RECESSION CLAIMS ANOTHER RECESSION CHRONICLER

Like the Chester’s Fried Chicken mascot who merrily cheers his own impending doom (inset), the reporter who doggedly chronicles the lives of the unemployed seems grimly fated to join the unemployed. Last month, Lou Carlozo, who wrote the very good “Recession Diaries” series for the Chicago Tribune, was canned from his job and not even given the opportunity to post a final column about his own situation. Now comes word from reporter Penni Crabtree of the San Diego Union-Tribune, who mentioned this very site in an article last Sunday about recession gallows humor, that she, too, has fallen victim to the ax. “The punch line here is that three days before [the article] ran on the Sunday cover of the Business section, I was notified that I will be among the 192 San Diego Union-Tribune employees who will be laid off July 6,” Crabtree tells us. “Oh well. Look forward to filling out the Breadline Questionnaire. And the reruns of Law & Order.”

—David Kamp