By Tom Dalton
SALEM — President Bush's dog, Barney, made news last week when he bit a Reuters TV reporter who bent over to pat him. The little Scottish terrier actually drew blood. The whole thing was caught on film and made it to YouTube.
There was a lot of joking that Barney was upset that the Republicans had lost the election and that the Bushes are headed out of the White House.
Although the presidential pooch has his defenders, it turns out this is not the first time Barney has gone ballistic. Two months ago, he bit our own Heather Walker, the Celtics public relations director from Salem.
If you recall, the Celtics were invited to the White House in September to receive congratulations from President Bush for winning the NBA championship. As the team headed into the White House, Walker was at the back of the pack.
"I walked into the White House and in the first area you walk into, there are Miss Beazley (Mrs. Bush's Scottish terrier) and Barney," Walker said. "They were sitting on this Oriental rug, and I just reached down to pat Barney and he attacked me."
The dog bit her on the wrist and drew blood.
"Oh, my God, you've got to be kidding," Walker recalls saying. "I couldn't believe the president's dog bit me."
As she tells this story, Walker is laughing. You have to realize this is a woman who owns a yellow Lab and is absolutely crazy about dogs. A few months ago, she tried to rescue a pit bull trapped on a rock off Salem Willows with the tide coming in. She got the Fire Department to help and didn't leave until she was sure the dog was safe.
Walker didn't say a word about the Barney incident until a reporter asked her about it earlier this week.
"I just wanted to keep it under the radar," she said. "I'm a huge dog lover."
As Walker stood in the White House bleeding and in shock, Celtics trainer Ed Lacerte came to her aid. "He just took a look at it and gave me some bandages," she said.
No, she didn't get a shot.
"I figure the dog is pretty well-kept," Walker said.
The police log
If you're ever feeling blue and need a little pick-me-upper, you might consider reading the Salem police log.
Let's begin with last Friday.
A resident on Federal Street called police to complain that a religious group showed up at his front door belittling him and calling him derogatory names. The resident said he believes the visitors were Franciscans from upstate New York looking for a friend who had left their monastery.
Yeah, that sounds just like the Franciscans. ...
On Monday, police went to a neighborhood off Marlborough Road for a report of "a woman in a tree." It turns out a man had hired a tree service to cut down a branch from a neighbor's tree that was hanging over his yard. The owner of the tree didn't want the branch cut and so climbed up onto the limb, police said.
Police told the woman up in the tree that her neighbor had a right to cut the offending limb and that she should "get out of the tree before she fell."
The story apparently ended happily. The neighbor decided not to cut the branch, and the woman climbed down from the tree.
On Saturday, the owner of a martial arts studio in South Salem told police that he had been assaulted by the owner of a business in the same building, who was upset about the noise coming from his classes. The other business?
A yoga studio.
The martial arts instructor said the yoga studio owner "grabbed him by the arm and shoved him against the wall."
This can't be good for business — either business.
Beltway Joe
Former City Planner Joe Walsh has landed a big job in Washington, D.C.
No, not at the White House.
He will work for Adrian Fenty, mayor of the District of Columbia. Walsh will head the Department of Employment Services, a trouble spot that ran into big budget problems last summer.
Walsh, 42, who was city planner under Mayor Stanley Usovicz, most recently was director of policy and planning for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
His new job will pay $160,000, according to washingtonpost.com.
Keeping it clean
With flu season just around the corner, the North Shore Medical Center has launched a campaign stressing the importance of hand washing.
But instead of just telling patients to use soap and water, they have put up posters throughout Salem Hospital featuring staff members holding up their clean hands. There are doctors and nurses on the posters, even some of the computer folks.
Playing off the popular "Got Milk?" advertisements, the promotion is called "Got Clean Hands?"
Movie mania
Film fanatics, get your calendars ready.
Salem Film Fest 2009 will run from Feb. 26 to March 5, featuring downtown after-parties, filmmaker discussions and an official Oscar Party on Feb. 22.
The full slate of films will be released sometime next month on the festival's Web site, www.salemfilmfest.com.
The city hosted the first-ever Salem Film Fest last year, drawing hundreds of movie buffs to CinemaSalem, where more than two dozen independent films and documentaries were screened over seven days.
Staff writer Chris Cassidy contributed to this story.
