Attention shoppers: Big boats for sale

Huckleberries hears from an impeccable source that Duane Hagadone is selling his big boats – Lady Lola and Lady Lola Shadow. You can buy them separately or as a package deal with all the accompanying toys – $65 mil and change for LL and $13 mil for her Shadow. Or you can buy them as a package for about $75 mil. For that, you get two-year-old Lady Lola – 205.5 feet, max speed 15 knots, range 4,000 nautical miles at 14 knots and eight pages of goodies including a retractable golf and automatic teeing system on the sundeck aft – and 185-foot Lady Lola Shadow and a 21-foot, three-man submarine, a 32-foot Stan-Craft shuttle boat, a 135 mph Eliminator 36 performance boat, and a 1960s style Amphicar. Dunno if the Bell 430 Executive helicopter is part of the deal. If you couldn’t afford to buy the chopper separately, however, you shouldn’t expect Duane to offer to sell his boats on an installment plan – you know, $100 down, $100 per month.

Galapagos scare

From the Charles Darwin Foundation News Bulletin: “On March 3, the 83-ton vessel Lady Lola, with 15 crew aboard, ran aground in the Itabaca Channel between Baltra and Santa Cruz islands, raising fears of a potential oil spill. Fortunately, the Lady Lola’s double hull ensured no leaks occurred and the Insular Crisis Committee, headed by the Ecuadorian Navy to deal with such contingencies, was able to transfer the ship’s fuel to another vessel and help its safe refloating. There was no need for action.” Whew.

Cowboy up

Mike Wimmer was standing in line at a Post Falls biz Nov. 1 when he noticed the sales clerk’s excitement as she waited on a lanky, clean-cut cowboy. Two femme shoppers were smitten, too. So, Mike eyed the stranger closer. Nothing. After the man left, Mike asked what the fuss was about. The women were acting as if they’d just seen country singer Kenny Chesney. Which they had. Chesney? Mike asks. You mean that guy who sings at State Line (Kelly Hughes). Last week, Chesney’s star soared higher when the singer won entertainer of the year and album of the year at the Country Music Association awards. Mike’s still not impressed. After all, he once stepped on Kris Kristofferson’s boot on an escalator. “If it’d been Shania Twain,” Mike summarizes, “my mouth would have dropped. She’s lovely.”

A rock, a hard place

At Hayden Elementary, the second-graders were writing letters to our troops in Iraq when one of the 7-year-olds looked up in confusion. What are our soldiers doing in Iraq? he wondered. A young protester in the making? Nah, he simply couldn’t understand how troops could be trapped in “a rock” … Quotable Quote: “As most of you know, I worked over at Potlatch for about a hundred years. During that time we were accused of all kinds of things, from polluting to clear-cutting. Some of it was true” – ex-Potlatch jumbo John Richards, tongue firmly cheeked, while presenting a company grant to the EXCEL Foundation recently.

Huckleberries

“Such lovely leaves/Are made by Thee,/So why not keep/Them on the tree?” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Prayer While Raking”) … Concluding his report on a hunter who was shot near Avery, a KHQer solemnized that hunter’s orange isn’t required – in Oregon … Disturbing T-shirt message at Post Falls High: “When I snap, you’ll be the first on the list” … A friend who called a listed number about an apartment received this response: “Let me guess. You’re using a phone book that’s at least two years old.” Bingo … Loopy bumpersnicker at a Liberty Lake veterinarian clinic: “Meat is murder.”

Parting shot

Of all the rock-the-voters, sez Aaron Short of Sandpoint High’s Cedar Post, P. Diddy was the silliest with his slogan: “Vote or Die.” Reasons the Cedar Chips columnist: “Nothing makes me want to support the democratic process more than a rapper with a history of firearm misconduct telling me to vote or die.” Aaron didn’t – vote that is. He isn’t 18. Sums up Aaron: “Your move, Diddy.” Ready, aim, fire.