ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996                  TAG: 9603040067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: & now this . . .

DRESSED FOR SUCCESS?

Paul Holt, Roanoke's infamous fightin' transvestite, was recently featured in a wig-tugging tussle in front of a national television audience.

Holt - who gained local recognition several years ago by a legal challenge that defeated a city ordinance aimed at prostitution - appeared last month on the Jerry Springer Show, a tabloid-TV talk show that explores such topics as "I Love You But I Shouldn't."

Wearing a pants suit, makeup and a wig, Holt professed his forbidden love for a man who was involved in a long-term relationship with a rival drag queen who also is from Roanoke.

Never at a loss for words, Holt dominated the show in typical fashion. When Springer tried to get a word in edgewise, Holt cut him off with the warning: "You're lucky you're cute, Jerry."

But the real fireworks came in a follow-up episode, when a large, bearded man wearing bib-overalls and an Atlanta Braves baseball cap took the stage and issued a challenge to Holt and his female-impersonating ways.

"If they're wearing a dress, they offend me," the man said in what turned out to be fighting words.

The encounter ended with the man ripping off Holt's wig. Several stage hands had to physically restrain Holt, who yelled a warning as he was led away: "I was a boxer before I was a drag queen."

Chicken wire in Rocky Mount?

When Rocky Mount Town Councilman Ben Pinckard read that his local government mates in the city of Roanoke have new security protections, he had an idea of his own.

A bullet-resistance panel was installed beneath Roanoke City Council's dais last year so council members can duck behind it in case an angry citizen shows up and brandishes a gun.

Pinckard, with tongue in cheek, said Rocky Mount council members may be better served by something else.

"I'd opt for chicken wire," he said during a recent council meeting.

Pinckard recalled a scene from the movie "The Blues Brothers," in which the band's music fails to please a crowd in a country and western bar. The rowdy throng then hurls beer bottles at a chicken wire fence in front of the band.

"We could put chicken wire up and let the public have its fun," Pinckard joked.

LENGTH: Short :   49 lines