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Non-violent protest, 1990s-style

After seven years of getting nowhere with complaints about the noise from the racetrack next door, Junior Medlin decided to make some noise of his own. So he put up 11 security horns that blare a high-pitched, siren-like sound during the Saturday night auto races at the County Line Raceway in Elm City, N.C.

Those horns, in turn, have led Medlin’s neighbor to put up a 4-by-8-foot sign that reads, “In My Opinion, World’s Most Annoying Neighbor.” The sign has an arrow pointing at Medlin’s house.

“Whenever he turns his noise on, I go out and uncover this sign,” says James Richardson, a 14-year resident who plans on moving shortly.

Medlin, 70, has complained to the sheriff’s department and the governor, concluding that the horns - installed last spring at a cost of about $750 - are “the only way I could get attention.”

He says the sirens’ wail bounces the automobile noise back at the track.

Don’t mess with these wives

A California woman has sued the wives of three current and two ex-Miami Dolphins over an alleged assault in a San Diego hotel last January.

According to the civil suit filed in April in San Diego, Elizabeth Reyna Barrack claims she was “assaulted, kicked, battered, struck, hit, punched, slapped, scratched and pummeled.”

The women named in the lawsuit are LaTonia Cox (wife of linebacker Bryan), Angel Parmalee (wife of running back Bernie) and Jacqueline Fryar (wife of wide receiver Irving). Also named are Melanie Jackson (spouse of former Dolphins tight end Keith Jackson) and Shonda Ingram (wife of former receiver Mark Ingram).

Barrack is seeking more than $100,000 for pain and suffering and $6,000 in medical expenses.

“It’s about time somebody is in trouble besides me,” Bryan Cox said before practice on Wednesday.

Doug Barker, who represents Fryar and Ingram, said Barrack, a Chargers fan, recognized the Dolphins’ wives and “began to deride” them in a hotel dining room after the game on Jan. 8 - a 22-21 Miami loss.

Stan no longer the man

Stan Thomas’ career as a tackle for the Houston Oilers ended after he engaged in a knockdown, drag-out brawl … with a teammate in the locker room.

His opponent was rookie center Hicham ElMashtoub, and Thomas will be fired when he is taken off the injury list because he admitted he started it. Injury list? “Oh yeah,” Bill Plaschke points out in the Los Angeles Times. “Thomas was head-butted so hard that a wound was opened and stitches were required.

“It figures,” Plaschke adds. “Earlier this season, our hero Thomas was robbed at gunpoint by a woman who stole his Mercedes-Benz and everything in it … except a couple of Oiler caps.”

In other words, he’d been robbed of all his valuables.

The last word …

“If you want to know what it’s like playing special teams, take off all of your clothes … stand across the street from your driveway, run across the street trying to avoid cars hitting you, smack into your garage door and then get up and do it again five or six times.”

- Steve Hendrickson, Philadelphia Eagles, as quoted in Pro Football Weekly

, DataTimes