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/780066
FEBRUARY 1-7, 2017 UCW 27 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM WEEKLY HOROSCOPE ADVICE GODDESS Flee Willy I'm a 27-year- old woman, dating again after a six-year relationship. I slept with a guy on the third date and was dismayed when he didn't spend the night. It didn't feel like just a hookup, and it wasn't a work night. Is this just how people date now — going home immediately after sex — or does this mean he's not serious? — Confused It's hard to say why this guy left. Maybe he's gone for good, or maybe he just wasn't sure you wanted him to stay. Your fretting about what the deal is suggests you might not be as comfortable as you think about having sex before there's a relationship in place. You may unconsciously be succumbing to a form of peer pressure — peer pressure that mainly exists in your own mind — called "pluralistic ignorance." This is social psychologists' term for when many people in a group are personally uncomfortable with some belief or behavior but go along with it anyway — incorrectly concluding that most people are A-Okay with it and thinking they should be, too. (Basically, "monkey assume/ monkey do.") Consider how the millennial generation is supposedly "Generation Hookup." Looking at survey data from Americans ages 20 to 24, psychologist Jean Twenge actually found that people born from 1990 to 1994 (millennials) were "significantly more likely" than those born from 1965 to 1969 (Gen Xers) to say they'd had ZERO sex partners since the age of 18. (Fifteen percent of millennials went sexless, versus 6 percent of Gen Xers.) And if millennials were clued in on pluralistic ignorance, the number in the "no sex for now" column might be even higher. For example, biological anthropologist Chris Reiber finds that women seriously overestimate other women's comfort level with "hookup behaviors" (from "sexual touching above the waist" to sex) in situations "where a more traditional romantic relationship is NOT an explicit condition of the encounter." Figure out what actually works for you emotionally — whether you can just say "whatevs!" if a guy goes all nail-'n'-turn- tail or whether you might want to wait to have sex till you've got a relationship going. That's when it becomes easier to broach uncomfortable subjects — so you won't have to wonder, say, why he's running out at 2:27 a.m. You will know: It's not you; it's his sleep apnea and how he likes to go home to his CPAP machine rather than die in your bed. Copyright Amy Alkon NEWS OF THE WEIRD by CHUCK SHEPPARD The salary the Golden State Warriors pay to basketball whiz Stephen Curry may be a bargain at $12 million a year, but the economics is weirder about the prices Curry's fans pay on the street for one of his used mouthguards retrieved from the arena floor after a game. One used, sticky, saliva-encased teeth-protector went for $3,190 at one August auction, and SCP Auctions of California is predicting $25,000 for another, expelled during the NBA championship series last June. ESPN Magazine reported "at least" 35 Twitter accounts dedicated to Curry's mouthguard. [ESPN Magazine, 10-31- 2016] Cultural Diversity In parts of Panama, some men still fight for access to women with the ferocity of rutting male elks. The indigenous Ngabe people mostly keep to themselves in rural areas but have surfaced in towns like Volcan, near the Costa Rican border, where in December a reporter witnessed two men fist-fighting to bloody exhaustion on the street in a typical "Mi Lucha" ("my struggle"), with the loser's wife following the winner home. As the custom loses its cachet, only about a third of the time does the wife now comply, according to the website Narratively. (Bonus: It's an often-easy "divorce" for the Ngabe — for a fed-up wife to taunt her husband into a losing fight, or for a fed-up husband to pick a fight and take a dive.) [Narrative.ly, 12- 30-2016] The Continuing Crisis Over a six-year period (the latest measured), drug companies and pharmacies legally distributed 780 million pain pills in West Virginia — averaging to 433 for every man, woman and child. Though rules require dispensers to investigate "suspicious" overprescribing, little was done, according to a recent Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by the Gazette-Mail of Charleston — even though half of the pills were supplied by the nation's "big three" drugmakers (whose CEOs' compensation is enriched enormously by pain pill production). Worse, year-by-year the strengths of the pills prescribed increase as users' tolerance demands. (West Virginia residents disproportionately suffer from unemployment, coal mining-related disabilities and poor health.) [Gazette- Mail, 12-17-2016] Copyright Chuck Sheppard ARIES - Mar 21/Apr 20 Be yourself instead of hiding behind a persona, Aries. Show your true feelings and you will earn more respect for it. If you meet any resistance, try again. TAURUS - Apr 21/May 21 Taurus, a missed opportunity won't come back to haunt you. You will have plenty of additional opportunities to make another go of things in the days to come. GEMINI - May 22/Jun 21 Gemini, you must find ways to sure up any cracks before you can move ahead. Give it your best effort, but you may want to seek advice from Pisces. CANCER - Jun 22/Jul 22 Cancer, keep forging ahead even if you feel like you are going up against a brick wall. Eventually you will find a solution and a way to overcome this obstacle. LEO - Jul 23/Aug 23 There are a few things you need to tackle early in the week, and then you will likely have the rest of the time for recreation, Leo. Put travel at the top of your to-do list. VIRGO - Aug 24/Sept 22 Virgo, if you experience a scare, it will be short- lived and you will recover quickly. The rest of the week could prove uneventful. Make the most the downtime. LIBRA - Sept 23/Oct 23 Libra, you may be second-guessing an important decision. It is not too late to make a change. Approach the next decision more carefully. SCORPIO - Oct 24/Nov 22 Scorpio, if you have been away from your childhood home for a while, pay a visit. You can visit your old haunts and reminisce about things. SAGITTARIUS - Nov 23/Dec 21 Sagittarius, step out of the shadows for a bit and accept the praise and recognition you deserve this week. It's not being boastful if you accept well wishes of others. CAPRICORN - Dec 22/Jan 20 Capricorn, although you may be looking straight ahead, you are having trouble seeing what is right in front of you. Adjust your perspective and you might be surprised. AQUARIUS - Jan 21/Feb 18 Aquarius, you are quite productive this week, tackling many things on your to-do list. While you are feeling motivated, keep going and you may accomplish even more. PISCES - Feb 19/Mar 20 Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, Pisces. Put others first this week. This selfless approach will be its own reward. Amy Alkon Chuck Sheppard Your opinion is something we always want to hear. Call or email us your feedback. WE'RE ALL EARS Questions? Comments? Story Ideas? Let us know how we're doing. 208 Rowan St. Fayetteville, NC 28301 910.484.6200 www.upandcomingweekly.com