And the winner is...

Great turn out this week, just like last week. For fairly obvious reasons, we get more entries when the challenge doesn't require several thousand words (like this week's challenge probably will). How many of you would like to see more challenges that require no more than 1000 words? I'll take the answers into account when selecting future challenges.

Now, on to this week's entries.

snowdog got us off to a fast start, posting his letter of recommendation before anyone had even begun commenting on the entries from the previous week's challenge. Even so, the term "snowdogging" will still refer to someone who posts an entry well past the deadline. He scored an early laugh with "(mmm, mmm, mmm) Barack Hussein Obama" and ends with a nice shafting of Obama's association with ACORN. The part in between seem like a combination of sarcasm and weasel words, rather than straight weaseling. It was good sarcasm, though!

Vidad gave us another brief glimpse into the inner workings of his mind. It was strange and funny and weird but a bit short of weasel words. Remind me to get you to write a letter of recommendation for me next time I'm in the job market. (The idea is to have your resume stand out and what better to accomplish that than a letter from Vidad?)

Giraffe hits on all weaseling cylinders in his letter of recommendation, scoring big with "unlimited potential for improvement" and "most of us would consider him a great addition to your team." Short, sweet and to the weaseling point. Nice!

Practical Mystic makes a first appearance in the Friday Challenge. Welcome and we hope you stick around! Having worked with people who immediately forwarded virus-laden email to all employees, I particularly liked "Despite having no IT background or experience, Bernard made sure that everyone in the building was always up to date on the latest virus threat or internet scam." The rest of the letter is filled with equally high quality weasel words. Good first entry, PM!

Wes was a name I was pretty sure I recognized but which I hadn't seen in these parts in a good while. Wes wrote a strong letter of recommendation to move Ted Kennedy from Hell to Heaven. The bit about the "Lion of the Senate" and "Collect them all!" caused me to laugh out loud. You get extra points for skewering Bill Clinton along the way. Good stuff!

Miko, a winner last week with his very first challenge entry, chose not to retire undefeated. He returned with a good weasel word letter. My favorite part came early when Miko wrote "...is dedicated to getting along with team members, and is always willing to drop any task (no matter how important) to tend the morale of a stressed coworker, even should doing so consume the whole day." But he also scores big when he says the coworker is ready to adopt the prevailing opinion, something I've seen far too often. Nicely done!

rycamor hasn't entered a challenge in a while but returns with a very strong entry that was the fan favorite this week. Every word carries the ring of the true weasel, especially "...he never once expected me to take responsibility for the eventual solution we arrived at." And then there was this line; "I believe I speak for all my co-workers when I say "please", give him a chance to show what he can do." In fact, there is such the ring of true weaseling to this letter that I wonder if rycamor isn't writing about someone he works with or has worked with in the past.

I felt all of the entries this week were very strong in places but, in the end, I felt the most consistently weaseling letter was the one written by rycamor, with Giraffe a close second. It wasn't an easy decision as there was great material from each of you. rycamor, come on down and select your prize from behind Door #3. Note that I've changed the email address displayed on that page. It will go to me and then I'll forward it on to Karen.

Great job, everyone!