The woman who started as a school teacher and later became the "realtor to the stars," was attacked and killed in her Manhattan apartment the night before Halloween.
Linda Stein left her job as school teacher in the 1970's to become co-manager of the legendary NYC punk band The Ramones. She left band management in the 1990's to become a real estate agent. She provided ritzy penthouses and glamorous Fifth Avenue apartments to stars such as Elton John, Madonna, Billy Joel and Bruce Willis.
Stein, 62, was found lying in a pool of blood on Oct. 31 in her apartment by her daughter. The autopsy determined that Stein died from blows to the head and neck. The murder sparked a massive investigation by police who say that a suspect is now in custody.
Natavia Lowery, 26, a personal assistant for the real estate mogul, has made statements to police to the effect that she was involved in the killing. However, formal charges have yet to be filed with the District Attorney's office. In the weeks to come, much is to be learned about the specifics in the case.
I had just seen Linda on a real estate program on a cable network. She dropped the name of a few of her clients and showed what a day in her normally wonderful life is like. In the program she visited with ex-husband Seymour Stein at his vacation house in the Hamptons. Seymour is the former vice-president of Warner Music and the former president of Sire Records and helped launch the career of Madonna.
I look forward to seeing what unfolds in the upcoming weeks.
Friday, November 09, 2007
A Dream I Actually Remembered.
I have decided to start writing again. After all, how hard is it to post a few random thoughts. I decided to post a dream that I had a few months ago. I just happened to remember the whole thing so I wrote it down when I awoke. It is quite abstract, but I think that may be the direction I am going to start taking my blog.
I had walked into a video arcade bought a dollar’s worth of tokens. After finding a cool new racing video game, I decided to play. The game cost all four of the tokens I had bought and lasted approximately thirty seconds before I had crashed and the game ended. What a great use of a dollar.
After my driving debacle, I saw a classic Ms. Pacman game which only cost one token. I had plenty of practice time on this game over the years so decided to play. However, when I went to the machine that exchanged coins and bills for game tokens, I realized that there was a token sitting in the coin return slot. Then I found that the machine was completely jammed up with all kinds of coins the machine didn’t even accept, mostly pennies.
I tried to remove the jam from the machine with my fingers. At that time, a young man came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told him I was trying to get the change out of the machine so people could use it. He gave me a dirty look and told me that the change was his and to leave it alone.
His approach rubbed me the wrong way and I told him that his change was preventing other customers from using the token machine. A few pleasantries were exchanged, and the next thing I know, the young man and I were walking outside the arcade to settle this dispute the old-fashioned way.
I knew this kid would be no problem and I wasn’t too afraid of the overweight friend he had following him around. Just when I thought punches were about to fly, the kid backs off. Had he finally come to his senses and decided that some pocket change was not worth the consequences of fighting in the corridors of a crowded shopping mall?
Then the kid pulls out what looks like a weapon, but more or less just a long stick. My attitude immediately changed and I reassessed my predicament. The long stick was actually a blow dart gun. I overheard the kid mention something about going to sleep and at that moment a dart hits me square in the neck.
I was shocked mostly because I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would probably knock me out, but was it poisoned? I quickly pulled the dart from my neck and he reloaded and shot me with another. I pulled that one out and he shot another.
I then turned and ran for the door. As soon as I started to make my break, I could feel my body start to shut down. Was this all just a nightmare? What was going to happen to me after I was unconscious?
Suddenly, I awoke in what appeared to be a high school health room. Much like the one I had gone to while I was in school. Only this time I wasn’t faking just to take a nap during biology class. It was an area for emergency medical attention in the mall. Someone must have found me laying there and alerted the mall authorities.
There was no sign of the kid who had shot me with the blow dart gun. The medical responders who had come to my attention told me that the darts I was hit with were not poisonous but did contain tranquilizers. She said I was going to be groggy for awhile but it did not pose any physical harm. I asked if I could leave and I was cleared to go.
On my way out of the mall, I ran into an old friend of mine. I told him what I remembered and he wasn’t sure what to say. He knew I was an avid poker player and asked me if I wanted to play for some cash. I wasn’t feeling the best, but I never passed up an opportunity to beat some people out of their hard earned dollars, so I agreed to play.
So my friend and I left in his car to a house nearby the mall. There were four other people at the house so I assumed this would be the competition. Three of them were older gentlemen, and from the solid gray hair, I assumed they were at least sixty years old. Then I noticed a middle-aged man whose face I recognized. It was Ted Forrest. What was a poker professional doing at a home game in a small town? I introduced myself to him and asked that very question. He claimed he had family in town and was just looking for a game no matter what the stakes were.
Seeing the older gentlemen and a poker pro instantly erased any delusions I had of winning any money. Seeing as I had about eighty dollars to my name, it was distressing to say the least. Either way, I figured even if I don’t win, I would probably learn quite a bit.
So we sat down to play. The game was going fairly well as I had gain a considerable amount of chips and was feeling much more confident than I had before we started. After about three hours of playing, we decided to take a break. Everyone was hungry and wanted food. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten since I had skipped breakfast that day and my mind was still a little cloudy.
The people at the house decided we would get some Burger King due to its relative closeness to the house. I was nominated to run and Ted Forrest offered to buy. It was only proper for a guy who was undoubtedly a millionaire. After the fifty dollar buy-in to our game, I could hardly afford anything. Ted then said he had a gift card worth thirty bucks for Burger King. What was a millionaire doing with a gift card? I didn’t dwell on it and left for the restaurant.
I had been feeling a little retarded all day long, and my trip would only exemplify that. First, I walked up to the drive-thru. I placed the order which normally wouldn’t have happened since I wasn’t even in a vehicle. So I walked up to the first window to pay and completely spaced out when it came time to pay. Rather than give the cashier the gift card Ted had given me, I paid for the meals with my last thirty dollars.
This made me completely broke. I realized this as I walked up to the second window to pick up our food. At that point I told the lady that I wanted to change the way I paid. She said I would have to go back to the cashier and tell her that. So I went back to the first window to explain.
Meanwhile, the lady at the second window had placed my food on the shelf outside the window. Why would she do this? I’m sure it wasn’t store policy to leave food sitting out. Then as I am trying to use the gift card given to me, another lady grabs my bag of food and starts walking towards her minivan. As soon as I noticed, I ran over to the lady and asked her what she thought she was doing with my food.
The lady obviously wasn’t desperate for food. After running up to her minivan, I noticed the entire back end of it filled with brand new television sets still in the boxes.
I am not quite sure how it ended, but this was the end product after writing it down. After having re-read this dream, I would really like to start remembering more of them. If for nothing else, to dissect my inner conciousness.
I had walked into a video arcade bought a dollar’s worth of tokens. After finding a cool new racing video game, I decided to play. The game cost all four of the tokens I had bought and lasted approximately thirty seconds before I had crashed and the game ended. What a great use of a dollar.
After my driving debacle, I saw a classic Ms. Pacman game which only cost one token. I had plenty of practice time on this game over the years so decided to play. However, when I went to the machine that exchanged coins and bills for game tokens, I realized that there was a token sitting in the coin return slot. Then I found that the machine was completely jammed up with all kinds of coins the machine didn’t even accept, mostly pennies.
I tried to remove the jam from the machine with my fingers. At that time, a young man came up to me and asked what I was doing. I told him I was trying to get the change out of the machine so people could use it. He gave me a dirty look and told me that the change was his and to leave it alone.
His approach rubbed me the wrong way and I told him that his change was preventing other customers from using the token machine. A few pleasantries were exchanged, and the next thing I know, the young man and I were walking outside the arcade to settle this dispute the old-fashioned way.
I knew this kid would be no problem and I wasn’t too afraid of the overweight friend he had following him around. Just when I thought punches were about to fly, the kid backs off. Had he finally come to his senses and decided that some pocket change was not worth the consequences of fighting in the corridors of a crowded shopping mall?
Then the kid pulls out what looks like a weapon, but more or less just a long stick. My attitude immediately changed and I reassessed my predicament. The long stick was actually a blow dart gun. I overheard the kid mention something about going to sleep and at that moment a dart hits me square in the neck.
I was shocked mostly because I had no idea what to expect. I knew it would probably knock me out, but was it poisoned? I quickly pulled the dart from my neck and he reloaded and shot me with another. I pulled that one out and he shot another.
I then turned and ran for the door. As soon as I started to make my break, I could feel my body start to shut down. Was this all just a nightmare? What was going to happen to me after I was unconscious?
Suddenly, I awoke in what appeared to be a high school health room. Much like the one I had gone to while I was in school. Only this time I wasn’t faking just to take a nap during biology class. It was an area for emergency medical attention in the mall. Someone must have found me laying there and alerted the mall authorities.
There was no sign of the kid who had shot me with the blow dart gun. The medical responders who had come to my attention told me that the darts I was hit with were not poisonous but did contain tranquilizers. She said I was going to be groggy for awhile but it did not pose any physical harm. I asked if I could leave and I was cleared to go.
On my way out of the mall, I ran into an old friend of mine. I told him what I remembered and he wasn’t sure what to say. He knew I was an avid poker player and asked me if I wanted to play for some cash. I wasn’t feeling the best, but I never passed up an opportunity to beat some people out of their hard earned dollars, so I agreed to play.
So my friend and I left in his car to a house nearby the mall. There were four other people at the house so I assumed this would be the competition. Three of them were older gentlemen, and from the solid gray hair, I assumed they were at least sixty years old. Then I noticed a middle-aged man whose face I recognized. It was Ted Forrest. What was a poker professional doing at a home game in a small town? I introduced myself to him and asked that very question. He claimed he had family in town and was just looking for a game no matter what the stakes were.
Seeing the older gentlemen and a poker pro instantly erased any delusions I had of winning any money. Seeing as I had about eighty dollars to my name, it was distressing to say the least. Either way, I figured even if I don’t win, I would probably learn quite a bit.
So we sat down to play. The game was going fairly well as I had gain a considerable amount of chips and was feeling much more confident than I had before we started. After about three hours of playing, we decided to take a break. Everyone was hungry and wanted food. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten since I had skipped breakfast that day and my mind was still a little cloudy.
The people at the house decided we would get some Burger King due to its relative closeness to the house. I was nominated to run and Ted Forrest offered to buy. It was only proper for a guy who was undoubtedly a millionaire. After the fifty dollar buy-in to our game, I could hardly afford anything. Ted then said he had a gift card worth thirty bucks for Burger King. What was a millionaire doing with a gift card? I didn’t dwell on it and left for the restaurant.
I had been feeling a little retarded all day long, and my trip would only exemplify that. First, I walked up to the drive-thru. I placed the order which normally wouldn’t have happened since I wasn’t even in a vehicle. So I walked up to the first window to pay and completely spaced out when it came time to pay. Rather than give the cashier the gift card Ted had given me, I paid for the meals with my last thirty dollars.
This made me completely broke. I realized this as I walked up to the second window to pick up our food. At that point I told the lady that I wanted to change the way I paid. She said I would have to go back to the cashier and tell her that. So I went back to the first window to explain.
Meanwhile, the lady at the second window had placed my food on the shelf outside the window. Why would she do this? I’m sure it wasn’t store policy to leave food sitting out. Then as I am trying to use the gift card given to me, another lady grabs my bag of food and starts walking towards her minivan. As soon as I noticed, I ran over to the lady and asked her what she thought she was doing with my food.
The lady obviously wasn’t desperate for food. After running up to her minivan, I noticed the entire back end of it filled with brand new television sets still in the boxes.
I am not quite sure how it ended, but this was the end product after writing it down. After having re-read this dream, I would really like to start remembering more of them. If for nothing else, to dissect my inner conciousness.
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