The Return of Deedee | Deep End | Salt Lake City Weekly

The Return of Deedee 

How former SLC Mayor Corradini got back in the news.

Pin It
Favorite
art8760widea.jpg

It made my day, big time. There it was, buried in the second paragraph of a story in The Salt Lake Tribune about Jon Huntsman Sr.’s 20,000-square-foot Deer Valley hideaway being put on the market for $55 million.

The headline and first paragraph alone were enough to get me fulminating about conspicuous consumption, unconscionable extravagance and wretched excess. But, before I could get too worked up, there was an almost throwaway reference that made me want to stand up and cheer. It was a moment all-too-rare in the daily slog of this thing we call life, where surprises have ceased to surprise and eruptions of bliss fizzle like a dud sparkler at a 24th of July picnic.

In a mere millisecond, my eyeballs registered the printed letters, the letters resolved themselves into words, the words slotted themselves into a sentence, and that sentence flashed along the synapses of the cerebral cortex to produce a feeling that can only be described as unalloyed joy. Please join me—I’ve re-read the words innumerable times and repetition has not deflated my joy—in experiencing for yourselves a delicious burst of ecstasy:

“The listing agent, Deedee Corradini, said it had been on the market for approximately two months.”

Deedee Corradini! Listing agent! My God, that girl’s got game.

I cannot even begin to parse the pleasure that surged through every system in my earthly body upon reading, “The listing agent, Deedee Corradini.” The reverse order, “Deedee Corradini, the listing agent,” would have been delicious, but not quite as piquant. You need Deedee just tossed into the sentence, almost as an after-thought, like a pinch of salt.

What do they say? We murder to dissect. And the last thing I want to do is deep-six the living joy occasioned by listing agent, Deedee Corradini. Rather than dissect, therefore, I prefer to celebrate that joy by keeping the tasty morsel in my mouth and savoring the cascade of flavors that combined to create this delicious dish.

Over the past several years, I have not infrequently been stopped in my tracks by the question, “Whatever happened to Deedee?” As you know, there is a long and honored tradition of contemplating the fate of the famous and infamous alike. “Ubi sunt?” Where are they now?

A large number of those who have achieved some measure of celebrity skulk off the public stage and sink like stones. When the ripples subside, they are heard from no more, drowned in the heavy sea of oblivion. One thinks of such former local luminaries as Tom Welch, the late Frank Joklik, and erstwhile Mayor Ross “Sparky” Anderson. But Deedee was one of those figures who so captured the public imagination that it was impossible to shake her from our collective consciousness, sort of like a pesky burr that sticks to your hiking socks.

When, for example, Sparky Anderson’s name surfaced in connection with the Kiss of the Gay Guys on the Plaza Formerly Known as Main Street, it took me several seconds to re-ignite Sparky from the damp mists of time. The spark had long since died. But, when Deedee emerged from the memory hole, it wasn’t merely with a warm glow of recognition, it was with a hot, gem-like flame of revelation.

You knew that the Lady in Red would return to us someday soon; the question was, in what guise? As an aspirant for public office, perhaps governor, or even senator? As Mit Romney’s running mate in 2012, with Mit (he downsized his name last year) out- McCaining McCain by picking a female, and a Democrat female, at that? (Sarah Palin, I knew Deedee Corradini, she was a friend of mine, and Ms. Palin, you are no Deedee Corradini.) No, we should have known that she would delight and dazzle us in a totally unexpected, yet absolutely fitting, fashion.

Listing agent, Deedee Corradini!

Let it be known that entering the field of real estate is not an example of How the Mighty Have Fallen. No way! Deedee is n o t selling a fixer-upper in Holladay, or hosting an open house for a bungalow in Sugar House. The former mayor of Hicksville is stepping up in the world, reinventing herself as a beautiful person in the hippest place west of Wendover— namely, Park City, joining others who have lifted themselves up by their bootstraps by becoming realtors, like half the population of Park City, the most famous all being former porn superstar Harry Reems.

Deedee, welcome back!

Pin It
Favorite

More by D.P. Sorensen

  • The Dog in Winter

    For some, December is the cruelest month.
    • Dec 18, 2013
  • The Cool Factor

    Anything Pope Francis can do, Utahns can do better
    • Dec 11, 2013
  • Road Rage

    Cyclists pay more attention to spandex than street signs
    • Dec 4, 2013
  • More »

Latest in Deep End

  • The Dog in Winter

    For some, December is the cruelest month.
    • Dec 18, 2013
  • The Cool Factor

    Anything Pope Francis can do, Utahns can do better
    • Dec 11, 2013
  • Road Rage

    Cyclists pay more attention to spandex than street signs
    • Dec 4, 2013
  • More »

© 2024 Salt Lake City Weekly

Website powered by Foundation