Absolute Random Nonsense

Freshman year in college I had a roommate in my dorm. We coexisted although we did not get along. When the semester phonebooks came out we flipped through them out of boredom to see how many Iranian names we could spot. He moved out to another dorm room during Christmas break. When I got back from break and as I was organizing my things, my phone rang. As soon as I picked it up and said hello, the person on the line hung up. I was sure it was him and perhaps he realized it was obvious too because he called me back within 20 minutes and said somehow the phone got disconnected when he had called. He told me to find his number in the spring campus phone book. When I told him I didn't see any in the building he said that they were scooped up quickly and that he had personally taken 7 or 8 of them. I sensed that he said that just to get me to ask him for one but I found the thought of a person taking multiple phonebooks comical and I snickered. Perhaps realizing how absurd his claim was...

Banafsheh Sayyad is a master sacred dancer and living legend. She has dedicated her life to empowering people around the world to embody love. Her students regard her as a highly accessible and profound spiritual teacher. An inspiring example of radiant embodiment, her teaching is considered life changing. Audiences experience her as a Sufi priestess, bringing the presence and power of ancient priestesses to life through her dynamic performances. Performing and teaching internationally, she has initiated thousands into the profound wisdom of the body. She is one of the few bearers of Persian dance in the world and a pioneer in creating a liberated feminine expression in the Sufi dance tradition.  "The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my dance piece, Iran, My Mother. This piece is danced from the perspective of these young lives, conveying their undying love for their mothers and their country. I’ve had the honor of performing this work across the U.S. This projec...

In the early 90s I went to Six Flags. A guy playing with balloons was putting on a show. He asked for a volunteer and a girl, roughly 10, stepped up. He told her he was about to do an amazing magic trick but in order to do it she had to say the magic word which was "wing wing". The girl said it and nothing happened. He told her to say it again but this time louder. She repeated wing wing but again nothing happened. He told her to shout it out and at the top of her lungs the girl screamed WING WING. The man immediately twisted one of his balloons to look like a phone receiver, held it to his ears and said hewwo.  

Forouzan Jamshidnejad is an Iranian actor. She played in Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider. Forouzan started with acting as a five-year-old and has been in several plays and TV series. She has been living in Norway with her family for over 14 years.  "My mother had a deep passion for acting when she was young. In her teenage years, she began to pursue it professionally. At that time, she and her family were living in Khorramshahr, a city in southern Iran. Then the war between Iran and Iraq broke out. My mother and her family lost their home during the bombings, and they became displaced. In those days, there was no real support for families who had lost everything, so they were forced to move and rely on relatives in other cities. My mother left behind not just her home, but also her dreams. And in a way, the part of her that was never able to fulfill that passion came alive in me. She always supported me, together with my father. I must say my father played an important role as well. At t...

When the Dudley Boys debuted in the WWE, Bubba Ray had a stutter. Whenever he would get stuck mid sentence with his stutter, Devon would smack him in the back of the head and he would be able to talk normally again. I didn't like this particular gimmick as it seemed like it would encourage people to smack stutterers in order to have them get over their stutter. Perhaps the WWE also realized this. Or maybe they received complaints. The gimmick was dropped shortly after its debut.  

Babak Parviz is the CEO and founder of NewDays.ai. From 2023 to 2025, he was a venture partner at the Madrona Venture Group primarily focused on venture capital investments in artificial intelligence, healthcare, and deep tech. Before joining Madrona, Babak was a vice president at Amazon for eight and a half years. He founded and led Amazon’s Grand Challenge — the organization responsible for identifying, investing in, and operationalizing substantial new areas for the company. During his time, Amazon grew by nearly 10X to become a trillion dollar company. He is a graduate of Sharif University. "My chemistry teacher in high school, Mr Arasteh, and my physics teacher, Mr Faripour, were amazing people that dedicated their lives to teaching children. They opened my eyes to the beauty of science, esp physics and for sure changed my life. The best part of being at Sharif University was meeting and making lifelong friendships with a remarkable group of people–mostly classmates but also ...

After parking my car and walking (or rather running) to the stadium, I bought my ticket and found a seat. Another game from Tehran’s League was being played and was within its final stages. It suddenly dawned upon me that perhaps my ticket was only valid for the game in progress and that I would have to leave after its conclusion. Looking at the size of the crowd and the difficulty of removing everyone, I reassured myself that the ticket was probably for both games. The worst scenario would be that I would have to leave the stadium in which case I would simply buy a ticket for the second game. The first game finally ended and everyone stayed put as Pas and Keshavarz entered the field and began their warmups. I already knew many of their players although this was the first time I was seeing them in person. I was seated on the side closer to Pas’s goal in the 1st half and as such witnessed Zarrincheh repeatedly charging down the flank only to overhit his cross. In one instance Keshavarz’...

Mitra Azizirad is Corporate Vice President of AI and Innovation Marketing at Microsoft based in Seattle. A 27-year veteran of Microsoft, Mitra has held key leadership positions at Microsoft across a wide array of technical, marketing and sales functions, both in the field and corporate.  Mitra leads Microsoft’s vision to help individuals and organizations put AI into action to innovate, transform, and deliver lasting positive impact on people, industry, and society at large. " We all come from different backgrounds and experiences. I have mixed Iranian and Scottish heritage and I’m proud to live my values openly.  After Microsoft, I'm totally leaving the industry to do art. I've already had offers to decorate my co-workers' houses, so I could do that, or design or be a fashion illustrator. "  

Kurt finally made it to his apartment and stepped into the barely lit corridor. Walking towards his apartment he spotted a silhouette in the distance. With every step more details were uncovered, yet still not enough to give away the identity. Kurt kept his eyes on the face wondering if he could solve this meaningless game of clue until he reached a point where he accepted defeat. It was only then that he realized the lady approaching him had caught his stare and was staring back just as hard, perhaps playing the same game. As they were about to pass one another Kurt gently nodded his head and was faced by the same reaction by her. He mumbled a weak hi as they passed and thought he heard the same from her.  But after a few more steps she suddenly called back at Kurt, “Oh I’m sorry, I think I confused you with someone else.” Kurt glanced at her briefly and continued his march to his apartment. “Just because you don’t know me didn’t mean you had to take your hello back, jerk,” he tho...