Everybody in New York is up in arms about the last will and testament of Leona Helmsley, the deeply unpleasant hotelier notorious for her vicious s treatment of her employees. She left a billion-dollar will in which she cut off two of her grandchildren “for reasons they know.” Even more striking, however, was the $12 million bequest for her dog, Trouble.

One has to wonder: Was Leona Helmsley a fan of the 1960s TV show “Green Acres”? Because Trouble the dog’s newfound wealth resembles nothing so much as the “Green Acres” plotline involving Arnold Ziffel, a highly intelligent pig who is left $10 million in someone’s will and hires our hero, the one-time big-city lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas, to represent him. Note that, in constant dollars, that $10 million would be roughly $55 million today. Even in death, Leona Helmsley proved to be a relative cheapskate.