Nancy Ruhling's Astoria Characters

“Before you meet Kitana, shake my hand and give her a treat,” says Christopher Borew as he parks his purple bicycle right outside Astoria Park. Christopher and Kitana. He hands me a sliver of beef liver. Kitana, his17-month-old snow-white Shiba Inu, gives me a grin as she gobbles it up. Now pet her – not on the top of the head, she’s a dominant dog, just caress her under the chin, yes, like that, that’s perfect. OK, now that we’re chill, Christopher removes the canine’s…

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When the cream puffs and canelés at Pastries by Anne are served, soft-spoken Hyunsung Shin beams and bursts into song, his beautiful baritone booming through the bakery. Sung lives in Long Island City. In case you didn’t guess, Sung, the sing-song moniker he prefers to go by, is passionate about pastries. And bowling. And opera singing. And helping helm his family’s food-service supply business. Any and all of his favorite things will elicit a Sung song. If you think it’s…

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Chrysa Petridou was working late and didn’t get home until 4 a.m. Her big blue eyes are hidden behind her designer shades, but it doesn’t help. Chrysa’s from Cyprus. She can feel sleep calling like an ambulance’s siren. So this star of the Greek stage and screen does what she always does: She acts as though she’s wide awake. After removing her sunglasses, she smiles radiantly, plants her hands on her hips and confidently tosses her long golden hair over her shoulders…

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From the rack by the entrance to his apartment, Aman Sadiyan plucks a blue leather jacket and slips it on like a second skin. Aman was born in Iran. Sporting snow-white python-scale sleeves and snaps, the vintage varsity jacket is part of Aman’s collection of wearable art. In a flourish worthy of the runway, Aman, an intense man with searing brown eyes, a shaved head and a bushy black bird’s-nest beard that’s gracefully turning grey, flashes the vintage silk lining, revealing…

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Picture this: A little girl scribbling and drawing as soon as she could grasp a crayon in her tiny fingers. And before she could even walk or talk. A little girl who jumped out of bed every morning at dawn so she could fill in the spaces in her coloring books and work on her art before the rest of the world opened its eyes to see them. Al started drawing before she could walk or talk. That’s the portrait that Al Ruiz paints of herself and the one she keeps adding finishing touches…

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