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The 6th annual edition of Kaufman's Dead Pool has finished, with yours truly as the winner. This was without a doubt the wildest game yet - we finally broke our 4-hit limit, not once, but 4 times! Two of us went on to score an outrageous 6 hits. We had a record 21 celebrities die. 85% of our players scored at least one hit. And of course, smack dab in the middle of all of that - our second-longest dryspell: 143 hitless days that were finally ended with 2 hits on the same day.

I've got a feeling that 2004 is going to be even crazier!

We are currently in our 6th year of play, and during that time, I've gone to the Virgin Islands, Florida (twice!), New York City and/or state (twice!), Arizona, Las Vegas, The Outer Banks, and now Texas. (Damn - Brad is right - I DO take a lot of vacations). In any event, this is the first time that we've gotten a hit while I was actually away. It was also the first time that I was not able to keep up with the news while I was gone, and so I didn't even hear about Art Carney until I got back. Oh well, at least I didn't have to have any surgery this time!

Congrats to our 4th 5-hitter - Marty Eschman, who moves from 11th to 4th place. Elizabeth Anderson becomes the 12th person this year to get 4 hits, which moves her from 15th to 10th. Marge Sing gets her 3rd hit, edging up to 17th place from 19th. And Brendan Carty becomes the 21st person this year to get a second hit, which moves him up to 20th from 23rd place.

A special thanks to Brad Hope for covering for me in my absence!

Congratulations, all!

Madame Chiang Kai-shek is dead at 106, giving us our second 6-hitter! Our oldest-ever hit moves ME up to first place.

Becoming the 11th player this year to get 4 hits is Mrs. KDP, Terri Kaufman, who moves up to 9th. Our youngest player, Nolan Eschman, gets his 3rd hit and moves into 14th place.

This was our 20th hit of the year, and we still have 68 days left in the game!

An otherwise quiet sunday has brought the KDP a lot of action. Controversial Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan died at 94, giving us our very first player to get 6 hits. Cathryn Innacola now takes the lead. This is Cathryn's second solo of 2003, and she becomes the first person since 2001 to score multiple solos in a game. This is also her 5th career solo, which is a new record, and her 13th career hit, which ties a record.

Also on sunday, the first black woman to win at Wimbledon, Althea Gibson died at 76. She was rookie Elizabeth Anderson's first solo and third hit, moving her from 17th to 14th place.

Congratulations, Cathryn and Elizabeth!

Sheb Wooley, star of Rawhide, and the man who gave us that wonderful song The Flying Purple People Eater, is dead at 82. Cynthia Eschman becomes the 10th player this year to get 4 hits. She moves up to 6th place from 10th. Also, Bob Razem scores his 3rd as he moves from 16th to 14th.

Congratulations, Cynthia and Bob!

I want to take this opportunity to point out a couple of enhancements I've made to the game and website. On the Standings, Player and Career pages you'll now see a number for each player called Hit Density. This is a new statistic devised with Cathryn Innacola's help to measure the "clustering" of a person's hits. Each combination of a person's hits are evaluated, and the best one is determined to be the Hit Density. It's basically an easy way to express "2 hits in 7 days" vs "3 hits in 12 days". The closer your hits occur, the higher your Hit Density will be. A single hit is defined as a Hit Density of 0, while the maximum possible is 10 hits in 1 day, or 100.
Note, however, that a new hit may not affect the Hit Density. For instance, Cynthia's best clustering of hits before today was 2 hits in 88 days, for a Hit Density of 0.04, while Bob's best clustering was 2 hits in 34 days, for a Hit Density of 0.11. After today's hit, Cynthia's best clustering of hits is now 2 hits in 10 days, which raises her Hit Density to 0.4. However, since Bob's previous hit was 51 days ago, his best clustering remains unchanged, as does his Hit Density. A player's Hit Density will never decrease.
Also, the Hit Density is listed on the Standings Page only for informational purposes - it is not a factor in the standings. From the Standings page, clicking on a player's name will bring up their list, and will also show their Hit Density as well as the actual clustering.

Looking at the Career Stats Page, we can see that the player with the highest Hit Density is Grady Harmon, as he's the only player so far to get 2 hits in 1 day, which gives him a Hit Density of 4. The best for this game is Cathryn, who has a Hit Density of 3 after getting 3 hits in 3 days.

It should be noted that not everybody will find this, or any other statistic on the site, useful. Looking at stats is not a requirement to enjoy this game. Personally, I like numbers and statistics, so I find it interesting. If you've thought of a statistic or metric that you'd like to see incorporated into the game and/or website, please let me know!

The second enhancement that I've made to the website is the addition of a Glossary Page. I've scoured the website for terms that might be a little unclear, but I'm sure that I've over-looked some. If you can think of one that you'd like to see included in the glossary, again, please let me know!

Thanks!

Johnny Cash is dead at 71. The Man In Black was the 4th hit for Grady Harmon, who moves from 9th place to 5th place. Elizabeth Anderson tried to walk the line, but scored no points as she had Cash as her wildcard pick.

This was our 4th hit in 5 days, and our 16th in 2003, which sets a new record.

Edward Teller, who gave us the H-Bomb, is dead at 95. He also gave us our 3rd 5-hitter in 3 days. Cathryn Innacola jumps from 6th to 3rd place. This is Cathryn's first solo of the year, and the fourth of her career, creating a 4-way tie for most career solos..

In addition, this was our 15th hit of the game and we are now tied with 2001 for most hits in a game.

What a crazy year this has been! Anybody else remember the 143-day dryspell a few months back? Stay tuned for TOMORROW's hit!

Congratulations, Cathryn!

Hitler's propaganda queen, Leni Riefenstahl is dead at 101, and we've got our second 5-hitter in 2 days - ME!.

Cathryn Innacola gets her 4th hit of the game and moves from 11th to 6th place.

In addition, my daughter, Madison Kaufman had the Nazi on her randomly-chosen list. This is Madison's second hit of the game.

This is our 14th hit, and we are now tied with last year and only one behind the record set in 2001.

Warren Zevon is dead at 56; our Second-biggest hit of the game was picked by 13 players, giving us our first 5-hitter, as John Downey continues his impressive year, and retakes the lead. After 6 years, we've finally broken the 4-hit limit, and John doesn't look like he's ready to stop!

Scoring his 4th hit for the second time in his career is Mike Spinney, and getting their 4th hit for the first time are Gene Kaufman, Brad Hope and Colin Boroski

Zevon was the third hit for Grady Harmon, Cynthia Eschman, Sandy Downey, Cathryn Innacola, Joe Lupo and Terri Kaufman

Wunderkind Nolan Eschman got his second hit of the game.

And breaking out of Club Nada for the first time in a record-setting 801 days is Terri Kilheffer. The record for most days without a hit now transfers to Carol Ann Daley with 529.

We now have an unbelievable 14 players with at least 3 hits, and 7 with at least 4 hits.

Congrats to all!

Death Wish star Charles Bronson is dead at 81. Rich Place moves into the lead, becoming the first person to get 4 hits in two games. Marty Eschman becomes the 7th player in the history of the game to score 4 hits as he moves from 8th up to 3rd.

Scoring their second hits of the game are Grady Harmon and Elizabeth Anderson, who move from 19th and 22nd to 9th and 11th, respectively.

Congrats to all!

Bob Hope is dead at 100. He was our Most-picked Celeb since the inception of the game 6 years ago.

John Downey regains control of the lead, becoming only the 6th player in the history of the game to get 4 hits in a game. Will he be the one to finally break the 4-hit limit????

Rich Place scores his 3rd hit of the game, and sets a new record for Most Career Hits with this, his 12th.

Also scoring their 3rd hit: Brad Hope, Colin Boroski, Sarah Jane Wallace, Marty Eschman and Gene Kaufman.

Bob Hope was the 2nd hit for Bob Razem, Marge Sing, Cathryn Innacola, Nancy Arbaugh, Joe Lupo and Terri Kaufman.

Making it to the board for the first time this year is Sheila Place and Brendan Carty.

Finally, rookie player Elizabeth Anderson gets her first hit.

In all, 16 people scored, which is the largest number of people to ever hit at the same time.

Carol Shields, Pulitzer-prize winning author of "The Stone Diaries" is dead at 68. Mike Spinney scores his third hit and first solo of the year as he retakes the lead.

Congrats, Spinn!

Buddy Ebsen is dead at the age of 95. Congrats go out to Sandy Downey for scoring her second hit and moving up from 13th to a tie for 7th place. Scoring his first hit is rookie Nolan Eschman, who at (if memory and math serves me correctly) 16 months (or so) is the youngest player to ever score a hit in the game.

Congratulations, Sandy and Nolan!

Katharine Hepburn is dead at the age of 96. She becomes our 6th hit in 17 days, and 6 people picked her, including our current front-runner, John Downey, who now has 3 hits.

4 people scored their second hits of the game: Colin Boroski (who moves up from a tie for 10th place to a tie for 5th place), Rich Place (scoring his 11th career hit - a new record for the game, and moving up one notch to 7th place), Sarah Jane Wallace (who breaks from a tie for 16th place to 8th) and Marty Eschman (moving up from 13th to 9th place).

Scoring her first hit in 456 days is our 18th scoring player of this game, Marge Sing who breaks out of Club Nada up to 12th place.

Katharine Hepburn was our #6 overall most-picked celeb, as well as #6 most-picked for 2003. She's the first celeb to be on the most-picked list every year since the game started in 1998.

Congratulations to all!

Strom Thurmond is dead at the age of 100. He was #4 on the current year's most-picked list, a position that he also held for both most-picked-ever and most-picked-still-alive. (Of course, he falls off of that one now.)

Congrats go to John Downey and Brad Hope, both of who (whom?) scored their second hit. John takes the lead, while Brad does his share to shake up the scoreboard by rising to 3rd.

John's wife, rookie Sandy Downey, scored her first hit.

In addition, 9 veteran players scored their first hit of the game: Nancy Arbaugh, Colin Boroski, Marty Eschman, Grady Harmon, Cathryn Innacola, Terri Kaufman, Joe Lupo, Rich Place, Sarah Jane Wallace

In all, 12 players scored! Congrats to all!

The above quote was a common greeting by the former governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox. However, you won't be hearing him say it any more, because he's dead, you know. Congrats to Bob Razem for scoring his first hit of the game. This is his 4th career solo, and he is now in a 3-way tie for the most career solos.

Bob jumps out of the 17-way tie for last place up to 6th place.

Hume Cronyn is dead at 91, and Brad Hope scores his first hit of the game as well as his first career solo. Brad breaks out of the 18-way tie for 11th place to 6th place.

David Brinkley is dead at 82, ending our 143 day Dryspell. Only John Downey picked him, moving up to second place. This was John's first career solo.

This now-ended dryspell was our 2nd-longest ever, but seemed even longer because it was the longest that was contained in a single game.

Congrats, John!

Gregory Peck is dead at 87, and 4 players picked him, and amazingly, it was the same 3 players that picked Al Hirschfeld -Mike Spinney, Cynthia Eschman, and me. In addition, Marty Eschman had him as his wildcard pick.

Spinn now takes the lead as the Deadpool Gods make certain that our DrySpell is truly broken.

Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld is dead at the age of 99. This is our second hit in 3 days. Three players had him - Mike Spinney, Cynthia Eschman, and myself. The standings are relatively unaffected, with Mike staying at #2, Cynthia also staying at #4, while I make the biggest jump: #9 to #3. This is the earliest hit for all 3 of us.

Richard Crenna died yesterday at the age of 76. At 18 days, this is our earliest hit ever, breaking the record set in 1998 of 20 days. My daughter, Madison Kaufman, is the only one who picked him. Madison's list is randomly generated, and this is her first hit after 2 full games - 746 consecutive days of play, which is 2nd only to Marge Sing's 816 days (Madison's mother Terri is listed with 1590 days, but those were not from consecutive games).

(A nod should be given to non-returning player Mary Kilheffer who originally picked Crenna in 2001, thus placing him in the database.)

Last year a lot of people were grumbling about placing lower than Rich's dog. To those same people I now ask: How does it feel to be losing to a 4 year old?

Right off the bat, and we've already got a leader. Returning champ Mike Spinney eases ahead on referral points.

We already have lists from 15 people, and I'm still waiting on at least 10 or so more. If you'd like to play, get me your list before January 7th. All lists received between now and the 7th will be in play on January 8th. That means that if you didn't get me your list until January 1st, and one of your picks dies on the 6th, you will not get credit for it. Only players who had their list in BEFORE the start of the game will get credit for any hits during the first week. No lists will be accepted after the 7th.

In addition, I will not be posting the players' lists until January 8th.

Good luck, everyone!

It's hard to believe that the Fifth Annual Kaufman's Deadpool is coming to a close already! This has been a terrific year - with some real record-setting performances by many players. A record 89% of the players had at least one hit, and with a 3-way tie for first place, there is not yet a clear winner.

However, have no fear - the Deadpool action is FAR from over! If you would like to participate in the 2003 game, please let me know ASAP. I would like to get a rough headcount soon. The entry fee will remain $10.

Remember that you can earn tiebreaker points just by referring other players. So bring along your friends, family, co-workers and pets!

If you'd like to play, then please send me your list between 12/25/2002 and 1/7/2003. The game starts January 1st, but I realize that some people are a little pokey (and possibly hungover), so I allow a little extra time after the game has started to get your list in. In past games, I've allowed people to join as late as June, but this year I'm going to tighten that up a bit more. Note that the player's lists will not be made public on the website until 1/8/2003. So basically, nobody can "steal" any of your good ideas.

New this year: If you wait until the grace period between 1/1/2003 and 1/7/2003 to send your list, it will not be active until 1/8/2003. That means that if somebody on your list dies during that period - you don't get credit for it. This is an incentive for you to get me your list in a timely manner. All lists received before 1/1/2003 will be in play from the start of the game.

Please be sure to send me an 11th "wildcard" pick on the off-chance that one of your picks is either already dead or not famous enough. It might take me a little time to contact you for a replacement pick, and I'd like to have a "backup" available immediately.

Speaking of "Famous Enough" - please assure yourself that you are entering somebody FAMOUS. I'm pretty liberal with the definition of fame, but we've certainly seen many discussions on the mailing list about that. If you aren't sure if someone is "famous enough", please feel free to ask, and I'll let you know what I think. I will approach the council of elders for clarification if necessary. (What??? You didn't know that this game has a "council of elders"? Ok, it actually DOESN'T, but it sounds cool, doesn't it? I'll admit that there are a couple of long-playing individuals that have contributed very much to the game and I DO consult with them when necessary.)

You are more than welcome to enter more than one list (as always), providing, of course, that you pay the entry fee for each of them.

Please send your lists to me at gene@terrik.com.

Your entry fee(s) can be sent to me via Paypal (gene@terrik.com), snail-mail (send me an email if you don't know it), or in person (if you're lucky enough to see me in real life). Please send your fees promptly so that I don't have to keep asking you to send it in.

So that's it - consider yourselves all invited back, and please be sure to forward this to anyone you might think would also enjoy this sick little game. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks!

Gene Kaufman