The only episode he's mentioned in is The Rival, and the details are pretty sketchy. We know he was the editor of her college newspaper. Clark says, "She stole a story and a guy (Paul), and now you're afraid she's going to do it again" about Linda and Lois doesn't correct his version of the events. But when Lois and Linda discuss the situation later, Linda says something like "you weren't even dating him!" I know there was a little more discussion about him, but that's basically all we know. From that we can assume that Paul was someone Lois had a crush on him in college and thought there was the potential for a relationship (how realistic this belief was, we have no way of knowing). As Lois' best friend, Linda would obviously have known about the crush. So Linda wound up dating Paul and Lois felt betrayed. And, if I remember correctly, the reason he noticed Linda was because of a story that she stole from Lois.

Obviously, this leaves LOTS of room for imagination, and lots of writers have used Paul, or memories of Paul, in their stories in very different ways. He can be pretty fun to write about. I tried to write a vignette about him and wound up with a three-part series. <G>

Annie


Being a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description. ~Anna Quindlen