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 Part-time Devon, England, vicar Gavin WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of March 11, 2012 Tyte, who serves churches in Uplyme and Axmouth, recently produced a rap video of the Nativity, in which he plays a shepherd, an angel and the narrator. Sample lyrics (about Mary placing her baby in a cattle trough and angels calming the frightened shepherds): "No hotel, motel, custom baby-changer/She wrapped the baby up and laid him in a manger" and "Chill out, my friends, there's no need for trepidation/Got a message for the world, and it's elation information." Government in Action! Apparently, not only will there be fewer overall resources for disabled people in Greece (due to government austerity), but the resources will be spread over a larger number of recipients. The Labor Ministry in January expanded the category of eligible "disabled" (with reduced-amount payments) to include pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists, sadomasochists, pedophiles, Chuck Sheppard exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. The National Confederation of Disabled People said the changes would inevitably reduce funds available for the blind and the crippled and other traditional categories of need. Even at a time of schoolteacher layoffs nationally, the Buffalo, N.Y., school system continues to cover all costs for cosmetic surgery for teachers. The benefit was established in the calmer 1970s, and no one, it seems, anticipated the facelift and liposuction crazes that subsequently developed. The annual expense in recent years, for about 500 benefit-takers a year, has been from $5 million to $9 million (equivalent to the average salaries of at least 100 teachers). The teachers' union said it is willing to give up the benefit in a new collective bargaining agreement, but a quirk in New York law lessens the incentive of teachers to negotiate such a contract (in that the current, highly lucrative contract remains in force until replaced). In February, Kenneth Gunn, of the U.K.'s Scottish Borders Council, decried the budget cutbacks that closed down local offices that had previously posted marriage notices. By making it more difficult for the public to be aware of specific marriages, Gunn feared an inevitable increase in incest. "I am aware in my own ward of brothers sitting beside sisters they do not know in primary school." (The problem is more serious in Iceland, whose 300,000 people are far more self-contained. However, a new website containing genealogical data back 1,200 years is expected to help reduce the risk of incest.) COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM ARIES (March 21-April 19) Introspection will help you fi gure out the potential reasons for why you didn't get what you wanted. Chances are, there were several reasons. And the most powerful one is that perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Relationships don't just happen spontaneously. You'll feel a tiny bit responsible for another person's happi- ness and a little in control of that, too. There's some truth to your feelings, and perhaps they are an indicator of the great effect you have on others. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) When you think of the dear friends you have known in your life, you wonder how you ever could have drift- ed so far apart. This is natural, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept. And now the drive to reconnect may be overwhelmingly strong. CANCER (June 22-July 22) You have a formula for making money that is so ingrained that you hardly realize what it is. The recipe is a blend of intelligence, specialized skill and the wisdom to apply yourself effectively. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) There's a fi xed number of things you can ask before the other person gets tired of answering, so you want to be smart about it. The wrong questions bring more confusion to the issue at hand than you started off with. The right questions bring clarity and invite new options. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You don't have to be a well-rounded person now. Focus on what you do best, and do it to the hilt. There are other people in your life who will fi ll in the blanks that you're missing. Trust that the gifts you have are both unique and absolutely neces- sary to the evolution of the world. It's the truth! LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) However diffi cult body tattoos are to remove, it is even more challenging to get rid of ideas and designs that have been imprinted strongly on your mind. This week is a perfect time to start the "mind tattoo" elimination process. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You pay atten- tion to the universe's signals, even when you don't like them at fi rst. Trust that the old adage is true: When one door closes, another one opens. But sometimes the next door doesn't open immediately, and the moments in between feel like an eternity if you lose hope. Have faith. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) The proj- ect you've taken on is so big that it will feel like all of your work amounts to but a teensy-tiny increment of progress. In other words, you keep hitting it hard, but you barely put a dent in it. Consider this a good sign. It's the big proj- ects that are really worth your while this week. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Part of being entirely your own person is having political, social and cultural views that refl ect what you really think instead of what the people around you want you to think. You'll exercise that right this week, exploring your beliefs and expressing them in new ways. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) No man exists in a vacuum, and you're only completely satis- fi ed with an outcome if you believe that others have benefi ted, as well. You are open-minded, and you believe there is enough happiness to go around. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) You look forward to spending time with loved ones even though there will be some stress involved. The key is to get your attitude and mindset in a positive, easy place before you enter the scene. Reduce your expectations concerning how people will behave. By Holiday Mathis DID YOU FORGET?? etm 2 5 % Thanks to our teams & best wishes for a great season! Two Great Businesses Under One Roof! 3006 Bragg Blvd. 910.323.1791 www.trophyhouseinc.com ADVICE GODDESS The Spinster Cycle I'm a 32-year-old woman with a Ph.D. I'm beyond happy with my career path, but I'm not meeting men I'm impressed with or inspired to see again. A girlfriend sent me a New York Times op-ed by a historian named Stephanie Coontz, who said that highly educated women can fi nd a man if they drop "the cultural ideal of hypergamy — that women must marry up." Coontz advises women to "reject the idea that the ideal man is taller, richer, more knowledgeable, more renowned or more powerful." She claims a woman's marital happiness is predicted not by how much she looks up to her husband, "but how sensitive he is to her emotional cues and how willing he is to share the housework and child-care. And those traits are often easier to fi nd in a low-key guy than a powerhouse." She then adds, "I'm not arguing that women ought to 'settle.'" Really? Sounds that way to me. — Dismayed I respect Stephanie Coontz as a historian, but as a forecaster of economic and romantic possibilities for women, I have to give her a thumbs-down. Coontz claims that "for a woman seeking a satisfying relationship as well as a secure economic future, there has never been a better time to be or become highly educated." Actually, as doctorate holders "Occupying" sleeping bags outside city halls will tell you, that depends on what you're becoming highly educated in. Ph.D. in fi nancial engineering? Hedge fund, here you come. Amy Alkon Coontz is wrong again in deeming hypergamy — women's preference for men of a higher socio-economic status — a cultural construct. The preference for the alpha male is biological, an evolutionary adaptation that exists in women across cultures — and species. Dr. Bruce J. Ellis writes in The Adapted Mind that when 15 feminist leaders described their ideal man, they repeatedly used words like "very rich," "brilliant," and "genius." waitresses and baristas. As evolutionary psychologist Dr. David Buss writes, "Women's physical attractiveness is the best known predictor of the occupational status of the man she marries and the best known predictor of hypergamy." There isn't a person on the planet who doesn't have to settle. A lack of respect for one's spouse is defi nitely not the ground happy marriages are built on. That's why settling is most wisely discussed not as some blanket policy for women, but in terms of what an individual woman wants and what she's willing and able to give up to get it. Realistically assessing that for yourself is how you fi nd your happiest medium. Amy Alkon all rights reserved. MARCH 7-13, 2012 UCW 23 SOCKS • BEL TS • HA TS • P ANTS u M a o ny i O s t ! Team uniform packages now available with a discount on team trophies! p