[Previous entry: "signs in and around Oahu"] [Next entry: "Hey, Home & Garden TV"]

04/14/2005: "Lunatics R Us"

A couple weeks ago I posted about the local paper having written a story, and complained about the cost-wall in front of the Spokesman-Review site.

Well, various efforts at being able to actually read what Doug Clark wrote have paid off. While Doug was entirely non-responsive to repeated requests for a copy of the article, I managed to find it on-line, via google.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the article. I can't say that Mr. Clark is the most accurate of reporters.


Glover house's new owners aren't laughing, Doug Clark says.
Online prank gives mansion a bad name

Doug Clark
The Spokesman-Review
April 3, 2005

Spokane's Glover Mansion is a marvelous venue. If you're looking for a spooky place to hold a "jail release party," "circumcision celebration" or a "séance," that is.

If that last sentence seems like more of a slam than a sales pitch, welcome to Bob Adolfson's world.

Adolfson, 51, is the current owner of the 1888 landmark former home of James Glover, better known as the "Father of Spokane." His efforts to make the 13,000-square-foot mansion at 321 W. Eighth a profitable destination for weddings and other catered events are being sabotaged, he says, by a Web site dedicated to lampooning his business.

Don't be fooled by the professional appearance of www.glovermansion.com. The site is a nightclub act of barbed one-liners at the Glover Mansion's expense.

On weddings:

"Our elegant ceremonies in the Grand Hall are custom designed to make your event an abiding, cherished memory. Until you get back from the honeymoon and move into your first trailer together. Now where did I put those birth control pills?"

On the service:

"…the Glover Mansion catering staff might meet but never exceed your expectations."

Even old Glover can't escape:

"Tragically, he went bankrupt and was foreclosed on by his banking partners, setting the stage for the rest of Spokane's history of back-stabbing, insider trading and double-dealing."

Adolfson concedes the site is "pretty damned clever." He'd probably be laughing if it wasn't his livelihood being creamed.

He tells of one mother so bothered by the site that she tried to talk her daughter out of getting married at the mansion.

He tells of troubling telephone calls. "They say, 'What in God's name are you doing?' They're just in shock."

So who's behind all this?

Easy. It's Jim and Jamie Thompson, former Glover owners.

The why is harder to answer.

Adolfson bought the mansion from the couple last September. The Thompsons, he contends, launched the satirical Web site about a month ago in retaliation for his refusal to buy their Glover Mansion domain name.

"Jim asked me for $6,000 for the Web site and URL, to which I said no," says Adolfson, adding that he had an official non-satirical site built (http://theglover mansion.com/) for half the money.

Trouble is, it is the Thompsons' spoof site that pops up first whenever the words "Glover Mansion" are entered into an Internet search engine.

Jamie says their site was not created out of any financial concerns or spite. Rather, it was done "as therapy to get over the pain of living in Spokane. It was not a pleasant experience. It's self-parody is what it is. Anybody who reads that should very quickly realize that this is parody."

Jamie and Jim bought the Glover Mansion for $595,000 in 2003, according to a news report. They moved in with high hopes of turning the ornate Kirtland Cutter- designed structure into a lucrative, multi- faceted operation. The couple pumped an additional $250,000 into improvements. The Thompsons now live in Hawaii.

Asked if she can see why Adolfson is so upset, Jamie offers a somewhat cryptic response: "He didn't want the Web site, so …" She lets the last word dangle.

There have been some interesting alterations to the snarky Web site over the last few days. The Glover Mansion telephone number has been removed. And every page is now marked with the words "this site is a parody."

"Satire and parody are covered by the First Amendment," Jamie adds.

But is the domain name still for sale? "Yeah, sure," she offers. "Everything's for sale."

I won't kid you. The parody Web site is funny. Plus it has bonuses. There's a hilarious link to the "Ghostbuster Gals" – two local women who claim to have encountered the undead within the Glover Mansion.

Ghosts and ghouls. Just what every bride-to-be wants to hear when selecting that perfect wedding location.

But as funny as it is, the Web site isn't very nice. The Thompsons know exactly what they are doing.

"We're a start-up business," complains Adolfson. "This makes us look like lunatics."