As the two-time defending champion and, as of this hit, current leader of the alt.obituaries Deadpool, I'm about to reveal one of my sources, a little-known and heretofore confidential repository of celebrity medical data:

alt.obituaries.

On November 19, 2012, regular poster Matthew Kruk shared a New York Times story about the discovery and digital repackaging of more than 100 interviews with rock stars, radicals, and various other pop- and counter-culture luminaries, conducted from 1969 to 1972 by former Village Voice columnist and WABC-FM radio host Howard Smith.

The original article can be found here, and is still worth a read.

Among those candid, unedited, sometimes hours-long recordings, unlistened-to for decades and finally unearthed in a move, can be heard John & Yoko, live from the Bed-In; Pete Townshend's account of how Keith Moon once killed a guy; and the final, poignant interview of Janis Joplin. Now available as The Smith Tapes, they've continued to generate headlines, a la Jim Morrison's 1969 declaration that "fat is beautiful."

Lending urgency to the project was the admission by Smith, then 76, that he of late had been "laid low by cancer." No doubt all twelve people who read the post immediately installed Smith atop their lists for the approaching 2013 pool, then, after the anticipated points failed to materialize, reluctantly let him slide.

All but one. Whether out of laziness or sheer intractability, I stuck with Smith, and on May 1 he was laid even lower and I had a 13-point solo.

Later on the Friday the hit was posted, a certain parcel arrived from Maine.

That's right. I got the lead and the Moxie the same day.

Death is good.

--Gerard Tierney