A man's got to know his limitations..

The image on the right is the work of Madame S. Weasel, a truly talented and witty blogger in England and American expatriate, I believe. Track-a-'Crat turned me onto her site with a magnificent photoshop she did of the infamous Arlen Sphincter.

Once there, I was hooked; the wit and irreverence of her posts and her commenters drives me into paroxysms of laughter.

Some time ago, I happened to post a comment that she should start a dead pool (here I grasp for any fleeting fragment of fame I can) and she ran with the idea. It became immensely popular with her (mostly conservative) audience jumping on the bandwagon with all manner of selections. Some had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, some were just old, and some were..well..just greatly disliked liberal icons of our media firmament.

Well, the cool thing is that it's racked racked up three winners so far -- Teddy Kennedy, Patrick Swayze, and now Susan Atkins. Of course, we all lament the passing of Swayze, but the other two don't overwork my tear ducts a great deal. This last entry was the woman who followed Charlie Manson's orders and stabbed Sharon Tate and her unborn child some forty years and one month ago. She's been in prison all this time and recently contracted brain cancer which was the cause of her death, of course.

Slow and painful; Sharon Tate would have wanted it that way.

The winners actually get a prize, I believe culled from whatever S. Weasel has lying around her pantry. A couple of prizes were canned haggis and spotted dick.

Don't ask.

Anyway, the message here is that -- like the Clint Eastwood movie -- her Dead Pool seems to be working out. I think with the new round, there's selectees like Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, and the other usual, odious suspects. So, if you have a fave, waltz on over and jot down the name.

You could be a winnah!