Kathleen Glus
Home: Astoria
Age:  8
Height:  4’2”
Weight:  54 Lbs
Hair:  Brown
Eyes:  Brown  

At 8 years old, Kathleen Glus is already ambitious — aiming for a future in dance and modeling. 

The Astoria resident, and third grader at P.S. 70 has been dancing for four years, and takes classes in jazz, tap, and ballet at Cathy’s Dance Studio in Long Island City. 

While Glus thinks dance may be a useful way to break into the modeling world, she’s staying small-time for now, with a dance recital coming up in June. 

To help launch her modeling career, Glus and her father collaborated on a photo shoot for the Gap clothing company, and submitted her photos for the company’s modeling search. 

Glus, who reads on a 6th grade level and enjoys Garfield cartoons, says she’s excited about hearing about the modeling gig, and will be very happy to become a model. 

Her parents said they are very proud.

On the Road

As anyone who has been stuck in traffic for hours on the L.I.E. or the Van Wyck knows, driving in Queens is not always pleasant.  Once you’ve figured out the maze-like grid of avenues, drives, roads, and streets with numbers and names, then it’s competing for space with other road warriors.

Like George Carlin said, “Everyone’s a bad driver, except me.” A website agrees with Queensites who assert that life on the road is tough.  This quote stands in the “Did you know?” section of About.com’s site for information on all that is Queens: “In Manhattan owning a car is not necessary. On Long Island, it’s a must. Queens runs the middle ground. You can still get around, but it can be a pain at times.” 

Looks like people from the site commuted to work on Cross Bay or Northern boulevards before writing their description.

Staying In Touch

Just because she was term limited out of the office of Borough President, don’t think that Claire Shulman isn’t still connected.

Prior to current Beep Helen Marshall’s State of the Borough address at Queens College, Shulman was spotted with stylus in hand entering info into her high-tech looking P.D.A. cell phone.

Shulman however wasn’t the only politico seen connected to the wireless airwaves.

Southeast Queens native and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott had his ear glued to his cell phone prior to the address. 

And as the students of Frank Sinatra High School of the Performing Arts sang “God Bless America,” Couniclman John Liu was spotted partaking in the exchange of information on his cellular phone.

What would the Mayor say?

Line Cutter

If there’s one thing people hate, it’s a line cutter.

When former Mayor Rudy Giuliani visited the Bay Terrace Barnes and Noble to autograph his book Leadership, there was a line cutting incident.

That’s right . . . one suspicious character marched right passed the line – which was out the door – and stepped right in front of the first person  who said he had been there for nearly six hours waiting.  Smiling, she clutched a copy of Giuliani’s book, and waited, while the suckers behind her watched.

Actually, the people behind her didn’t mind because the line cutter was former Queens Beep Claire Shulman. The Beechhurst resident heard that her old friend Rudy was coming and decided to surprise him – and get a book signed.

After Rudy arrived to a rousing ovation, he laughed when he saw Shulman, who gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. The two exchanged pleasantries and Giuliani signed her book. As he scribbled his name in black Sharpie, Shulman looked towards reporters – who were eating things up – and pointing to Rudy said, “Great mayor . . . and you can quote me on that.”

Shulman told QConf that she “loves Rudy,” and “misses him,” and after laughing that she cut the line, said, “Well, I had to see him. He’s a really good man.”

But he associates with a line cutter – how good can he be?

A Phone-Dialing Beep

    Old habits die hard, but for one self-proclaimed sophisticated borough president, the habits were never old to begin with.

    When government anti-monopoly rules recently started requiring people to dial phone numbers within the borough complete with “1-7-1-8” before the main number, some of us here at QConfidential were irked, to say the least.

    Attempts at dialing the old — and may we add more reasonable — way often ended up in an annoying error message followed by the slamming of a receiver and uttering of a sound that may be spelled somewhat accurately as “Aaarrrgh!”

    Borough President Helen Marshall, whose informal news-lingo title — Beep — makes the same sound that many phones do, told a QConfer the week after the new policy was started that she and her staff were unfazed by the switch.

    “If you work only with your desk phone it’s a pain in the neck,” Marshall said when asked about the switch.  “[But] I have been using cell phones for a long time so I’m used to dialing the area code.  These are sophisticated workers here and we’re all used to it.”

    Before completely sweeping us off our feet, though, Marshall did note some confusion she’s having about the new rule, designed to level the local phone company playing field by not letting one company have access to shorter numbers than another in an area with multiple area codes.

            “I’m not sure why we’re even doing this,” Marshall said, noting some “obscure explanation.”

Belafonte

    Former Corona resident Harry Belafonte was the “Honorable Patron” at American Foundation for the University of the West Indies 2003 Gala Celebration, held last month at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan.

    Along with Belafonte’s recognition, the university acknowledged the efforts of three women: Johnnetta Cole, prez, Bennett College; Mathilde Krim, chair, American Foundation for AIDS Research; and Mary Robinson, former prez of Ireland. They also saluted other Caribbean luminaries from the past century that have left their mark on the region.

    The cost for a ticket to the 20,000-student school’s event started at $500.