And the winner is...finally announced!

It was a busy Sunday here at Friday Challenge Control, with the real world intruding by placing one judge on call at work and the other judge holding the first barbecue of the season. Come to think of it, both judges did some barbecuing, though the one on call was limited to just family (but the pork loin was very good). In other words, we didn't get the winner posted on schedule and a certain Monday morning column from an Old Goat didn't get written quite as promised, either. This Old Goat will be posted on Tuesday this week.

Now, here are the judges' thoughts for the entries to That's Just Sick:

M - Welcome to the Friday Challenge! We always love having new writers enter, particularly when they provide well written examples of what the world is calling "flash fiction" these days. Based on the sticker covering the address, it looks like it's not new writing, which is fine. There aren't any rules against entering something you've already written. Good setup, good payoff, good stuff.

Passinthrough - We think we speak for most of us here in saying you have, yet again, shown us a world different from our experiences. Our summer jobs were never so interesting; bagging groceries or general labor. You spend summer fighting forest fires! You provide just enough description of the results of Giardia for us to strongly sympathize with your crew without going overboard. Thank you, again, for inviting us into your world.

torainfor - It's good to visit with Sinead again, and we found this visit quite entertaining. Several of the manifestations of serpent flu were funny, but we laughed out loud at the Greek treasury bond bit. Your entry was well written, as usual, and has us wondering what's next for Sinead. Have you considered putting together an extended series of short stories featuring her? There may not be much of a market for an extended series of short stories in magazines, but maybe an open-minded book publisher would give it a look. Or perhaps you could consider electronic publishing of the short stories? Anyway, Sinead's a treat!

miko - That's an interesting take on the social convention of saying "Bless you" after a sneeze; one that never would have even occurred to us! The build-up of the story is amusing and about as realistic as possible when writing a story about a guy who makes himself sneeze for the blessings. We're not sure if the priest's sneezes were sympathetic or affected or what, but it was a nice touch, as was the resolution. Another excellent entry!

snowdog - We'll admit that we found your idea of making fun of Franken amusing and it might even have scored extra points from certain judges living in the state whose courts were responsible for sending Franken to Washington. We're also glad we were well past any meals when we read it. You definitely handled the gross side of illness quite...grossly. Your story was well written but suffers from one issue we can't get past; the Senate exempts themselves from things like universal health care because they have a much better plan already in place. We know you ignored that bit for humor's sake, but even the best story loses power if the details are wrong.

In the end, we choose M's entry this week. His (assuming the photo attached to his ID is of him) entry is well written, short and funny. It wasn't about being sick, per se -- unless pregnancy gets defined as an illness -- but that's only a minor ding. So come on down and select your prize from behind Door #3! You'll find the instructions for what to do next at the top of the page in Door #3. Congratulations!