Absolute Random Nonsense

If you were to peruse Sanaz Toossi’s Instagram you would find a recent headshot with the tongue-in-cheek caption, “i am an extremely serious artist.” She stares into the camera, head tilted, with a wistful gaze and with a gold necklace pulling focus from her dark black hair. The pendant, hanging on the gold chain, is Sanaz’s own name in Farsi. When asked about her views on language, Toossi said “I love that language fails us. It should.” She went on to describe her acceptance of the limitations of language. “I’ve tried to learn to be comfortable with the inability to fully encapsulate something” Toossi’s writing beautifully makes space for the limitations of language. When told by an interviewer that her use of language evokes a sense of homesickness, she responded “I’ve been looking for that term for a really long time because I think it defines all of my work. Homesickness.” Sanaz Toossi grew up in Orange County, California, always aware of her family's home ...

I volunteered to be a driver for the 1994 World Cup. During one of our training sessions I came across another Iranian, Ali Najafi, who worked there. After exchanging pleasantries and sharing stories of how we ended up in the US, he gave me a Snickers bar and told me that each bar was an entry for World Cup prizes. Then, almost as an after thought, he handed me the whole box and said that since they were free for him I might as well take them all and increase my chances. None of them were a winner.  

A Beverly Hills doctor was charged Monday with drugging and raping a woman who worked for him — and police say there could be other victims. The physician allegedly used high hourly pay to entice potential victims to work at his office. Dr. Babak Hajhosseini, who founded the Beverly Hills-based Wound & Burn Centers of America, was arrested on Nov. 26 by the Los Angeles Police Department after one of his employees reported that he had sexually assaulted her, according to officials. Police said the doctor used job recruiting websites to offer potential victims high hourly pay to entice them into working for him. Once they did, police said, Hajhosseini would pressure them to work overtime at his house. One employee alleged that she was pressured to drink alcohol at Hajhosseini's residence and that she promptly lost consciousness, police said. Hajhosseini sexually assaulted her and recorded it, according to the LAPD. On Dec. 23, the Los Angeles County district attorney...