Elvin Perelli walked out the front door to look at his new car. Elvin was very proud of his investment, a bright, shiny Lexus with a leather interior...with a lease that in about a year-and-a-half he wouldn't be able to afford. But for now, he was happy with his life: new house, new car, new wife, and twins on the way. A two-car garage was his boyhood dream. And he was in the “business” -- location manager for the hit Saturday morning kids' show “Fillmore High School, U.S.A.”. Now he had it all.…
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Added by Paul Solomon on November 20, 2009 at 9:08pm —
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The tall, gray-haired man in the tan trench coat made his way up the elevator and stopped at the fourth floor. The receptionist said "hello". The man didn't look up. Something was wrong. He didn't belong there. It was clear by his demeanor.
An uneasy silence came over the room. All the people looked downward, trying to avoid eye contact. Then the man pulled out a shotgun and killed everyone in the room.
To be continued...
A lot of people have been wondering what I've been up to lately.…
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Added by Paul Solomon on September 2, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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There is no perfect crime. We live in an imperfect world. But Gerald Applethorpe thought he could come close (but not too close, or there'd be no story).
A gun would be too obvious; an axe too uncommon for contemporary mayhem. No, it would be something easily available, perhaps a shovel. A large one. The gardener comes on Thursday.
So begins my novel.
I will be taking my annual summer break from writing this blog. For the next two weeks I will be working on my other writing projects.…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 20, 2009 at 11:00pm —
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World-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist Joseph Biederman, whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic drugs in children, has been caught up in controversy since a Congressional inquiry by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2008.
Biederman has been criticized for being an advocate of diagnosing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder in even the youngest of children, and using antipsychotic medicines to treat them. Pharmaceutical…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 18, 2009 at 3:30pm —
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"It sounds great in movies, but when you try to do it, it's not that easy." That's what a former intelligence official told the New York Times on Tuesday about the CIA's canceled secret program that involved plans to send paramilitary teams around the world to assassinate top al-Qaeda leaders.
"The idea of CIA assassination teams evokes movie-style images of black-clad specialists climbing through windows to silently garrote their targets," Corey Flintoff wrote in Tuesday's NPR.org.
In reality…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 15, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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A few days after Michael Jackson died, his father Joe was smiling and waving to the crowds outside his Encino home while promoting his new record label. Now he's got a new act: "The Jackson 3". He's talking about Michael's kids.
On Monday, Joe Jackson, was interviewed by the UK's The Sun. The Paul Solomon article on Monday gave a rundown of the situation, and it elicited a strong response from our readers.
Below is a comment from our long-time reader Ernie Johnson, who doesn't pull any punches…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 14, 2009 at 11:08pm —
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He lived his own childhood in the spotlight. Fame was all he ever knew. But Michael Jackson obsessively tried to keep his own children out of the public eye. They were home-schooled, and when they did go out, they appeared in public wearing a variety of custom masks and veils.
At the memorial service for the "King of Pop" held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, it came as a shock to see the three children sitting with the rest of the family, their faces seen by millions of televisi…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 13, 2009 at 11:43pm —
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What does Nicole Kidman have in common with Barry Bonds? According to Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz, both have used performance-enhancing drugs. In Kidman's case, Weisz is referring to Botox.
"It should be banned for actors, as steroids are for sportsmen," Weisz said in the August issue of the UK edition of Harper's Bazaar.
Steroids have been a major issue in baseball the last few years, and Bonds is the most prominent athlete to be tied to steroid use. The latest baseball star to…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 11, 2009 at 11:41am —
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"This prescription drug problem doesn't know boundaries of race, or ethnicity, or economic class," the Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview today on "The Situation Room."
Kerlikowske, who is better known as the nation's drug czar, said that Michael Jackson's death "is a wake-up call to the country about prescription drugs". He said that the death rate from drug overdoses in this country is greater than that for gunshot wounds. The late…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 9, 2009 at 6:54pm —
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The Michael Jackson memorial set at Staples Center yesterday gave way to the Ringling Bros. Circus, which was scheduled to go on just a few hours later. Jackson would have loved the irony, because a circus atmosphere has followed him throughout his life in the public eye. Toward the end of his life, however, the media has portrayed him as something of a freak show.
Since Jackson's death on Thursday, June 25, acquaintances, family members and celebrities have been interviewed by the media, most…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 8, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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"I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. I just want to say I love him so much." In her first public appearance ever, Michael Jackson's 11-year-old daughter Paris ended the two-hour memorial service with these words. They were tearful and heartfelt, and Paris made an impression that is sure to last. Michael Jackson - loving father.
The memorial was held at Staples Center in Los Angeles and on television live throughout the world. The f…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 7, 2009 at 8:50pm —
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"If I ever run for anything, the thing I would like to be is governor of New York". That's what actor Alec Baldwin told the New York Times in an October 2006 interview. When asked if he was qualified to be governor, Baldwin answered: "That's what I hate about Arnold Schwarzenegger. His only credentials are that he ran a fitness program under some bygone president."
Baldwin, who stars as a right-wing studio boss on the NBC comedy "30 Rock," in real life is known for his liberal views, and has be…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 6, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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I was playing left field for the Dodgers; number 99. Chad Billingsley was on the mound. Carlos Delgado walked off the on-deck circle and approached the plate. He took a few practice swings, then stepped into the batter's box. Billingsley turned toward the outfield, wiped his forehead, then scratched his crotch. Then he faced the batter, and looked for the sign from catcher Russell Martin. He shook off the first sign. He then gave a quick nod and delivered a 96mph fastball right down the middle o…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 4, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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In breaking news which caused the major cable news outlets to cut away from endless tape loops of Michael Jackson's final rehearsal at the Staples center, Sarah Palin has announced that she is stepping down as Governor of Alaska.
The 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate made the surprise announcement earlier today from her home in Wasilla, Alaska. In a rambling and emotional address, Palin said: "The problem today is apathy. We're fisherman. Only dead fish go with the flow."
In deciding…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 3, 2009 at 7:00pm —
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Born in a small town in Texas in 1983, Bubbles the chimp rose from obscurity to become a part of Michael Jackson's entourage at the young age of eight months.
As the news media scratches their collective heads looking for more information to report, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper got the inside scoop on Bubbles, tracking him down at the Center for Great Apes, a nonprofit sanctuary in Florida. Bubbles is now 26 years old and retired. He hangs out with 41 other chimpanzees and orangutans, many former…
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Added by Paul Solomon on July 2, 2009 at 6:42pm —
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The videotaped killing of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot to death by an unknown gunman while watching a demonstration in Tehran, spread quickly through the world via the Internet, and has made her the martyred symbol of the protests that followed her country's disputed presidential election.
When the 40-second video of Agha-Soltan's death appeared nine days ago, the powerful image of a defenseless woman silenced by a brutal regime cemented her place in history as the symbolic victim of oppressi…
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Added by Paul Solomon on June 30, 2009 at 6:40pm —
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If you have been paying attention the last few days, you may have noticed a change in the format of this blog. Originally started as way of communicating a short paragraph of my daily thoughts, the commentary got longer and longer as the days went by. Because of this, and because of reader feedback, I am adding paragraph breaks.
On Friday, I was writing about the over-the-top media frenzy surrounding disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who a day earlier had given a long and rambling…
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Added by Paul Solomon on June 28, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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The last two days, no matter where you were in the world, if you looked at a newspaper or turned on a TV, you saw the face of Michael Jackson. On Friday night's half-hour broadcast of "NBC Nightly News" host Brian Williams spent three minutes discussing news other than Michael Jackson.
Now that the shock has warn off, fans are celebrating Jackson's life, rather than mourning his death. News of possible drug use is surfacing in the Jackson case, and to fill the time, reporters are now discussing…
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Added by Paul Solomon on June 27, 2009 at 4:50pm —
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A day after his death, Michael Jackson is getting the outpouring of attention he craved so much as his career sputtered in the later part of his life. He died just weeks before he was to start a comeback tour to help resurrect his career and pay his bills. Today, however, in terms of music sales and popularity, "The Gloved One" is "The Only One," according to Amazon.com. History is in the making, as Jackson accounts for the top 15 CD's and the top 7 DVD's, and his music is the most requested, mo…
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Added by Paul Solomon on June 26, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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In news that has shocked the world, Michael Jackson has died. The self-described “King of Pop” was pronounced dead today at UCLA Medical Center at 12:26 p.m. Pacific Time, reportedly of cardiac arrest. The exact cause is not known yet, and the television news media has preempted all other programming, although there is nothing new to report.
When the news of Michael Jackson’s death came out, I was working on a story of disgraced South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who admitted in a news confe…
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Added by Paul Solomon on June 25, 2009 at 8:59pm —
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