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.
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NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Berjuan Toys is already selling its WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY Breast Milk Baby online ($70) and expects to have it in stores later this year. The doll works by the child- "mother" donning a halter top with flowers positioned as nipples, and when the baby comes into contact with the a flower, sensors mimic sucking sounds. Although dolls that demonstrate toileting functions are already on the market, breastfeeding activists are more enthusiastic about this one, hopeful that girls' comfort with breastfeeding will result in decreased bottle- feeding later on. (Opponents have denounced the doll as forcing girls to "grow up" too soon and with choices too complicated for their age, which according to the manufacturer is as young as 3.) [Forbes.com, 7-13- 201; USA Today, 7-25-2011] The Continuing Crisis Frances Ragusa, 75, was back in court in Brooklyn, N.Y., in June claiming child support she said was never paid by husband Philip Ragusa, 77, in their divorce settlement of 33 years ago. (The "children," of course, long ago became adults, but the $14,000 judgment has grown, with interest, to about $100,000.) Frances told the New York Post in July that she called Philip several months earlier to discuss the amount but that Philip merely began to cry. "Don't let this case go to trial," she recalled telling him. "(I)f you think I'm going to forget it, Phil, you're stuck on stupid." [New York Post, 7-11-2011] Carole Green was fined $1,000 in July by a court in Leavenworth County, Kan., for littering the property of the same Bonner Springs resident "most afternoons" for the past two years. Green apologized and said the charge was a complete surprise. She said when she starts out in her SUV every day, and drinks a bottle of tea, it just happens that she finishes it at about the same spot on her journey — in front of Gary Bukaty's property — and that's where she tosses the bottle. She promised to stop. [Journal-World (Lawrence, Kan.), 7-16-2011] A Southampton (England) University researcher told an academic conference in Stockholm in July that his work, demonstrating that women who stop smoking even after becoming pregnant will have healthier babies, is important because he found that pregnant women rationalize continued smoking, in part to have smaller babies that will be less uncomfortable to deliver. [Daily Telegraph (London), 7-7-2011] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM ARIES (March 21-April 19) You'll have the chance to right a past wrong. This opportunity begins with an emotional link between some- thing that happens this week and something that happened when you were small. This connection may occur deep, deep within the shadowed recesses of your mind, and yet it will shape your behavior. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You can't grow your talent or intelligence by willing it to expand. Determine a logical direction, and then do the work. You have been worrying too much about whether you're doing things "right" and what results you'll get. Chuck Sheppard GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You let yourself do what you feel like doing instead of forcing things along. You'll have the overwhelming sense that things are happening in the best way possible to serve your interests. It's simply un- necessary to exert your will at every juncture. CANCER (June 22-July 22) There are ele- ments of your life you simply can't change right now. While you wait for an opportunity to take back control, work on your way of thinking about these parts of your reality. Your thinking will count more than anything else. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You are passionate about human rights, which include the rights of others to believe differently from the way you do. Therefore, you resist trying to persuade anyone with rhetoric, reason or any tool other than your own living, shining, thriving example. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)You'll spend great- er amounts of time with someone you are close to and will realize just how unique you are. The truth is you could go to the same places, see the same things, read the same literature and eat the same food — and you still would be different from each other. ADVICE GODDESS LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) There's something, or more likely someone, you have to deal with directly. Avoidance won't work, and resistance will prove futile. Try treating a problem as if it were an advantage, and suddenly you will actu- ally see the advantage that is truly there. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) There's trouble to be sorted out. If you can approach it without preconceived opinions and prejudice, you'll be the one to see the brilliant answer that everyone else is missing, and you'll apply it well. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Take a break from the job of comparing and contrasting your natural gifts with the gifts of those around you. When your mind and heart are fully expanded, there is no such thing as "better than" or "less than." It's all a matter of fi nding the best fi t for you. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You'll be eager to grow your mind, and teachers show up to help. Be patient. Your education will not happen overnight. Sometimes it will feel as though all you've learned is that you don't know anything about a particular area of study. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)Creativity isn't always easy. Being a creative person means you are willing to risk playing the fool, being wrong, appearing silly, inciting laughter and enduring the bewildered silence of those who just don't get you. This takes courage. Your daring will pay off and lead to solutions both beautiful and practical. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) A certain dif- fi culty may seem important, but it won't last. Instead of trying to make it better, consider moving away from the issue and dismissing it altogether for a while. Without your involve- ment, it will recede with the tides, swept into another realm of responsibility, proving it was never really yours to solve. By Holiday Mathis RAPHA PRIMARY CARE Welcomes Dr. Graham S. Meyer, MD Dr. Meyer brings over 25 years of experience in Emergency Medicine to Rapha Primary Care. He is patient focused and attentively administers care to each of his patients, from pediatric to geriatric. We hope you don't need emergency care, but if you do, please visit Dr. Meyer at Rapha Primary Care. OFFICE HOURS Mon - Thurs 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Fri 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sat 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. URGENT & EMERGENCY CARE Family and Internal Medicine Sports Medicine, Dermatology 1905 Skibo Road (at Morganton Road) • Fayetteville 910.864.HELP Guru, Interrupted! My husband is extremely analytical, to the point where he has a negative or argumentative response to almost anything I say — including positive or even insignifi cant things. Then, when he makes some remark, unless I respond with "I agree" or "uh-huh," he debates me. I've repeatedly asked him to stop making everything an argument, but he insists that he's just giving his "honest opinion." I go for counseling, but he refuses to, saying he won't talk to "some stranger" about us. He's turning my happy self into a miserable, depressed self. — Always Wrong How fun that you never know whether you'll be enjoying breakfast with your husband or petitioning him for a new trial. Of course, he knows, as we all do, that there are remarks that aren't meant to be responded to as if one were testifying before Congress. "Nice weather we're having"? Just say "Yes, dear." No need to counter with data on sunspots, cloud cover, and death rates of baby polar bears. A man doesn't make his wife's every innocuous comment a springboard for an intellectual death Amy Alkon match because he's "analytical" and "honest" but because he feels like a skin tag among men. What your husband's showing you isn't love; it's narcissism. The term "narcissist" comes from the story of Narcissus, who fell in love with his refl ection in the water — how he appeared, not who he really was. Narcissists are self-absorbed, manipulative users. What they lack in empathy they make up for in a sucking need for admiration. To a narcissist, other people aren't so much people as they are staging areas for the narcissist's greatness. A loving husband understands that there's a right answer and a more-right answer — the one that doesn't leave his wife feeling depressed and beaten down. You need to decide whether staying married is more important to you than being happy, because if he is a narcissist, he's unlikely to change. Narcissists rarely agree to therapy, as they can't take the challenge to their manufactured authority or let anyone expose them as the tiny little people they actually are. You may be able to control your husband's behavior by giving him boundaries for what you'll put up with and being truly willing to walk if he keeps crossing them. But, if that's what your marriage comes down to — a husband who acts like less of a bully so you won't leave — is that enough? You could actually have love in your life … if you're with a man capable of loving. That man will watch you as you sleep — because he can't take his eyes off you, not because he's waiting for you to talk in your sleep so he can shake you awake and correct you: "Honey!... Honey! You are the weakest link." Amy Alkon, all rights reserved. AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2011 UCW 19