There was an ex-Hagadone staffer
Who carried a grudge ever after
Every chance he got,
He took a cheap shot.
But, sadly, the facts didn't matter.

Rick Thomas/Brand X biz writer

DFO: I was blind-sided by this shot by Thomas. Couldn't figure out why he was ragging on me -- until I reviewed my files and found a Peanut Gallery e-mail from The Edge here. Seems Thomas wrote in an Oct. 27 column that he'd dropped his company insurance. Quoth: "...the bottom line is a premium of $600 a year off an already slim take-home."

So, Thomas decided to earn a coupla brownie points in his Wednesday column by defending The Boss -- and by outting me as a disgruntled former employee. Shazam. Whatta revelation. I've told everyone who is anyone in this town that I used to be The Duane's editor in Kalispell and that I got canned in May 1982 for not kowtowing to his son, Brad, my darkroom technician. That was a good day careerwise. I escaped the Hagadone chain, which places little value on news gathering (and, as Thomas points out, pays very poorly), and landed on my feet as a news editor on the Lewiston Tribune, one of the best small papers in the country.

Bottom line? Thomas' poetry isn't bad. When he finally has had enough of Brand X or gets his walking papers, I could use him as a pinch-hit rhymer when The Bard of Sherman Avenue is on vacation.

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