The top 10 stories of 2009 ... that you probably forgot about

Brace yourselves: If you haven't already been hit by the annual top 10 lists, that time is nigh.

We figure the local media won't leave you wanting for a recap on Sanford, Boeing, unemployment, and a host of other big news that happened to Charleston in 2009. So, we thought we'd talk about the top 10 Charleston-area stories of 2009 that you probably forgot about.

We're going to remind you about absurd local debates, new sports teams, and that guy who got caught having sex with a horse ... twice.

Each day we'll count off one story. You can follow along on the Top 10 of 2009 topic page. (Oh, and, yes, we'll be sure to link you over to the other more newsy top 10 lists.)

Enough suspense already, here's number 10:

#10: Oh, no you didn't ...
just ask me to do a logo on the cheap

All heck broke loose when the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center held a contest to design three new logos.

Mount Pleasant artist Gil Shuler (one of the area's more famous designers) wrote, in part, "This contest is an insult to all hard working designers."

A brief write-up in The Post and Courier followed.

In the end the public squalor seems to have squashed a logo contest that should have attracted non-professionals, and has made the local artist community seem like a bunch of elitist that want $6,500 for every logo.

What is there to show for all the debate? Well, eight months later the Coliseum is still sporting the same logo.

Here's the original posting on the debate and the contest.