I'm a loser, baby

First, I wanted to acknowledge reader D.B. Echo, who managed to get an acknolwedgement of Al's passing into his newspaper as a letter to the editor. From him (as originally commented on CC):

I’m still rather pissed about the mainstream media generally ignoring Al Scaduto’s passing. So much so that I decided that if my local paper (which carries They’ll Do It Every Time) was not going to mention it on their own, I would make them mention it.

My plan worked, and my letter made it into their Letters to the Editor page. Unfortunately, some good stuff was trimmed at then end. Here is the letter in its original format, with the edit shown in bold. Please feel free to copy and revise for your own local papers.

Al Scaduto died on Saturday, December 8 at the age of 79.

If you don’t know who Al Scaduto is, turn to the comics section of the weekday version of the Citizens’ Voice and look at the lower left-hand corner. Al Scaduto has single-handedly written and illustrated the one-panel comic They’ll Do It Every Time for the past eighteen years, and prior to that co-wrote it as part of the team of Dunn and Scaduto.

Al Scaduto was a gem of a man, gentle, kind, and polite, as noted on the blog The Comics Curmudgeon (joshreads.com) in comments by his many fans, correspondents, and even several family members. Sadly, his passing has gone almost completely unnoticed by the mainstream media. He was loved, and will be missed.

Thanks for sharing, and great job.

On to today's strip. I'm fine with the premise of the strip (guy never wins anything, but the one time he is chosen randomly, it's to find something bad in his food) (he probably also gets chosen to sit on the jury of the trial that lasts forever, and his employer won't pay him for that time, so he only gets the $15/day or whatever). It's the specificity of him finding a stone in his food. That just seems so bizarre, that I have to wonder whether L. Gerner suggested it. I mean, of anything to find in his food, I wouldn't think "stone." But hey, maybe he can be a winner in the end. I bet that since he obviously needs dental work, he can probably sue the caterer (maybe even the location of the event) and get the money for that, and probably damages to boot. I'd tell him to look on the bright side, but that has to be tough when your name is "Loozer."