Incredibly, as part of the same entry that he screwed up with Sagan, Russell included the name of Jackie Robinson’s brother, hoping to pass him off as a celebrity after reading of his imminent demise in The Yukon Yakker. No dice, Admiral Byrd, but thanks for trying, ’cause the ensuing argument over whether or not Mack should count (and the mess that was made of the house in the process) made it clear to us that we had to do something different.

See, back then, we used to let the group mind (love that phrase) decide at the annual Dead Pool Party just who qualified as a celebrity and who didn’t. It kinda worked, too, until the goddamned internet made us too big for such a quaint system and we had to change it. We already had people yelling and breaking stuff, and with The Invitational doubling in size every year, it was clear that we needed an objective reference to turn to. Naively, we decided on the Associated Press as our sole criterion for fame, and, feeling pretty proud of ourselves, we named the new rule after ol’ Mack. Now, years later, both Mack and the rule are dead. We tried resuscitating the latter with The Andrew Rypien Adjustment and a couple of other desperate measures, but to no avail. You win, Mack. The revision is history.