Absolute Random Nonsense

Many people like pandas. Their main reason is they think they are cute. Another positive is that they consider it extremely diverse as it is black, white and Asian. For the same reason some will hate pandas. It becomes a matter of perspective. I strongly associate pandas with two things. The first is the panda that we always saw on Pan Am literature inside a plane in the 70s. The second is a song that became popular in 2016 where all students at our school were into and when we scheduled a field trip to the Bronx Zoo most of them expressed they would take a selfie with the pandas. There were no pandas at the zoo that day.  

The Gateway Development Commission announced July 29 at the commission’s board meeting that James Starace will join GDC as chief of program delivery in August. Hamed Nejad, who has served as acting chief technical officer since September 2024, will transition into the role of chief engineer.  As chief of program delivery, Starace will oversee the department responsible for design and construction of the Hudson Tunnel Project. He will lead all aspects of remaining design and engineering, construction, interface management, and other technical work areas. Starace will also work closely with GDC’s supporting or executing partners (SEPs) – PANYNJ, Amtrak, and NJ TRANSIT – to identify and proactively mitigate risks that could impact the project’s schedule or budget. Starace will serve on GDC’s executive leadership team and will report directly to the CEO. In his new role as chief engineer, Nejad, reporting to the chief of program delivery, will continue to play a key role overseeing tec...

In mid 2001 I was looking for a job. One of the places that I had applied to (with an ad that did not mention the pay rate) got back to me. As we spoke on the phone she gave a job description along with the range of benefits and the pay rate. It fell well below my expectations and I already knew I would not be pursuing this opportunity. At the end of the call she asked me to come in for an in-person interview. I reluctantly agreed but only so I could use it as practice for the interview for my real job once I found it. The day of the interview I had to leave my temp job early and thus lose out on the pay for the rest of the day. I had some trouble finding the place as well. To top it off the weather was cloudy and depressing. I sat through the interview and gave them all of the answers that I had rehearsed. As I walked towards my car I sarcastically told myself, "Oh yeah I would love to work here." Shortly afterwards I accepted their offer (which was the same as the one over ...

A Colorado man was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for murder and a slew of other crimes after sneaking into a college professor's home while she was alone and ambushing her in a stabbing attack. Ceasar Wilson, 54, was sentenced Wednesday for killing University of Colorado Colorado Springs Professor Haleh Abghari, a native of Iran who has performed internationally as a singer, actor, and voice-over artist in the U.S., Canada and Europe to critical acclaim. Wilson ambushed her while she was getting ready for bed, then went on a "shopping spree" with her credit card, according to testimony provided at his trial in February. According to The Gazette newspaper, prosecutors recounted during closing arguments how Wilson sneaked in through Abghari's open garage on the night of Aug. 7, 2024, with the intention of stealing from her home but then encountered the visual and performing arts professor in her bathroom and changed his mind. Wilson plunged a knife into the...

When I was younger I had a secret weapon which was reverse psychology. I'd run away to make people fall in love with me and as such I would create illusions. I put on quite a show.  

Tom Morley — known for his Global Tribe Retreats with co-founder Nina Nazar, held in travel destinations around the world — has pivoted to virtual yoga and meditation, with more than 200 live classes conducted in the past few months.  Going back to 1999, when the news broke that the AIDS virus had been transmitted to humans from a subspecies of chimpanzee, Diamond Delvalle, a first grader from the Bronx, looked up at her mother and asked, ''So I have a monkey disease?'' Nina, a then 23-year-old senior at Hunter College, volunteered to become Diamond's big sister. Ms. Nazar was busy with her schoolwork and her job at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab, an interactive museum on Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets. But she knew that youngsters with H.I.V. were desperate for company. When she first met Diamond, Ms. Nazar said, the young girl was extremely withdrawn. ''She didn't want to talk,'' she said. ''She ran away from me and hid....

Some time in the 80s I was visiting Venice. I came across a columbarium, stopping in front of a plaque of a girl named Angela Venezia who died in 1797. The plaque was decorated with the girl's portrait and a Venetian mask. I then saw what looked like the ghost of that girl by a canal. I seemingly was haunted by her, seeing her image and the mask in a restaurant, a postcard stand, an antique shop, and other places I visited. When the ghost of the girl appeared to me again, I followed it, but I was lured into a secluded courtyard where I found myself surrounded by a group of ghosts wearing carnival masks. Scared, I ran away only to come across the little girl again.   

Renowned for her fearless use of color and form, Iranian architect and designer India Mahdavi blends cultural richness with commercial clarity. Her interiors radiate personality: spaces that don’t just invite you in, but speak directly to how you want to feel once inside. For designers and clients alike, her work is a masterclass in atmosphere — demonstrating how color, materiality, and storytelling can shape both brand identity and user experience. From five-star hotels to global retail icons, Mahdavi’s spaces are as playful as they are precise. These five defining projects don’t just reflect a career that continues to shape the international design conversation, they show that in a world often drawn to minimalism, maximalism — when done right — can be timeless, tactile, and deeply human. "I was born in Iran from an academic Iranian father and an Egyptian English mother. We moved to the United States when I was a year and a half and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for four y...

In 1996 I went to the Bronx to check out and potentially buy a car. As we were trying to locate a particular dealership I approached an intersection. A woman was standing there, seemingly lost as she kept looking around aimlessly. Once she spotted me she asked me if anyone had told me I looked like Barry Manilow. I told her no one had. She then asked if I thought I resembled him. I told her that although I was familiar with the name I didn't really know what he looked like. As we continued our conversation, I got spun around by one of the people with me who demanded to know what I was doing. I said I was just talking. He then said, "Don't you see? She's a hooker." Days later I had another encounter with a hooker in a different state.