Ray Ring

Senior Editor

This is really funny and worth a few minutes of online listening.

First the setup:

Gazillionaire Duane Hagadone calls most of the shots in the resort town of Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and the surrounding territory. He owns the skyscraper resort hotel and marina that dominate downtown, and the daily newspaper and other nearby newspapers, mansions, luxury cars etc etc etc. Thus, he pulls a lot of political strings.

Now Hagadone is building a new mansion on the shore of Lake Couer d’Alene. And he wants it equipped with a huge dock, suitable for at least two cruise ships, and a floating helipad, so he can fly in and out easily.

In a rare display of backbone, Idaho’s state lands department, which has authority over the lake’s surface, told Hagadone that he can’t have the helipad and huge dock because they would take up too much of the public’s water. The standard news story is here.

In the Very Unstandard Department, Doug Clark, a columnist for Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, has written a couple of funny columns about it, here and here, and a song, “The Duane B. Hagadone Blues.”

As Clark writes:

There’s only one thing for a fellow to do when faced with the bitter disappointment of not getting a helipad.

Sing the blues.

That’s right. Singing the blues has long been a way for the downtrodden and oppressed super-rich to shake off their petty inconveniences.

(By the way, if you want more background, High Country News had a cover story on Hagadone back in 1996, here.)

Anyway if you do nothing else that’s amusing today, at least do this: To listen to the columnist singing the rich-guy’s blues, click here.