Choose which of these is More Appealing

[Cigarettes12]

So for my 3rd letter of recommendation the choices are:

1.A paper letter and personal contact information for a retired teacher who is unwilling to make the recommendation again (terminally sick, says 'too long a time') but who has a slightly more impressive professional reputation

2. A recommendation from a teacher I had like 10 years ago no one would have heard of

Another thing I could pull is putting a line of x's or 1234...in the mandatory spaces of the online application with a notey that says the first person is retired if it will let me do that...which maybe looks a little bit fishy...

I guess if someone were to call the first person they'd say bad things maybe.   Maybe my question is how likely it is that anyone is anyone will ever insist on following up with the first individual.

 

[Cigarettes12]

Well, I ended up going with a different professor so the whole thing was resolved.

[Fledermaus]

I agree that neither is a good choice. I would look for an alternative. Do you need an academic referral? If you have been out of school and in the workplace for a long time then supervisors may be better. You mention that one professor was 10 years ago, have you been out of school that long?