Quirky, extraordinary stories highlight 2011

SALT LAKE CITY — An American Fork dad spent a school year embarrassing his teenage son, standing outside his home in a different costume each weekday and waving at the school bus.

A Vernal man involved in a dispute over a $25 medical bill decided to settle the debt by unloading 2,500 pennies onto the receptionist's counter at the clinic.

And an outbreak of horse herpes forced contestants in the Davis County Sheriff's Mounted Posse Junior Queen Contest to ride around the fairgrounds arena on stick horses.

"It's kind of weird, but you can't really help that the disease is going around," said former posse queen Savanna Steed in May.

These were among the most read and talked about stories published in the Deseret News in 2011. The three stories, each lighthearted and quirky in their own way, attracted national attention and proved once again that regular people doing extraordinary or unusual things is a recipe for a special news story.

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