old, and is worth only 31 points + bonus for the three of us who have him, and is eligible for a couple of additional bonus awards.

#  | 12:05 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)

A Corrupt Politician? Imagine That - March 28, 2006

Charles Haughey was the Prime Minister of Ireland (formally known as a Taoiseach) three different times. His political career looks like it was riddled with bad decisions and poor economic choices. How someone could be elected three times with such a record is a mystery to me. Dan Quayle helps a kid misspell POTATO and he's drummed out of Washington with a dunce cap on.

Now it's coming to light that Haughey, considered by many a bad decision maker, has even more skeletons in his closet.

WhenCharles Haughey was elected leader of Fianna Fáil on December 7, 1979, he had a dark secret.

He was over £1.1 million in debt to Allied Irish Bank, which had been putting intense pressure on him.

And just like people in power do, he used his influence to reduce the debt, got other people to pay it for him, and got the Tax Collector to ignore it.

It's quite a web that was woven, but apparently the trail was not very well covered and looks like it's being solved by the Hardy Boys.

The good thing for us American's is that it makes Clinton's Whitewater deal look like a master caper.

Haughey is worth about 45 points and is on 3 rosters. He was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in 1995, and reportedly suffered a significant decline in his health in 2003. But sadly, he lives on denying the devil of another corrupt politician.

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She Was The Hot One - March 27, 2006

I told myself I wasn't going to do this... waiting until the last minute to finish my obligations. I did six in January, but none in February putting me well behind the 8-ball. So now, my entries become lost in the drivel of bad blog entries. oh well -

Estelle Getty played the oldest main character in the famed 80's sitcom The Golden Girls. In reality, both Bea Arthur and Betty White were older.

She's pretty sick now, and pictures at her personal website show her during her prime. There are also some as recent as 2001 - which are frankly, quite frightening.

Frightening to look at sure.... but for this Dead Pooler... confirmation that she's a good pick.

On the show, Rue McClanahan may have played the slutty one, but I always thought Sophia was the hot one!

She's worth 42 points and is on 3 other rosters.

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In Your Face Investing - March 26, 2006

There was a time when the nightly business report was boring. As a kid, it was the hated moment of the night when Dad would come home and want to watch "Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser". It was in the days before we had a remote control, and even if we did have one, Dad would have never let it out of his hands.

The show was dry, intellectual, and and interminably boring - as a pre-teen anyway. But there was no way it was to be missed. (in hindsight, had I paid attention back then and started investing some allowance each week maybe I'd be in a position to not complain about the poor performance of my 401k).

Today, we have a bald headed, angry guy wandering about the set of a show called "Mad Money". He's got headphones on screaming at "booyah", and belittling folks for buying stock in Ford, Sears, IBM.

This is definitely not your father's investing show.

Louis Rukeyser left TV in 2003 and is battling cancer, hence his place on my Dead Pool roster. He's worth about 53 points and is on three rosters this year, including runaway champion Hal Horn.

#  | 03:27 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)

Constant Variety - March 24, 2006

I was listening to The Herd, Colin Cowherd on ESPNRadio the other day. He has a regular piece called "Spanning the Globe" where he does a quick roundup of sports news. In the lead up to the piece, part of the "sound bite-o-rama" big time radio does to intro a segment, there was a clip that brought me back to one of the finer parts of my youth:

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports... (this is where the clip ended, but for sake of warm memories) the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is "ABC's Wide World of Sports!"

Wide World of Sports was on (I think) Saturday's and was something I really looked forward to as a kid. Sometimes there would be swimming, sometimes car racing, the Harlem Globetrotters were often on the show hamming it up with Howard Cosell, and sometimes even a dreaded figure skating competition. The best parts were the sports you never see on TV - ping pong, horseracing, motocross, maybe even Minnesota Fats making some amazing trick shots on the pool table. There was always something interesting. Something to take me away from "H.R. Pufnstuf" and "Land of the Lost" .

And almost always at the anchor desk, was one of my solo shots, Jim McKay. There is no known sickness, just a famous old guy who has disappeared from the public eye.

McKay is worth about 40 points, plus solo shot add-on points, and is eligile for the coveted McDonalds Gift Certificate bonus prize as well as several others.

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Tee It Up - For the Last Time - March 08, 2006

Today the PGA released their list of the players invited to compete in the 2006 Masters Tournament. As is tradition, all former champion's are invited to play, including the 94 year old two-time winner Byron Nelson.

Lord Byron, as he is known, won the tournament in 1937, and again in 1942. He might have had another 3 chances to win but the tournament was cancelled for some reason.

Oh. WWII. Damn Nazi's and Japanese Imperialists !

Anyway, on his bio it lists his winnings for the 29 years he played in the tournament. In the years he won, he collected a total of $1,500.

Last year's winner (some guy named "Tiger"), got $1,260,000.

Nelson is only worth 31 points, but add a 20 for only sharing the pick with one other and it might get respectable. Plus, he's also got a few bonus prize opportunities.

Note: This post, and several others, are a requirement of playing in the 2006 Dead Pool. I have to blog about each of my picks once each quarter. This entry marks #8, with 6 more to go before April 1 (Don Knotts was on my roster so there's no further need to post about him!

#  | 05:07 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)

You Don't Know Jack - March 03, 2006

In the 2006 Dead Pool, I've got a solo shot on Lloyd Bentsen, WWII veteran, former Texas Senator and VP candidate. In places outside of Texas, I'd bet he's most remembered for spanking the elder Bush's VP Dan Quayle with the epic smackdown quote:

Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.

In his bio I find it most cool that he flew 35 bombing missions in a B-24. But I'm a lover of the WWII history.

I can't explain why I picked him.. there are no reports of disease or malady that might lead to his death. He's just one of those names that bubbled up in my consciousness for my inaugural entry in the 2004 Amish Tech Support Deadpool and I thought... "he's old, faded from the public eye, he might die this year".

Two and half years later, no score.

Why pick him again? "he's old, faded from the public eye, he might die this year". But in all honesty, once a pick gets on my roster, I have a hard time taking them off. This is mostly due to the fact that I had Johnny Carson on my roster in 2004, then left him off in 2005 when he actually did croak. I'm still pissed about that one.

Bentsen will be worth about 40 points and qualifies for a couple of bonus prizes.

(9 Weeks into the year: 7 blogged picks and 1 score. I've got to pick up the pace as I need to average over 2 per week to make the April Fools 1st quarter deadline.)

#  | 01:59 PM |  Comments Closed (0)  |  (Tags: Webdesign)