CoverStory

This week, PARADE looks back at the year 2002 in the special issue "The Best & Worst of Everything." Here are more quirky entries from our annual year-end roundup of stories you might have missed. And for your listening pleasure, we present International Whistlers Competition grand champion -- and winner of "Best Lip Service" in this week's issue -- Steve "The Whistler" Herbst, and his rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Best Lip Service From Newsday
(Long Island, N.Y.)

Steve Herbst, the king of lip schtick, knows how to whistle. The purity and power of the sound can take you back to when whistling was as popular as the Seven Dwarfs or Bogart and Bacall. Herbst, 56, was crowned champion at the International Whistlers Convention in Louisburg, N.C. His signature song is the fast and furious Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. "I'd like to be compared to a violin or a flute, not Jethro the hog caller," Herbst said. "Whistling is an idea whose time has returned." Visit www.parade.com to hear Steve hit the high notes.