Almost certainly not, but that hasn't stopped a lot of folks from pitting their predictions of which celebrities will join the dearly departed in the coming year in contests for cold cash or, more often, bragging rights.

     The game gained widespread popularity in the 1990s, at about the same time as fantasy sports games. The only real difference: Death-pool participants peruse newspapers and websites for obits rather than box scores.

     "We're always waiting to hear those four magic words: 'Sad news from Hollywood ... ,'" said Kelly Bakst, whose Stiffs.com league is expected to have more than 1,000 participants this year.

     Popularized nationally by Howard Stern and in the Twin Cities by KQRS Radio's Mike (Stretch) Gelfand, these slightly morbid — OK, OK, let's go with downright macabre — lists usually are rife with the aged (the Rev. Billy Graham), the infirm (Ariel Sharon) or both (Fidel Castro).

     Dead pools are populated by a litany of octogenarians, the cancer-stricken and most of Sid Hartman's close personal friends, but recent additions have included train wrecks among the young (Amy Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan) and the not so young (Farrah Fawcett). Meanwhile, rappers have lost some cachet as their "gangsta wars" have subsided.

     Bakst has a ready response for those who find his Los Angeles-based website in particular and death pools in general a bit beyond the pale.

     "You can picture the look I get, the squinty-eyed, you-smelled-something-bad expression," he said. "I say go look at the site; there isn't a page that's not about humor. There's not a comedian that's ever walked the stage who said, 'Oh, that's off limits.'"      Indeed, Bakst's site is filled with pages that infuse drollery into everything from this year's deaths ("Arthur C. Clarke / 2008: Odyssey over") to "rules" such as the "The Woody Herman Phenomenon" (any musician who wins a lifetime-achievement award is a good candidate to cash it in soon).