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/130240
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Most of Iceland's 320,000 inhabitants are at least distantly related to each other, leading the country to compile the Book of Icelanders database of family connections dating back 1,200 years. With "accidental" incest thus a genuine problem, three software engineers recently created a mobile phone app that allows strangers to "bump" phones with each other and know, instantly, whether they are closely related. In its first few days of release in April, the developers said it had already been used almost 4,000 times. [Associated Press via USA Today, 4-18-2013] Taiwanese funerals (combine) somber mourning with louder, up-tempo entertainment to fire up grieving spirits," reported BBC News in February. They are tailor-made, in other words, for Ms. Liu Jun-Lin, 30, and her Filial Daughters Band with their acrobatic dance routines because Liu has the reputation as Taiwan's most famous professional mourner. After the musical festivities, Liu dons a white robe and crawls on her hands and knees to the coffin, where she "performs her Chuck Sheppard signature wail." [BBC News, 2-25-2013] A 12-hour TV miniseries shown this winter on Norway's government channel NRK, National Firewood Night, was conceived as a full series, then cut to "only" 12 hours, eight of which focused entirely on a live fireplace. Nearly a million people tuned in to the series, and at one point 60 text messages came in complaining about whether the wood in the fireplace should have been placed with bark up or bark down. "(F)irewood," said the show's host, "is the foundation of our lives." A New York Times dispatch noted that a best-selling book, Solid Wood, sold almost as many copies in Norway, proportional to the population, as a book's selling 10 million copies in the U.S. [New York Times, 2-19-2013] Imagine the person who first suggested this: The newest beautytreatment rage in China, according to Chinese media quoted on the Inquisitr.com website in March, is the "fire facial," in which alcohol and a "secret elixir" are daubed on the face and set ablaze for a few seconds, then extinguished. According to "ancient Chinese medicine," this will burn off "dull" skin -- and also alleviate the common cold and reduce obesity. [Inquisitr.com, 3-7-2013] [CBS News, 12-5-2007 COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY ADVICE GODDESS ARIES (March 21-April 19) Being very clever can cause you frustration. The good news is that the stars offer you deeper wells of patience. Compassion can still live alongside super-intelligence, but you must work harder to achieve this state of grace. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) You'll see things through to the end, not because you are obligated to do so, but because of your noble character. There may not be any immediate benefit in this course of action, but that doesn't matter to you. Nobility is as nobility does. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) This week the path to obtaining your heart's desire may be cluttered with broken branches blown down by the storms of life. One by one, pick up each piece and clear the way, both for you and for those who will surely follow in your footsteps. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) This week's main endeavors will mandate a level of attention similar to that required to make a cup of tea. The steps involved in the ritual cannot be rushed. If any of it is rushed, things will not turn out at all I've been with my boyfriend for two years. I do have trust issues, having been cheated on in past relationships. My boyfriend's best friend of six years, a beautiful and intelligent woman, passed away three months ago. Since then, he has visited her grave weekly and kept a photo of them together posted online. When she was alive, the two of them spoke daily about everything — including intimate details and problems in our relationship. I made clear that their constant communication and boundary-crossing details were not okay with me, yet they continued. They claimed they were strictly platonic. However, since I'm a woman who has been fooled before, I can't help but suspect otherwise. I love my boyfriend and want to support him in his time of grief, but I don't feel that he sees how hard it is for me to see the man I love mourn this woman he loved and lost. — Struggling For the Week of May 19, 2013 GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Mercury-driven, vibrant words and colors activate you, and you should surround yourself with these activators now. Your energy is high, and everyone wants to be around you. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Given the current challenges, the past might seem like a vacation destination for your weary mind. Don't let yourself get caught up in fantasies of simpler times. You're strong, and you will prevail. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You react to problems without hesitation. That's what tells others around you that you're a pro. This reaction time says that you're confident, that this has happened before, and that you either know what to do or know you'll figure it out along the way. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You are not usually prone to infatuation, but you may make an exception for this week's fascinating interest. You'll be quickly drawn in by the mystery and eager to figure it out. Take your time. The fun is in solving the puzzle, not in the solution itself. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Someone who's extremely focused on staying relevant in a highly competitive environment may overlook your talents and contributions to the team. You may feel underappreciated, but your efforts are crucial to the outcome. Do things for yourself instead of for rewards or praise. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You'll be engaged in teamwork. Your efforts in this regard will be so fluid that even after the job is done the team will be inclined to stick together. It will be a bit like wringing out a soaking wet towel in outer space: The water doesn't want to disperse. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You'll feel compelled to claim a territory or create a space. You'll be drawn to do what is pleasing to the senses and comforting to the people around you. You'll be successful, too, though not overnight. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Beware of the outsider's opinion. The recluses of the world are the ones who see through the vain ambitions and hypocrisies of society. It is always easier to give instruction from atop a high mountain, but it's the valley people who know the reality. By Holiday Mathis Tail from the Crypt Friends confide in each other, share their lives, and give each other feedback. If there was certain information that you Amy Alkon wanted to remain private you needed to come to some agreement about that together. But, you don't get to mandate that your boyfriend's friendship revolve around topics of conversation you don't find invasive, such as the weather, who's about to nuke whom and celebrity parole violations. As for why the dearly departed is still clinging to life in your boyfriend's online photos, it's probably for the same reason that I (like a surprising number of people) still have the phone numbers of several dead friends programmed into my phone. It feels good keeping them in my life, even in such a mundane way, and I refuse to have a hand in making them any more gone than they already are. You have "trust issues" because you're "a woman who has been fooled before," not because you have videotape of your boyfriend and his friend making out in the coffee shop. Unless he's given you reason to believe he's unethical, your jealousy and suspicions arose out of your failure to take responsibility for what was done to you in the past. There are a few crafty sociopaths out there who can hide their true character, but chances are, you got cheated on because you didn't really want to look at who you were with, and that came back to bite you. Accepting that should help you be there for your boyfriend — tempting as it is to take the jealous girlfriend thing to a whole new level by asking whether that tapping on the wall is his dead friend trying to arrange a time for some out-of-thisworld sex. Amy Alkon all rights reserved. MAY 15-21, 2013 UCW 27