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/73037
NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD Chinese media reported that on May 4, at the Xiaogan Middle School in Hubei province, high school students studying for the all-important national college entrance exam worked through the evening while hooked up to intravenous drips of amino acids to fight fatigue. A director of the school's Office of Academic Affairs reasoned that before the IVs were hung, weary students complained of losing too much time running back and forth to the school's infirmary for energy injections. After the media reports, there was a public backlash, but less against the notion that China was placing too much importance on the exams than against reports that the government was subsidizing the cost of the injections. [South China Morning Post, 5-9-2012] Can't Possibly Be True Desmond Hatchett, 33, was summoned to court in Knoxville, Tenn., in May so that a judge could chastise him for again failing to make child-support payments. Official records show that Hatchett has at least 30 children (ages 14 down to "toddler") by at least 11 women. He said at a 2009 court appearance that he was "through" siring children and apparently has taken proper precautions since then. (In Milwaukee, Wis., in April, Sean Patrick was sentenced to 30 years in prison for owing more than $146,000 for 12 children by 10 mothers, and the city's Journal Sentinel newspaper reported that, before being locked up, two convicted pimps, Derrick Avery and Todd Carter, had fathered, respectively, 15 kids by seven women and 16 children with "several" mothers.) [Los Angeles Times, 5-18-2012] [Journal Sentinel, 4-3-2012] The Associated Press reported in May that Kentucky prison officials were working behind the scenes to resolve the thorny question of whether inmate Robert Foley deserves a hip replacement. Normally, a prisoner in such extreme pain would qualify. However, Foley, 55, is on death row for killing six people in 1989 and 1991, and since he has exhausted his appeals, he is still alive only because a court has halted all executions while the state reconsiders its lethal- injection procedure. Furthermore, all local hospitals queried by the prison to perform the procedure have declined to take Foley because the prison considers him dangerous. [Associated Press via AzCentral.com (Phoenix), 5-17-2012] COPYRIGHT 2011 CHUCK SHEPHERD WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY For the Week of July 8, 2012 ARIES (March 21-April 19) Professionals rarely fi eld compliments. Expecting that things should go right, people sometimes forget to be thankful that they do. That's why when you offer up kind- ness and appreciation your words mean so much. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Your whims sometimes lead to uncanny coincidences; other times, not so much. This is the kind of week that requires you to focus. Distraction may be fear in disguise. Face your fear instead. Avoid wandering away from your main focus and goals and, thus, wasting time. GEMINI (May 21-June 21) The voice of sadness and anger turned inward is one of the biggest liars around, although it's not the only liar in town. Being tired and overworked with too much on your plate also brings about false thinking. Rest and take care so you can hear with clarity the cheerful truth. Chuck Sheppard CANCER (June 22-July 22) Unlike some, you recognize how you've been helped along the way, and you feel an obligation to give back. And those instances when no one bothered to help you make you want to help even more because you know what it feels like to be overlooked. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Heroism is relatively uncommon because it only gets the chance to be proved in dire circumstances. But potential heroes are everywhere. You recognize them because they perpetuate the standards of human decency. They do right when there is no apparent benefi t. You recognize potential heroes because you are one. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) History should be your best teacher. There's so much going on this week that the past is altogether hard to recall. Try anyway. There is a lesson you've already learned, and you don't want to have to repeat it. ADVICE GODDESS Mourning Breath LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) You don't like to trouble others to help you with what you can clearly do for yourself. The point is whether it is prudent for you to do so given your other responsibilities and the sheer quantity of what you need to accomplish. Delegate! SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21)Unforgettable images will pop into your mind this week while you sleep. Perhaps these mental pictures remind you of something or someone from your past, spurring a reaction that affects your future. The best dreams will happen while you're awake this weekend. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) It's like you're trying to put together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle of a maddeningly monochromatic scene. Through trial and error, bit by bit, it all comes together. Stay calm, persistent and ex- perimental, and you may actually fi nd this week's challenge rather fun. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) As is the case with a real earthquake, the different plates that make up your life as an earth sign have a way of rubbing against one another, creating a tension that needs to be released periodically. It changes your emotional landscape somewhat, but the change will be good. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Note how amaz- ingly long it takes to complete the project you're not working on. There's a part of your brain that is still enmeshed in that project, and it may free you up a great deal to decide that you're never going to fi nish it and be good with that decision. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) You'll be kinder than necessary. If someone takes advantage of your kindness, you may be saddened temporar- ily by the misplaced energy this represents, but you'll never regret having given so much. By Holiday Mathis At 19, I married the fi rst man I slept with. He died last year after 23 years of marriage, and within a month, I was in a new relationship with a wonderful man I met online. I'm certainly still grieving, sometimes horribly, but my new man understands, and he's patient. He appreciates me and insists on my total commitment to him (meaning that I can't date anyone else). The problem is, he lives in another state, and in our year together, his work schedule has kept him from visiting me. He can make me quiver when we talk on the phone, but the distance leaves me lonely at night. Can a long- distance relationship ever work? — Cradling The Phone Until you spend considerable time in a man's presence, your view of him will be part him and a good part you fi lling in the blanks with who you'd like him to be. And sorry, quivery romantic moments are just the sparkly topping on a relationship. The actual relationship is mostly the day-to- day stuff — how you are together at the grocery store and whether he's mean to you when you forget to pick up the dry cleaning. Where you go right is in not Amy Alkon "European Bistro & Bar Downtown at Market Square" Open 7 Days THE a Week 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. ★ 4th of July Weekend Specials ★ WEDNESDAY: 50% Entrees for all Active Duty Vets Late night Cookout Party w/Free Food & Live DJ THURSDAY: Free Appetizers for all Disabled Vets "Cutest Couple" Contest & Lido's Dollar Thursdays FRIDAY: Kids Eat Free Lunch & Dinner "Let Freedom Ring" Party w/$15 Beer Buckets! SATURDAY: "Founding Fathers' Wig Party" $1 Bottles & Sammy's Boston Lagers Visit Lido's on FB to get all the great specials and details! 102 Person St. • Fayetteville 910-222-8237 appearing to buy into cookie-cutter ideas about how you "should" be mourning, like the widely held myth that there are specifi c, neatly ordered "stages of grief" everyone must move through and Freud's notion that grieving people need to slog through all their thoughts, memories and emotions about the deceased. (Never mind that he had no evidence for this or that actual evidence suggests that ruminating can cause depression.) When life as you knew it for a quarter- century suddenly developed a big husband-shaped hole, it's understandable that you started rummaging around the Internet for a scoop of human grout. But, being desperate for fi ller meant that any critical assessments about this guy were drowned out by "Cripes! I'll be alone!" At the same time, maybe you weren't quite ready to be with anybody, so it worked to have a boyfriend who demanded your "total commitment" — creepy! — while not actually bothering to show up. You can strongly suggest that he hop a plane in the immediate future, but chances are whatever's prevented him from giving you a peek at the real him will continue to prevent it. Maybe now would be a good time to try to get comfortable being alone. Only when you are will you be able to choose a man for the right reasons — and not simply because he talks a really good game, giving him something of an edge over the guy in the urn. Amy Alkon all rights reserved. JULY 4-10, 2012 UCW 23