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/206049
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Land developers for the iconic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. (famous as the inspiration for the hotel in Stephen King's The Shining) announced recently that they need more space and thus will dig up and move the hotel's 12-gravesite pet cemetery. Neighbors told the Fort Collins Coloradoan in September that they feared the construction noise, but somehow ignored the potential release of departed spirits (though an Animal Planet "dog psychic" who lives in Estes Park seemed to volunteer her services to calm the pets' souls). [Fort Collins Coloradoan via USA Today, 9-26-2013] The War Against "Doing the Right Thing" Teach Our Children Well: Officials at Milford Haven School in Pembrokeshire county, Wales, punished Rhys Johnson, 14, in October for violating the dress code against shaved heads. He was helping raise money for an anticancer charity after a third relative of his Chuck Sheppard contracted the illness. North Andover (Mass.) High School punished honor student and volleyball captain Erin Cox in October for giving a drunk classmate a ride home. Cox was clean-and-sober, but violated the school's "zero tolerance" attitude toward alcohol users (even though more student drunkdriving might result if sober friends feared school punishment). [BBC News, 10-42013] [WBZ-TV (Boston), 10-13-2013] Walter Dixon knew that he was about to be relocated in December 2012 from a Joliet, Ill., correctional facility to begin serving a new federal drug conspiracy sentence, but instead, state officials mistakenly freed him. Dixon protested, but said he was aggressively dismissed from the premises. It was not until September that he was finally re-arrested and began his new sentence. (Dixon was easily located because, though free, he had met regularly with his parole officer and was taking several vocational courses.) [Chicago SunTimes, 10-4-2013] After consulting with a lawyer, Evan Dobelle, president of Massachusetts' Westfield State University, accused of billing the state for unauthorized travel expenses, is reportedly considering claiming that he actually "self-reported" the violations as soon as suspicions turned up. Dobelle says he would thus be entitled to the protection of the state "whistleblower" statute, which shields inside informers when they expose wrongdoing. (Dobelle was placed on paid leave in October.) [The Republican (Springfield, Mass.), 9-242013, 10-17-2013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD 28 UCW NOVEMBER 6-12, 2013 WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of November 9, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) Balance means something different to each person. Honor what feels right to you instead of trying to move as the creature in the next habitat is moving. You may be as different from that person as a giraffe from a beaver. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) This week brings at least two instances in which abandoning logic will get you much further along than sticking to the known order of things. Those feelings that seem to rush forth from nowhere are your best informants. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Make it clear to those who depend on you that you take your responsibilities very seriously — much more seriously than you take yourself. This is how you stay happy, healthy and wise, not to mention popular. CANCER (June 22-July 22) When one event overturns the apple cart of your expectations, you will begin to question everything, even the most basic truths. This is ultimately the path to transformation, and you will welcome this new incarnation. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You can't change people who don't want to change. You probably can't change people who do want to change, either. But what you can do, and will do this week, is be the person who inspires people to act differently because they want to be more like you. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Working hard makes you luckier, but only if you genuinely enjoy your work. Work that drains you can't add to your fortunes, because your main treasure — the one from which all other treasures spring — is your health and vitality. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Unless you change your perspective, the slow pace and sameness of the week's events threaten to bore you silly. So play with alternative viewpoints. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) Events call for your response. Your desire to say and do the right thing is sincere. Acting appropriately or even knowing what's appropriate might be a challenge. What you need is a good model to follow. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) It's an excellent time to take pride in your accomplishments. Acknowledging how far you've come will remind you how strong and capable you are and motivate you toward future goals. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Sometimes people say what they don't mean. More often, though, they say what they do mean and then backpedal when they have doubts about the statement's acceptability. Keep in mind that moods come and go. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Silence will mean many things throughout the week. Sometimes it will mean what you've said is profound and people are processing it. Other times it will mean no one is listening. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Your powers of empathy will be in high demand this week, and you could even be a major part of someone's healing. You've felt pain before, so you understand another person's pain. Sure, your understanding is incomplete, but it's enough to make a connection and let someone know that he or she is not alone. 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 The Butt Stops Here My husband and I both smoked pot regularly, but I quit several years ago, and he began smoking nightly. I kept encouraging him to quit because it makes him mentally disappear. He goes through periods when he doesn't smoke (mostly because of my nagging), and then we're able to connect and have a loving relationship. But he inevitably falls back on this nightly habit, and I become frustrated and resentful. Recently, I discovered a large stockpile of hidden video footage he'd taken of women's booties. In one video, I was standing next to him, oblivious, as he videotaped the woman ahead of us in line. I was shocked that he was capable of this kind of disrespect. We had an emotionally-wrecked several weeks. I told him that if the nightly pot smoking and the butt videotaping were to persist, I'd have to move on. I was convinced that leaving was probably the best choice. But since I said this, he's only smoked a couple of times, and we've been reconnecting. He says he's not making any more videos because he saw how upset it made me. I love this guy, but am I deluding myself in thinking he can change? Amy Alkon Your husband is an addict. Probably what he has is a psychological addiction to checking out (instead of engaging emotionally), and he's using these habits as transportation to get there. Addiction treatment specialist, Dr. Stanton Peele, in 7 Tools to Beat Addiction, writes, "When people turn to an experience, any experience, for solace to the exclusion of meaningful involvements in the rest of their lives, they are engaged in an addiction." Another addiction therapist, Dr. Frederick Woolverton, in Unhooked, explains that what all addictions have in common is a longing to avoid "legitimate suffering" — difficult emotions that are a normal part of being alive. So, no, your husband's saying no to butt cheeks and "only sometimes" to pot probably isn't enough. He needs to come to the conclusion that it's worth it to tough it out and feel so he can connect with you. Your husband might avoid setbacks by using a practice called "mindfulness meditation" as training wheels for living in the now instead of avoiding in the now. A growing number of solid studies find that regular mindfulness meditation diminishes stress and anxiety and dampens reactivity to emotional discomfort, helping people stand back a bit from their feelings instead of letting their feelings get them in a death grip. The University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness, founded by Kabat-Zinn, has a link to programs and teachers around the U.S. and Canada (bit.ly/MBSRsearch). Amy Alkon all rights reserved WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM