Previously:
The Deng Xiaopeng Provision
The Pol Pot Provision
and
The Gary DeVore Provision

This is an obscure little rule that has yet to be used (and, in fact, might never be), but we here at stiffs.com are proud, nonetheless, just to have it at the ready. It was originally named for the recently deceased Chinese leader who, some believed, had already died, since he hadn’t been seen in public for a couple of years. This turned out not to be true, as we learned from subsequent newspaper headlines. A similar situation then existed in the case of the Cambodian dictator for whom the provision was briefly renamed. He hadn’t made an appearance outside of the Khmer Rouge picnic grounds for at least 10 years, and there were rumors of his passing during that time. Then, like the Dengster, old Double P surfaced just as he bit the dust. Which left us with the relatively uninteresting Gary DeVore, who was a somewhat successful screenwriter until he disappeared on his way home from some kind of a project meeting with Marsha Mason. For a while there, nobody knew what happened to him. In fact, it was just long enough for us to name this rule after him, and then the son of a bitch turned up dead. Enough with the renaming, we said.

What it boils down to is that people who’ve been missing for awhile are only good for the date they actually died, whenever that turns out to be. So, if the official word is that some schmoe on your list died in ’97, then you don’t get any credit for having him this year. You don’t even get any retroactive credit if you had him then, although we’re hoping this doesn’t come up ’cause it’d probably be kinda messy. We will say, however, without reservation, that prize money, once awarded, will not be redistributed. Is that clear? Please say yes.