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 Like most states with active trade associations of barbers and beauticians, Iowa strictly regulates those professions, requiring 2,100 hours of training plus continuing education—but also like many other states, Iowa does not regulate body piercers at all (though it forbids minors from getting tattoos). Thus, the puncturing of body parts and insertion of jewelry or other objects under the skin can be done by anyone, with or without formal training, under no one's watchful eye except the customer's. (A few cities' ordinances require a minimum age to get pierced.) Said one professional piercer to the Des Moines Register for a March report, "The lack of education in this industry is scary." [Des Moines Register, 3-11-2012] Government in Action Controlling the Waters: (1) A February bill in the Wyoming legislature to prepare the state for possible secession authorized a task force to consider establishing a state army, navy, marine corps and air force, and one amendment added the consideration of purchasing an aircraft carrier. Wyoming is, of course, landlocked, but it does have the 136-square-mile Yellowstone Lake, though that body of water is high up in the Teton mountains. (The aircraft- carrier amendment was defeated even though 27 representatives voted for it.) (2) Texas announced in February that it would deploy six gunboats to patrol the Mexican border's Rio Grande river. Said a state Department of Safety offi cial, "It sends a message: Don't mess with Texas." [Billings Gazette, 2-27-2012] [CNN, 2-29-2012] With a National Institute of Justice grant, the Houston Police Department was able to learn precisely how embarrassingly bad it had been in investigating rape cases. In February it conceded that, as of December, it had on hand 6,663 untested rape kits (some from the 1980s) taken from rape victims at the time of the crime but then apparently ignored. (Not all are signifi cant: In some rapes, a perpetrator has already confessed or been convicted, and still other victims recanted, and in still others, the statute of limitations has run out.) [KPRC- TV, 2-14-2012] After every snowfall in recent years, Doug Rochow of Ottawa, Ontario, has routinely taken his shovel and cleared two paths in a park near his home (since the park is apparently a low priority for municipal snow-clearing), but in March, the city ordered him to stop. The city's reverse-logic position, according to a Toronto Star report, was that if Rochow cleared the paths, more people would be encouraged to use them, increasing the city's exposure to lawsuits. [Toronto Star, 3-5-2012] Chuck Sheppard COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of April 22, 2012 ARIES (March 21-April 19) Your mind is busy, but so is your social schedule. To be socially aware you must clear away everything that's distracting you from being present with your environment and the people therein. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You let your guard down with the people you respect and admire. You'll let your guard down with others, as well, as long as they pass a series of social, emotional and intellectual tests that you sub- consciously infl ict on your unknowing subjects. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) You have to be strong in order to handle the responsibilities and deal with the needs of the people around you. You will rise to the occasion in every way this week, though it comes at a personal cost. So be sure to relax and regenerate every chance you get. CANCER (June 22-July 22) If anything is holding you back from being organized, you'll pinpoint the culprit this week. More than likely, it is a desire to get more things accomplished in a day than is reasonable to expect, thus causing the unfi nished activities to pile up. Slow down and take life one activity at a time. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) A mischievous mood prevails in the early week, but you'll be careful about how you act on it, deciding judiciously what you can get away with in the name of humor and fun. Financial dealings remind you that you have to master your money so your money won't master you. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Life will bring a mysterious series of clues leading up to a most excellent answer. Go on and state the obvious, because it's only obvious to you. This may earn you a position of leadership, as people want to be able to catch the fi ner details for themselves and also know what to make of them. ADVICE GODDESS Inner Booty LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Taking informa- tion out of context or reading too much into a situation will be a danger to avoid. Also, make sure to get your information from the original source as often as possible. It will keep you out of trouble because secondhand information will most likely be incorrect. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You'll do a ver- sion of psychic cleansing this week. In the same way a person might open up the windows to air out a room, you'll open your life to the fresh breezes blowing through. Said breezes could come in the form of a person, a book or a new interest. All breezes lead to soul revitalization! SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You won't be as quick to move through things as you sometimes are, because you want to make sure you're wringing every bit of pleasure from your life that there is to be had. So you slow things down. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Compli- ments aren't always easy to give, because you never know how the other person will react. This week, you have something to gain from telling people what you like about them. Mu- tual admiration begins a friendship. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) When you are not happy, the more sensitive people in your life can really feel it. Likewise, when your loved ones are not happy, it's as though the entire resonance of the planet is off key. This week, you'll go out of your way to bring joy to your- self and those around you. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Losing with grace is good, but losing with great creativity is even better. You have something to express, and you're not sure how it will fl y. Take a chance. The worst that can happen is inspired folly, which reminds you of your humanity. By Holiday Mathis DID YOU FORGET?? SOCKS • BELTS • HATS • PANTS em t 2 5 % Thanks to our teams & best wishes for a great season! Two Great Businesses Under One Roof! www.trophyhouseinc.com 3006 Bragg Blvd. 910.323.1791 In your answer to "Dismayed," the 32-year-old woman with a Ph.D. who was unimpressed by the men she was meeting, I was struck by how cold and calculating it all sounds: Women evolved to marry money and power; men look for eye candy to parade around on their arms. As a man who doesn't bring money or power to the table, what do I have to give up? Why can't you just fall in love like you got hit by a ton of bricks and have that be enough? — Male Romantic generation. If one big purple eyeball on a woman were an indicator of her health and fertility, Playboy would be called Cornea, and men in bars would be chatting up women's foreheads instead of their cleavage. Instead, men evolved to go for women with the features that actually do indicate fertility, like youth and an hourglass fi gure. Women, on the other hand, evolved to be hot for men who can protect and provide, as women who went for wimpy deadbeats would've been more likely to have children who starved to death or got eaten by lions. (Genetic fail!) Day to day in a relationship, it's inner beauty that counts. Unfortunately, it takes outer beauty to draw a man close enough to fi nd out how wonderful a woman is on the inside … which is why cosmetics companies make bajillions with stuff like L'Oreal Visible Radiance and not L'Oreal Sandwich-Making Kit To Feed The Homeless. As evolutionary psychologist Dr. Michael Mills explained on my radio show, our genes don't care if we're happy. They're selfi sh little buggers, manipulating us to do whatever it takes so they can hop on to the next Amy Alkon and realistic about how you stack up is how you improve your chances of having love in your life. You can either optimize what you have to offer or scale back your demands for supermodeliciousness. So, maybe you can't get Miss Universe, but make your peace with that and you could end up living happily ever after with Miss Hottie of the Cul-de-Sac. Winning her isn't a simple matter of fl ashing a bunch of cash. The protector- provider stuff just gets you in the door so you can show her the stuff money can't buy. That's when you convince her that the two of you can have a beautiful future together — one fi lled with liberal applications of CoverGirl Heal The Wounded Squirrel. Being honest about what women want Amy Alkon all rights reserved. APRIL 18-24, 2012 UCW 27 u M a ny i o O s t ! Team uniform packages now available with a discount on team trophies! p