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/188703
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD "With its neatly cut lawns and luscious tropical vegetation," wrote a BBC News reporter in July, Miracle Village, Fla., is an "idyllic rural community" of 200 residents — about half of whom are registered sex offenders, attracted to the settlement near Lake Okeechobee because laws and ordinances elsewhere in Florida harshly restrict where they can live (e.g., not within a half-mile of a school or park). Incumbent residents might have been apprehensive in 2009 when a pastor started the local rehabilitation ministry (one even called it a "nightmare on Elm Street"), but since then, no one could recall a single impropriety involving an offender, and lately, 10 to 20 more applications arrive each week (screened to keep out diagnosed pedophiles and those with a history of drugs or violence). [BBC News, 7-30-2013] Can't Possibly Be True Dana Carter's debut as principal of Calimesa Elementary School in California's San Bernardino County was quite inauspicious, as parents quickly Chuck Sheppard objected to his August policy of requiring kids to drop to one knee when addressing him. One parent said her daughter was forced to kneel while awaiting his attention and then to rise only when he lifted his arms. Carter said he would discontinue the policy and insisted he had instituted it for "safety" and not because he imagined himself as royalty. [KCBS-TV (Los Angeles), 8-20-2013] Many consumers already distrust food imports from China, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture nonetheless announced recently (and "quietly," according to NPR) that it would exempt four Chinese companies altogether from USDA inspections of their processed chicken exports. The changes are part of the department's money-saving streamlining that also cuts back domestic regulation — proposals that have already drawn criticism from the Government Accountability Office because they would replace many on-site USDA inspectors with employees of the food-processing plants themselves. [NPR, 9-5-2013] It was a tough sell for performance artists Doug Melnyk and Ian Mozdzen to defend their controversial show at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July. (Wrote one reviewer: "What I saw (on the stage) were not one, not two, but three mayonnaise enemas. (I) do not need to see any more mayonnaise enemas for the rest of my lifetime.") Explained Melnyk, to a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reporter in July, if all you're trying to do is "figure out what people want and you make it for them, that's not art. ... (Y)ou're just a shoemaker." [Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 7-20-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of October 13, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) Thunderous showers are never so welcome as when they provide a break. You'll welcome a change that would have seemed alarming under different circumstances. Now you're ready for it, and you're also excited to move on from this cycle. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You enjoy the friendship of select companions while tolerating the acquaintanceship of others. A lucky soul is poised to cross over into your inner circle of friends. Consider carefully all that this could mean, as your friends always have an impact on your life. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) In the past, you've judged people who place too high of a priority on leisure. Those types seemed shallow and unworthy of any serious consideration or commitment from you. This week you'll place a higher value on fun, seeing the health benefits of a stress-free mindset. CANCER (June 22-July 22) There is no perfect age. Each age you arrive at has its benefits and drawbacks. It is futile and silly to be selfconscious about the passage of time. Embrace where you are by listing what you've learned thus far. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) You are developing into a more controlled individual, now able to recognize that you are experiencing an emotion without feeling the need to react to it immediately. Because of this control, you'll get what you want. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You are being shaped. When you allow the influence, you will achieve more than you could have on your own. If you disallow it, you will miss the opportunity to fly past a hundred obstacles and fast track your dreams. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You've gone an entire cycle and are about to be rebirthed in your new incarnation. This could come in the form of a project that's very different from anything you've ever tried before. You are ready for change! CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) There are a few material things you need in order to perform your current task well. But the main component isn't what you have to buy, borrow or find in order to make your plans work; it's who you have to be to accomplish them. This week you'll rise to the demands of the occasion. Success! LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Instead of trying to achieve balance, trust that, like water rising to its own level, balance will always achieve itself. It has to. This should take the pressure off. Be lighthearted! AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Sometimes the walls you erect to protect yourself actually serve to isolate you. Consider tearing one of these walls down this week, or at least installing a door, because there's someone who really wants to get to you. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) If you push on anything, it pushes back on you. Some people wait for just the right moment to push back. So don't be fooled when they don't seem to react right away. You'll have an influence, both accidental and intentional. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Your special skill will be enormously helpful to people this week, but only if they know about what you do. That's why you need to market yourself, whether or not that's a comfortable idea for you. Focus on the benefits you can provide people. 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 Social Notworking My 40-something younger brother has been "friending" my hot female friends on Facebook, women I have befriended in real life whom he's never even met! I said nothing at first. Then, one of these women posted a photo of herself, and I commented on it in a flirtatious way. Up pops my brother, commenting on my comment in a way that killed her ability to respond to me and adding a personal message to me, "Hey, bro, call me when you're up." I was upset that he'd butted into my conversation with her, and I don't think her page is a place for him to leave messages to me. I asked him to remove his comment, and he was upset and insulted. Shouldn't etiquette standards apply online, too? If I'm having a face-to-face conversation with someone, it's considered rude to just walk up and butt in. And, isn't it a little creepy that my brother trolls my Facebook page and "friends" women he's never met? — Invaded You seem to have misunderstood something about the nature Amy Alkon of Facebook conversations. "Facebook" is not the name of a romantic restaurant where you've booked a table for two. You're having these flirtatious exchanges at a "table" for, oh, 547 of a woman's closest friends — along with any "friends" she might've made through those friends. This might explain why they call it "social networking" and not "social isolation." No, your brother shouldn't turn some woman's Facebook page into the digital version of the write-on/wipe-off board your mom used to have by the kitchen phone. Because he got to this woman through you, this makes you look bad by association. So, you aren't wrong to want him to change his message-leaving behavior, and you can call dibs if there's one particular woman you're putting the moves on. But telling someone what to do, even when a demand is phrased as a request (to remove the comment, in this case), generally doesn't inspire him to say, "Right, I was a jerk. I'll change, pronto!" It makes him angry, hurt, and defensive. A more effective approach is telling him you feel bad about something he's doing, evoking his sympathy. That's probably your best bet for getting him to back off a bit from your Facebook harem, considering it's a little late to put your privacy settings on lockdown and way late to take the age-old approach to brotherly conflict resolution: "Maaaaa! Bo's stealing all my hotties — just like he stole my firetruck 45 years ago!" Amy Alkon all rights reserved OCTOBER 9-15, 2013 UCW 23