Dead Pool 191: Well, that was quick
Thefritz wins it with Dick Cheney. Wasn’t that old, wasn’t that sick. Good call, thefritz.
I just realized I published the last Dead Pool without any commentary at the beginning – who won and with whom. I should fix that. Yes, I definitely need to get around to that.
0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody. Plus (Pupster’s Rule) no picking someone who’s only famous for being the oldest person alive.
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay? Also, make sure you have a correct spelling of your choice somewhere in your comment. These threads get longish and I use search to figure out if we have a winner.
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you’ve won before, send me your address again. I don’t keep good records.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The winner, if the winner chooses to entrust me with a mailing address, will receive an Official Certificate of Dick Winning and a small original drawing on paper suffused with elephant shit particles. Because I’m fresh out of fairy shit particles.
Note: I am woefully behind on dick deliveries. If I owe you one, you’ll know how long. I ain’t gived up, but I haven’t drawn much since lockdown. Some day, your heirs might hear from my heirs.
November 7, 2025 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 23
Who’s on the dark web?
Me. I am. I use a TOR browser to access Kiwi Farms, which periodically blocks Britain on the clearnet. Though I think he’s opened Britain up since the Ofcom lawsuit, out of spite.
If you don’t know what TOR, Kiwi Farms or Ofcom is, we need to talk.
The thing about the dark web is that it isn’t indexed. That’s what makes it the dark web: you have to know where you’re going. Kiwi Farms’ address is:
https://kiwifarmsaaf4t2h7gc3dfc5ojhmqruw2nit3uejrpiagrxeuxiyxcyd.onion/
Don’t try putting that in a regular browser, it’s a TOR-style address. So – stupid question – how does anyone ever find things on the dark web? And what are you doing there?
p.s. Technically, the 95% of the unindexed web is the deep web (accessible by regular browsers), only a tiny sliver of which is the dark web (accessible by TOR).
p.p.s. DEAD POOL TOMORROW!
November 6, 2025 — 7:03 pm
Comments: 3
Bend over, NYC!
The prompt was “commies under the bed.” As usual, it didn’t understand the brief, but this looks pretty communist-y.
This won’t be fun to watch.
November 5, 2025 — 5:26 pm
Comments: 7
little step, little step, little step, BIG STEP
Currently playing The Farmer Was Replaced to keep the brain springy. It’s a programming game that uses a cut down version of Python to program drones to plant and harvest various crops.
It starts out nice and simple: some crops need watering, some need the soil tilling first. Some can’t be planted next to each other. Simple, discrete, individual functions.
Then it asks you to plant a field of cacti and sort them from the smallest in the lower left to the biggest in the upper right. Erm, that’s…I can’t do that. I suspect the seasoned programmers among you would find that a breeze, but I was only ever a skin-of-my-teeth sort of coder.
So my current strategy is getting AI to write code for it that works. It’s harder than you might think, but much easier than writing my own code. I got them cacti sorted, anyway!
p.s. yes, thefritz takes the Dead Pool with Dick Cheney. He was only 84.
November 4, 2025 — 5:20 pm
Comments: 2
Even the robots do it
Photo credit this guy, I gather it was taken during a 1950 renovation.
“Bo Peep Tunnel is a 1,318-yard-long (1,205 m) railway tunnel located between Bopeep Junction and St Leonards Warrior Square station on the Hastings line in East Sussex, England. Constructed by the South Eastern Railway (SER) between 1849 and 1850, the tunnel was opened to traffic on 13 February 1851.” Thus spake Leo, the AI associated with Brave.
It’s a railway tunnel. I went through it today. The only thing interesting about it is the name.
It turns out “bo peep” is much older than the nursery rhyme. It’s the medieval name for peek-a-boo, where you put a child on your knee, cover your face and go “bo!” then uncover it and go “peep!”
Grok tells me “This game is mentioned as early as the 14th century in legal records — for instance, in 1364, an ale-wife named Alice Causton was punished for short measures by being forced to “play bo pepe thorowe a pillery” (peek through the pillory holes).”
The nursery rhyme first appeared in print in 1805.
The connection to Sussex is said to be smuggling – this area was a hotbed of smuggling in the 18th C – but sources were vague on the exact meaning. Either revenuers peeping on smugglers or smugglers peeping for revenuers or some kind of shootout at the local Bo Peep pub. There’s still a Bo Peep pub in St Leonard’s (where there was once a dragon).
In one multi-paragraph information dump from Grok, every single citation was from Wikipedia!
November 3, 2025 — 7:40 pm
Comments: 6
Dead Pool 190: Happy Halloween!
0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody. Plus (Pupster’s Rule) no picking someone who’s only famous for being the oldest person alive.
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay? Also, make sure you have a correct spelling of your choice somewhere in your comment. These threads get longish and I use search to figure out if we have a winner.
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you’ve won before, send me your address again. I don’t keep good records.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The winner, if the winner chooses to entrust me with a mailing address, will receive an Official Certificate of Dick Winning and a small original drawing on paper suffused with elephant shit particles. Because I’m fresh out of fairy shit particles.
Note: I am woefully behind on dick deliveries. If I owe you one, you’ll know how long. I ain’t gived up, but I haven’t drawn much since lockdown. Some day, your heirs might hear from my heirs.
October 31, 2025 — 6:00 pm
Comments: 52
“Mine didn’t look like the ones in the picture”
That’s pretty much every recipe I try. Probably because I’m sloppy with measurements (or recipe writers are lying liars who lie).
Today it was buttery stovetop biscuits. They didn’t rise properly. Maybe my baking powder has gone off (it does). They tasted good, so I’m calling it a win.
You literally fry them on the stovetop, which is also a win – I hate faffing around with our oven.
Next up: homemade tabasco sauce. Uncle B brought in an enormous harvest of hot peppers this afternoon. Last year, I froze them. Year before, I dried them.
Oooooo…or I could add garlic and make sriracha!
Don’t forget now…back here tomorrow for Dead Pool 190! DO IT!
October 30, 2025 — 6:55 pm
Comments: 9
You probably know what’s coming
I had a fearsome crush on Bill Mumy. He had a gigantic career in TV and voiceovers, including as a child actor, well before Lost in Space. He has over 400 screen credits as of this writing.
I’m quite sure I read he was busted for cocaine in the Eighties, but Wikipedia doesn’t mention it and Grok says it ain’t so. Damn those rogue braincells.
He also is a musician. He’s released a number of solo albums and been part of a number of bands, but he was most famously half of Barnes and Barnes. And their famous single was? Fish Heads.
Heheheheh. That’ll be stuck in your head the rest of the day.
October 29, 2025 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 9
Nice
“Cacao nibs are small, crunchy pieces of pure, roasted (or raw) cacao beans — essentially chocolate in its most natural form, before sugar, milk, or other ingredients are added.” Thus spake Grok.
I read some article or other that said cacao nibs were good for you in some way or other and being the thoroughly gullible weasel that I am, I instantly ordered a kilo of them. Not sure if mine are roasted or raw – the label is a little ambiguous.
They have a pleasant crunchy texture and an earthy taste but, as you might imagine, they’re very bitter. I like bitter tastes, but I paired them up with honey sesame peanuts (which are ordinarily a little sweet for me) and they make a fantastic combo.
I wonder what they’re supposed to be doing for me?
October 28, 2025 — 6:35 pm
Comments: 6
A long time ago
So June Lockhart has finally copped it. I must say, I didn’t know she was still alive.
I was too young to remember Lassie except in occasional reruns, but I was a fanatical follower of Lost in Space. It ran from 1965 to 1968, so from my age five to eight. Yup, that’s the demographic.
They held a 30th cast reunion in Boston in 1995 and I went. A collectors expo. I didn’t stand in the autograph line or have my picture taken with the robot, but it was gratifying to see them nonetheless.
They were all there except Guy Williams, who died in 1989 (rumor had it of AIDS, but the Wikipedia doesn’t address that).
I remember June Lockhart wore white gloves and didn’t shake hands. I don’t know if I assumed or was told it was because of arthritis and it was too painful.
My gosh – that means this year would be the 60th!
October 27, 2025 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 6