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/20996
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Surreal Estate: Sixty-two percent of the 12 million people of Mumbai, India, live in slums, but the city is also home to Mukesh Ambani’s 27-story private residence (37,000 square feet, 600 employees serving a family of five), reported to cost about $1 billion. According to an October New York Times dispatch, there are “terraces upon terraces,” “four-story hanging gardens,” “airborne swimming pools,” and a room where “artificial weather” can be created. Ambani and his brother inherited their father’s textile-exporting juggernaut but notoriously spend much of their time in intra-family feuding. A local domestic worker told the Times (after noting that both she and Ambani are “human being(s)”) that she has difficulty understanding why the Ambanis have so much while she struggles on the equivalent of $90 a month. [New York Times, 10-29-10] Can’t Possibly Be True Stacey Herald, 36, of Dry Ridge, Ky., is 28 inches tall, with a rare condition called Osteogenisis Imperfecta, which causes brittle bones and underdeveloped organs — provoking doctors’ warnings that childbirth could cause the fetus to crush Stacey’s lungs and heart (and produce a baby susceptible for life to broken legs and arms). However, to the delight of husband Wil, 27 (and 69 inches tall), Stacey recently gave birth to baby No. three and promised more. The middle child, 2, without OI, is already a foot taller than Stacey, but the other two are afflicted, with the recent one (according to a July ABC News report) five inches long at birth, weighing two pounds, 10 ounces. [ABC News, 7-8-10] In October, police arrested a man arriving at the Madras, India, airport from Sri Lanka, bringing precious stones into the country in his stomach. After employing laxatives, police recovered 2,080 diamonds. [BBC News, 10-28-10] William Wright, 54, was arrested in St. Petersburg, Fla., in October and charged with using a hidden camera in a ladies’ room to photograph a young girl. Charges are still pending from 2009 when police said Wright had taken “upskirt” photos of more than 2,300 women. [St. Petersburg Times, 10-23-10] Safari World, the well-known and controversial zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, has previously stupefied the world (and News of the Weird readers) by training orangutans to play basketball, ride motorbikes and kickbox (while outfitted in martial-arts trunks). In a photo essay in November, London’s Daily Mail showcased the park’s most recent success — training elephants to tightrope-walk (where they prance on a reinforced cable for 15 meters and then, displaying astonishing balance, turn around on the wire). [Daily Mail, 11-4- 10] COPYRIGHT 2010 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY ARIES (March 21-April 19) The best relation- ships are balanced. Although it would be tacky for you to tally up the friendship points to see who is ahead, keeping track in some private way might be a good idea this week. In a true friendship, you both have something to gain from the connection. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You have creative energy welling up in you and at fi rst will not know how to best direct it. The truth is that the world needs your creativity and you are a better person for having expressed your gifts. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You expect your- self to be disciplined and self-motivated. If you falter, it might help you to know that the top players in any game require teammates. Even the very best athletes in the world hire coaches to keep them on track. Success is never really a solo effort. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Take note of your issue with another person, and see whether you can fi gure out why you feel the way you do. Usually, the thing that bothers you about someone else will be a tendency that’s in you, too. Ask yourself what you are so afraid of. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Those who work half as hard as you still seem to get by. It may seem to you that they are getting away with some- thing, but they are not. They are simply doing what’s expected of them. You expect more of yourself and do more. The rewards for this are immense and yet not always so obvious. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Human nature dictates that in order to avoid pain you’ll remember the cause of it and steer clear of that source. You’ll be so much happier when you regularly remember the parts of your life that made you feel joyful. ADVICE GODDESS LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 2) Look at the work people do, and let that speak louder than their opinions and posturing. Just because a person has a serious demeanor doesn’t mean they are doing the smart or sensible thing. A person can be brilliant with a smile on his face and can accomplish hugely important tasks laughing all the way. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You can’t make a full-out business plan for your personal life because there are too many variables and unknowns and because most of the results you want are intangible and therefore not easily quantifi ed. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) There’s confl ict in your world, and you’ll rise above it. Put some distance between you and the problem. The shift in perspective helps you see how you might come together on a higher level as friends. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You have huge passion at your disposal, but you’re very cool about how you show it. You realize that if you arrive on the scene with the intensity of a thunderbolt, you’ll scare everyone. Instead, you let the energy build up inside you. You’ll release it at just the moment that it will do the most good. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)The events that unfold, the environments you visit and inhabit, and the people you interact with all seem to be in cahoots in regards to this dominant belief. Whether or not the belief happens to be true is irrelevant. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) It will be liberat- ing to give up any residual opinions you might harbor that really don’t belong in your contem- porary world. You’ll recognize that the idea no longer applies, and you’ll gladly give it up. By Holiday Mathis Hourglass Half-Empty I’m the classic hourglass-fi gured woman, with very large breasts. I recently discovered that my boyfriend is into women with boyish bodies and fl at chests. In fact, he fi nds big breasts “vulgar.” (I saw a YouTube video he made with his friends this summer, and he was very vocal about his preferences.) This confi rms my suspicions that he isn’t physically into me. I’m ending it, but wondering why we’re even together. — Disappointed You’ve got what so many guys want — that classic movie star body. Unfortunately, the movie star body your boyfriend goes for is that of the guy who plays Harry Potter. He’s probably bought into the idea that it’s shallow to dismiss a girl just because she’s got cantaloupes in her bra instead of raisins. Maybe he thinks he can work up an attraction if he just makes enough of an effort. Unfortunately, that’s not how attraction works. And, good intentions aside, it’s cruel to be with somebody one secretly fi nds “vulgar” from the neck down. Luckily for you, the problem of having an hourglass fi gure and “very large breasts” is right up there with the problem of owning way too much beachfront property. The sooner you end it, the sooner you’ll be reminded of that, and the sooner your boyfriend can get with a woman he’s really into — one who’s less classic hourglass than classic Heineken bottle. Amy Alkon Till Death Grip Do Us Part My boyfriend of three months is independent and capable in his career, but is becoming increasingly clingy. He says he loves me at least once every 20 minutes and wants to snuggle constantly and have these endless phone conversations. Some things we can talk out. I explained that I’m not a big phone person, and he was fi ne with it, but the general clinginess remains. Will he get better as he feels more secure in our relationship? Voted “Best Hotel in Fayetteville” For more information or to reserve your room, call (910) 323-0111 or book online at www.HolidayInn.com. Ring in the New Year with Holiday Inn Bordeaux Celebrate New Year’s Eve with ease this year with Holiday Inn Bordeaux’s 2010 New Year’s Eve Room Package. Our package includes: Total cost per room/couple is $109 + tax. Include dinner for two in your package for just $159 + tax. — Chafi ng Love is a beautiful thing — when expressed sparingly. Somebody who chirps “I love you” every 20 minutes most likely isn’t expressing love but something emotionally lacking within them. (“I love you! I love you!” is a better sales tool than “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”) Chances are, it isn’t the relationship the guy needs to get more comfortable in, but his own skin. If so, no amount of reassurance from you is going to cure him, although you might get him to loosen his grip by warning him that he’s about to “love” you right out of his life. (Ideally, if two people are inseparable, it isn’t because the fi remen had a burning house to tend to before they could get over to pry them apart with the Jaws of Life.) (c)2010, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. DECEMBER 8-14, 2010 UCW 23