LOCAL PRIDE TAKES A TUMBLE

If there's one thing the people of High Point, North Carolina are agreed on, it's their pride in American Idol winner and local girl Fantasia Barrino. Which means, actually, there's nothing they agree on as a campaign has begun to have Welcome to High Point, home of Fantasia Barrino signs removed.

We're a little surprised they put them up in the first place - wouldn't it be better to have a something to welcome visitors that's going to go stale a little less quickly, like a pot of yoghurt or some bread?

Fantasia has upset the people from her town by describing it as "the Land of the Dead" in the book she wrote where she told how she couldn't read or write, and now locals Kyle Sandler and Jennifer English are running a website which sets out to disprove Fantasia's characterisation of their town as the sort of dull place with small-minded people who have so little to do in their lives they'd turn a passing slight in a minor celebrity's ghost written book into a major issues.

The wonderfully named local mayor, Becky Smothers, has insisted the signs are staying:

"There's a lot more serious things happening right now than Fantasia's signs," she said.

God alone knows what that could be - is the local International House of Pancakes applying to erect a new lit fascia? An outbreak of double parking down by the mall?

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