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/225870
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Is the signature smell of Texas A&M University more "Italian lemon, bergamot and iced pineapple" (that open into "a body of vivid florals, raw nutmeg and cinnamon") or more "bat feces" and "chilifest stink"? The two commentaries were contrasted in a November Wall Street Journal report on the introduction of Masik Collegiate Fragrances' Texas A&M cologne (one of 17 Masik college clients) at around $40 for a 1.7-ounce bottle. Louisiana State University's scent conjures up, insisted one grad, the campus's oak trees, but so far has pulled in only $5,500 for the school. (To a football rival of LSU, the school's classic smell is less oak tree than "corn dog.") The apparent Chuck Sheppard gold standard of fan fragrance is New York Yankees cologne, which earned the team nearly $10 million in 2012. [Wall Street Journal, 11-9-2013] Recurring Themes! Among America's most prolific "fathers" (in this case, perhaps better considered "egg-fertilizers") are Nathaniel Smith, age 39, who claimed on TV's "Divorce Court" in September that he is the father of 27, and the late Samuel Whitney, whose grown stepdaughter Lexie Woods learned that he claimed 54 before he died in July at age 87. Smith (known in Dayton, Ohio, as "Hustle Simmons") insisted that he is a fine father (doesn't smoke or drink, keeps contact with most of the kids, has "only" 21 child-support orders out), and besides, he told WHIO-TV, "I know of people who have even more than me." (Among Whitney's belongings, said Woods, were a "pile" of birth certificates and a stash of maximum-strength Viagra. "He was a likable man, a ladies' man.") [WHIO-TV, 9-10-2013] [Arizona Republic, 8-24-2013; New York Daily News, 8-27-2013] Latest Collateral Damage: (1) In October, a 28-year-old man, reeling from a domestic argument in Port Richey, Fla., put a gun to his head and, against his girlfriend's pleas, fired. As a neighbor across the street stood on her porch, the suicide bullet left the victim's head and made three wounds on the neighbor's leg, sending her to the hospital. (2) About a week later, on the Norwegian island of Vesteroy, a moose hunter missed his target but hit an obscured cottage in the distance, wounding a man in his 70s as he answered nature's call. [Tampa Bay Times, 10-172013] [NewsInEnglish.no (Oslo), 10-252013] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of December 1, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19) What if you found out that the whole world was made for you instead of the other way around? Would it change the way you enjoy it? Today's pleasures are not to be missed. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You're in the mood to work whether or not you have to. It will feel good to know you're getting ahead. Your excellence today paves the way for greater excellence in the future. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You'll feel better because you make the conscious choice to see things around you differently. You don't actually have to change anything you do. Just flirting with another point of view is enough to make a difference. CANCER (June 22-July 22) You're ready to take some advice -- the kind that will require several hours to follow. Since you're going to be putting a great deal of effort into this, you should listen exclusively to those with a proven success story. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Group efforts are favored. You'll be interacting with people you don't know well. When conflict arises, welcome it. This is an opportunity to see who you're really dealing with. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Before you do what you planned, consider that your day could go a few different ways and that your options drastically differ. Think of that person you admire so much. What would that person choose? some kind of frenzy to contend with. It may seem that no one is looking out for you. This is a sign that it's on you to see that your own best interests are served. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) Anyone who talks about what kind of person they are is waving a major red flag in your face. Usually, people are the opposite of what they proclaim, at least some of the time. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You have stories you haven't learned how to tell yet. Casual conversation will lead to selfrevelation. People who find you interesting will help you figure out which topics you could mine. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)You'll do the job you were assigned to the best of your ability regardless of impediments such as difficult people with horrible personalities. You'll get your chance to speak up, but not today. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) The reason you don't want to accept help is that at this juncture, you wish to rise to a level of personal confidence that can only be developed through self-reliance. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) The reason you don't want to accept help is that at this juncture, you wish to rise to a level of personal confidence that can only be developed through self-reliance å LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) There will be IN THE MORNING Weekdays 5:30AM to 10:00AM ADVICE GODDESS Flesh Prince My boyfriend of two years has always disparaged gentlemen's clubs. I truly believed him until he visited his family and I searched Google Maps on his computer for something in his hometown. The text box predicted "strip clubs" there. I confronted him, and looking to prove me wrong, he showed me his "places" history. Various searches for strip clubs showed up. He claimed he didn't do these searches and suggested that his brother or someone who borrowed his computer did. We have sex regularly, and he is loving and treats me very well, so I put Amy Alkon aside his lying and gave him another chance. I should say that I understand men's interest in these clubs; I just don't feel it's right for guys in relationships to go because of the possibility of cheating happening. Disturbingly, I just found some Hooters coupons with his stuff. I think that the fact that he may go to these places doesn't bother me as much as the fact that he's lying about it. — Worried A woman wants to believe a man when he claims he hates those nasty "gentlemen's clubs." Yeah, the last thing any man wants to see is a totally hot 21-year-old with enormous breasts doing upside-down splits on a pole. There's that line from politics: "It isn't the crime; it's the cover-up." Not only did your boyfriend pre-lie, laying out the above bed of lies like lettuce on a cottage cheese plate, but he followed up with the obvious honker that it had to be somebody else searching for nudie bars on his computer. As for why he lied, consider that there's a notion that men are pigs — simply for being men. Men evolved to be highly visual and variety-driven in their sexual desire, while women evolved to be more emotion- and commitment-driven. Male sexuality isn't wrong; it's just different. But men are so used to being under attack for what turns them on that many default to denying it. They keep mum to avoid conflict in their relationships, in part because they think they could never explain male desire in a way that wouldn't make a woman's head fly off and chase them around the room. The truth is, we all lie, all day long, and often think nothing of it. If people could read our thoughts, most of us wouldn't make it to lunchtime without a coworker's bludgeoning us with a stapler. Still, fantasizing and cheating are two different things. And Hooters? Naughty in concept, but in reality, a place to eat heavily battered chicken strips while having platonic conversations with a married waitress in gym clothes and 1980s pantyhose. Amy Alkon all rights reserved DECEMBER 11-17, 2013 UCW 23