Models Of Queens
Twice As Good

Vanessa
Home: Flushing
Age: 23
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 115
Stats: 34-24-34
UModels.com (#8373)

Are you in heaven or seeing double?

If you run into Vanessa Demira and her identical twin sister Wania on the streets of Flushing, you’ll have to make up your own mind.

Even though this week’s “Model of Queens” thinks that Playboy is classy she wouldn’t pose nude.  Vanessa would rather see herself in the pages of Maxim, wearing a bikini in a less revealing pose.  But it might be a different picture for identical twin Wania.

“In comparison to her I’m conservative.  She’s a little wild,” said Vanessa.

Wania now models as a superhero for a cartoon and doesn’t mind modeling swimsuits, lingerie or even in the buff. 

“We are identical, but she has different features.  She looks more Latin,” said Vanessa.  Wania has curls and does her makeup differently.

Asked if it bothers her that people confuse the
two sisters she responded, “Sometimes it does.
I want to have my own identity.  But she’s my best friend.” 

Vanessa doesn’t mind if people confuse the two
in her latest modeling gig, which might be too risqué for her.  Vanessa posed for the men’s magazine Edge, set to come out in September. She wears a skimpy bathing suit and no top, but Vanessa covers herself with her arms. 

Vanessa started modeling when she attended the Barbizon school for modeling with her sister at 14. 

Although she will be joining her sister at Union County in New Jersey, Vanessa admits, “School is not for me. I just want to get some type of education background.”

Vanessa is a product of Brazilian parents and was born and raised in Long Branch, NJ – the South Shore.

She came to Queens for two reasons.  One was to model and pursue her trade as a makeup artist.  And the second is to live with her Flushing boyfriend that she met online.

The two first met in an AOL New York City chatroom back in 1997.  The chatroom built a solid group of 30 members who decided to meet on Queens Boulevard by the White Castle in Elmhurst.

Vanessa says there’s nothing to do in Jersey and she enjoys Queens. 

She’s a big Mets fan, indulges at the Lemon Ice King in Corona and enjoys the Hall of Science and walking in Cunningham Park.  Vanessa also plays volleyball and picnics at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

See you there!

The Plane Facts On Flight 800

It was no surprise to those of us at QConfidential when the feds issued an order mandating manufacturers to change the design of fuel tanks in jumbo jets like the Boeing 747 that exploded over Moriches, Long Island, bringing down TWA Flight 800.

This page reported in December 1996 that investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board were eyeing fuel vapors in the plane’s central fuel tank as the source of the explosion that killed all 230 people on board. Our report went on to reveal:

“Probers are focusing increased interest on air conditioning units that could have become super-heated during a two-hour holdover at JFK International Airport. The units sit directly below the center fuel tank on the Boeing 747, and investigators are trying to determine if radiating heat increased tank temperature to a degree that ignited vapors in the tank, blowing the plane from the sky 11 and a half minutes after takeoff from JFK.”

We also reported that on Aug. 26, 1996, the feds “conducted a ‘secret’ test during which air conditioning units in a Boeing 747 were run for the same two-hour period as those on Flight 800.

After running the units for two hours on the ground, then taking off and climbing to 18,000 feet, investigators found that temperatures in the central fuel tank had reached a level where the mixture had become highly volatile.”

QConfidential stated that cases involving aircraft explosions in the jets could be traced back to 1963, and that a probe that year by the feds “suggested that some type of inert gas be pumped into the space above fuel in the tank to smother any spark that might cause an explosion in the empty space. But the death toll from such accidents had not been great enough to cause a change in practice by the airline industry.

“The National Transportation Safety Board issued an ‘urgent warning’ to airlines in August, 1996 stating that they should be required to take new measures to prevent sparking or explosions in Boeing 747s and similar aircraft.”

Yes, you read it here first.

Heavyweight Lift

Queens Peace and Fitness Guru Sri Chinmoy, lifts  Cong-ressman Gary Ackerman overhead and presents him with the "Lifting Up The World With a Oneness Heart" Award. The Indian-born leader saluted Ackerman for his work on behalf of India and Bangladesh.

Sri says of his feats of strength that, "age is no barrier . . . When we live in the heart, the word 'impossible' does not exist."

Ackerman was one of several Congressional heavyweights lifted.

Ice Queen Baiul
Heats Up Queens

    Queens has played host to celebrated sports figures and movie stars for many years. Fans at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium have cheered Arthur Ashe, and Chris Everett, while Jackson Heights welcomed Alfred Hitchcock and John Leguizamo.

    But, Connecticut’s loss was Queens’ gain when Oksana Baiul, Olympic gold medal figure skater, recently moved to Forest Hills. 

    The 23-year-old Ukrainian native is planning on offering her expertise in ballet and skating to students looking for a mentor.  She will teach, talk about her own dancing experience, how she manages to stay thin, and her life growing up as an orphan.

Great Idea?

According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter: “Plenty of Washington politicians support the idea of requiring a standardized test before students can graduate from high school. Now a  group of educators and parents plan to turn the tables, hoping to require all candidates for public  office  to take the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning exam, and  have their results — just like those of students — posted on the Internet. They’re hoping to put that idea to a public vote with a ballot initiative   in  November 2002.”

Confidentially New York . . .

E-MAIL your items to: conf@queenspress.com