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.
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Although Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the alleged 9/11 mastermind) was waterboarded 183 times among several extreme interrogation techniques, he and his CIA captors eventually reached a moderated state. In 2003, though still housed in a "black site" in Romania, "KSM" asked permission to design a household vacuum cleaner, and the highest echelons of the agency cooperated, according to a former senior CIA analyst, speaking to the Associated Press in July. In reality, when a detainee exhausts his intelligence value, the agency's main mission is to keep him sane, in case he is later put on trial, and the vacuum cleaner project was thought likely to engage KSM, who, 15 years before the murders of nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, had earned a mechanical engineering degree from North Carolina A&T State University. [Associated Press, 7-11-2013] The Entrepreneurial Spirit The gourmet lollipop company Lollyphile announced its latest flavor in June: Breast Milk Lollipops (four for $10). Owner Jason Darling said it "slowly dawned on" him that his friends were "producing Chuck Sheppard milk so delicious it could turn a screaming, furious child into a docile, contented one. I knew I had to capture that flavor." [Lollyphile press release, 6-4-2013] The Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop franchisers, already with a lineup of sometimes-unappreciated flavors such as buffalo chicken wing soda, briefly experimented in June with ranch dressing soda, a mistaken adventure that cofounder Rob Powells jokingly blamed on his business partner. Brewmaster John Maier of Rogue Ales in Newport, Ore., pointed out that "wild yeasts" have been used in beer for centuries and thus (according to a June report on FoodBeast.com) his company's Beard Beer (from yeast of beards, including at one time, his own) should be regarded as a traditional brew. [Huffington Post, 6-14-2013] [Food Beast, 6-5-2013] Science on the Cutting Edge Carnivorous Vegetation: It was a special occasion in Surrey, England, in June as a rare plant prepared to bloom. The 3-foot-tall Puya chilensis, native to Chile, features neon-bright greenish-yellow flowers with blooms large enough to yield drinkable nectar, but its most startling distinction is its ability to nourish itself by trapping small animals in its razorsharp spines, leaving them to decay. (At Britain's Wisley Garden, it is fed with ordinary fertilizer rather than animals.) [The Independent (London), 6-17-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES by holiday For the Week of August 11, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) You'll be in an exciting new social environment. Be careful about how you proceed. Take too low a position and you run the risk that they'll mistake you for a doormat. Take too high a posture and they could mistake you for a target to take shots at. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Advice may be given, but it's usually not really a gift. Let the full spirit of context inform you as you filter all of the advice you get this week, including this piece. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Diversity is necessary for success. Luckily, you'll be surrounded by people very different from you. If you surrounded yourself with clones, you would have too much of the same strength and be blighted by your collective weakness. CANCER (June 22-July 22) You're thinking differently than you were thinking 10 years ago — or even last year, for that matter. And those who are thinking along different lines than you are will develop, too. So don't spend too much time or attention worrying about where everyone is right now. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) There are many questions that employers ask during job interviews that are, in fact, illegal. You'll be asked inappropriate questions this week. Whether during an interview or in your everyday life, use tact while refusing firmly and politely to answer them. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You're increasingly irritated with someone who calls you everything but your proper name. Don't be afraid to demand that you be recognized for who you are. What you put out into the world this week warrants credit. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Regret is simply a part of the beauty of having a choice and making decisions. Don't give it more power than it deserves in the scheme of your life. Like the Sinatra song, allow yourself a few — but too few to mention. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You like to do your thing and allow others to do the same. This week, however, it may feel as though a loved one's hobby is approaching a state of obsession. Make clear that there are other diversions, including shared ones, and communicate your enthusiasm for them. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You'll be doling out compliments. Comparative statements only weaken the focus and cheapen the message. These kinds of conversational nuances will make a difference in your interactions this week. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) The word "comfort" combines two Latin words — "com," which means "together," and "fortis," which means "strengthen." By joining someone, you strengthen that person. You provide comfort by simply being there. Just be there. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Because you are so strong, the tender, shy, sensitive and fragile will be drawn to you. Giving others your psychological presence will be of utmost importance. If your heart and mind are with the other person, that's what's felt. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Accept yourself. Not because it's the best thing you can do for your personal life, your career or your finances. Accept yourself because you're acceptable. You're doing your best. And through selfacceptance, you'll do even better. By Holiday Mathis N! TTENTIO A Local es s Busines SPEC EDITI IAL ON Advertise and Promote Your Business All Year in UP & COMING WEEKLY'S 2013 "Best of Fayetteville" • Special Edition • Coming Sept. 18, 2013 Advertise, market and promote your business in the most popular and most read edition of the year! Published, Distributed and Online in the Fayetteville, Ft. Bragg and Cumberland County area all year long. Be among the "best of the best" when this popular and valuable edition and reflection of our community hits the streets on Sept. 18th. RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY! For more information, rates and deadlines call (910) 484-6200 or visit our website at www.upandcomingweekly.com. ADVICE GODDESS It Scold in Here Online dating isn't going so well. I'm a 34-year-old professor seeking a relationship. I listed an age range of 18 to 35 on my profile, not because I particularly like 18-year-olds but simply to avoid limiting my options. I messaged a 24-year-old woman, noting that I loved that she "enjoys supporting people who have a purpose and a passion." She wrote back: "You seem really cool, but the fact that you're considering dating women as young as 18 is a deal-breaker. 18-yearolds aren't people yet. You're a professor. You know that." She then scolded me for failing to admire that she clearly has purpose and passion — she doesn't just support those things — but considering my interest in 18-year-olds, purpose and passion probably don't matter much to me anyway. Huh?! Should I really be faulted for being open-minded? — Reprimanded Although most women won't turn online dating into online berating, many probably share her anger and suspicion at the lower end of your listed age range. But, but… you protest, you're just trying to be open instead of assuming that every Amy Alkon single 18-year-old will be the dating equivalent of going out with a steak in a short skirt. Your open-mindedness seems to be a rational approach. The problem is, we aren't the rational animals we smugly insist we are. Research by evolutionary psychologists Martie Haselton and David Buss suggests that we evolved to make protective errors in judgment — erring on the side of perceiving whatever would have been least costly for our survival and mating interests back in the ancestral environment. This makes us prone to believe there's a snake behind every rustle of a pile of leaves because the embarrassment from shrieking like an idiot would have been less costly than dying from a snakebite. In the mating sphere, women evolved to be "commitment skeptics," prone to overperceive men as hookup-seeking cads until they prove otherwise. For men, it would have been costly to miss any mating opportunity … leading to a 34-year-old man being open to a wide range of women, including a woman only slightly older than some of his socks. You can turn this into a positive experience in two ways: by thanking your lucky stars that you won't be the boyfriend she's ripping into at the supermarket for eyeing the wrong potato and by listing an age range that's less ire-producing. This actually shouldn't limit you in the slightest, since you can write to any woman you find attractive — including those who'll think you're "like, so much more amazing" than the other men they're dating, because you don't live with your parents or have a job that requires a paper hat. Amy Alkon all rights reserved. AUGUST 7-13, 2013 UCW 23