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 Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., is a leading prescriber of the "K-E diet" that offers desperate people drastic short-term weight loss by threading a feeding tube through the nose to the stomach and dripping in a protein-fat solution, as clients' only meals, for 10 straight days. "Within a few hours," Dr. Di Pietro told ABC's Good Morning America in April, "your hunger and appetite go away completely." Fat is burned through "ketosis," he said, and a loss of 10 to 20 pounds in 10 days is possible. Such short-term loss might be important, for example, for a woman prepping for her wedding day. One client said she doesn't have "all of the time on the planet" just to exercise, "so I came to the doctor." [Good Morning America via Yahoo News, 4-16-2012] Government in Action The late Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha was a Capitol Hill powerhouse, and among his legacies is the federally funded airport in his district that largely served him and the local companies heading to Washington, D.C., to lobby for government contracts. (By contrast, the Pittsburgh airport is nearly 60 miles away.) Murtha died in 2010, but the airport (which cost $150 million in earmarked funds to build, upgrade and maintain) still, according to an April Yahoo News dispatch, handles only three flights a day, all from Washington, D.C., and about $100 of every passenger's ticket is subsidized by the federal government. [Yahoo News, 4-3-2012] Chuck Sheppard brought the full force of the law to bear upon Mitch Faber (who was arrested, forced to pay a high bail and released under electronic monitoring and only on condition of drug testing), whom they have charged with the crime of not putting proper siding on his house. According to a March report on KSTP-TV, Faber said he started re-siding, but when the economy turned bad in 2008, he stopped, assuming that the worst he could eventually suffer would be a fine. [KSTP-TV (St. Paul), 3-23-2012] Great Architecture Architect Sou Fujimoto recently unveiled his public restroom (for women only, though) whose one transparency-enclosed toilet sits in a 2,160-square-foot private garden of cherry, plum and peach trees. The 6-foot-high-walled park is located beside a railway station in Ichihara City, east of Tokyo. Japan is a world leader in fanciful toilets, and Fujimoto said he thought the scenery would enhance the user's "feeling of release." [Japan Broadcasting Corporation via CNET News, 4-14-2012] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD Officials in Burnsville, Minn., have WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of June 10, 2012 ARIES (March 21-April 19) While some be- lieve that the presence of tension and the fear of confrontation are so distracting that creativity becomes impossible, you know the opposite to be true. Your energy will rise up to meet the challenges of a heightened atmosphere. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) The glory of search engines is this: Whatever your opinion may be, there's someone who feels the same way. It's as though the entire universe is your search engine this week, because when you have questions, all you have to do is articulate them, and the answer is immediate. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Your complete grasp of language and natural powers of di- plomacy allow you to work most problems out before it's necessary to get angry. You'll help others stay in a calm place, too, this week as you mediate between two typically hotheaded parties. CANCER (June 22-July 22) Even though your loved ones basically get who you are, you're always growing. You enjoy developing your style and honing the way you talk, dress and generally present yourself to the world. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) You have an intricate system of measuring good will that is all your own, and this week only those who take the time to learn your ways and build your trust will earn your business. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You'll be dealing in groups this week — and will be quite infl uential, too. You may not realize that it's your responsibil- ity to bring the good cheer into the room, but that will be the case more often than not. Each time you're getting ready to open a door, take a moment to make sure your attitude is where you need it to be. ADVICE GODDESS We'll Always Have Parasites LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Look up the word "couth" in the dictionary, and there should be a picture of you there. A master diplomat, you wisely know to apply sensitivity to subjects that are potential hot spots. Associates who don't share your Libran gifts will need, at the very least, a bit of guidance. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) Just as children need to be allowed to make a mess of things every once in a while, you are similarly entitled to get occasionally silly and sloppy in the name of experimentation and fun. Seize this week's opportunities for freewheeling creativity and general goofi ng off. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) There's some kind of inner dialogue chattering inces- santly, processing the world in a quirky kind of way this week. Take control of that inner voice. Talk consciously to it, and see what it says. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) There's plenty you can learn about yourself outside the context of a relationship. That "someone else" speaks up this week, helping you realize parts of yourself that you simply wouldn't have noticed otherwise. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Some people ask, "What's the worst that could happen?" and decide to bravely go forward because even the worst seems manageable. You should avoid worst-case-scenario thinking altogether and envision only the best outcomes you can dream. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) A study of eti- quette may help you enter heightened social situ- ations with grace this week. Give yourself credit for what you've already mastered, too. You may not know which fork to use when 14 utensils come with your dinner setting, but you never tip the pizza deliveryman less than $2, either. By Holiday Mathis My boyfriend of two months is a gem, but his house is a horror. The fridge and bathroom are disgusting, and the whole place is seriously messy. There's this eerie feeling that the house was formerly homey, like nothing has changed since his wife left him three years ago — down to the box of sanitary pads in the bathroom cupboard and the very wife-ish folksy kitchen art everywhere. I wonder if the state of things refl ects some inner devastation he's feeling post-divorce. He takes pride in his home's exterior, meticulously maintaining his lawn, and I don't think he's trying to impress the neighbors (not a pretentious bone in his body). He hadn't changed his sheets in our two months together, so I removed the pillowcases and dropped them on the fl oor as a hint. He didn't get it. It seems too early in the relationship to say anything. Still, I don't feel I should have to keep faking that I'm comfy in his home and in his bed on sheets that feel like they haven't been washed since the 1980s. — Yuck If you don't see other signs suggesting he's depressed or troubled, he's probably just mess-blind. It is cute that you thought dropping stuff on the fl oor — the fl oor of a man who basically lives in a two-bedroom landfi ll — would have an impact on his housekeeping standards. You should actually consider it a bit troubling that he apparently made no attempt to tidy up for you. Amy Alkon Say something gentle but direct like "I think you're a great guy, but I really need you to clean your place so I feel comfortable there." There is a chance that he'll break up with you over this. But, what kind of man kicks the girl out of bed and keeps the cracker crumbs? Instead of trying to get him to clean up his whole act at once, take things step by grody step. Whatever effort he makes, keep letting him know you appreciate it. If the house isn't getting to a civilized level of clean, gently suggest that it needs a woman's touch — a cleaning woman's: "Ever thought of getting a maid once a month?" Finally, address the ex-wife's leftovers by joking that some of the decor doesn't quite seem a refl ection of him. In fact, you're particularly confused by the box in the bathroom cabinet, but you'd like to be supportive: "A man's fi rst period is a very special time, and there's no reason to feel ashamed about the changes in your body, which should soon have you turning cartwheels in a fl owing white skirt." Amy Alkon all rights reserved. JUNE 6-12, 2012 UCW 23