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/238202
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD America's foremost advocate for frontal lobotomies as "treatment" for mental disorder, the late Dr. Walter Freeman, performed an estimated 3,500 lobotomies during the 1940s and 1950s before opposition finally solidified against him, according to a December 2013 investigation by The Wall Street Journal. At the peak of his influence, he was so confident that he demonstrated the procedure to skeptics by hammering an icepick ("from his own kitchen," the Journal reported) into both eye sockets of an electrical-shocked patient and "toggling" the picks around the brain tissue, certain that he was severing "correctly." For years, Freeman (a neurologist Chuck Sheppard untrained in surgery) marshaled positive feedback from enough patients and families for the procedure to survive criticism, and he spent his final years (until his death in 1972) securing patient testimonials to "prove" the validity of lobotomies. [Wall Street Journal, 1213-1013] Cultural Diversity Each Nov. 1 is a day (or two) of craziness in the isolated mountain village of Todos Santos Cuchumatanes, Guatemala, where Mayan tradition commands continuous horse races through town, jockeyed by increasingly drunk riders, until only a sober-enough winner remains. Collisions occur in the Race of the Souls, and occasionally someone dies, but the misfortune is met with a collective shrug and regarded as a spiritual offering for fertile crops during the coming year, according to an eyewitness this year reporting for Vice.com. Ironically, for the rest of the year, the village is largely alcohol-free except for that on hand to sell to tourists. [Vice.com, 11-5-2013] WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of January 1, 2013 ARIES (March 21-April 19)If you don't know where to begin with someone, just think about what you really want and start as close to that as you can get. Honesty keeps you from wasting time. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You're excited about and maybe even obsessed with something that you know won't last. This shouldn't make you back off, though. Instead, commit more fully with all your heart and energy. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Sometimes when you're alone you are not sure what to do with yourself. Today's discovery is an endeavor or a game that is best enjoyed alone so you can go at your own pace. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Just as being upset leads to an overabundance of vexing negative thoughts, being extremely happy influences your thinking in a more positive way than the situation may call for. But in the latter case, who cares? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You may have your suspicions that people are not giving your words the attention they deserve. Are they really listening, or are they thinking about something else? Put them to the test and find out. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Your earthsign qualities are strongly featured. It's no fun being grounded if you'd rather be flying. But if you want to grow, build or run fast, being grounded is essential. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23)You may think that what you have to give is not quite enough, but maybe you're just giving it to the wrong person. To another person, your gift will be more than they dared dream about having. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You look forward to the worry-free moments you can share relaxing with a loved one, but that time won't come until you've handled a big job. Ask for help to speed up the process. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Today shows you getting into some tricky business. What are you really being promised? The concrete answer is being obscured by delightful but vague feelgood statements. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)Someone who has wronged you wants to make amends. Is it for you, or is it to ease the other person's conscience? Don't let this be an opening for future interaction if that's not what you want. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You know that when you cherish yourself, others follow suit. This is all well and good in theory, but your many responsibilities sometimes make it hard for you to find the time! Don't worry. The balance you seek is not so far away. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Loved ones may not be at their best tonight, and you could get the brunt of it. Avoid inner turmoil by wisely separating normal emotions from the needlessly exaggerated ones that come when you're tired. By Holiday Mathis Good Morning Fayetteville with Goldy & Jim W Weekday Mornings 6-10 a.m. Postal worker Umakant Mishra, of Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh, India, was freed by a criminal court in December — 29 years after he was charged when a money-order account turned up 92 cents short. Mishra was called to judicial hearings 348 times over the years, but it was not until recently that the government admitted it had no witnesses for the court to hear against him. Talk Line: 910-864-6400 COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Local News, Weather, Traffic & Sports ADVICE GODDESS Down on His Luxe I've always loved surprising my wife with expensive jewelry and lavish vacations. However, I lost my job, and my new job pays far less. There's barely money for necessities, let alone luxuries. My wife has been very supportive, reassuring me, "I'd love you if you were flat broke," which makes me feel even more of a desire to wow her. But realizing we have no funds for a big trip this year, I suggested a "staycation" (where we'd just stay local and lie around and relax). She agreed to it, but I could tell she was disappointed. I'm worried that the "magic" of our relationship was Amy Alkon based in part on the lavish gifts and that we'll lose it now that our resources have dwindled. — Underfunded A staycation doesn't have to be a bummer — provided you don't make it sound like it'll entail your wife's climbing a mountain of dirty laundry while you go sightseeing in the basement. Sure, it's better when living hand to mouth means being fed chocolate-dipped strawberries at a spa in Gstaad. But it wasn't just the lavishness of your gifts that made your wife happy. The money you were able to spend camouflaged what you were really doing to delight her, which was employing the element of surprise. Over time, relationships stop providing the buzz they did at first. Neuroscientist Wolfram Schultz found that unpredictable rewards are the most exciting kind for the brain — maybe even three or four times as exciting as expected ones. And research by Sonja Lyubomirsky, who studies happiness, finds that one of the most effective ways to keep a relationship buzzy is by injecting surprise — the novel, the unexpected. People think they have to go big on surprise, and this keeps them from doing much that's surprising. But it's the surprise itself that counts, not whether you rented elephants. Recently, I was having a particularly craptastic day — until my boyfriend, who was away on business, told me to look above the molding over my kitchen doorway. Most awesomely, he'd hidden a little bar of my favorite French chocolate there before he left. In other words, don't worry; there should be "magic" aplenty if you just shift your surprise pipeline. Likewise, in staycationing, you just need to go places and do things that are exciting and new. While you're out there watching the sunset instead of your bank balance, consider that there is an upside to your downturn: finding out that your wife didn't just love you for your money. Of course, there's no telling whether she's just been using you for sex. JANUARY 8-14, 2014 UCW 23