Talk about the worst week ever. It started early Wednesday for Intrepid Potash President Patrick Avery with a report saying that he lied about having two college degrees.

The Denver-based company, the largest fertilizer maker in the country, didn't immediately respond. But later it came out with a statement that said, "We are disappointed in this matter."

By 5 p.m., the company came out with another statement that Avery had resigned, confirming that he didn't have degrees from the University of Colorado or Loyola Marymount University.

By Friday, Avery broke his silence and offered some comments. He said he was "stupid" to falsely claim undergraduate and graduate degrees from two universities.

"I screwed up," Avery, 56, said in an interview from his Littleton home. "I was stupid. I should have fixed it."

In the interview with Bloomberg News, Avery said he didn't receive degrees from CU because he lacked a foreign language course required for graduation.

"I had gone to school for like six years and had an opportunity for a job and the need to begin working," Avery said. He subsequently moved out of the state, he said.

Avery said his academic credentials never came up during his career.

"I kept getting promoted," said Avery, whose 2007 compensation was $834,722, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "I don't remember it as an issue."

For his part, Avery is not splitting hairs. He said the company's reaction was "fair" and he would have done the same.

Intrepid Potash said Avery would serve as an operations consultant for an undetermined period. Avery declined to discuss the consulting work and said he expects to finish college and become a teacher because he enjoys working with children.

"I'm 56 years old and I'll be starting over," Avery said.

Avery owned 83,303 shares of Intrepid Potash as of Jan. 5, according to a regulatory filing. That's worth about $1.95 million based on Thursday's closing share price.

A sour note

A bankruptcy filing this week by Muzak Holdings LLC, the maker of elevator music, hits home with a Colorado company.

Fort Mill, S.C.-based Muzak filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware in Wilmington.

Among its biggest unsecured creditors is Douglas County- based Dish Network, which is owed $251,276.

What about jet lag?

Qwest Communications was given a dubious distinction recently by offering the "worst footnote of the year," according to footnoted.org.

In 2008, the company's relatively new CEO Ed Mueller offered an earnings footnote that detailed an unusual perk Mueller negotiated for himself: the personal use of Qwest's Falcon 2000 corporate jet for his wife and stepdaughter. It appears Mueller didn't want to pull his stepdaugher out of her high school in California's Bay Area, hence the need to jet back and forth to Colorado.

"The image of a teenager living large on the dime of the kind of shareholders that a regional phone company like Qwest attracts (mom and pop and grandma) - and one that hasn't been too generous with dividend payments lately - apparently captivated footnoted readers like nothing else last year. Nearly 60 percent of more than 600 votes cast went for the racy Qwest footnote," footnoted.org said.

Assistant Business Editor Jane Hoback and Deputy Business Editor Gil Rudawsky write about local business news that doesn't necessarily end up in quarterly reports. They can be reached at business@RockyMountainNews.com