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/197058
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD A few still-primitive cultures inexplicably celebrate such female adornments as the stacking of metal neck rings and the inserting of saucer-size disks into pierced earlobes. For "civilized" society, there is the annual Paris Fashion Week in September, when renowned designers outfit brave, otherwise-gorgeous models in grotesque clothing. Among the ensembles witnessed by a New York Times critic this year: a hat resembling steroid-enhanced stalks of peas; a shoe appearing to sprout twig-studs; "a flexible cage covered in doughnuts of black satin"; and a pillow clutch with (for some reason) its own porthole. [New York Times, 9-30-2013] Recurring Themes News of the Weird first reported successful "stool implants" among family members in 2007 (to cure infections such as C. difficile by introducing the donor's "good" microbes to overcome an imbalance of "bad" bacteria in a relative's intestine). In 2012, however, two University of Chuck Sheppard California, Davis, neurosurgeons boldly extended the cutting-edge treatment for three patients with a highly malignant brain tumor unresponsive to treatment. The doctors tried infusing bowel bacteria directly into the tumor, but the patients died, nonetheless. Although the patients had given fully informed consent, the school in August 2013 pressured Drs. J. Paul Muizelaar and Rudolph Schrot to resign for having violated internal and FDA procedures. [Sacramento Bee, 7-22-2012] [KOVR-TV (Sacramento), 8-25-2013] It is well known that hospitals charge for medical supplies far in excess of what the products would cost at drugstores, but an August New York Times investigation of "saline drips" vividly demonstrated the disconnect. Though Medicare reimburses $1.07 for a 1-liter plastic bag of saltwater (supplied by a subsidiary of Morton Salt), White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital charged patients' insurance companies like Aetna $91 per bag. Other hospitals decline to charge per-bag, listing only "IV therapy" of, for example, $787 for hooking up the drip. [New York Times, 8-27-2013] From the world's cosmetic-surgery capital (South Korea, where one woman in five has had at least one procedure) comes the "Smile Lipt" offered by Aone Plastic Surgery in the city of Yongin, designed to produce a permanent smile (associated with success). The Smile Lipt turns downward-drooping lip corners upward, to allow a persistent smile resembling that of Batman's nemesis, The Joker. [BusinessInsider.com.au, 8-17-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of October 27, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) There's a big deal on the line. You want to close it. There's a sales projection. You want to meet it. There's an important person. You want to please her. These are the types of challenges you are well suited for. You'll come away with a victory. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) There's an art to wasting time. Those who do it well tend to be popular, successful and gifted with many more opportunities to waste time. Be glad that you're not so good at it this week. You'll still be successful. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Your brain is in excellent shape. This week presents situations that demand both sides of it to work at the same time. You'll be creative and organized. You'll do math and execute feats of illogical beauty. You'll move people by appealing to their wholeness. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) It may be hard for others to find the silver lining in some situations, but not for you. That's why it's your responsibility this week to point things out for the people who don't see the good in things. If they are not picking up on your advice, seize the juicy opportunity for yourself! SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You can't run fast if you're not leaning forward. You have to be able to trust that your feet will stretch out before you and you'll catch yourself at the right moment. The only way to trust this is to see it happen over and over. Take bigger risks this week. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)Place a high value on yourself, your time and your energy before you jump into a relationship. Inevitably, you will end up giving your best to another person. With that in mind, consider whom you want to give the best of you to. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Your word is the most important thing. Being able to walk away from a deal puts you in the best position to tell the truth or not to tell anything at all. Set yourself up as a person who doesn't really need anything. The less you need the more you'll get. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You're on a roll in terms of kindness. It helps that people genuinely need the kind of help that only you seem to be able to give. Also, you'll be extremely prolific and productive under the influence of a helper's high. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You'll be changed by what you learn. The effort is only in the learning, but that also happens to be quite a lot of pleasure this week because you enjoy the subject matter. It helps if you stop trying to be such a puritan. Liking something doesn't automatically make it bad. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You're admirably generous by nature. Don't let people know that you're available, or they will eat up your time with endless needs. Some of your hours need to be treated as sacred spaces in your schedule for doing absolutely nothing. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Just because it has nothing to do with your talents doesn't mean it can't be helpful to you. This week you'll join with people who have diverse interests and expertise and make money. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)Most people hear what they want to hear. This week you will realize that this kind of selective hearing isn't helping you grow into the person you want to be, and so you'll open your ears to the harder truths, the ones that point you in the direction of change. 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 Golden Pond Scum I went to meet my girlfriend's 90-yearold father. They have a conflicted relationship. He doesn't agree with his daughter's homosexuality, generally looks down on women, and believes they should be helpful, nice, pretty and married to men. When we got to his upscale senior living facility a few hours away, I jokingly asked my girlfriend whether I should change out of my jean shorts and into dress pants. She said yes, and I said, "I don't have those; are you serious?" She then pulled out a "nice outfit" she'd brought for me. I felt angry that she'd sneaked this up on me. I felt even angrier meeting her father, who barely acknowledged my existence and didn't notice this "nice outfit" I ended up putting on. Should I remind my girlfriend that she no longer chases her father's approval? Tell her I certainly will not? Steaming Your girlfriend can tell herself she'll no longer be chasing her father's approval yet be running as fast as she can after Amy Alkon it on the inside. It's deep-seated stuff, wanting your parents to approve of you, to appreciate who you are and love you for it, and it's tough stuff knowing they don't and probably never will. So as much as she might wish things were different and vow they're going to be, it shouldn't come as a surprise that her father still wears the pants in the family (even if he also wears the diapers). It's probably tempting to go all onewoman gay pride march and picket the old goat's bed: "We're here! We're queer! Get used to it!" And if how your girlfriend handled the change of clothes — going sneaky to get her way — is a pattern, you two have a problem. But maybe she was just desperate to keep her time with him from being conflict-filled and awful and couldn't bear to do battle with you right before facing her father's disapproving looks because the man of her dreams is a woman. Her father is grazing 100 and will be dead soon. Consider telling her that you know how hard visiting him is for her and, in the future, she should just tell you what she needs from you to make things easier. Hearing this will probably make her melt into a pool of love for you and inspire her to extend herself when it means a lot to you. Sure, it's unhealthy to always be in the habit of muzzling your beliefs, but there are times to stand up for them and there's sometimes a time to just crawl into the back seat and put on those "nice pants" your girlfriend brought for you. Amy Alkon all rights reserved OCTOBER 23-29, 2013 UCW 23