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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Dispatches from the Bizarre THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON Perhaps because the election is fi nally upon us, I have realized that at least one proud American — moi! — has had more than enough of Barack and Mitt, Walter and Pat and everyone else all the way down the election-seeking food chain. And perhaps because the wackiness of Halloween and little goblins at my doorstep, I have been drawn lately to news non- political and maybe even a tad odd, to put it politely. There is plenty of it out there if you look, and here is a bit of what I have happened upon in the last few weeks. It seems that politics do not affect all of us and that people are following their own agendas, however, unusual — some might say demented — they may be. Exhibit A: Gilberto Valle, 28, a New York City police offi cer, has been arrested by the FBI for a failed plot to kidnap women and — YIKES! — cook and eat them. Bear in mind that no one was kidnapped or, heaven forbid, roasted, but the FBI says Valle chatted up a storm about his plans online and apparently enlisted at least two co-conspirators with similar interests. The New York Daily News, who else?, quotes postings like "cook her over a low heat…," "She does look tasty, doesn't she?," and "there is at least 75 pounds of food there." The News also published photographs of various women, their faces obscured, in social settings with Valle, apparently unaware that he was thinking of them not so much as a lunch date but as lunch itself. Worse still, Valle is alleged to have used law- enforcement data bases to troll for prospective victims, learning their ages, physical characteristics, occupations, even bra sizes. In his defense, Valle's attorney characterizes his weird behavior this way. "It is, at best, someone who is living a fantasy on the Internet, a deviant fantasy. But there is no crossing the line from fantasy to reality." Like Hannibal Lector, Gilberto Valle seems to have been living a double life with a wife and toddler on one side and dining fantasies on the other. It all blew up when his wife happened upon some of his online postings, grabbed the baby and headed out of New York, eventually contacting the FBI. Hillary Clinton in a less than glam moment. And to think I fantasize about dark chocolate with dried raspberries and hazelnuts. Exhibit B: John J. Ross, a physician who teaches at the Harvard Medical School and blogs for the Huffi ngton Post, must be sick of politics as well. He recently blogged about the medical ailments of famous — and dead — authors. out the Huffi ngton Post's retrospective of Hillary Clinton's fashion journey with 65 photographs to celebrate her upcoming 65th birthday. There you will fi nd Hillary in all her sartorial glory — headbanded in many pics, and ponytailed in others, and once with an unbelievably frumpy hair clip that most of us wear only in the privacy of our own homes. In some she is fully made up and glamorous like a beauty queen, in others she is make-up-less and wonky. In some she is lithe and elegant, in others a plump, middle-aged American mother with a full-time job and lots on her mind. She wears everything from designer evening gowns to — I kid you not! — a lumberjack's wool plaid shirt, pearl earrings, topped off by the ubiquitous headband. It is a fond trip down memory lane for those of us who have followed Hillary's odyssey from a Wellesley College student and member of the Republican Party to Arkansas's Democratic First Lady to the most travelled Secretary of State in United States history. Is the election over yet? tributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. MARGARET DICKSON, Con- Family Friendly! "Kids Eat Free" on Tuesdays (with purchase of adult entree) Open Daily for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests APRIL 7-13, 2010 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 14 3 Fayetteville Bea Cumberland You reou're A County Lib arrary Presents The Big Read G C B Good M n Charlie l Brown at FSU Focus o E WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Wvr rvru ruvv svy Pocket Guide !rutxvv!t Sv3 OCT. 31 - NOV. 6, 2012 UCW 5 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30pm 484-0261 Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! William Shakespeare, perhaps the most famous English language writer even if high school and college students read him only in Cliff Notes, probably suffered from syphilis, says Ross. He bases his diagnosis on contemporary accounts of the Bard's love life, and on his obviously shaky handwriting, which is a symptom of that particular STD. Herman Melville of Moby Dick fame — also available in Cliff Notes — fame probably had bi-polar disease. Ross bases this conclusion on Melville's noted depression and alcoholism. What is more, the good doc says, is that after many diffi cult life experiences, Melville likely endured what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Dr. Ross diagnoses W. B. Yeats, the famed Irish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition akin to Autism, because of his poor social skills and inability to connect well with other human beings. What is more, he probably suffered from prosopagnosia, which renders one unable to recognize faces. Yeats could not recognize his own daughter and once lectured his fellow poet, T. S. Eliot, on problems with the poetry of — who else? — T. S. Eliot. Do you think Dr. Ross is trying to keep his mind off politics? Exhibit C: If you really, really need a political diversion, check THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Up shrrvyyrirhvsy p PROUDLY SPONSORED BY HEY! THIS PAPER BELONGS TO: FUN FAMILY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE OF CUMBERLAND & HOKE COAY 2010 P Up & Coming Weekly's 201 Up & Cominng Weeklys et Guidet G ide 2 10 2010 et GuideeGuid de www.upandcomingweekly.com com m F VOL. 10 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! CAMP GUIDE INSIDE! Online! Now '1' )%## Br RE