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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Remembering the Crocodile Hunter
Cherub Charu had a good idea but didn’t execute it well – she went out to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies out west to talk to people about the sad, shocking death of Steve Irwin.

Charu didn’t get a lot of reaction quotes. She mostly talked to the aquarium’s director of animal husbandry, who gave us the same explanation’s about sting ray’s – they’re usually gentle and just use that barbed tail of theirs for protection.

Charu did get some video of the cool little area where anyone can pet a sting ray in a shallow pool. Don’t worry – the rays have had those barbs removed.

Anyway, Irwin’s impact was incredible, as witnessed by all the outpouring of emotion over his death.

Bear takes a fall
A bear cub fell off a mountainside out in Fairview Tuesday evening, tumbling down and landing next to the road along Highway 74-A at Minehole Gap.

A motorist saw it and reported it, and that sent wildlife officials and cops out to help the stunned bear. WLOSers said officials were going to trap it, make sure it was healthy, then eventually release again into the wild.

An exercise in deep-sea driving
That’s how Sheraldo described driving the streets of Hendersonville Tuesday after storms dropped a bunch of rain down there. Several streets were closed, and everything was apparently over by early afternoon.

But that didn’t stop Sheraldo from pulling out the vivid descriptions and muscular verbs. One driver, headed through axle-deep water and “turned her car into a boat,” Sheraldo said. Way to get after it, Sheraldo.

How does it rain?
Mike “Cuervo” Cuveas said it rained 3 inches in 48 hours at the Asheville airport, a new record. Cuevas, who was sporting newly trimmed and dyed hair, said other places around the mountains got even more rain than that.

In describing the rain, Cuervo first said it rained “in droves.” Then he said it came down “in buckets.” We think you need to work on your presentation, there, Cuevas.

Drunken driving arrests
Lots of people were arrested and charged with driving while impaired.

Meanwhile, back in Henderson County…
Julie Blunder said somebody was claiming there was oil in floodwaters in Bat Fork Creek near Blue Ridge Community College. A couple of area business people said they thought the oil slick might have come from the nearby firemen’s training college, where there’s apparently a storage tank they light up for practice.

But an emergency official, Rocky Hyder, said there’s no way to tell for sure where the oil came from until the floodwaters recede. There are several businesses along the creek that could be suspects. Hyder said the oil didn’t pose a health hazard.

In other news…
Madison Middle School will test water for lead. The school has missed two deadlines for testing. The school says its water is safe… The Altec manufacturing plant in Burnsville wants to hire 50 new workers by year’s end to operate machines that use lasers for cutting or something. Pay will be more than $10 an hour… Trevi restaurant is for sale. The restaurant’s current owner announced last week that he was closing and declaring bankruptcy because it would take too long to recover financially from a hepatitis A scare… And Pat Simon, the newest WLOSer, explained property taxes and the city and county budget to us. Not sure why it was news, but there you go.

Le’s punfest of the day
John “Punnyman” Le let the puns fly Tuesday with story about a local woodworker who has fashioned new fly swatters. The new-fangled fly swatters, which sell for $40 and up, have fancy painted wooden handles.

Le said the artist, think his name was Rob Helm or something, had created “one fly makeover” with the new twist. Le had something about a “swat team.” When Le couldn’t come up with a pun, he rhymed words, talking about “insect extinguishers” and such.

The fancy swatters will be featured on a segment of HGTV called “That’s Clever,” Le said.

Run over cub scout: ‘Don’t get off moving things’
WLOSer Terrie Foster had an interview with the cub scout that got run over by the float he was riding on at the Canton Labor Day parade. Seven-year-old Zac Shanken looked fine, and pulled up his shirt to show the camera a tire track on his back.

Zac said he tried to hop off the moving float when his foot caught on something.
“One foot got caught in the wheel and sling-shotted me to the ground,” he told Terrie. The pack treasurer, Shirley Farmer, was driving the float and said when she heard the commotion and stopped, she felt awful. Zac said, “I was so screaming. I couldn’t believe it.”

The surly scoutmaster said next time, we’ll make sure everyone is seated and seat-belted in and we have to remember to have proper adult supervision. Then Terrie noted that there were 9 adults riding with 14 scouts, and the driver said the boys were well-behaved. Terrie quoted the parents as saying they’re not going to sue anyone, so everything should be fine. If that little redneck had been seriously injured, you know they would have lawyered up in a heartbeat.

Did the kid learn a lesson, Terrie asked? “Yeah. Don’t get off moving things,” Zac said.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

2 Comments

  1. Ash September 6, 2006

    you are so right, spackle, you little english major you! lol. thanks for setting me straight.

    Reply
  2. spackle September 6, 2006

    Insect extiguishers is alliteration, or more properly assonance. It in no way rhymes, lol.

    But yes, Johns puns were bad.

    Reply

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