Absolute Random Nonsense

I was in Boston/Brookline visiting my sister. Once there they told my sister's friend that there is a restaurant that shows Iran's games and if I wanted we could go there to watch this one. So we got up at around 3:00am and went there and it was packed with Iranians (and one Australian guy). The owner kept trying to get the game on his TV but the signal wasn't working. In the meantime someone got on the computer and found a site that reported the game every minute or so. So he kept reading us what was going on and just about every line was an Australian attack. Finally Australia scored. The owner was still trying to get us a signal but was unsuccessful. The second half started pretty much the same as the first and when Australia scored the second goal (that again we only were able to read about) everyone pretty much got up to leave as we figured it was over. I came back and went straight to sleep but in the morning my sister started waking me up to tell me that...

UFC women's bantamweight contender Pannie Kianzad freely admits that she’s had to tame her inner demons during her career, and now, as she gets ready to make the walk for her 24th professional fight, she says she’s really starting to tap into her full potential. Kianzad’s journey at the sport’s highest level started with crushing disappointment as she lost to Macy Chiasson in the featherweight final of Season 28 of The Ultimate Fighter. Victory would have secured her a UFC contract, but instead “Banzai” had to go back to the drawing board after a second-round submission defeat. Looking back at that fight, Kianzad admits it was a bittersweet memory, with the taste of defeat still palpable, but tempered by the knowledge of what eventually followed. “I remember not being in the UFC anymore!” she told UFC.com ahead of her upcoming bout at UFC Vegas 88 this weekend.  

When I was younger I enjoyed running in the street while screaming, "Witches are good, witches are clean."

  I was born in Tehran. My father is a poet. We moved from Iran in 1979, but before the revolution. I pretty much grew up in Los Angeles and learned English by watching TV. I went to the Sinai Akiba Academy and later to Beverly Hills High School. I played the violin for 13 years, but acting was always what I yearned to do. I went to UC Santa Barbara. There were no Persians or Jews there, and I was just able to lose myself and enjoy the college life. I studied environmental studies and did theater for fun — never thinking I could pursue it as a career. I later came back to Los Angeles, got a corporate job and I was just miserable. I did sales during the day and took acting classes at night. I did that for a couple of years to get myself trained and get a better understanding of the world beyond theater. The scariest thing I ever did was quit my job to pursue acting full time. That was two and half years ago. I quit my job, started pursing acting seriously and not even t...

A pancake really doesn't look like cake. It looks more like a pie. It should be called a panpie or pp for short.

When I was in middle school I used to feign running while lying down and being sick.

Two people have been arrested in the execution-style slaying of popular Woodland Hills doctor Hamid Mirshojae, who was  gunned down in the parking lot of his practice as he left work this summer. Ashley Rose Sweeting, 40, and Evan Hardman, 41, were taken into custody Tuesday in connection with the killing in August, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Sweeting is from Reseda and Hardman is from Texas. Mirshojae was shot in the back of the head as he walked to his car after work on Aug. 23. The shooting occurred a few months after the doctor had been jumped by a trio of men with baseball bats, an attack that left him fearing for his life.  

I used to violently - and intentionally - convulse as I held out my hand and asked for 6 million dollars.

Guy Fieri visited Hamid Shirdel at his Kababi Cafe restaurant.  Hamid Shirdel, a veteran Broward restaurateur and Iran native who opened Kababi Café in 2014, describes Persian cuisine as “middle of the road.” The meats are halal, and no pork is served, and there are many options for vegetarians. Persian food is a blend of the many influences found in a cradle-of-civilization country in the Middle East that is not Arabic (Farsi is the dominant language). Empires and shahs have come and gone, replaced by ayatollahs and upheaval and a U.S. designation as being part of an “Axis of Evil,” but warmth, hospitality and strong family bonds are the hallmarks of Persian culture. And so it is at Kababi Café, where Shirdel’s 26-year-old daughter, Chelsea, works the front of the house, and his 83-year-old father can be found cleaning up and helping out during the daily lunch buffet. Service is gracious and friendly, and our non-Middle Eastern server dutifully ran to the kitchen to get our questi...

Has anyone ever tried to smell a lamp shade but instead ended up howling at plants while pinching an old lady's toe nails as she ate her socks?