Absolute Random Nonsense

Yasmin Vossoughian does not consider herself a writer. “I like to interact with people—that’s how I learn,” she explains. For an economics class at Oxy, the assignment was to do a report on the differences between what people do in society. With video camera in hand, she chronicled a day in the life of a sewage worker and a CEO, shooting in manholes and high-rises and talking with both about their work—one for minimum wage, the other for millions a year. “My parents are from Iran. I was born and raised in the United States,” she says. “I grew up in a smaller town about an hour north of New York City that was not diverse. My family is Muslim. There were maybe three Jewish kids and three black kids in my hometown. And so I really crave diversity in my life—it’s something I’ve always been drawn to.” In 2004, using the Handycam that her parents gave her for graduation, she spent eight weeks traveling around Iran, conducting interviews for a piece on what it was like to be a young person th...

On August 20, 1995 I drove to Downing Stadium on Randall's Island, NY to watch my one and only ever APSL game between the New York Centaurs and Colorado Foxes. New York generally drew small crowds so I was surprised to see an almost packed stadium. It was later that I realized that it was a double header with a game between the two Ecuadorian clubs Barcelona and LDU de Quito to follow. New York beat Colorado 2-0. I watched a bit of the Ecuadorian game but then decided to leave half way through as it was Sunday and I had a 2 hour drive back to northern Connecticut and work the following day. I never found out the score and years later any amount of googling it amounted to nothing. It wasn't the summer of 2025 where I found a picture of the Barcelona team posing at the stadium and the Spanish caption indicating that they had won 2-0.  

Step into the world of “A Beautiful Game of Love”—a nuanced Persian-language drama woven with themes of longing, exile, and quiet emotional reckoning.    Set against the backdrop of the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles, the play offers an intimate exploration of the hopes we place in others and the strength it takes to let go.   Featuring performances by Raha Etemadi, Niousha Noor, and Houshang Touzie.    

In the summer of 1980. Irene, Victor, Luane and myself flipped through the phone book to make prank calls. We spotted someone named Harold and Luane dialed his number. A woman answered and Luane asked to speak to Harold. When she asked Luane who she was she replied he was his girlfriend. Apparently this was Harold's wife because we could hear commotion and arguments on the other end of the line. We waited for Luane to give us the signal that Harold had picked up and when she did the four of us screamed "We love you Harold!"  

Ramina Torabi, Iranian model and influencer, made a striking appearance on the red carpet at Cannes 2025 wearing a show-stopping gown by Zima, a boutique fashion house known for blending tradition with contemporary elegance. The standout detail? Ornamental shoulder pieces inspired by the legendary bull-headed capitals of the Apadana Palace in ancient Susa, reimagined by accessory label Brikad.  

My interest in the 1994 World Cup had not subsided. In fact with all of the new material I had received via the magazines my mom had brought back from the US, I now had become even more familiar with the US team. It was thus that I took to writing the names of US players on the walls of our classrooms at Sharif University. I would intentionally choose classrooms that I had classes in (although obviously during times when the class was empty) so that I could monitor my writings on a daily basis. Every so often when the walls would get too jam packed with these names, someone would come and erase them all and then the cycle would begin all over again.  I still was fully convinced that the US as hosts would win the 1994 World Cup which lead to a new slogan that I added to my wall graffiti. Pretty soon “1994 Victory” began popping up on various walls, blackboards and even ceilings of the university. For one particular class that my friends were in and I wasn’t, I used to wait at the ...

Kathreen Khavari's dream had always been to act. Her foray into writing, she says, grew out of frustration. Tired of the stereotypical roles she was being offered (terrorists, wives of terrorists and refugees), the Iranian-American actress began writing roles for herself. With writing partner Chuck Neal, Khavari co-created and stars in "Embrace," a pilot from Refinery29 premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The series follows a medical student whose immigrant parents have fallen on hard times and are considering moving back to Iran. In order to keep her family together, she comes up with an unconventional plan. Khavari spoke with John Horn about "Embrace," her acting career, and about being the voice of Ms. Marvel, Marvel's first Muslim character to headline her own comic book.   My parents left Iran after the revolution and have been working in this country ever since. My mom has been an early childhood development teacher for ove...

If Pinocchio’s Nose only grows when he lies what happens when Pinocchio says “My nose is about to grow?  

The mayor of Italy’s Rimini municipality has proposed granting citizenship to children of third-country nationals, SchengenVisaInfo reported. Jamil Sadegholvaad, who is also Persian, has urged the central government to grant citizenship to the 1.3 million students who have completed at least one school cycle in Italy. He was of the view that giving citizenship to the children of non-EU citizens in Italy through the completion of at least one school cycle in the country was the “best way to integrate them into the society”. There are currently 3,500 minors born to foreign parents in Rimini who do not have Italian citizenship.

In 1980 I had a lot of oriental students in my grade. During gym when our classes went against each other we learned some of their names although I had trouble telling them apart so I renamed them all variations of Chingy. When time when I was randomly naming different classmates of mine to a friend not from our school and asking him which one he liked better (although he did not know any of them and would answer simply based on his knowledge of others with those names) I then switched to our rival class. I asked him if he liked Chingy better or Wingy and he replied Wingy. I then asked if he liked Wingy better or Chingy and he replied Chingy. I concluded that when he had no opinion about either name he would simply pick the second one.  

The match officials have been confirmed for the second round of group matches at the Olympic Football Tournaments in Paris 2024. Just like on the respective opening days of the men’s and women’s Olympic Football Tournaments, mixed-gender teams of officials will take charge as eight games are played out across the four groups in the men’s tournament (all on Saturday, 27 July) and six games are contested across three groups in the women’s tournament (all on Sunday, 28 July), while Jelena Cvetković will act as fourth official in two of those games. She will be part of the officiating team for the men’s match between the Dominican Republic and Spain, which kicks off at 15:00 (all times mentioned are CET) at the Stade de Bordeaux, while also performing fourth-official duties in the 21:00 men’s fixture between Japan and Mali at the same venue. Continuing with the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament, Argentina v. Iraq takes place at the Stade de Lyon and is also a 15:00 kick-off. Norwegian refe...

"I was in between albums and hadn't been touring. We were at a restaurant and the waiter struck up a conversation with my son asking him what he wanted to be when he grew up. After thinking about it he replied that he wanted to do absolutely nothing just like his dad. That's when I realized how kids can be so brutally honest. He no longer lives with us." -Richard Marx, July 15, 2001, WHUD Summerfest at Croton Point Park  

Born and raised in an extremely educated and loving family in Tehran, Iran things took a frightening turn when Dr. Thais Aliabadi turned 7 and she was thrust into the midst of war. Her wealthy family went from having nannies, drivers, and vacations, to at times hiding in her basement for shelter. Her father’s passport was taken from him, and his bank accounts frozen, making for an extremely difficult upbringing until the age of 17 when her family moved to Los Altos, CA, in her senior year of high school. She went from being popular in school to leaving her homeland and starting over. She couldn’t speak a word of English, so started in ESL immersion before going on to graduate on time. After studying for two years at Foothill Community College , to hone her English skills, she transferred to UC Berkeley . She went from a small classroom setting to massive, and because she still struggled to speak English, she found a unique way to learn. “…in my biology class there would ...

When I was younger I invented a creature called kebritpipianos which was somewhat of a half man-half horse (like a centaur) and terrified other kids regarding it. My description was based loosely on the cover of the book "A wrinkle in Time". I would point out footprints or broken branches as evidence of its existence. I believe I once saw its back end as it was galloping away in the wooded mountains of Fasham although that might have just been a regular horse.  

The 2019 Women's World Cup came as a surprise to Iranians. An Iranian player was at the heart of the German defense: Sara Doorsoun-Khajeh. Born in November 1991 in Cologne, Doorsoun started playing professional football at the age of 15 when she was accepted in the German national youth team trials for new talent. She then played for the German national team in all age categories. She went to Wolfsburg in 2018 after playing for Wattenscheid, Turbine Potsdam, Bad Neuenahr and Essen. Doorsoun was playing at the highest level of professional football in the world, and Wolfsburg won the Women's Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal cup for two consecutive seasons with her in the squad. Today, Angel City Football Club (ACFC) announced that the club has signed German defender Sara Doorsoun to a contract through 2026. Doorsoun joins the club from Frauen-Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt for an undisclosed transfer fee. She will occupy one of ACFC’s international spots and will be elig...

Just passed this sign on Route 69 in Oklahoma. "There are over 4000 bison in Oklahoma. None of them care who you voted for."  

As a child Sheila Nazarian escaped from Iran. She was shot at by Iranian border guards as she was smuggled to the United States. Today she is an accomplished Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who starred on her own popular, Emmy-nominated Netflix series, Skin Decision.  Sheila was six years old when during the Iran-Iraq war, a bomb landed two blocks from their house. “As kids, we would wake up, go to the window, and watch the bombs. My parents told us they were fireworks.” “I didn’t know we were escaping. My mother told us nothing. One morning, we went to the bazaar and my mother told us to get into the back of a large vehicle, and we all hid under corn and burlap. We were in the fetal position on the bottom of this trunk with several other strangers. The car drove us to the border. Then, we got onto the back of a pick-up truck. We started making our way to Pakistan.” The group of refugees spent one night sleeping in the desert. “The lights were off of the pick-up truck, and w...

When trying to explain taxes and calculating percentages I gave an example of a misting fan costing $159.98 with a sales tax of 8%. Before we could proceed to solving the problem someone asked me what a misting fan was. As I was giving a description he cut me off and said he believed it was a typo and should have said missing fan instead. I asked him what a missing fan was. He explained it as such: "It means that you had a fan but it's missing because I took it. Now if you want to get your fan back you will have to pay me $159.98."  

Maria Derisavi was crowned Miss Maryland 2025.  Maria immigrated to the United States at nine years old, and is the first Iranian Miss Maryland in the organization’s 104 year history. Maria is also the first Miss Maryland from St. Mary’s County. Maria will go on to represent the state of Maryland at the Miss America competition in September, hosted in Orlando, Florida. Maria won the crown following a week of competition hosted in the historic Maryland Theater in Hagerstown, Maryland, including interview, fitness, on-stage question, talent, and evening gown.  Maria is a 22 year old summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama with a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Chinese. She was a fellow in Harvard Law School’s inaugural class of Future Leaders in Law fellows, and was a U.S. Senator Shelby Scholar at the University of Alabama. She earned over $11,000 in scholarship awards...

The circle of life has three sides: love and kindness.  

For years, a sophisticated retail crime ring plundered Home Depots across Southern California, pulling off more than 600 thefts and netting an estimated $10 million worth of merchandise without consequences — until now, authorities said. On Tuesday, the Ventura County district attorney’s office announced the filing of a 48-count criminal complaint against nine alleged key players in what Home Depot says is the largest targeted theft ring in the business’ history. The retail crime ring targeted 71 Home Depot locations in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, sometimes hitting the same stores multiple times a day, prosecutors allege.  The criminal enterprise allegedly was led by David Ahl of Woodland Hills, who faces 45 felony counts, including conspiracy, organized retail theft, grand theft, receiving stolen property and money laundering, prosecutors said. If convicted as charged, he would face up to 32 years in prison. Ahl’s brother-in-law, Omid ...

Still on a high, Kurt flipped through the channels. He finally stopped on Unsolved Mysteries. It was an episode that he had seen before. Something about this show attracted him to it. But on the other hand it was like a joke without the punchline. Yes, it was interesting to hear about all these different cases, but what was the point if there was no ending to them? The occasional updates seemed like a petty consolation prize. He wanted all of them to have updates. In fact he wanted all of them to be solved. Perhaps they should come up with a new show. No, perhaps he should come up with a new show, a show with all different kinds of mysteries in it, but with all of them being solved. He could even call it Solved Mysteries. Now there was a money-making scheme.