By Mark Wineka, Steve Huffman and Elizabeth Cook
news@salisburypost.com
It was a big year for news in Rowan and surrounding counties, and a big year for news of the weird.
Among the stranger things that took place in these parts in 2008:
– The city of Kannapolis took down banners marking the Dale Earnhardt Trail because of an anticipated visit by domestic goddess Martha Stewart.
The move merited national attention, including two mentions in Sports Illustrated magazine.
– In the early evening hours of Oct. 16, two naked women and a male photographer, who was clothed, were spotted on the roof of Salisbury’s three-story Oestreicher Building at 122 S. Main St.
As merchants, their customers and pedestrians watched from the sidewalks and storefronts below, the women struck various poses and frolicked in front of the camera.
“Eyes all over the street went wide, heads swiveled up and mouths dropped open,” one store owner said later. “It was kind of like watching a train wreck. You could not look away.”
Someone eventually called the police, and Officer Matthew Benjamin arrived just as the trio descended from a back fire escape. The officer told them not to return and, if they ever did, he would charge them.
They have not been seen again.
– In late January, Rowan County District Court Judge Kevin Eddinger didn’t take kindly to attorney Todd Paris’ choice of reading materials.
Eddinger held Paris in criminal contempt for reading and displaying in court the men’s magazine Maxim, whose cover featured reality television personality Heidi Montag in lingerie.
Paris had the magazine in his possession while sitting in the front courtroom area reserved for members of the Bar.
Court records said Paris held the magazine in a manner “unavoidably clear” to Eddinger and in the presence of law enforcement officers (including female officers), deputy clerks of court, other attorneys and the general public.
Within nine days of the first contempt order, Eddinger agreed to vacate it and find Paris in civil contempt instead.
Paris, who apologized and said in his view the magazine was not pornographic, had to pay a $500 fine, not the $300 previously ordered in the criminal proceeding. He no longer faced a suspended 15-day jail sentence nor a year of unsupervised probation.
In effect, because the matter was changed to civil contempt, Paris avoided having a criminal record.
This unusual Salisbury case drew national attention and prompted considerable comment and debate on a number of Internet blogs and Web sites. The fact that Montag was linked to the story fueled even more interest.
“It’s against the law to look at her,” read the headline on one Hollywood Web site.
– Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour, a Salisbury native, would rather forget 2008.
It was the year he drew national attention and pleaded no contest to charges that he killed a protected hawk ó with a deadly golf shot.
Isenhour agreed to one year of supervised probation, four hours of anger management classes and 100 hours of community service. Forty hours of the community service must be performed at a wildlife or animal shelter.
He also had to pay a $500 fine.
Isenhour was charged with animal cruelty and killing a migratory bird. He was accused of hitting the hawk with a golf shot when its loud chirps interrupted the filming of an instructional video in Orlando. The incident actually occurred Dec. 12, 2007.
Court documents said Isenhour became upset when the red-shouldered hawk began squawking and forced another take during the taping of an instructional video, “Shoot Like a Pro,” at the Grand Cypress golf course in Orlando.
Isenhour began hitting golf balls toward the bird, which initially was 300 yards away, before giving up. Reports said he started hitting balls at the hawk again when it moved within 75 yards.
He allegedly said, “I’ll get him now,” and on about the eighth shot, Isenhour stuck and killed the bird. The hawk was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators who heard of the incident.
“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” a sound engineer on the shoot said.
Through his management company, SFX Golf, Isenhour said, “As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset. I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”
– In happier bird news, a wild turkey took up residence at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Roseman Road south of Salisbury. After attracting a fair amount of attention, the bird mysteriously disappeared.
No carcass was found, so it was assumed the turkey merely flew the coop.
– On one of summer’s hottest days, an ice cream truck was found abandoned in front of Village Grocery on N.C. 601 after having been stolen.
– The tough economy proves equally tough for abandoned pets. Anne Ingram of Faithful Friends commented on the situation.
“I get calls every day,” she said. “The ones we can take into foster homes, we do, but there are very few because all of our money is going to the building fund.”
– Richard Kelly, a reformed smoker, was featured in the Post and spoke of how tough it was for him to kick the cigarette habit.
“I craved a cigarette so bad, I would dream that a 6-foot pack of Winstons would chase me and say, ‘Smoke me, smoke me.’ ”
– Dale “Mouth of the South” Boone’s win in Faith’s Fourth of July Apple Ugly Eating Contest is questioned because of his drinking of hot tea during the competition.
– A local man crashed his car at the intersection of Innes and Long streets earlier this week, then got out and ran.
He made it about two blocks, then jumped 12 feet off a retaining wall that borders railroad tracks. He was eventually carried to the hospital for injuries sustained in the fall.
“It appears to be alcohol-related,” Salisbury Master Police Officer R.L. Correll said of the chase.
– Thieves stole more than 90 metal vases from City Memorial Park. They were later found at Gordon Iron and Metal in Statesville.
– “Praise the Lord and pass the pepperoni,” said Salisbury attorney Jeff Morris after the Rowan County Planning Board gave Cornerstone Church the OK to operate a takeout/delivery pizza business.
– Buddy, the groundhog at Dan Nicholas Park, emerges briefly from his hole on Groundhog Day, then quickly retreats.
“He is nice and chunky,” said Bob Pendergrass of Dan Nicholas Park. “He has plenty of fat. He can stay down a little longer.”
– Some saw Christ’s image in an oak tree on the lawn of the parsonage of Ebenezer Lutheran Church.
– A Chevrolet Suburban crashed into a huge hog (dubbed “Hogzilla”) on Old Beatty Ford Road near Rockwell.
“I thought it was a bear at first,” said Kenneth Miller, a local resident who heard the crash.
– Woolly worms predicted a rough winter. It has been kind of mixed so far.
– A “liger” (a cross between a lion and a tiger) is born at Tiger World.
– Stacy Frick thought she was experiencing kidney pains. Nope, turns out, she was giving birth to a 7 pound, 6 ounce baby boy.
– Rowan-Cabarrus Community College offers a pair of nutrition classes: “Are Your Genes the Reason Your Jeans Don’t Fit?” and “Are You a Couch Potato Raising Tater Tots?”
Participants raced to enroll.
– China Grove farmer Robert Miller won the prestigious Thunder Road Marathon held in Charlotte.
Ten years ago, Miller was overweight and didn’t exercise.
Then, he started jogging …
– Cafeterias in the Rowan-Salisbury School System pulled meat products (taco and spaghetti sauces, primarily) because of a huge national recall of the products.
– Mike Rowe of The Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” got down and dirty while working at Salisbury’s Old Carolina Brick.
– Gasoline prices climb as high as $4 a gallon in late summer and early fall, but fall to under $1.50 a gallon at some area stations by year’s end.- The former Winn-Dixie building on Jake Alexander Boulevard is considered for a new administrative office for the Rowan-Salisbury School System, prompting a creative headline writer at the Salisbury Post to ask: “Superintendent’s office on aisle seven?”