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Vice cop writes what he knows

Veteran Metro vice Detective Chris Baughman continues to grow as a writer with a wealth of material from his longtime work as a leader of the department’s Pandering Investigation Team.

Baughman’s latest book, “Off the Street: Redemption,” has just begun to hit store shelves. It’s not for the weak-hearted. The plot of the true crime story turns on the investigation of a former basketball star-turned-pimp.

“I had it in my mind all these guys were monsters,” Baughman says in his media material. “I had to deal with the fact this was a guy I knew.”

You’ll be seeing a lot of Baughman in 2014. He is also the star of the new MSNBC program “Slave Hunter: Freeing Victims of Human Trafficking.”

CHRISTMAS STAR: Just think of Helen Goldsbury as the creator of an overnight Christmas tradition several decades in the making.

The 82-year-old singer-songwriter penned “Christmas Is Just Around the Corner” in 1958, but circumstances prevented her from recording the tune until recently. With help from her son, musician and restaurateur Tom Goldsbury, Helen cut the tune in a studio. It’s now available on YouTube.

“It really made her dream come true,” says Tom, proprietor of the Off the Strip restaurant in Southern Highlands.

As the tale goes, Helen was performing on a Christmas show with Duke Ellington at the Lighthouse in New York City when she was overcome by a case of stage fright. She didn’t return to the stage, and her Christmas ditty went unrecorded.

But that’s all changed now.

With Helen’s Christmas comeback making the rounds on local television and in the newspaper, who knows where it will all lead?

CLASSY CANNERY: The Club at the Cannery was the site of an extremely classy premiere party for “Anchorman 2” at the new Galaxy Theater. The party itself burst with the greatest and most humble local media celebrities, who could not be identified because they all wore stick-on mustaches in honor of their favorite fictitious television newsman, Ron Burgundy.

The event, hosted by Cannery GM Patrick Hughes and Galaxy President Rafe Cohen, was a hoot.

With its reclining seats and enormous screen, the Galaxy is head-and-shoulders the nicest movie theater in town. That’s the good news.

The bad news? Well, let’s just say no one will confuse “Anchorman 2” with “Terms of Endearment.” It is pretty much a brain-numbing train wreck, which of course means it will probably do very well at the box office.

WALLY’S WORLD: The traveling art exhibit from prolific Nevada collector and all-around bon vivant Wally Cuchine arrives at the Nevada State Museum (309 S. Valley View Blvd.) with an opening reception set for Jan. 11.

The traveling exhibit, sponsored by the Nevada Arts Council, Art Works and the National Endowment for the Arts, presents a 35-painting sample of Cuchine’s large collection of remarkable artists from around the Silver State.

BASEBALL DAD: Edi Gomez, who died recently, was the quintessential baseball dad.

His son Mike Gomez was an excellent ballplayer and is an even better coach. But Edi was a baseball dad to a couple of generations of ballplayers, and through the years did everything from coach and run a league to chalk the fields and spring for sodas.

The man seemed to be everywhere.

Along the way, Gomez helped scores of players become better people through his selfless example.

ON THE BOULEVARD: Sports bettors will want to read longtime investigative reporter and author Dan Moldea’s just-published memoir, “Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer,” just for the section on the fallout from his 1989 publication of “Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football.” … The increasingly popular Retired Teachers luncheon is set for Jan. 15 at Los Prados Golf Club. … The story of Helen Goldsbury reminds me of one of my favorite singers from Vegas past, Ruthie Gillis, who still wows ’em wherever she goes.

Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? Email comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.

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