Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/125344
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD In March, Washington state Rep. Ed Orcutt, apparently upset that bicyclists use the state's roads without paying the state gasoline tax for highway maintenance, proposed a 5 percent tax on bicycles that cost more than $500, pointing out that bicyclists impose environmental costs as well. Since carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, he wrote one constituent (and reported in the Huffington Post in March), bike riders' "increased heart rate and respiration" over car drivers creates additional pollution. (Days later, he apologized for the suggestion that bicyclists actually were worse for the environment than cars.) [Huffington Post, 3-4-2013] Ironies So, For a While There, It Actually Worked: The maker of the "all-natural herbal extract" Super Power (which promises "powerful erections") issued a voluntary recall in January after "independent" lab tests revealed that the supplement mistakenly contained a small amount of sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. Such unregulated dietary supplements cannot legally contain drugs without Food and Drug Administration approval. (Also, in March, the Federal Trade Chuck Sheppard Commission ordered three retailers, including Neiman Marcus, to re-label some fake-fur garments because they, mistakenly or intentionally, contained real fur.) [DailyFinance.com, 1-29-2013] [CNN, 3-20-2013] A Boston Herald reporter said in March that he had been kicked out of a State Ethics Commission training session (which might not be unreasonable, as the meeting was for Massachusetts House members only). However, at least two people in attendance refused to give their real names to the reporter as they left. Rep. Tim Toomey insisted he was not a member (though he is) but was "just passing through," and Commission chairman Charles Swartwood III (a former federal judge magistrate) refused to give his name at all, telling the reporter, "I'm not saying because that's a private matter." [Boston Herald, 3-21-2103] The Litigious Society Aspiring rap music bigshot Bernard Bey, 32, filed a $200,000 lawsuit in February in New York City against his parents, alleging that they owe him because they have been unloving and "indifferent" to his homelessness and refuse even to take him back in to get a shower. Bey, who raps as "Brooklyn Streets," said everything would be forgiven if they would just buy him two Domino's Pizza franchises so that he could eventually earn enough to become "a force to be reckoned with in the hip-hop industry." (His mother's solution, as told to a New York Daily News reporter: "[G]o get a job. He's never had job a day in his life.") [New York Daily News, 2-21-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of May 5, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) You have a luxury of choices this week. The best part is that you recognize this, and it makes you feel lucky that you get to write your own story. You get to do all of the rewrites, too. Second and third chances abound as long as you're not too impatient or proud to take a "do-over." TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Your eyes may be bigger than your wallet this week. As the 19thcentury humorist Artemus Ward said, "Let us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with." GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Regarding the response you thought of a moment too late: To replay in your mind the version where you do and say the perfect thing is a form of selfreprimand. Let it go, secure in the knowledge that your time will come. When it does, you'll be filled with the confidence and brilliance. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) When everyone zigs, your zagging impulse can be downright irresistible. Following the crowd just isn't your idea of a good time. You'll still do it, though, if it makes good sense. Honestly consider your motives. Joining the group may benefit you. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) Savoring food — not just eating it but fully living inside each bite — is an animal pleasure not to be missed under the current cosmic lineup. You will be rewarded for adventurous attitudes about food. The dietary style you've been considering will be good for you. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Your sensibility and humor aren't going to change much in the weeks ahead, and time will not provide the emotional detachment it usually does. So if you're displeased, instead of resolving to endure your displeasure, make a change. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Because you have high standards, being reasonably nice to most people is just not enough. You'll receive a benefit connected with being extremely nice to absolutely everybody. All of the good will you've been building up culminates in big karma points. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You don't glamorize the idea of being in charge. You really want to see a certain result, and that's the only reason you step into the leadership position. Your leadership is trusted because you walk your talk. You won't ask others to do anything you wouldn't do yourself. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) An anonymous person said, "Never forget what it's like to be 16." You could have a different opinion. For all of your experience, you are still naive in some regard. It is this quality that will endear you to an amazing teacher this week. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) The things you deal with in a day are different from what others grapple with, and because of this, you don't expect anyone to fully understand where you're coming from. So when you find a kindred spirit this week, you will cherish the new tie. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Friendly reciprocation happens in many ways. Those with a generous spirit can receive in a relaxed way because they have the sense that they've given plenty. Your friends like you and want you around. You don't have to worry about keeping score. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Just because something is conveyed in a believable way does not make it true. You have a mind of your own and are not so easily convinced this week. Your reticence is wise, because what you believe will change your world. By Holiday Mathis Good Morning Fayetteville with Goldy & Jim W Weekday Mornings 6-10 a.m. Talk Line: 910-864-6400 Local News, Weather, Traffic & Sports ADVICE GODDESS In Sickness and in Stealth This woman and I were involved 13 years ago, before I met my wife, but she was married then. She got divorced and moved away. We reconnected recently on Facebook, and I discovered she's now only 20 miles away. I told her I'm happily married and I've never cheated on my wife, but I would risk everything for her and want to meet her for an intimate encounter. (She and I had great sex, far better than I have with my wife.) She said she still has feelings for me but is happily married and couldn't cheat on her husband because she would feel "too guilty." She says he is her "rock" and has done so much for her, including taking her and her three kids in during the ordeal of her divorce. I'm perplexed. She cheated on her first husband with me, and we had lots of fun. I thought the leopard couldn't change its spots. How could it be okay for her to cheat then and not now? — Spurned No, a leopard does not wake up in the morning and think, "Maybe I'll do paisley today." Humans, on the other hand, have an irritating tendency Amy Alkon to fail to conform to pat aphorisms. For example, this woman, who, in the past, has provided you with some seriously excellent adulterous sex, now refuses to run off to Goodwill to get back her leopard-print blouse with the scarlet A on it. She's since picked herself up a set of ethics — maybe after seeing the ravages that conscience-free living can cause on husbands and children. And tempted as she may be, she seems to realize that the best way to avoid going around feeling all queasy with guilt is to avoid sexual multitasking: trying to gaze in one man's eyes like you love him while trying to remember what time you were supposed to meet the other man at the motel. Economist Robert H. Frank explains in Passions Within Reason that moral behavior seems to be driven by the emotions. Guilt, clearly, has worked for your former cheatums, and Frank sees love as a "commitment device" that bonds people beyond what would be in their sheer self-interest (like running off to the first opportunity for better sex that moves back to town). In other words, if you focus on what you're grateful for about your wife and engage in little loving touches and gestures, you can reinforce what you have — which seems fairer than rewarding her for making you happy by giving her believable excuses for your disappearances. Remember, they're called marriage vows, not marriage suggestions — as in, you don't get to live according to "Till the prospect of really great sex do us part, but only for an afternoon, and I wouldn't even think of it if she weren't double-jointed." Amy Alkon all rights reserved. MAY 1-7, 2013 UCW 27