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Everything posted by samhexum
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I loved his debut album, but it had some heavy themes and was depressing to listen to at times. I never listened to any of his other albums. Page was able to work with some of his musical heroes, including Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Commodores, and Elton John's writing partner, Bernie Taupin. Page's partnership with Taupin yielded the hit singles "We Built This City" (Starship) and "These Dreams" (Heart). Page and Taupin worked together again on Taupin's Tribe album (which also featured Fairweather on guitar) and Page's In the House of Stone and Light album. Page was also the composer behind Go West's big hits "King of Wishful Thinking"(I love that song) and "Faithful". In addition to the aforementioned hits, Page has also written songs with Robbie Robertson, for Tom Jones, for Josh Groban, and many others. Page also played keyboards for Ray Parker, Jr., on the Ghostbusters theme song. In 1994, Page received recognition as a singer and musician with his debut solo album In the House of Stone and Light. The title track, which he wrote after spending some time in reflection on a visit to the Grand Canyon, was a hit in the same year, reaching No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. After the success of In the House of Stone and Light, Page took some time for touring and reflection. Both his parents and some dear friends died during the time between his first and second albums. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpQFSQQmaW64V8xGVvPGGCKtGwCWXXvyJ
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Wouldn't that be under the 'fetish' section?
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The call came in to police dispatch just after 5 p.m. on a cold November evening in the small Arizona town of St. Johns: There was a body on the front porch of a house. Detective Debbie Neckel fastened her bulletproof vest and headed out. As she and Sgt. Lucas Rodriguez approached the blue two-story home, Neckel fixed her eyes on two people, a teenager and an 8-year-old boy standing nearby. Rodriguez walked toward the house, and Neckel toward the boy, whom she knew from the neighborhood. His arms were outstretched, and he was near tears. "'My dad, my dad. My dad's dead,'" Neckel recalled him saying as she gave her first interview about the case to The Associated Press. "'I think my dad's dead.'" The boy's father, Vincent Romero, 29, was found face-down on the staircase inside. The body on the porch was Romero's friend and co-worker, Timothy Romans, 39, who rented a room there. A swirl of suspects would emerge before a truth was revealed that no one saw coming: The 8-year-old killed both men. The child came home Nov. 5, 2008, and killed his father with a single-shot .22-caliber rifle, holding the bullets in his small hand to reload after each shot. He called to Romans that something was wrong, then shot him, too. Nine years later, the boy is days from his 18th birthday with a chance to move on from a crime that has defined his life. He will sign paperwork Friday freeing him from intensive probation, psychological evaluations, travel restrictions and having his every move monitored. "Things will be fundamentally different," said his attorney, Ron Wood. The Associated Press isn't identifying the teen because of his age at the time of the shootings. The transition will be easier because of the support network he built since pleading guilty to negligent homicide in Romans' death, said Wood and Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting, who prosecuted the case. The charge for killing his father was dropped. Whiting said at the time that it was in the boy's best interest not to be forced to acknowledge killing his father. The boy first was held at a youth treatment center near Phoenix, then moved to a group home and then a foster home. Besides a trio of probation violations when he was 12, he's avoided trouble. He will likely stay in the foster home beyond his 18th birthday and continue treatment until he's 21, Whiting said. His probation officer declined to discuss the case, and periodic evaluations of the boy that might shed light on his treatment are sealed. Whiting said he could not discuss specifics but noted that several people have gone out of their way to ensure the boy gets help. At one point, a psychiatrist who treated him offered to take him in. Romero's mother, Liz Castillo, has been the boy's biggest supporter, regularly attending hearings and visiting him. She declined to comment but said early on she would not give up on her grandson. The boy initially told authorities he found the men dead when he got home from school. His role might have gone undiscovered much longer if Romans had not been on the phone with his wife while he waited for Romero to grab a car part, Neckel said. Romero went in, saw his son with a gun and scolded him for getting it from underneath his bed. The boy ran upstairs, turning and shooting his father as he followed. Romans cut short his conversation with his wife, Tanya, when the boy called for him. "Tim, I need you to come in here," he said, according to court transcripts. "Something's wrong with Dad." Tanya Romans urged police to talk to the boy. Still, no one thought he was a suspect. But authorities came to think he might have witnessed the crime and was in danger. Neckel was the lead investigator, promoted to detective a day before the shootings. She and sheriff's Cmdr. Matrese Avila interviewed the child, who confessed in a videotaped interview released early on by prosecutors. The nation watched as the boy — sitting in an oversized chair, his feet dangling — gave conflicting accounts before admitting to killing both men. He buried his head in his jacket at the end, saying: "I'm going to go to juvie." Neckel told the AP this month that when they first started quizzing him, she believed the cheerful boy with a singsong voice was covering for someone. She started to realize the truth after about 45 minutes, and when she watched the tape, it sank in. A key moment, she said, is when the boy demonstrated how one of the bodies shook and he kicked it with his foot. "We had one focus — literally one focus — to get the name of the killer," she said. "It was supposed to be an adult. And we were supposed to go out and save the day and get (the boy) out of danger." Neckel knew the boy from her neighborhood in the town of about 3,500 near the New Mexico border. He was the child who jumped on the trampoline with his cousin, played outside with his dog, tried to coax a cat from a culvert, called her "Mrs. Neckel" and said, "Have a good day at work" when she pulled out of her driveway. After their interview, she went into the restroom and cried. Her regret, she said, was not including him in her suspect pool from the start. No motive was revealed, but the boy mentioned he was spanked for not bringing home some school papers. Neckel said the papers were a behavioral report from his teacher. Romero and his wife, Tiffany, told the boy he would be spanked once for each day he forgot them, Neckel said. That day he would have received four swats. A woman who answered a cellphone listed for Tiffany said it was the wrong number. Her father, Jeff DeVall, hung up when reached on his cell. Police investigated possible abuse but found nothing that would have warranted charges, Neckel said. Tanya Romans thinks the justice system forgot about her husband. She said she was asked to submit any concerns for an upcoming hearing but she and their two daughters decided it's pointless. She's well aware the teen's birthday is Dec. 29. Hers is, too. "At the beginning, people would say, 'Time heals,' and I was thinking, 'How?'" she said. "All I can say is, by the grace of God, my kids have been OK." She remembers Tim Romans through the personalities of her four grandchildren, hears him in the raspy voice of the one named after him and sees him in the face of another. For Neckel, she developed what she called an unreasonable fear of children for about a year after the boy was charged. But she said seeing her grandchildren on the holidays shortly after the shootings helped her cope. She spent her free time online researching kids who kill, trying to better understand what happened in the most difficult case of her police career. She found promise in stories of two people who killed as teenagers and later became a college professor and a crime novelist. "I can't give up on a kid," Neckel said. "I hope that releasing him isn't the worst mistake ever made. But he was a little kid. You have to give him a chance."
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a SHOPLIFTING cunt... Actress Lainie Kazan, who played the matriarch in the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” movies, was arrested on Christmas Eve for stealing groceries, TMZ reported on Sunday. The 77-year-old film star allegedly filled reusable bags with $180 worth of groceries from Gelson’s in California’s San Fernando Valley and walked out to her car without paying, sources told the website. An employee stopped Kazan, and the authorities were notified. She was reportedly arrested for petty theft before being cited and released without bail. Sources told TMZ that Kazan explained she took the items without paying first because she had no money on her. Reps for Kazan did not immediately return our request for comment.
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A Pennsylvania utility customer got the shock of her life after checking on her monthly electric bill and seeing that she owed $284 billion. I hope the company lets you pay in installments. “My eyes just about popped out of my head,” Erie homeowner Mary Horomanski, 58, told the Erie Times-News. “We had put up Christmas lights and I wondered if we had put them up wrong.” Horomanski checked her account statement online in early December and saw that she was being zapped for $284,460,000,000 by Penelec, her electric provider. She was told she had until November 2018 to pay the entire amount. Her first payment for December was only $28,156. After a call from Horomanki’s son, Penelec fixed the statement to show that the actual balance was $284.46, the paper reported. Penelec spokesman Mark Durbin said somehow the decimal point was in the wrong spot. “I can’t recall ever seeing a bill for billions of dollars,” Durbin told the paper. “We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake.” Horomanski told her son she had a better idea for a Christmas gift after she saw the $284 billion bill, according to the paper. “I told him I want a heart monitor,” she said.
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Thanks. Never slept... just laid in bed for hours. Story of my life. I often go 2 or 3 days with little or no sleep. Raccoons ask each other "Damn! Did you see the dark circles under his eyes?!?!?!?!?!"
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My local Chase offers 20s, 50s... not sure about 100s. In the early days of ATMs, one bank near me had an ATM (I think IBM brand) that gave out exact change... even coins. This was before personal computers, so you'd have to call your bank's customer service line when you wanted to reconcile your account. I used to love it when the rep asked me "Did you take $41.68 out of an ATM?" I'd say yes, they'd ask "HOW?"
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Urich's wife died on Xmas eve. Canadian actress Heather Menzies-Urich, best known for her roles as Louisa von Trapp in the 1965 Oscar-winning film “The Sound of Music” and Jessica in the TV series Logan’s Run, has died. Menzies-Urich, widow of Robert Urich, died Sunday night after recently being diagnosed with cancer, her son Ryan Urich told Deadline’s sister pub Variety. She was 68. The Toronto-born Menzies-Urich had her first screen credit in the 1964 TV series “The Farmer’s Daughter,” but it was her role a year later as Louisa, one of the von Trapp children, in “The Sound Of Music” for which she is best remembered. The film, starring Julie Andrews, went on to win five Oscars, including Best Picture. From “The Sound of Music,” she went on to appear in features including “Hawaii,” “Piranha,” “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and “Endangered Species.” On the TV side, she was known for her starring role as Logan’s female companion Jessica in the “Logan’s Run” television series. Her other TV credits include “Dragnet,” “Bonanza,” “Marcus Welby M.D.,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Vega$,” “The Love Boat,” “Spenser for Hire” and “T.J. Hooker,” among others. Menzies-Urich created the Robert Urich Foundation in honor of her late husband, who died in 2002 of a rare form of cancer. She spent most of her time in recent years devoted to the non-profit organization that raises money for cancer research and patient care.
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BAH HUMBUG!!! I took 2 ambiens & 2 melatonins at 3:30 AM (my normal bedtime). I’m still waiting to fall asleep. No way was I driving out to my sister’s house & back, so I get to spend the day alone, watching Xmas episode reruns and sitting in front of my computer eating frozen food that’s been in my freezer for a year or so because I’ve never been in the mood for it. I repeat, BAH HUMBUG!!!
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Previous post by SamHexum: Green Eggs and Velociraptor?
samhexum replied to + sync's topic in The Lounge
Scientists have discovered 115 new species in the Greater Mekong region of Southeast Asia, including a crocodile lizard and a snail-eating turtle that was spotted in a Thai food market. The species are revealed in a report, “Stranger Species,” released this week by the Washington, DC-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The discoveries, which were made in 2016, include two fish, three mammals, 11 amphibians, 11 reptiles and 88 plant species in the area around the Mekong River in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. One of the new species is the Vietnamese crocodile lizard, a medium-size lizard that lives in the evergreen and freshwater forest habitats of South China and northern Vietnam. The reptile was discovered by Dr. Thomas Ziegler and his research team and even features in a comic strip designed to educate children on the importance of protecting lizards. The WWF warns that the lizard is so heavily threatened by habitat destruction, coal mining and collection for the pet trade that as few as 200 of the individuals could remain in Vietnam. “This is terrifyingly low,” Ziegler said in the report. The snail-eating turtle was discovered at a local market in northeast Thailand. “Dr. Montri Sumontha noticed the turtle in two different markets and suspected it was a new species. He asked the shopkeepers, who said they caught them in a nearby canal, so he purchased them to check,” explained the WWF in a statement. Sumontha warns that the turtle is threatened by local infrastructure such as dikes and dams, and has called for protection under Thai law. Other new species include a mountain horseshoe bat, which was found in the evergreen forests of mountainous Laos and Thailand and took 10 years to confirm as a new species. The bat’s distinctive, horseshoe-shaped facial structure has prompted comparisons to one of the characters in the famous cantina scene in “Star Wars,” according to WWF. Two new mole species and a vibrantly colored frog also were discovered in northern Vietnam, as well as a new fish species in Cambodia. The new species are just the latest to be found in the Greater Mekong. Last year, a World Wildlife Fund report identified 163 new species in the region, including a “Klingon newt.” Between 1997 and 2016, 2,524 new species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians have been discovered in the Greater Mekong. “More than two new species a week and 2,500 in the past 20 years speaks to how incredibly important the Greater Mekong is to global biodiversity,” Stuart Chapman, WWF-Greater Mekong regional representative, said in a statement. “While the threats to the region are many, these discoveries give us hope that species from the tiger to the turtle will survive.” In a separate announcement this week, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said a nest of the endangered Asian giant softshell turtle has been found on a Mekong River sandbar in northeastern Cambodia. -
Have you ever had a package stolen from your door?
samhexum replied to marylander1940's topic in The Lounge
A Utah family was left in shock when a little boy's anti-rejection kidney medicine was stolen from their porch. Cody Taylor, a single father from Riverdale, has had his 4-year-old son Austin's medication delivered to their home for years. Taylor said he never faced a problem, until last week when someone swiped the packages from his porch. "Somebody stole my son's medication delivery," Taylor posted in a Riverdale City Citizens Facebook group. "If it was just a present I would be frustrated but would count it as a loss. It's his 90 day supply of antirejection meds." Austin, who was born with several birth defects, has been battling stage 5 kidney failure since he was born. He underwent a kidney transplant when he was 2 and takes the medicine so his body doesn't reject the organ. Taylor said the stolen packages contained a three-month supply of the life-saving medication and totaled around $5,000. "He's my little miracle. He's my hero. Because of everything he's gone through, I can't complain about life," Taylor told Fox 13. "He's so strong and always fighting." Taylor was worried his insurance wouldn't cover the cost to replace the medication and was ready to take out a loan to pay for it. In an update on his Facebook post, however, he said the insurance company contacted him and said they would handle it. While the family is relieved Austin will be able to get his medication, Taylor is still upset someone snatched the packages. "You don't know who you're hurting by your actions. It could range from ruining someone's Christmas to threatening someone's life," he said. "You just never know." After hearing about Austin's story, a company called The Porch Locker donated a lock box for the medicine to be delivered to so it doesn't happen again. -
http://static.tvgcdn.net/feed/1/605/thumbs/11850605_1200x1600.jpg
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A Canadian family whose $846,000 inheritance was lost by UPS will finally get the cash back from their bank, 10 months after their ordeal started, the CBC reported. “It’s clear to us we didn’t get this right along the way and that there was more we could have done to come to a resolution faster,” said TD Canada Trust bank spokeswoman Cheryl Ficker. The bank had originally refused to repay the family, and United Parcel Service had offered a meager $32 shipping fee refund and an apology. But the bank had a change of heart, hours after reports of Lorette Taylor and her brother Louis Paul Herbert’s troubles were published last week. “It was a total surprise,” Taylor said. “Never in my wildest imagination did I think something like this would happen.” After their father died in February, Taylor was tasked with finalizing the details of his will and distributing the inheritances to her sister and brother. Taylor had obtained the bank draft — which is like a certified check, but the money is taken from a customer’s account immediately and held by the bank until the draft is cashed — after TD told her it was the safest way to send the large sum. Herbert, 61, said he went to his local UPS store near Cornwall, Ontario, where he was expecting the bank draft — but it never came. With mounting credit card debts and no source of income, Herbert said, he desperately needed the money to survive. What followed was a 10-month battle among the family, the bank and UPS that caused “unbelievable frustration,” Taylor said. TD had refused to refund the money unless Taylor signed an agreement to pay back the bank if someone cashed the lost draft, which does not expire like regular checks. By last Thursday afternoon, TD and the family reached an agreement — in the form of an indemnity contract that expires in February 2019. “It looks like the matter will be settled,” Taylor said.
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I Am (Most Likely) Going To Burn In The Fires Of Gehenna!!
samhexum replied to + Gar1eth's topic in The Lounge
Tell your mom you read an interesting story in the paper today, then hand her this: This geezer learned the hard way that it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. The 63-year-old found himself unable to stop orgasming, a new study reveals, after accidentally discovering prostate stimulation could bring him to climax (h/t Gizmodo.) The man’s tale was included in a Clinical Anatomy study that concluded prostate stimulation provides men more powerful orgasms than those from good old-fashioned intercourse. The scientists discovered that regularly massaging the “male G spot” can actually rewire the brain. The unnamed Johnny-come-constantly described in the study began using a sex toy to alleviate the symptoms of an inflamed prostate . He soon found that he could climax, hands free, simply by lying on his back. “This subject found that whilst the orgasms were extremely enjoyable at the time, he could easily spend too much time experiencing them,” researchers wrote. “Further, he had an old neck injury which flared up in association with some neck spasm at orgasm whilst lying prone. It has proved difficult to stop experiencing these orgasms and ‘unwire’ himself back to normal.” The study’s author, Dr. Roy Levin, said that he hopes the man’s case will encourage more research on the subject. “The scientific study of orgasm has always been challenging,” Levin said in a statement. “Those induced by prostate stimulation have been ignored. We have just started the journey on its discovery road.” After she's read THAT, talking to her about a little prescription refill should be a piece of cake. -
The smell and consistency of mayo kinda nauseates me. After whatever my initial taste of it was, I've never intentionally ingested any of it... only when a fast-food place screwed up my order and didn't exclude it from what I wanted to eat. I don't even use it the rare times I eat tuna. Unfortunately, youtube doesn't have the appropriate (but obscure) clip I want to post here: On VALERIE (the NBC show that Valerie Harper was fired from), neighbor Mrs. Poole (Edie McClurg) explained that her husband liked tuna with Miracle Whip because "it really binds the tuna". Here delivery of the line was funny, & for years one of my friends & I would quote the line to each other whenever tuna (or Miracle Whip) (or Edie McClurg) would come up in a conversation.
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Mandy Patinkin Joan Cusack Julie Haggerty Valerie Mahaffey Alfred Molina Courtney B. Vance Mandy Patinkin (so annoying, he had to be named twice) Unbelievably, when Linda Bloodworth-Thomason tried to spin Suzanne Sugarbaker off into her own series, Mahaffey was in the original cast, then was replaced in the same role by Haggerty. No doubt, had the series been a hit, Cusack would've taken over the role eventually. BTW, otherwise, the show had a stellar cast. Teri Garr was a regular, as was Patricia Heaton. Jonathan Banks also was in it. There were also a few notable guest stars: Jamie Farr guest starred as himself in the episode "Guess Who's Sleeping in Lincoln's Bed?", and he gave a nod to the series M*A*S*H by appearing in drag. Amongst the writing staff of M*A*S*H was Women of the House writer/creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. Gerald McRaney made an appearance in "The Afternoon Wife", playing Suzanne's ex-husband, novelist Dash Goff, a character that originated on Designing Women. By this point, McRaney and series lead Delta Burke were married in real life. Meshach Taylor reprised his Designing Women role of Anthony Bouvier in the episode "Dear Diary". Susan Powter was initially announced as a cast member of the series. She finally showed up in Episode 12, "Dear Diary". Charles Frank appeared as the oft-spoken of Congressman Ed Sharkey in the final episode, "The Conjugal Cottage." Frank starred opposite Delta Burke and Dixie Carter in Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's 1982 sitcom Filthy Rich. Telma Hopkins starred as a wisecracking cop in the episode "The Conjugal Cottage". The episode "Women in Film" featured cameos by Loni Anderson, Roseanne Barr, Carol Burnett, Brett Butler, Rita Moreno, Marilyn Chambers, Marilyn McCoo, Deidre Hall, Elizabeth Ashley, Joan Van Ark, and Stefanie Powers.
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She took the call to be fruitful and multiply very seriously. A big “mazel tov” is in order for a very busy 42-year-old Israeli grandmother who celebrated the end of Hanukkah by giving birth to her 20th child on Wednesday. The ultra-Orthodox woman from Jerusalem stunned staffers at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem’s maternity ward when she told them she already had 19 kids, the Times of Israel reported. “She was very excited about every birth, every child, ” midwife Aliza Altmark said. “It also gave me a good feeling. She has sons- and daughters-in-law, and of course she has a lot of help at home.” The mom – a resident of the Meah Shearim neighborhood who did not want to be identified — was calm and relaxed during her labor, which took a few hours. “In the early stages, she was surprised that birth did not progress as quickly as her previous births,” Altmark said. “But I explained that each delivery was different and promised her that it would be all right.” Her labor sped up and she finally delivered her bundle of joy – a boy whose cries filled the delivery room. “She was very excited when we put him in her arms,” Altmark said after the natural birth. In 2007, a woman made her 19th delivery at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, but official records were unavailable from the Health Ministry. In total, the serial birther – who has one set of twins from 18 previous births — has spent some 14 years of her life pregnant, the hospital said in a statement. Some of her older children have married and had children themselves. The most prolific mother, according to the Guinness World Records, was an 18th century Russian peasant who produced 69 children. During 27 labors, the wife of Feodor Vassilyev gave birth to a remarkable 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. After the birth of her last child, her vagina was converted into a railway tunnel.
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I have been on an ABBA kick the entire year. It started when I listened to their song Happy New Year on New Year’s Eve, but I’ve never had any desire to see Mama Mia. I’ve always felt it would be like seeing a cover band perform the hits of your favorite group, & that doesn’t interest me, either. Now, Muriel’s Wedding, which used ABBA’s actual recordings, was a hoot… I still remember who I saw it with, & in which theater (in Yonkers– a friend of mine was living there). The two friends I saw it with were not ABBA fans, so they had no idea why I exploded in laughter at the first few notes of I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO at the start of the wedding scene.
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A semi-truck hauling a large trash bin crashed and plunged into the swimming pool of the home owned by Portland Trail Blazers guard Evan Turner. The driver's cab was submerged in the pool and he needed to be rescued by emergency responders. "I wasn't aware that the driver was injured or how badly," Turner said Wednesday afternoon through a team spokesman. "But I'm obviously grateful that the first responders were able to rescue him and I hope and pray he'll be fine." Authorities say the truck's driver lost control on a hairpin curve and wound up down a hill and submerged in the pool. While one rescuer kept the driver's head out of the water, others used the jaws of life to remove the steering column, which had pinned the driver inside the cab. A Portland Fire & Rescue spokeswoman told the Oregonian that at least eight people participated in the rescue. The driver, who was not identified, had serious injuries and was taken to Oregon Health and Science University Medical Center for treatment. A former NBA player has taken to Twitter to complain that a toilet was among the items stolen from his Dallas home during a burglary. Charlie Villanueva, a former first-round pick who most recently played with the Dallas Mavericks, posted a photo of the space in his bathroom where his toilet once stood. In a series of tweets, Villanueva said his home appliances also were taken during the burglary Tuesday. The former Detroit Pistons player described the episode as "mind blowing," saying he's "in shock." Villanueva, 33, criticized police for a slow response to his burglary report, saying he called four times about the purloined toilet. Another Twitter user created the handle "@stolen_toilet" and responded to one of Villanueva's tweets by asking: "Charlie are u looking for me?"
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Charity Lee was approaching the supermarket checkout when a fellow shopper blocked her path. “I know who you are,” shouted the woman. “You should watch your son be executed, because he is a monster and you raised him!” Drawing on all the strength she could muster, Lee shakily replied: “Ma’am. I don’t know who you are, but you really need to get counseling.” With that, the mother of child-killer Paris Bennett, age 13, abandoned her grocery cart and rushed out. The stranger’s harsh judgment only added to her agony: In a shocking twist, her son’s victim was Lee’s 4-year-old daughter, Ella. Paris had stabbed his half-sister to death in cold blood with a kitchen knife. ‘I have forgiven Paris for what he did, but it’s an ongoing process.’ “There have been other moments like that,” Lee tells The Post of the 2007 incident in the Abilene, Texas, store, “But people often have one opinion at first, and then change it once they’ve talked to me and offer compassion.” The 44-year-old’s powerful story of grief, love, fear and forgiveness is featured in the documentary “The Family I Had,” airing on Investigation Discovery Thursday at 9 p.m. It examines Lee’s conflicted emotions as she struggles to come to terms with the catastrophe that tore apart her life 10 years ago. A prison-rights activist, she keeps Ella’s memory alive while frequently visiting her now-24-year-old son in jail. He is serving a 40-year sentence (the maximum in Texas for a juvenile for murder) and will be eligible for parole in 2027. “I have forgiven Paris for what he did, but it’s an ongoing process,” explains Lee. “If he was free [from captivity] I would be frightened of him. “The fact that he is incarcerated gives me peace of mind, but I worry about his own safety.” It was about 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2007 that Lee was met by cops at a Buffalo Wild Wings near Abilene where she worked as a waitress. “[The police] told me that my daughter had been hurt,” she recalls in the film. “And I was saying: ‘you need to take me to Ella now’ and they were like: ‘You can’t go … she’s dead.’ “And that made no sense, because I knew that I’d left her at home with a baby sitter and her brother, so I said, ‘Is my son OK?’ And they said, ‘We have him.’ … That’s when everything stopped making sense.” Sometime around 10 p.m., Paris, an unusually gifted child with an IQ of 141, had convinced the baby sitter she could go home. It was after that, according to detectives, that he grabbed a knife and entered the room where Ella was sleeping. He proceeded to beat, choke and stab his little sister 17 times. Next, the boy spent six minutes calling a school friend before waiting two minutes and phoning 911 to report the murder. “He pretended to follow the dispatcher’s directions and do CPR,” says Lee. “But that was all a lie.” Cops found no evidence of attempted first aid. At first, Paris claimed he suffered a vivid hallucination in which an inflamed, demonic version of Ella was laughing maniacally at him. But he later described how he had awakened that morning wanting to kill someone. Says Lee: “Ella was an easy target — predators don’t ever pick on anybody bigger than themselves.” Paris told investigators that his original plan was to murder Ella before lying in wait for his mother and stabbing her when she returned from work. “He said the first reason he didn’t go ahead with it was because it was a lot harder to kill someone than he thought,” says Lee. “The second reason was the realization if he’d killed me, I only would have suffered for five, 10, 15 minutes. But, if he left me alive [without Ella], I would suffer for the rest of my life.” One of Paris’s motives was punishing his mother. A former heroin addict who kicked drugs shortly before conceiving her son, she’d relapsed on cocaine when he was 9 and Ella was 2. This followed a decade of sobriety for Lee. Paris claimed she had put her habit before him. “The only regret I’ve ever had about my own personal behavior is my relapse,” says Lee, who has not abused narcotics since Ella’s death. “The fact is, it made him angry and he chose to handle it that way [by killing Ella]. “It’s just another indication that he is a sociopath. I don’t regret how I’ve handled Paris, I feel like I’ve been true to myself and followed the right path.” Her son was given the “sociopath” tag in 2009 by a psychiatrist Lee hired when he was held at a juvenile detention center. He confessed to having had homicidal thoughts since the age of 8, often expressing them through violent and disturbing drawings. Since becoming an adult, Paris has refused further psychological evaluations. In a jailhouse interview behind glass in “The Family I Once Had,” he tells directors Carlye Rubin and Katie Green: “I chose to do my crime and I take full responsibility for my crime. And I wouldn’t say there was a predisposition to what happened. “I’m not insane and I don’t suffer from any mental illness.” ‘I am not going to be that parent who abandons their kid.’ While Lee describes him as “manipulative” and “narcissistic,” she is quick to explain how her maternal instinct means she puts her love for her son above her anger. “I sometimes have to say to myself [during visits]: ‘Okay, Charity, take a breath, you know how Paris is wired,’ ” she says. “But I am not going to be that parent who abandons their kid.” In 2012, the single stay-at-home mom became pregnant with a third child, Phoenix, now 4. She was delighted to at last be given a new hope. The pair now lives in Savannah, Ga., and Lee goes to see Paris in the Lone Star State for four-hour stretches as often as she can. She is grateful that prison rules ban him from having visitors under age 17. “Texas won’t allow him to see Phoenix because he killed a child. “If Paris wasn’t in prison or was able to meet Phoenix, I would have to do a lot more soul-searching.” Mercifully, the soul-searching is helping Lee cope with the devastating loss of Ella, whom she describes as “extroverted, very outspoken and very smart.” Butterflies became Ella’s symbol after her preschool teachers gave her mother a remarkable picture she had painted of the insect. A friend also found a butterfly brooch in Lee’s backyard on the day she finally returned to the house where the murder took place. Ever since then, Lee associates butterflies with the presence of her daughter. “That’s her thing, I guess,” adds Lee, who has a collection of butterfly tattoos. In 2011, the grieving mom founded the nonprofit ELLA Foundation — an acronym for Empathy, Love, Lessons and Action — which assists people involved in the criminal-justice system and those affected by trauma. “On the night that Ella died, I vowed to do something meaningful in her memory,” concludes Lee. “It also gave me a place to direct my rage, other than at my child.” Through all this, she is also a loving mother to Phoenix who, she says, gave her “joy, life and happiness again.” “Because I was living with the dead, I was barely living,” adds Lee. “Phoenix really brought me back into the moment.”
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