Stories written by Mark PellinAn award-winning journalist and former editor of The Rhinoceros Times in Charlotte, Pellin has been called everything from a misguided troglodyte to a professional agitator. He prefers the label of a realist, the guy in the crowd telling everybody that not only doesn’t the emperor have any clothes; he’s trying to steal ours.
Pellin has covered the Char-Meck scene for the better part of two decades, earning his fair share of fans and more than a few critics who wish he’d move to Nome, Alaska, and be eaten by wild bears.
When he’s not writing, he stays busy enjoying time with his wife and two kids. When he can break away for some R&R, he likes to fly fish (even if he doesn’t catch anything) and camp (even if it rains).
It’s no secret that Seattle receives more than its fair share of rain, but even so the city’s mayor seems to be displaying a grossly unnatural case of excessive water on the brain. Or maybe it’s too much coffee, resulting in badly jangled nerves and misfired brain synapses that lead a seemingly normal person into […]
January 9, 2015 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,City Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Editor’s Note: Former WBT talkshow host, and frequent House Guest contributing columnist, Pete Kaliner has been knocking it out of the park with his gig behind the mic at Asheville’s 570-WWNC. Case in point: his recent challenge to shave his head if listeners help him raise $500 for the Wounded Warrior Project. I’m in with […]
October 31, 2013 | Posted in House Blends | Read More »
Kim Ratliff says she’s listening. Ever since the at-large county commissioner let loose a whopper of a Kinsley gaffe, opining that Mecklenburg County’s next manager should’t be a white man, she has apparently been deluged with emails from people asking her to resign her commission seat or, at the least, recuse herself from the process of […]
July 2, 2013 | Posted in County Beat | Read More »

The old adage advises that there’s no such thing as a free lunch (or breakfast, in this case), but don’t try telling that to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. Not content with the district’s free- and reduced-price meal program, the school board this month approved a new Universal Breakfast initiative that next school year will […]
June 16, 2013 | Posted in CMS Beat,House Specials,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Yes, as several good folks have reminded me, it’s been a while since my last post; apologies for that, but I’ve been time crunched with another big project (book deal – hooray!) that’s kept me wicked busy and frequently on the road. Thanks and big ups go to PH co-conspirator Christian Hine and our stellar […]
June 15, 2013 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
With solid majorities on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners and the Charlotte City Council, local Democrats should be living high on the hog. They find themselves, instead, floundering in a political pigpen of self-churned mud. After nearly a year of fruitless endeavor and intra-party squabbling, the Democrat-led city council is stuck without a capital […]
May 16, 2013 | Posted in Char-Meck Beat,City Beat,County Beat,Mark Pellin | Read More »
Shoot us a link with your favorite tunes (editor@pundithouse.com) and we’ll work them into the mix:
May 11, 2013 | Posted in Mark Pellin | Read More »
In what appeared to be a well-planned and efficiently executed sacking, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday night voted to terminate County Manager Harry Jones without cause. After emerging from an hours-long closed session, it took the board only minutes to accomplish what Jones’s myriad of critics have been advocating for years. The […]
May 7, 2013 | Posted in Uncategorized | Read More »
It’s a sad week for investigative journalism in Greensboro and, no doubt, a joyous one for tax-and-spend government bureaucrats and politicians. After a 21-year run of churning out copy that held the heels of local GovCo to the fire, The Rhinoceros Times has announced it is shuttering the print version of Greensboro’s free alt-weekly paper. […]
May 1, 2013 | Posted in House Blends,Mark Pellin | Read More »

With news that Team BO has cherry picked Mayor Anthony Foxx to be the country’s next transportation secretary, two notions chug down parallel tracks: either the workload of a top-ranking federal bureaucrat is a lot cushier and less demanding than ever imagined possible, or Foxx flat-out lied to his homegrown constituents last month. That’s when […]
April 30, 2013 | Posted in House Specials,Mark Pellin | Read More »