Where’s Lola? The Shadow knows
Lady Lola has a little sister, Lady Lola Shadow. Lady Lola, of course, is CdA kingpin Duane Hagadone’s megayacht. And Shadow? She’s a Tidewater Offshore Supply Boat that was converted into a support yacht in 3 ½ months by Quality Shipyards of Houma, La. This according to Boat USA International (October issue). Specifically, Quality Shipyards retrofitted LLS to ferry Duane’s Bell 430 helicopter around the world. Sez Boat USA International: “In addition to the construction of a fully equipped helicopter hangar including workshop, fuel storage, pre-flight air-conditioning, helo starting system, and complete set of spares, existing crew accommodations had to be modified for the chopper’s pilot and mechanic.” Shadow joined Duane and his missus, the original Lola, in the Mediterranean to begin a two-year circumnavigation. And you were wondering how the other half lives?
They protesteth too much
From the floor of the GOP convention Thursday, Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby gave NYPD Blue two thumbs up for keeping the peace despite so many protesting cuh-razies. But he was less enthusiastic about the protesters who aimed F-bombs at his wife as they emerged from a performance of “The Lion King.” Darrell told Huckleberries: “I can see how riots get started. My adrenalin was pumping pretty hard.” The protesters hounded GOP delegates. Darrell described them as “throwbacks to the 1960s hippy days. You had a lot of uninformed kids who didn’t have anything better to do.” How uninformed? Some even hollered about ending the draft. Must be Democrats from Broward County, Fla.
Tornado watch
As I watched Frances bear down on Florida last week, I wondered why anyone would live where tornados and hurricanes roam. And North Idaho College PRmeister Kent Propst, a native Nebraskan, responded: “That’s akin to saying, ‘Why do people eat vegetables and rat poison?’ I grew up within spitting distance of Nebraska’s Tornado Alley and can count on my fingers how many tornadoes I actually saw. With a digit or two left over. There are years when nobody is killed by a tornado in the U.S. of A. They are devastating, and truly scary, but their footprint is narrow and the vast majority of them don’t even touch down.”
Izzat you, Skimble?
Yeah, that refueling depot model at the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe open house last week was bedraggled. And you’d be, too – if you’d been carried here, there and everywhere by company men lobbying elected officials and citizens for permits. And if you’d become the favorite resting place for a stray cat that lived in the construction trailer. The crew took a shine to that cat. One even adopted it. The BNSFers named the mouse catcher, Hauser. But all playgoers know that the Jellicle’s real name is Skimbleshanks, The Railway Cat.
Huckleberries
In Dover, where Sandpoint jumbo Ralph Sletager is planning a ha-huge subdivision, the underground motto for protesters is: “Don’t Ralph on Dover” … When that drunk perv assaulted a 24-year-old Hayden woman on the floating boardwalk late Aug. 26, he yelled, “Ah hah.” What he said after she dropped him into the lake with a right cross to the jaw can’t be printed here. Too bad he didn’t drown … Bumpersnicker on spiffy black convertible with Washington plates: “Saw it, loved it, whined about it, got it.” And now you have to pay for it … A T-shirt message at that Michael W. Smith concert in Riverfront Park: “Live your life so the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral” … How bad can the economy be, wonders John Livingston of Spokane, when steaks sell for $48 and a quarter glass of wine for $15 in teeming Las Vegas? Ask John Kerry.
Parting Shot
Several readers wondered if I’d sold out after seeing that Coeur d’Alene Press photo Friday in which I’m holding the tails of Mayor Sandi Bloem’s tux. It was part of a shoot for a 2005 CdA library fund-raising calendar. Her Sandiness, Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin, Press Editor Mike Patrick and I were dressed up to illustrate the classic, “A Tale of Two Cities.” In other words, it was for a worthy cause. Just be thankful that we weren’t asked to pose nekkid a la “Calendar Girls.”