Q Confidential

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Q Confidential is edited by Michael Schenkler and Tamara Hartman. Contributors:
Nick Abadjian, Tom Allon, Steve Azzara, David Colby, Ira Cohen,
Marcia Moxam Comrie, Barbara Jarvie, Stephen McGuire, Mike Nussbaum, and Dee Richard.

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photos:  Steve Azzara

Models Of Queens
Haitian Belle

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You’re likely to find Christina at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows this week, watching the US Open. Our tennis playing Queens model was born here but at the age of two months, returned with her parents to their homeland, Haiti.

In her third year at Baruch College, Christina tells us – with a slight Haitian accent – that since moving here, "I think I am more open-minded."

Christina loves languages and speaks French, Creole, and English fluently. She is also studying Spanish and plans on taking up Italian. When she speaks French she rattles at a high speed.

Christina's talents also extend to dance, drawing and acting. She is a brown belt in Shotokan Karate.

"It’s like you’re dancing but you’re fighting," said Christina. "I can’t stay with one thing because it gets boring."

Although a variety of businesses interest her, after graduating, she wants to work in human resources. But her end goal is to start a clothing line.

Christina would much rather act than model. Back in Haiti, she was part of a theater company.

Despite an hour-and-a-half commute to Manhattan from her Cambria Heights home, she still prefers Queens.

"I like the fact that it is quiet in Queens, because in Manhattan everyone is always in a rush."

She often visits Forest Hills because it reminds her of a European town and shops at "European Lady." "Mardi Gras" on Austin Street is one of her favorite restaurants because it reminds her of Haitian food. She enjoys the shrimp and the lobster and never misses out on her favorite dessert – vanilla ice cream with chocolate strawberries and cream.

Christina goes to the Sacred Heart Church, where the service is in French and Creole. Before college, she went to an all-girls Catholic school with nuns. "They were trying to be strict, but I always followed the rules that I thought were right. They always thought I was an angel."

Despite her beauty, Christina has no man in her life. "I don’t want to waste my time with someone I don’t really love." She’ll go out on a few dates, but if she gets bored it’s a waste of time for her. "I need someone who is so attentive."

She added, "I like men with one imperfection. It makes them look different."

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Love In An Elevator

Before she was the Material Girl, she was just another part of Queens’ workforce.

Landing a job as an elevator operator in
the noteworthy borough reception hall Terrace
On The Park, the Michigan-native Madonna spent the latter part of the 1970s scratching to survive in Corona while attempting to foster a music career with her local band, The Breakfast Club.

And though she was singles away from
becoming the sultry songstress the world has come to know and love, her affinity for sexual "expression" was apparently just as strong then as it is now.

In fact, according to a story that’s been circulating in gossip circles for the past month,
it eventually cost her job.

One Saturday evening, the Terrace’s elevator, with Madonna faithfully at the helm, wouldn’t open for some unexplained reason.

However the doors eventually parted and so did the formerly stranded couple inside—none other than the future Queen of Pop and a fellow male employee.

Ushered into her superior’s office, Madonna reportedly confessed to having sex and was summarily fired.

The Blind Leading The Blind

The New York City Campaign Finance Board recently mailed its annual "Voter’s Guide" out to residents throughout the five boroughs in an attempt to simplify the voting process and introduce all of the many candidates to voters before the September 11 primaries - whether they’re actually on the ballot or not.

One Conf scribe received the Voter’s Guide for Queens City Council districts 22 through 25 in the mail, and found four candidates mentioned that were thrown off the ballot by the Board of Elections a month ago. Democrats Frank Castro, Louisa Chan, Rodolfo Flores, and Sandra Vassos are all featured in the guide, despite the fact that voters cannot actually vote for them on September 11. Vassos is running as a Republican in the general election, at least, but the others are completely and totally off the ballot for the rest of the election year.

Nowhere in the guide does it say that the candidates are subject to change based on Board of Elections results, implying that the slate in the guide is the same slate that will appear in voters' booths across Queens.

Of course, everybody makes mistakes, but still . . .

Black Market Baseball

Buying and collecting baseball cards isn’t exactly as cheap and innocent a hobby as it used to be, especially with packs of cards going for as much as five bucks a
pop these days at local stores. Not all kids can afford five dollars for a pack of cards, but luckily for them they have another option.

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photo: Arlene Lewis

Feeling sorry for "kids nowadays," and looking to unload his massive collection after 20 years of collecting, one middle-aged Queensite has set up a baseball card stand … right on his aunt’s sidewalk in Whitestone.

Much like old-fashioned lemonade stands, he sits on 14th Avenue and 141st Street and has been spotted there the last couple of weeks hawking Sammy Sosa rookies.

His collection is affordable and spans decades. He wraps up his cards in his own self-made "packs" and sells them to local children.

When asked the reason for his shop, he said money has nothing to do with it. "Let me tell ya, I’m doing this for the kids," he said, but refused, for some reason, to give his name.

Um…on second thought, maybe those five-dollar packs you find in stores aren’t so bad, after all.

 

Confidentially New York . . .

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