Up & Coming Weekly

NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD While the morbidly obese struggle with their health (and society’s scorn), those who eroticize massive weight gain are capturing increased attention, according to a July ABC News report. Commercial and personal Web sites give full-bellied “gainers,” such as New Jerseyan Donna Simpson, and their admiring “feeders” the opportunity to express themselves. Simpson became a 602-pound media sensation in March, when she began offering pay-per-view video of herself to an audience of horny feeders. Wrote another gainer-blogger, “Lately, I’ve been infatuated with the physics of my belly ... how it moves with me.” When he leans to one side, he wrote, “I feel a roll form around my love handle.” One sex researcher called it a “metaphor of arousal.” In the end, though, as a medical school professor put it, “The fetish may be in our heads, but the plaque is going to be in (their) arteries.” [ABC News, 7-1-10] THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT! The dating Web site BeautifulPeople. com, supposedly limiting its reach only to the attractive (though claiming 600,000 members worldwide), announced recently that it would sponsor a companion egg and sperm bank for its members to sell their essences for a fee. However, as managing director Greg Hodge told Newsweek in June, homely customers were welcome. “Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people. But everyone — including ugly people — would like to bring good-looking children into the world, and we can’t be selfi sh ....” [Newsweek blogs, 6-21-10] The video company EA Sports sells sports games based on real-life professional leagues, with its biggest moneymaker “Madden NFL 11,” which allows joystick-using “coaches” to compete with each other based on actual pro football players’ abilities. In June, EA Sports announced a new touch of realism: Just as football teams “scout” opposing players, EA Sports will sell joystickers complex “scouting reports” on the talents and tendencies of their fellow joystickers. [ESPN.com, 6-3-10] WEIRD SCIENCE Life Imitates a Drew Barrymore Movie: Michelle Philpotts of Spalding, England, and her husband, Ian, and their two children have adjusted, since a car crash 20 years ago, to her anterograde amnesia, which, every day, robs her of short-term memory, forcing her to constantly re-learn her life. According to a June profi le in London’s Daily Mail, that includes Ian’s convincing her that the stranger in her bed every morning is her husband, which he does by showing her their wedding photographs. [Daily Mail, 6-11-10] COPYRIGHT 2010 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY ARIES (March 21-April 19) You may be dealing with circumstances that seem less than ideal, uphold your own standards of character and you will turn this into a win. You treat people well, and they will do the same for you. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) If everyone’s self-esteem were as high as yours is at times this week, the world would be a better place. Just because you have high self-esteem doesn’t mean you think others are less valuable than you. You want to offer your best. Believing in yourself makes it possible for you to do this. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) As you talk about the world from your point of view, you’ll attract attention. Others don’t see it your way. They may disagree or even insult you with an argument. You can learn from all the other points of view, and this may infl uence you some. You’ll mentally expand and still be your own person. CANCER (June 22-July 22) You’ll be swept into a mission of your own making. Does this mean you’re selfi sh? You might appear that way to some, but the truth of the matter is that everyone will be better off because you have the confi dence and motivation to pursue your dreams and make them real. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) There will be instances this week in which you will prefer to be left alone to handle matters privately. Fortify your personal boundaries so that even when you are with others you’ll feel safe and secure in the bubble of your own energy fi eld. This can be done through meditation. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) All relationships re- quire space. The trick is to fi gure out the amount of space that will bring about the most benefi cial feeling for both parties. As the distance between two tones widens and contracts, the chord changes from minor to major. Play with this idea in a relationship this week. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) In this digital age, much can be accomplished according to your own personal clock. You can communicate and work in the wee hours, and others answer and contribute when it’s convenient for them. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You’ll grapple with larger issues. Perspective will be everything. Grace and timing go hand in hand. The glare of the sun can make things appear harsh and dif- fi cult. Likewise, the dark always makes problems scarier. Morning is your best thinking time. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You might mess up. It’s proof that you’re stretching. The mistakes prove your desire for expansion, knowl- edge, experience — your winning spirit. You’ll take responsibility and try not to do the same thing again. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) The world will be better off this week because you assume a position of power. The amateurs assume that this is the front of the line, the fi rst row of the classroom and the driver’s seat. You, however, might fi nd that you have more infl uence when you take things in from the back of the line, the room or the bus. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Challenge moti- vates you, as does the promise of attention. You will be greatly admired when you complete this monstrosity of a task. Of course, once you get into it, all your original motivation fades away and you devote yourself solely to the work. The work itself is where all the sweetness of life is released. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)You’ll wear yourself out trying to make sure everyone is taken care of, while less hospitable types order everyone around as though the rest of the world is fi lled with their servants. And the funny part is, there are those who are more comfortable being ordered around than being taken care of. Strive for balance. By Holiday Mathis ADVICE GODDESS The Larva of the Party I love to dress up and go socialize with people. My boyfriend, however, can only smile friendly and chitchat for about 20 minutes before he seats himself in some corner and starts reading the host’s books. Last time we went to a dinner party, I found him alone in a room petting the owner’s dog! I do introduce him around and encourage him to be more outgoing. I think if he’d just make more of an effort to talk to people, he’d have a better time. He says he’s not miserable but just can’t do this social stuff for long. I love having him with me, even though he’s kind of not actually with me. So, can it work with a self-proclaimed introvert and a party girl? —Social Butterfl y Sartre once said, “Hell is other people at breakfast.” An introvert sees no reason to narrow it down to a particular time of day. My own introvert boyfriend is charming and fun one on one, but his favorite kind of party is one that’s can- celed, and his preferred RSVP would be something Ving Rhames said on the set of “Out of Sight”: “I don’t want to talk to anybody I don’t already know.” More and more, research points to a strong biological basis for personality. Brain imaging shows distinct differences in introverts and ex- traverts. Studies by neuroscientist Debra L. Johnson and others found that extra- verts, who get energized from external stimulation like meeting new people, have increased blood fl ow to rear areas of the brain for sensory processing (like listen- ing, touching, watching). Introverts, who tend to be more pensive and introspective, and are easily overwhelmed by too much external stimulation, showed more blood fl ow altogether (indicating more inter- nal stimulation), over more complicated pathways, with more activity in frontal regions for inward tasks like problem- solving, reasoning, and remembering. Put that together with a Chinese study adding evidence that introverts get socked with a higher level of cortical arousal from stimuli, and you get the idea that urging introverts to be more outgoing is a bit like urging scissors to be more like a stapler. So, can it work between you and a boyfriend who probably researches the host’s wallpaper so he can dress to blend into the background? Well, maybe — if you’re independent enough to show up to most events without him as Your Date™. There will, of course, be times when it means something to you to have him there, and the compromise then is his to make. Be sensitive to his feelings, try to get there early (when the houseplant-to- guest ratio is greatest), and be okay with him eventually slinking off to read The Life History of the Dung Beetle or talking to the dog (who’s sometimes the most interesting person at the party). Amy Alkon (c)2010, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. AUGUST 4-10, 2010 UCW 23

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