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/26748
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Getting Old, Young: Jack Smeltzer broke a record in the tractor pull championships in Columbus, Ohio, in January — doing a “full (track- length) pull” of 692 pounds. Jack is 7 years old. The National Kiddie Tractor Pullers Association (holding 80 events a year for ages 3 through 8) uses bicycles instead of motors. Ms. Brooke Wilker, 5, was the youngest champ, lugging 300 pounds 28 feet. [Columbus Dispatch, 1-31-2011] Walmart announced in January that it would soon offer a full line of makeup especially for 8-year-olds (and up), by GeoGirl, including mascara, sheer lip gloss, pink blush and purple eye shadow, all supposedly designed for young skin. (An executive of Aspire cosmetics said her research revealed a potential market of 6-year- olds.) [Houston Chronicle, 1-25-2011] Government in Action! Everyone washes hair, but those who want a license to apply shampoo in Texas need 150 hours of training, with 100 hours in “theory and practice of shampooing,” including a study of “neck anatomy.” A February Wall Street Journal report on excessiveness of state regulation highlighted California’s year-long training to be a barber, Alabama’s 750-hour schooling standard for a manicurist’s license, and Michigan’s 500 practice hours for performing massages. (By contrast, many less-tightly regulated states seem not to suffer. Connecticut, without licensing, fielded only six complaints last year against manicurists — four of which involved disputes over gift cards.) Next up for licensing, perhaps: cat groomers in Ohio. [Wall Street Journal, 2-7-2011] What Budget Crunch? The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported in January that despite an array of pressing problems, the Broward County public school system has paid about $100,000 per year since 2004 to build and maintain special gardens at selected schools in order to lure butterflies for pupils to study. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 1-1-2011] Government That Works: The 2009 federal stimulus program came through just in time with $34,000 for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Kearneysville, W.Va., laboratory. Work on the recent dangerous increase in Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs was in jeopardy because money had run out for design of a workable air distribution system for the offices. [Pottstown (Pa.) Mercury, 10-6-2010] The City Commission of San Antonio, Fla. (population 1,052), passed an ordinance in January restricting, to a tiny portion of town, where registered sex offenders could live. However, San Antonio has only one sex offender, and that man is exempt from the law because he already lives there. [Orlando Sentinel, 1-19-2011] “That Was Easy!” Several students at Texas’ Carrizo Springs High School were suspended in December, and a teacher placed on leave, after a parent complained that her son had been grabbed by the shirt and stapled to a classroom wall. She said it was at least the second time that it had happened. [KSAT-TV (San Antonio), 12-13-2010 COPYRIGHT 2010 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY ARIES (March 21-April 19) According to the rules of feng shui, your front door should be larger than your back door, making it easy for good energy to come in and more diffi cult for it to leave. You’ll apply this principle to different areas of life, including your fi nances. Money will fl ow to you, and you’ll think long and hard before you spend it. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Throughout a lifetime, various pieces of your identity drift away. One day, you think of yourself as a child, dependent on others. Another day, you realize that you’re the one responsible for what happens in your life. This week you’ll roll with the changes. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You do appreciate it when others have the same consistency of mood that you have. It makes life easier when you can predict the general response a person might have to your next move. CANCER (June 22-July 22) To accomplish your dream, you need more than a hope and a prayer. You need a viable strategy for turning your idea into reality. Return to brainstorming mode. A Virgo or Leo person will be an asset to your team. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You have an extra- sensory gift — an intuitive sense you can’t explain that guides you to answers and happy outcomes. This week you’ll be moved to do certain illogical things because they just feel right. And even when you don’t know exactly what’s going on, you’ll tune into the spirit of things and fi gure it out. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Sometimes it’s still diffi cult for you to believe that your dreams are important to the workings of the entire world. In seeking a fanciful vision, you have done a great amount of practical work that ultimately helped many people around you. ADVICE GODDESS LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) You have faith in the people around you. You act as if they already have embodied their potential. You treat them as though they have realized their desired roles completely, and they become bigger in your presence. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You are self- taught and self-guided. For instance, you have learned to separate opinion from fact. This week, you’ll listen to knowledgeable people and gain from their insights, but you won’t run your life according to what they suggest. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) The plan is unfolding perfectly. The question is: Whose plan? It might not be your plan — and in many instances this week, it won’t be. Even so, it’s a brilliant plan that involves the implementa- tion of many of your ideas and the fulfi llment of many of your wishes. You’ll love how things turn out! CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) There’s a book you need to fi nish. Rededicate yourself to the effort — not because you aspire to reach a state of intellectual magnifi cence, but because it’s important to fi nish what you start. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You will go into a new situation fi lled with good intentions and a positive feeling about what will come of it. What you learn along the way will help you determine how the arrangement will best fi t into your future life. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) You have the laser focus necessary to do a job extremely well. You’re also tenacious, and you won’t give up until you’re satisfi ed that the job is done. The ability to stay on point for as long as you do is a talent that often doesn’t get the praise it de- serves. But this week, both you and your work will be applauded. By Holiday Mathis Women’s Self- Rape Crisis Volunteers of Cumberland County Call 485-7273 or visit www.rapecrisisonline.org PO Box 58332 • Fayetteville NC 28305 Managed Frisk A recent column of yours really ticked me off. You stated, “While men can have sex without an emotional connection, women generally need to feel emotionally close to their partner fi rst.” You could not be more WRONG. I’m a very good-looking and fi t man, and I would never have sex with someone I didn’t have feelings for. To further prove my point, I know just as many high-class women who have sex with men they do not have feelings for! So women are just as guilty as men. There is no “gener- ally” about it. — A Real Mant Many women say they can hook up and walk away like men do, and they probably believe that. It seems kind of uncool to be all emotional when you want to be tough and all “no big deal” about casual sex. But we all get our marching orders from our genes. Some of these are unisex, like, “Yoohoo, sharp teeth to your left. Better run!” But there are also separate sets of directives for men and women, corresponding to our physiological differences. In What Women Want — What Men Want, anthropologist John Townsend explains, “Because women can be impregnated and abandoned and men cannot, women’s emotions evolved to evaluate the quality and reliability of male investment. These Amy Alkon Defense Class emotions act as an alarm system that urges women to test and evaluate investment and remedy defi ciencies even when they try to be indifferent to investment.” Yes, this “Dad or Cad?” detector women have seems to be missing the all-important on-off switch. In one of Townsend’s studies, he found that even when women just wanted to hump and dump a guy, sex “made them feel vulnerable, and thoughts crossed their minds like ‘Does he care about me, is sex all he was after, will he dump me in the morning?’ These thoughts were diffi cult to suppress.” They’re also especially disheartening to young women who’ve been taught that “gender is a social construct” and who confl ate being equal under the law with being the same. Sure, girls can do lots of things boys can do … but should they? Studies don’t explain every person; they paint a picture of the average person. There are women who can’t have casual sex (they can’t help but get attached), but the research suggests to me that some women might just need to differentiate between casual sex and too-casual sex. When a woman isn’t up for a boyfriend (or spending a year with her knees crossed), maybe a “friends with benefi ts” thing could work for her — if it’s a friend she’s known and trusted for more than the 26 minutes he spent chatting her up after “last call.” (c)2010, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. MARCH 9-15, 2011 UCW 23 FREE! Sat., March 19th 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Cumberland County and Musha Dojo are offering a FREE Women’s Self-Defense Class! Space is limited. Contact Ze for information, directions and to reserve your spot! Participants must be at least 15 years old. Future classes: April 23 and July 9. Rape Crisis Volunteers of