Keisha Thomas
Home: South Jamaica
Age:16
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Stats: 34-27-37  

This energetic 16-year-old told us that although she’s new to the modeling world she can strut her stuff on the catwalk with the best of them – exactly what she did at a major New York City fashion show sponsored by her agency Black Cartel one recent weekend.

Keisha, who hails from South Jamaica, said she has always been inspired to model.

“It’s just something that’s been in my heart,” she said.

Keisha is a junior at Bayside High School where her favorite courses are social studies and history. “I like to learn about how it was,” she said.

When she is not busy with her courses, Keisha likes to listen to music – for her hip-hop and R and B is where it’s at.

Keisha’s favorite artist?

Queens homeboy NAS of course.

Keisha said exercise is an important part of her daily routine even though she doesn’t get to take part as much as she’d like to.

And when she’s not busy with schoolwork Keisha likes to go bowling at lanes near the Van Wyck Expressway and Merrick and Linden Boulevards.

Her plans include studying computers in college and then becoming a supermodel.

“I know it’s a lot of hard work,” she said of her lofty career goals.

“But what you put into it is what you get out, no matter what you want to be,” she said.

For more info about the After Dark clothing line Keisha is wearing here, call Derrick Jones at 341-2700.

In Search Of St. John's U.

Confusion has arisen lately as to the exact location of St. John’s University, one of Queens most prestigious centers of  higher learning, presumably located in Jamaica, but can also be found in three other neighborhoods.

The 100-acre plus facility, whose official post office address is 8000 Utopia Pkwy, Jamaica, NY 11439, is often classified as being located in Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, and Hillcrest by students and residents.

Although bounded by Union Tpke. on the north, Grand Central Parkway on the south, Utopia Pkwy to the east, and 169 St. to the west, a recent published article quoted a student at the school saying it was located in Utopia, Queens which just doesn’t exist, at all . . . yet.

Even the zip code 11439 does not appear on the official U.S. Post Office zip code guide, and although a spokesperson at the Jamaica branch confirmed the number as “unique,” to the school, he could not explain the disparity.

Yet, mail is delivered on schedule, and students find classrooms, but heads shake and shoulders shrug while asking — so where is the college located?

Like Father, Like Son

You can’t stop politicians from giving their opinions – even after they've passed away, apparently.

In a recent article in the Daily News, late State Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin is quoted as saying that Councilwoman Yvette Clarke doesn’t have a “discriminatory bone in her body . . . ” despite the fact that Saul is no longer alive.

The article was about the negative reactions of Jewish politicians to a Daily News edit that accused Clarke of anti-Semitism because she opposed construction of affordable homes in Crown Heights.

According to the March 26 article, “City Councilman Saul Weprin,” who is Jewish, strongly opposed the editorial, and commented on it negatively. A good trick, since he died in 1994 and was never a City Councilman.

Of course, the article was really referring to District 23 City Councilman David Weprin, Saul’s son, who did comment on the editorial. The paper just accidentally printed the wrong name.

Oops.

Cry Fowl

When neighbors complained about chickens cluck-clucking as they strut around a yard on Fleet Street in Forest Hills, they called a local civic group who called the Department of Health and Community Board 6 (CB 6), and got their feathers unruffled when they were told: chickens are permissible, but the male of the species, roosters, are not.

CB 6 General Manager Kathleen Reilly said, “they fight, they’re noisy, and they bring rodents.”

But the chickens couldn’t live without them!

Strange Bedfellows

Misery and Queens politics do produce strange bedfellows.

It’s especially true in the hiring of a lawyer by a former top official of the Queens Republican Party who stood accused in a scandal involving the Dept. of Buildings.

And it looks like former Queens GOP boss Joseph DeFronzo made the right choice in selecting Stephen Mahler – the former long-time Queens Liberal party chairman – as his attorney.

A state Supreme Court jury acquitted DeFronzo on charges of attempted bribery and altering paper work to his mother’s home in Middle Village to bring it up to snuff with City building codes.

According to published reports, Mahler said following the verdict that the case reminded him of an episode of Seinfeld, “a show about nothing,” he said.

DeFronzo, the Conservative Republican Party officer, Mahler the former Liberal chief  make one happy Queens political family.

Define Asian

Is it possible that District 20 City Councilman John Liu is actually not the first Asian person to be elected to the City Council? Every publication in the City – including the Tribune – made a big deal about the historic implications of his election because an Asian had never served on the Council before. Could it be that there is actually another council member, elected minutes before Liu, who really and truly is the first Asian in the City Council?

Well, no. Manhattan Councilman Robert Jackson, who was also elected last November, is actually half black and half Chinese, making him half Asian. Jackson’s victory was announced a few minutes before Liu’s, so he could be considered the first Asian council member.

But he doesn’t want to be. Jackson said that while he’s extremely proud of his Asian roots, he considers himself African American because he grew up in a “mostly African American household.” On his Census form, he indicated that he is African American, and said, “When you look at John Liu, it’s clear that he is Asian. When you look at me, you can’t tell.” He added, “John Liu is the first Asian in the City Council, no doubt about it . . . I always joke that there are one and a half Asians in the Council. But, let’s be clear, he’s the first.”

And so, Liu can continue to be the Asian media superstar.

Asian Councilmembers? Robert Jackson & John Liu

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