Tears along the way

Depending on your belief system or his mood, Ted Turner is either a saintly philanthropist or, well, something else again.

“I’m one of the few examples of a very wealthy person that’s given himself to the edge of poverty,” Turner said on Joe Scarborough’s Morning Joe MSNBC show Wednesday.

“I don’t want to leave my family with an unpaid funeral bill,” Turner said, implying that if can just live on bread and water and shop only at the 99 Cent Store he might squeak by.  “I’m trying to save a little bit of money to at least cover my expenses.”

Turner is the largest private land owner in America with 15 ranches and a total area of 1,910,585 acres.

And he does admit to still having a few million dollars in cash socked away.  And of course he continues to get an income from Turner Enterprises.