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        Just like singer Randy Newman, I love L.A. We recently flew there to attend the wedding of my cousin Nancy’s daughter. I think that makes the bride my first cousin once removed. It’s a Southern thing that requires attending weddings of your relatives no matter how distance is measured — either by geography or blood lines.
        U.S. Air provided air miles to get us there. I thought my air miles would end up as part of my estate because flights were always unavailable when I called to try to redeem the miles. Finally, I figured out how to use the computer to reserve tickets, and voila, California here we come.
        Modern air travel is a symphony of ethereal pleasures: lots of room on the plane, no waiting, and careful screening of your socks by the Fatherland Security Administration. Always wear clean socks so your dirty feet don’t appear in a government dossier. Unless you are into anorexia, you must bring food with you. I packed a classic elementary school bag lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, apples, chips, and pecans to torment our seat mates with the exotic smell of room temperature ham and stinky cheese. It was great. Next time I’ll make sardine and clove sandwiches. That will really add to the cachet of flight in the 21st century.
         We stayed in L.A. with my niece, Lisa, who is a member of Ghostwriters Anonymous. Lisa is quite colorful. She has ghostwritten several books which have made it to The New York Times bestseller list. A Russian studies graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she worked as a nanny in the American Embassy in Moscow, was a singer in a French restaurant in Japan, worked as a writer for www.thewashingtonpost.com and ended up being a ghost writer of nonfiction books. She is also an excellent softball pitcher. Her most excellent apartment in West Hollywood looks like something out of a Raymond Chandler novel or a movie set in the 1930s. Her neighborhood is filled with bizarre California plants that could only be grown in a greenhouse back here. It is interesting what banyan tree roots can do to sidewalks. {mosimage}
         I woke up early and wandered the streets. West Hollywood is not a morning kind of town. It is filled with colorful stores, nightclubs and restaurants that claim to serve breakfast but are not really open until noon. One store front had a neon sign that read “Free HIV Testing.” Who knew HIV Testing had been arrested? Lisa took me on a walking celebrity tragedy tour. We saw the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Boulevard where John Belushi snorted his last drugs before sloughing off this mortal coil. Nearby was Barney’s Beanery, which is a lounge where Janis Joplin allegedly was last seen alive in public consuming a beer. Also in the neighborhood was the Viper Room where River Phoenix breathed his last. Sic sempter celebriti.
     We spent one day at the Getty Museum, which is a quaint little place that old J. Paul Getty built on the top of a large, spectacular hill. The museum grounds are huge with multiple futuristic art castles which could be in Star Wars. Very spiffy art — Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and a cast of thousands. It is remarkable what you can do with several billion dollars if you put your mind to it. I was disappointed that there were no paint-by-number displays. But you can’t have everything.
         The wedding itself was outstanding. It was held outside in a beautiful park on a beautiful California afternoon starring Wendy the beautiful bride.
        We arrived about 15 minutes early and no one was there.
        The almost 200 guests drifted in about 30 minutes later. It must be a California thing. Everyone was laid back. Even the bride’s mother Nancy was calm. She had all the family over for dinner the night before the wedding. Astounding.
         Nancy, and Wendy’s father Bob, have been divorced for many years but they are still good friends. Nancy’s husband Andy is also friends with Bob. The ceremony ended with a beaming Nancy walking off arm-and-arm between Bob and Andy. It was a beautiful.

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        I still remember the first time I ever watched Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet. In the last scene, Juliet is guffawing in a very pained way over Romeo’s dead body. I laughed. I cupped my hand over my mouth after I did, surprised at my own coldness. Her grief seemed so real, and I, like many, am one of those folks who doesn’t know how to respond to those that are grieving. It’s one of things you never know how to respond to — it’s just... uncomfortable. {mosimage}
        If you’ve dealt with losing a loved one, you know all the “sorrys” and the condolences from concerned family, friends don’t really amount to anything. How you wished the people would just go away and stop asking how you are. And then you remember what it’s like to be on the other side, and that their intentions are good, and they just desperately want to help, but don’t have the right words to say, and you forgive them.
        Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire showcases both sides of that grief — the griever and the consoler — for two-and-a-half hours, minus the intermission. If you wince at grief and have a hard time “coping,” this is not the play for you. If, however, you love delving into the human psyche, (ahem, myself) delve away. 
    The play starts with delightfully funny Izzy (Paige Collins) recounting a rather raucous bar encounter to her sister, Becca (Rhonda Brocki). Becca ends up chastising Izzy, telling her she needs to get her “shit together.” Izzy gets defensive, and makes an offhand comment about how it has been really tough for her to get it together since Danny died. We learn that Danny was Becca’s four year old son, who died in a blameless and unfortunate accident. Izzy just acknowledged the rather large elephant in the room, which remains throughout the play. Danny might as well be listed as a character — for his absence is just as much a character as Izzy is with her sarcastic ways.
        The play paints a portrait of the grieving family realistically and accurately. The father, Howie (Gary Clayton), just wants to move forward, make love to his wife and return to normal, but later realizes he might have just been showing a brave face for the family and himself. The mother, Becca, is a tiny woman full of grieving spite, anger, love and pastry making. The sister, Izzy, offers comic relief with her mess-of-a-ife and baby on the way. And lastly, the mother, Nat (Joyce Lipe) talks a lot, trying to fill up the empty space her grandson left, to help her own daughter deal with the grief, the grief she has already experienced with the loss of her own son, all the while being hugely entertaining.
        As this portrait is realistic and accurate with no glossy overcoat, we see the family share funny, sad and angry moments — idle and amusing chit-chat about the Kennedy’s, tearful encounters over lemon bars, and tense arguments about VHS tapes. Each actor in this play really deserves a hand. It’s easy to make grief a soap opera, and thankfully, there is no soap opera here. Each actor’s journey with grief is authentic.    
    The superb director of this fine cast, Evan Bridenstine, described it best when he said, “Rabbit Hole is pure Lindsay-Abraire, a mixture of laughter and pain that creates hope without sentimentality. This is good stuff, but it’s far more dynamic than I’d expect a meditation to be.”
        Come check out Rabbit Hole, playing at the Gilbert Theater through April 20. Call 678-7186 for tickets and show times or visit www.GilbertTheater.com. You’re likely to walk away from this play being the most comfortable at being uncomfortable you’ve ever felt. And if, like many, you console yourself with food, don’t fret, the Gilbert is offering Carrot Cake after the show.

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        When Michael and Deborah Jaenicke returned to North Carolina last year, the North Carolina Children’s Theatre wasn’t something they had anticipated coming into their lives.
        “My husband actually talked me into it,” said Deborah Jaenicke, North Carolina Children’s Theatre creative director. “I’d had a theatre school and a touring company in Rhode Island and when I decided I was going to move back down here, (I) had just finished two movies.”
         They are in post production right now and Jaenicke just got notification that one of them is going to go to all the film festivals. 
        “When I moved down I thought, I don’t know (to run a children’s theater), and he said ‘Look — you are so good with children. You love the theatre so much.’ And I said okay,” Jaenecke laughingly explained. “The second I started I knew. This is my passion.”
        And it has been her passion and her husband Michael’s enthusiasm that have delivered productions like The Wizard of Oz last fall, which drew 1,100 people.
        April 17-18, the North Carolina Children’s Theatre will perform Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens book of the same name. Don’t come expecting to see a cutesy pie event though. That is the last thing either Jaenicke wants. Deborah has spent hours and hours bringing the realities of industrial England to the young actors. Their training included learning to speak with a Cockney accent, reading the novel Oliver Twist,
        “I didnt want to do children’s theatre that they (the audience) went ‘Oh,aren’t they cute.’ I wanted to do something that had quality and substance to it and that the children had to strive to be better than ‘oh, aren’t they cute,’” said Jaenicke. “I wanted them to learn to be talented and even if they didn’t have the capability to sing or to dance that they had to strive to be in the companies when we did shows.”
        The production boasts a cast of 40 with an array of performers including New York trained performers, local actors and students from Robeson, Bladen and Cumberland Counties. “Our cast is outstanding. They are just tremendous,” said  Executive Producer Michael Jaenicke. “It’s going to be so good.”
    The production will take place at Lu Mil Vineyard in Dublin. The show starts at 7 p.m. both nights. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for those 12 and under.
        For more information or tickets, call (910) 866-5819 or visit www.lumilvineyard.com.

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        “If you’re interested in the stock market, if you want to make money, if you want to double or triple your money or even if you want to lose it nicely,” said Dr. Sid Gautum, director of Methodist University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, “then you simply must come down to the Stock Market Symposium.” This year, the center’s 31st annual event will take place on Tuesday, April 22, and will feature international executive manager Ajit Dayal as the keynote speaker.
        “We were very lucky this year,” Gautum said concerning Dayal. “We’ve been trying to get him for a long time.” Having access to Dayal’s insights on the emerging market, is what he believes will be “the opportunity of a lifetime” for symposium attendees. “The last time we had this kind of a speaker hear was back in 1997,” he recalled.
        In addition to founding India’s first equity research house in 1990, Dayal has worked with leading United States and United Kingdom financial advisory and asset management firms. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in economics from Bombay University, Dayal earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has spent nearly 22 years working in investment management and researching equity.
        {mosimage}Gautum said that the title of this story and the title of the keynote speakers address should be “Stock is On Sale …cheap” He explained that the best way to make money in the stock market is to “buy low and sell high,” which basically means: don’t buy stock when it’s expensive — wait until the price comes down. And don’t sell your stock when it’s cheap — wait until it goes back up. “This is one of the lowest times I’ve seen in the last several years,” said Gautum. “So this is a very good time to invest and become rich.”
    A major emphasis of the symposium, however, is not the New York Stock Exchange. This year’s focus will be on emerging markets, such as China, India, Mexico, much of Southeast Asia, countries in Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and Latin America.
        “Twenty to 30 years ago, the only place we could invest was in America,” explained Gautum, “but today we are living in a flat world.” Or, a world where everyone and everything is connected, all the time. Up until just recently, he continued, “The only opportunities were in the American market. Then, it was the European market… But, believe it or not, nowadays there are better and more opportunities in the emerging countries.”
        To demonstrate the success of the emerging markets, Gautum gave the following example: “In the last five years, if you had invested money in the emerging market, you would have made as little as 50 to 70 percent [on your investment] and in some cases, as much as 200 percent.”
        In short, Gautum said that the purpose of the Stock Market Symposium is to “try and revive and reconfirm that the stock market is a very vital institution in a market economy.” He argues that the market economy cannot work without an efficient stock market. “A stock market is a very efficient as well as a very attractive and useful place for investing your resources,” he concluded.
        “In simple English,” he said, “anybody who comes up with a very good idea, the people will love it and buy.” He pointed out Google, Microsoft and Apple as household names that were once “nobodies.”
    In addition to the presentation by Ajit Dayal, the Center will honor five local business leaders with the Small Business Excellence Award, the Silver Spoon Award, the Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Business Ethics Award. The Stock Market Symposium will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux. Tickets are $50 per person, or $375 for a table of eight. For more information, visit the Center for Entrepreneurship on the Web at www.methodist.edu/cfe.

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        The public, in general, has a tendency to stereotype artists. Myths have been perpetuated about the sullen suffering artist, the artist as a misfit, the artist as anti-intellectual and even the idea that having money is not important to artists. This famous quote in the early part of the 20 century “Don’t talk painter, paint,” further perpetuated the idea that artists should not concern themselves with the verbal, only the visual.
    The truth is that artists today are as diverse as the many styles you see in galleries. There is no one temperament; there is no one purpose for why an artist immerses themselves in the creative process. Mohammed Osman, who’s work is on exhibit at the Architect’s Gallery, is the best example of breaking all the rules about how we stereotype artists. {mosimage}
        Not only is Osman a prolific artist, he is one of the most talkative, open and upbeat individuals I have ever meet. Whereas some artists don’t like to talk about their work, he loves to engage in the art of talking and discussing his work at great length. With ease, he can describe or write about each of his works. His passion is ever present in his work and evident while in his presence.
        A physician by profession, Osman’s paintings express states of being; color, scale and figurative expression exude meaning about the human psyche and the human experience. The subject of his paintings range from emotional disorders to the supernatural — the overriding theme is the art of healing.
    Osman is very clear about art and healing. He stated, “Over 3,000 years ago the ancient kemetic (Egyptian) physicians suggested that healing is an art that addresses a level of being: body, mind and soul. This notion still holds true today. Art is a complementary medicine, capable of healing patients in conjunction with conventional medicine.”
        A native of Merka, Somalia, (now practicing and residing in Fayetteville), Osman is very clear about the direction his work has always taken. “My works of art follow a continuity of traditional African art, further advanced to capture the psychosocial, political, cultural, ethnical and medial concepts that are deep, difficult to express in words and philosophically intriguing. Like any other African artist in the world today, I strive in my work to rediscover the definition of contemporary African art.”
        His statement above best describes his clear purpose in why he is involved in the creative process of being an artist. Anyone interested in seeing his work online and interested in his extensive explanation of each of his paintings, should go to his Web site: www.osmanart.homestead.com/onlineartexibitionbyhuandmo.html. He explains each painting in the manner of a healer. Medical information and references to the medical are blended with prose, poetry and personal philosophy. His subjects vary and range from themes of isolation, disease, states of being and the supernatural.
        In the painting titled Loneliness, a lone female figure stands in profile, her hands raised to her head as she faces the bare wall in front of, her shadow is created by the open window behind her, another opening in the wall is located at the end of the room, painted in yellow and crimson red. Emotion exudes as the blue shape of a landscape pushes against the outside of the wall.
        Like all of Osman’s work, Loneliness is painted in a classical expressionistic style. “Loneliness affects everyone indiscriminately. Refugees and immigrants are not excluded. I was raised in Africa. Loneliness lives far away in the West. Here people care. People communicate. People talk. Family ties are strong. Loneliness becomes a matter of choice.”
        If you don’t have time to see his work at the Architect’s Gallery on Burgess Street in downtown Fayetteville, then the above Web site extensively represents his work. The website is linked to an online exhibit titled The 2nd Annual African and American Sketchbook 2008: Works by African and African American Artists born in 1930-1961.
        What you will be seeing in the Architect’s Gallery exhibit are examples of what inspires Osman — what he “sees, feels, thinks and remembers.” Just be mindful, the Architect’s Gallery is only open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., closed on Saturday and Sunday. The exhibit closes the end of the third week in April.

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        Spring is in full bloom and, as are many local area businesses, the Cape Fear Botanical Garden is gearing up for the Dogwood Festival, and its third annual plant sale during Fayetteville’s quintessential springtime event.
        “The plant sale used to be part of  our May Day event, and we would sell the plants there,” explained the garden’s development officer, Angela Dennis. “We had such a high demand for things that we decided to branch off and make it its own event.” {mosimage}
        Since that time, the garden has held the plant sale in conjunction with the Dogwood Festival.
    Each year, the garden’s expert grounds staff propagates plants for the sale in their own greenhouses. “We also partner with local gardens, nurseries and plant societies, and they too will bring out plants,” said Dennis. She said that, while some of the local nurseries can’t be at the event, they will often donate flowers or shrubs to increase the plant offerings. Each year, the sale has a huge selection of plants, including a variety of annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, trees and tropical plants. “It’s a real conglomeration of local offerings,” she added.
        The garden’s talented staff of plant specialists, as well as master gardeners who volunteer at the garden, will be roaming customer service experts. They are there to help people select plants, answer questions about particular plants and to offer free, helpful advice as to where to plant them.
        This year, because of the drought, the theme of the plant sale is “Waterwise Gardening.” There will be a special emphasis on drought tolerant plants, including many native to the area. “Not only will there be experts around to answer questions,” Dennis said, “but we will also give out educational materials about water wise gardening.”
        The garden will also have a DVD demonstration for sale on how to build your own rain barrel. “You can buy the DVD, which comes with a supply list so you know exactly what supplies and parts to buy and it’s very easy to follow,” said Dennis.
        Roger Mercer, a local horticulturalist well known for cultivating day lilies, is going to give away one of the flowering plants to everyone who signs up for a garden membership at the plant sale. “That’s a big deal,” Dennis exclaimed, “His day lilies are prized and very unique. Last year, 60 people signed up, just for the day lilies.”
          “The plant sale meets with our mission of educating and promoting environmental awareness,” explained Dennis. “We’re very lucky because a lot of the people who will have plants for sale here will donate a portion of their proceeds to the garden. So it really helps us out.”
        The annual plant sale at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden is not a part of the facility’s Campaign for Natural Growth, which was launched during the Fall ’07 season. She said that the plant sale is “a great way for us to get out into the community and reach a group of people that we normally might not reach.”
    So far, funding for the Campaign for Natural Growth has been steady and successful. About the Campaign for Natural Growth, she said: “Things are going really well and we’re excited about the progress.” Dennis stated. “We’re looking forward to what the future holds for the garden.”
        The Spring Plant Sale is slated for Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. As one of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival’s official sanctioned events, it is free to the public and will be held rain or shine. For more information, contact Cape Fear Botanical Garden at 486-0221 or on the Web at www.capefearbg.org. The Cape Fear Botanical Garden is located at 536 N. Eastern Blvd.

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        Have you ever wondered what happens when blood donor centers and hospitals don’t have blood to give to trauma victims in emergency situations? Probably not. The truth is, most people don’t think about what would happen in those types of situations because the outcome is, for many, too unimaginable. But when hospitals don’t have an adequate supply of blood, people die. {mosimage}
        Recently, the Cape Fear Valley Blood Donor Center was forced to send out a mass appeal to local businesses and donors in the community for Type O Negative blood donations because the center’s current stock has reached critically low levels. While the center normally has a three-to four-day supply in reserve, the current supply has fallen below a single day’s worth of O negative blood on hand.
        “Right now we’re really short on all blood types,” said Mary Fisher, a representative of the Blood Donor Center. “However, the need for O Negative is critical.” She explained that, just for the patients in the areas served by Cape fear Valley and Highsmith-Rainey hospitals, the center needs to bring in at least 1,300 donors a month — from all blood types, but very specifically O negative. O negative can be used for trauma victims when there is no time to type the victim’s blood.
        Fisher suggests there may be a number of reasons that blood levels have gotten so low — including ineligibility of donors. Several factors make a person ineligible to donate bloods, such as: anyone who has traveled or lived in Europe for more than three months between 1980 and 1996 is permanently ineligible, and anyone who has recently had a body piercing or tattoo outside of North Carolina in the past year is also disqualified from donating for one year.
        She said, “Some people think everybody else is doing it, so they don’t really need to. And they’re not.” But added, “We’re just fortunate that every time we go into this critical situation, that there isn’t an accident or trauma that comes in that we don’t have blood.”
        “The same donors always pull through for the center,” Fisher reported, “but we need new people to come in, especially the type O’s to start supporting.” As much as the Blood Donor Center loves and appreciates their regulars, Fisher looks forward to the day when “…we don’t have to keep calling the same donors all the time or making them feel guilty when they can’t come.
        At Womack Army Medical Center, the outlook isn’t much better. “Levels at Womack are not quite as critical as the Cape Fear Valley’s Blood Donor Center, but we still need donations,” said Shannon Lynch, of the Womack Public Affairs Office. “We are constantly trying to find ways to keep our blood donations up.”
    She explained that the hospital maintains a “wartime contingency of blood products,” which are either used to supply the need at Fort Bragg or sent to support Army initiatives abroad.
        Womack does a number of blood drives on post, to which anyone can donate. “If you can get on post, you can donate,” Lynch added.
        One area of confusion, however, is that “People think that if they donate at Cape Fear, that soldiers benefit and that’s not the case,” she clarified. “If a person wanted to donate blood and make sure that a soldier or their family benefited from donating the blood, they should donate at the Fort Bragg Blood Donor Center.” She said that the blood collected at the Fort Bragg Donor Center and the Cape Fear Valley center are really only shared in the event that one purchases blood supply from the other.
        To donate blood at the Cape Fear Valley Blood Donor Center, stop by 3357 Village Drive, Suite 150, in the Bordeaux Shopping Center between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For questions, or to make an appointment to donate, call 609-6300. All blood donated to the Blood Donor Center remains in the community to serve the needs of patients of Cape Fear Valley Health System.
        The Fort Bragg Blood Donor Center can be reached by calling 907-WAMC. (907-9262.)

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    A couple of years ago when the President was looking around for a Drug Czar and an Education Czar, Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne was looking for a Litter Czar, and he found him in Bobby Hurst.
        Hurst, a Fayetteville business owner and current member of the city council, stepped up to lead the fight against littler in our community through the start-up of Fayetteville Beautiful — a committee of concerned citizens dedicated to encouraging others to take greater responsibility for improving their environment. That’s a job neither Hurst, nor the volunteers who pull on their gloves and grab their trash bags to walk our city roadways, takes lightly.
        Since September 2006, the organization has been taking a hard look at our community, and what they’ve seen hasn’t been pretty. Using the Litter Index, which was created by Keep America Beautiful, Fayetteville’s streets rang in with a 2.95 on the litter scale. Doesn’t sound too bad? Wait, the index goes from one to four, with four being the most littered.
        The organization decided to tackle littler on several fronts — the first being citywide clean-ups, and the second being education aimed at changing personal habits. “We can clean up the roadways, but if people’s behaviors don’t change, then the trash will wind up right back out there again,” explained Hurst. “So we really have to focus on education, because that’s what brings about behavioral change. It has to do with individuals chaning their behaviors..”
        Part of that education is getting people to take ownership of the city. “We believe that if we get rid of the accumulation of litter out there, people are less likely to throw it out again,” he continued. “And the way that works is to involve our citizens. If they don’t feel a sense of ownership, then the litter isn’t going to bother them —  a lot of people take that ‘as long as it’s not on my property’ approach. But if they take a couple of hours of their time to pick up other people’s trash, then they’ve taken ownership.”
        That theory seems to be working. In April 2007, the organization hosted the first citywide cleanup. Ninety-one groups, with more than 1,100 people hit the streets to tackle the litter. Volunteers were to target the trash along the major entranceways into our city. Some volunteers went above and beyond the call of duty, not just picking up the trash along the side of the road, but the trash on the other side of the guard rails along the Martin Luther King Expressway as well. What they found was shocking: stacks of old tires; bags of trash; rusted out bicycles and much more. Working in recently annexed areas of the city, volunteers found illegal dump sites loaded down with old furniture and appliances. In total, they picked up several tons of trash.
        A follow-up clean up in September saw 125 groups and a few more people than the initial group, and they worked just as hard. In total, both cleanups netted 52 tons of trash and covered more than 237 miles of roadway.
        Hurst has equally high expectations for the Spring Pickup, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 19, with the kickoff at 9 a.m. at the entranceway of the Dr. Martin Luther King Freeway and Ramsey Street. The goal of the cleanup is to make sure our city sparkles for the upcoming Dogwood Festival. This will be the only cleanup this year. Hurst explained that people were more excited about the spring cleanup. “It’s that time of the year when people are cleaning up, planting flowers,” he said. “They really are excited about a fresh start.”

         Somelocal residents got a head start on the project, as they gathered on Saturday, April 12 to replant the Hurley pots downtown. The pots, named in honor of former Mayor Bill Hurley, are all spruced up and read to grow thanks to the help of volunteers who didn’t let the torrential rainfall of the weekend damped their enthusiasm. “A lot of people came out to help plant,” said Hurst. “They managed to get 70 pots done despite the rain.” {mosimage}
        Lending a hand to that effort was Chavonne. “Tony really sees this as an important effort,” said Hurley.
    Volunteers who want to participate in the cleanup can contact Jerry and Sue Dennis at 425-4353 to sign up, or they can show up at the kickoff. They will be able to pick up their bags, gloves and vests at 12 of the city’s recreation centers the week prior to the event so no one will need to stand in line to get what they need. Hurst said that a number of people pick up their supplies early, and instead of coming to the official kickoff over on Ramsey Street, they go straight to their assigned area and start cleaning up.
        The results of their work brought about a reduction in Fayetteville’s litter index. It has now dropped to 2.4.
    For more information about Fayetteville Beautiful or to volunteer, contact the group’s Web site at www.fayettevillebeautiful.com. Remember, it all starts with you.

     

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        The Fayetteville Area System of Transportation and rental housing inspection, took center stage at the Fayetteville City Council Work Session on Monday, April 7.
        In an ongoing series of conversations held by the council on improving the city’s buses, Ron Macaluso, the transit director, reported back to the council on possible sources of revenue to fund more than $600,000 in improvements to the system. Macaluso brought the needed improvements, which include hiring of more staff, training, equipment and software updates and salary increases, to the council earlier this year. While the council was in agreement that the uprgrades need to occur, they could not agree on a means of funding the upgrades, so they asked Macaluso to research funding options.
        {mosimage}He presented the council with seven options: Increase transit fares and authorize a $5 motor vehicle tax to support the upgrades; prepare special legislation (a local bill) that would be required for the Vehicle Gross Receipt Tax or a sales tax increase; authorize fare increases only; authorize motor vehicle license tax only; authorize the Vehicle Gross Receipts Tax only; authorize the sales tax only; or a combination of fare increases and motor vehicle license tax. The council opted for the latter, but also charged City Manager Dale Iman with looking into the possibility of having Cumberland County’s state legislators introduce a local bill into the short session to increase the local Vehicle Gross Receipt Tax (taxes on rental cars) to help fund the system.
        Iman told the council that he was uncertain as to the fate of such a bill because of the short session and the length of time left to get it introduced. He also noted that funds from such a tax would not come into play for at least six to eight months.
        The council is expected to formally approve the fare increases and the $5 additional tax on all vehicles registered in the City of Fayetteville at an upcoming meeting. If officially approved, the move would garner more than $600,000. If the Vehicle Gross Receipts Tax makes it through the legislature at a 3.5 percent increase, it will add more than $600,000 to the funding for the system.
        In regards to rental housing inspection, the council sent Assistant City Manager Doug Hewett back to the drawing board. Inspections for housing that does not meet minimum housing codes were part of the Fayetteville Forward pact. Council members wanted to find a way to bring housing in the city up to code.
    The plan Hewett brought to the work session, would require all landlords who own rental housing to register their homes with the city and to undergo inspections once every four years. The proposed cost of inspections was $125 per unit. Landlords with more than 10 units would be required to inspect 10 units or 20 percent of the total number of units. The proposal had an initial start-up fee of $322,313.
        “We came with a sprained wrist, and we’re getting a full-body cast here,” said Mayor Tony Chavonne following Hewett’s presentation. “That’s a tremendous amount of government.”
        Chavonne’s comments were echoed by other members of the board who feared renters would be unable to bear the cost of the inspections, which landlords would pass on. The council directed Hewett to look at ways of dealing with only the substandard housing. Councilman Ted Mohn suggested beefing up the existing inspections department, and having them focus on areas where housing is considered to be substandard. 

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        For many summers during my children’s growing up years, the Dicksons had one or another teenaged Austrian cousin visiting for several weeks. Over the years, we had at least four boys and three girls, several of whom became almost like siblings to our own younger generation.
        We shared our domestic routines, and we traveled with them on family excursions to beaches, to Washington, New England, Orlando and Canada. We might have gone on these trips anyway, but now we have mostly wonderful memories of these familial cultural exchanges.
    Among my domestic memories of those summers is the only time I ever washed one of my children’s mouth out with soap.
        Bless his pea-picking little heart, one of my sons just had to keep trying out a new and highly inappropriate word he had learned from who-knows-where. I warned him about it several times, but he apparently found it impossible not to show off his new knowledge in front of his older Austrian cousin. I finally took him by the arm into our downstairs half-bath, put a dab of liquid soap on a washcloth, and gave his mouth a quick swab.{mosimage}
        My son blew a few bubbles, and the teenaged cousin who was standing in the hallway watching and who knew a few of those American words himself, uttered another American expression, “Wow!”
        Someone needs to do the same thing to some talk radio hosts.
        I grew up in a family radio business and worked in it for more than 25 years. Most of that time was energizing and fun in an industry filled with talented and creative people and at stations which strived to be a part of their communities. Toward the end of our time in radio, the mood changed. It became mean and sour with the rise of talk radio.
        We have seen this over and over again on the national level with personalities like Howard Stern, Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh. North Carolinians watched meanness play out yet again earlier this month when the hosts of a morning show in Raleigh made a series of remarks which have been widely criticized as racist and derogatory toward Native Americans, specifically North Carolina’s Lumbees. The remarks were made in a joking context, as they often are, but they were clearly painful to some people and highly inappropriate over the public airwaves.
        The station apologized to listeners and suspended the crew of the morning show without pay for three days. The furor continues nevertheless.
        I think two things about commercial radio in America today. Since Congress deregulated commercial radio with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, programming which was once locally generated and reflected the unique qualities of communities throughout the United States, is now homogenized and pasteurized. With a few exceptions like local morning shows and a scattering local news programming, listeners in Fayetteville hear the same programming as listeners in Boston, Dallas and Seattle. For better or worse, radio is now just a business, like many other national commercial enterprises.
        The other thing I think about radio is that the national glut of radio talk shows — some call-in, some not — which has befallen our nation over the last two decades reflects and promotes not only a lack of public civility but all kinds of “isms” including racism and sexism, as well as  religious intolerance, and outright meanness. All this is presented as a form of entertainment which advertisers support with their dollars and which reaps profits for station owners.   
        I have tried to operate under and to teach my children the standard that if you could not say something to your mother or your grandmother, you probably should not say it at all.
        Very little of the poison spewed on many of these shows would I ever have uttered to my mother or grandmother.
        It is shameful and profoundly sad that all of this has filtered down to the local level — the Raleigh station being only the most recent example, under the guise of “entertainment.” If we truly believe that calling each other names publicly and polarizing the American public is a form of entertainment, then something is very wrong, indeed.
        The cousin who witnessed my son’s encounter with the sudsy washcloth now practices law in Vienna and has two little girls of his own. I have no idea whether he has had occasion to use what he learned in the Dickson’s downstair’s bathroom in his own household, but I do know that I never had any more trouble with bad language from that son, at least in my presence. He obviously got the point.
        I am giving some thought to mailing that general manager of that Raleigh radio station a bottle of liquid soap and a washcloth.

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        {mosimage}

        April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Last year in North Carolina, more than 100,000 children were reported to Child Protective Services as alleged victims of child abuse or neglect and 24,597 of these children were confirmed as victims or found in need of services. Thirty four children died from child abuse homicides during the 2006 calendar year. 
        An average of two infants are killed or left unprotected to die every year. Every two weeks, a North Carolina child is either killed by a parent or caregiver in some form of child abuse. These are alarming statistics that can haunt any community.     
        Cumberland County Schools, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, private and home schools have joined together to remember these children by hosting the “Break the Chain of Child Abuse” ceremony on Friday, April 18, at 9 a.m. at the Cumberland County Department of Social Services.
    The ceremony, in its 10th year, was started by the Guardian Ad Litem Program and relies heavily on the Cumberland County School System and social workers to disseminate the child abuse information to parents, students and the community.    
        “This is a great opportunity to highlight to the community that children can be empowered to help break the chain of child abuse,” said Valerie Haynes, district administrator for the Guardian Ad Litem Program. “During the ceremony Mayor Tony Chavonne and Fort Bragg Garrison Commander Col. David Fox will proclaim the month of April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month for Cumberland County and Fort Bragg Schools.”
        The Fort Bragg Intermediate Chorus will perform inspirational songs for entertainment and The Child Advocacy Center will show videos concerning child abuse, Internet safety and the military. There will also be a presentation to inform children about appropriate and inappropriate touching.     
        Three Champion for Children Awards will be presented, with one going to a professional, one to a volunteer and one to an agency or group. The award recognizes individuals who have gone above and beyond an intervention or prevention of child abuse in Cumberland County.  The professional nominees are Lisa Pierce, Lt. Lynette Hodges, Lee Roberts, Debbie Jenkins, Pamela Love and Nan Trogdon. The volunteer nominees are Holly Van Dyke, Robert Barden and Joyce Paylor. The agency or group nominations include Blue Jean Ball Youth Planning Committee, Tiffany Pines Community Outreach Program, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Special Victim’s Unit and Cumberland County Multi-disciplinary Team. All nominations were provided through community referrals.           
        “The blue ribbon is the symbol that represents child abuse prevention and is a reminder that everyone has a role in protecting children and supporting families,” said Natasha Scott, social work coordinator for Cumberland County Schools.
        She noted that children who are neglected or emotionally abused may have difficulty learning to talk, find it hard to develop close relationships, be overly friendly with strangers, think badly of themselves and underachieve at school. Maltreatment includes physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Most child maltreatment occurs in the family home. Young children — up to 3-years-old —  are at the greatest risk for maltreatment. “If anyone suspects a child is being abused or neglected they can call social services at 677-2450 or law enforcement,” said Scott.               
        The culmination of the ceremony involves all participants gathering around the room for a heart touching activity. 
        “At the end of the program we all gather around the room and staple our construction paper chains together and then everyone breaks the chain of child abuse,” said Haynes.                     
        The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP for the event call 321-3824.       
        If you would like more information about child abuse or resources call 486-9700. 

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        Recently, the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival has attracted a measure of criticism for its guidelines regarding religious organizations. Festival organizers have been accused of prohibiting churches from the festival. This is untrue.
        The fact is all churches and political organizations are allowed to apply as food vendors or as hosts of sanctioned events. This information is offered when contacting the Dogwood Festival office, as instructed on the vendor application. {mosimage}
    All groups, including churches, are allowed and encouraged to participate as vendors as long as they are willing to adhere to the festival’s rules regarding the items offered for sale and how they conduct their business.
        These rules are established to make the festival fair to all vendors and enjoyable for all attendees. The vendor applications are made available for download on our website every November and are due at the Dogwood Festival office the first week of February.
    All completed applications are presented to a juried selection committee for consideration. Incomplete applications are not considered.
        Each year at the conclusion of the event, the Dogwood Festival Board of Directors convenes with the goal of evaluating ways to make the next festival even better. For example, the biggest change for this year’s festival is a result of feedback that we received regarding accessibility for people with disabilities. This year, access and parking will be markedly improved, hopefully encouraging even more participation for everyone.
        Next year, there will inevitably be other pressing needs to be discussed and worked out. We are constantly striving to have the best possible festival for all of our citizens and as always we will make     changes to accommodate any areas that need improvement.
        The people responsible for the overwhelming success of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival for the past 26 years are all around you. They are your neighbors, your friends, colleagues and parishioners.
    The Dogwood Festival is April 25-27 and we are planning the biggest party in Fayetteville and we certainly hope to see you there! For more information about this year’s Dogwood Festival, please contact 910.323.1934 or visit us at  www.faydogwoodfestival.com.

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    {mosimage}When the Gypsy Women roll into Legends Pub for their 12th Annual Spring Fling,

    bikers and friends alike are in for a no-holds-barred, rollicking good time. The event, which

    has become a highly-anticipated annualtradition where enjoyment reigns supreme, will draw

    a crowd from all over the Sandhills region and up through the Triangle. The Gypsy Women’s

    Spring Fling is one of a half dozen terrific events held at Legends Pub each year during the

    motorcycle season. It is the largest benefit of the year, and it all starts on Fridaynight with

    a huge party to kick off the Scott Sathier Memorial Poker Run, which will push thekickstands

    up at noon on Saturday. 

    The Sathier Run is held in honor of one of Fayetteville’s own, who sacrificed his life while

    serving his country during Operation Iraqi Freedom. All of the proceeds from the weekend’s

    event, including all side events, will go into a fund to benefit Crystal Tucker, a fellow biker who

    is battling with diabetes.

    Unlike many of the overly commercialized “festival” biker events that go on, the Gypsy Women

    Spring Fling won’t bring in a huge field full of motorcycles or a tent city, they’re not trying to recruit

    a custom bike builder to make a celebrity appearance while someone else is building choppers back

    at his shop, there won’t be a custom chopper build-off and big prize money and they haven’t invited

    world-renowned musicians for entertainment. 

    With plenty of volunteers to keep things organized, Holly, Trent, and the Gypsy Women at Legends

    Pub are friendly people who know how to throw a good party. They’ve got a good time in store for

    just about everybody, with lots of good company in the bar or pool table areas and enough bikes to

    fill the parking lot. Most importantly, they do all of this to give back to the biker community.

    In addition to one really big party and poker run, Legends will host a Gypsy Women ride-in bike

    show and contest (with prizes) and lots of food. Legends Pub is located 4624 Bragg Blvd. For

    more information or for special Gypsy Women Spring Fling hours, call 867-2364.

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    In a recent column, you validated a woman’s desire to lose weight solely to meet her husband’s needs. Your encouraging her to take off pounds and get plastic surgery for him is an insult to yourself and every woman who reads your disgraceful article. I disagree with your notion that males care more about looks. I’m a heterosexual woman, and my dates’ looks are extremely important to me. For a few extra pounds to prevent a man from seeing why he fell in love with his wife is barbaric. If you’re really in love, you transcend the external. If this woman can find it within herself to love the stuff she’s made of, she’ll attract attention she never thought imaginable - the sort only unconditional self-acceptance brings.

    --Appalled


    If a woman’s sex appeal sprang from inner beauty, Eleanor Roosevelt, who looked like a scone in a housedress, would’ve been Playboy’s hottest selling cover girl of all time. 

    The woman who wrote me wanted to lose weight after stress-eating herself 50 pounds heavier in seven months. Her husband hadn’t lost track of her inner beauty, he was just having a hard time finding her waist. He didn’t stop loving her, he just stopped wanting to have sex with her. Although she wasn’t losing weight “solely to meet her husband’s needs,” when is it not in a woman’s interest to keep her husband interested? Regarding her desire for plastic surgery, if a woman’s got post-weight-loss flapping flesh she’d like removed, who am I to tell her, no, do your best to walk proud with Dumbo’s ears hanging over your skirt like pockets out of jeans?

    It isn’t just my “notion” that women are less looks-driven, but my notion based on reams of data showing that women seem to be hard-wired to care more about a guy’s status and earning potential. Sure, you can make a guy’s hotitude your priority because, at 19, it doesn’t matter so much if he’s earning his living carving carrots into swans on the street corner. Ten years from now, if you’re looking to start a family, I’m guessing you’ll be up for a little less hair in exchange for a little more 401(k). Think about it: If Bill Gates became single, women would line up like it was free tickets to The Stones. Whaddya wanna bet, when he was your age, women kicked him out of the way to get to the rocker boy who turned in cans to pay for food?

    According to you, if a man’s “really in love,” he can “transcend the external.” Lovely idea, no basis in reality. Male sexuality is much more visual than female sexuality. But, don’t just take it from me, take it from a man who used to be a woman. Griffin Hansbury, a former lesbian who underwent sex reassignment surgery, talked on “This American Life” about how he saw women before and after “T” č testosterone injections. “Before...I would see a woman on the subway, and...I’d like to meet her, what’s that book she’s reading?” Afterward, even nice ankles on a woman would be “enough to flood my mind with aggressive pornographic images.... It was like...a pornographic nudie house in my mind. And I couldn’t turn it off.”

    If anyone’s reducing this woman to the sum of her fleshy parts, it’s you. “The stuff she’s made of” isn’t 50 extra pounds. She could continue collecting chins and insist a worthwhile man would lust after her character alone, but that’s really just a different kind of unhealthy than starving yourself until you look like a praying mantis in shoes.


    Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA╩ 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

    (c)2008, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

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    Theatre is going down the toilet

    Irish director-playwright Paul Walker’s production of “Ladies & Gents” opened for a March run in New York City 29 blocks north of Broadway in a public restroom. According to an Associated Press report, the entire play takes place among the porcelain in a bathroom in Central Park, portraying “the seedy underside of 1950s Dublin,” with the audience of 25 standing beside rows of stalls, near “spiders, foul odors and puddles of questionable origin.” Walker proudly admits that he wanted to take the audience “out of their comfort zone” to create “a different energy.” Actor John O’Callaghan recalled that rehearsals were especially difficult: “One man actually came in and had a pee right in front of us. 


    Cultural Diversity 

    In October, the government of Singapore, anxious about the city’s declining birth rate, began teaching its high school polytechnic students in formal courses on how to flirt. Said Isabel, 18: “My teacher said if a guy looks into my eyes for more than five seconds, it could mean that he is attracted to me, and I stand a chance,” according to a March Reuters dispatch. The course includes “love song analysis” and how to chat online. 

    Officials in the Shivpuri district of India’s Madhya Pradesh state, needing a promising program to slow the country’s still-booming birth rate, announced in March that men who volunteer for vasectomies will be rewarded with certificates that speed them through the ordinarily slow line to obtain gun permits. Said an administrator, the loss, through vasectomy, of a “perceived notion of manliness” would be offset “with a bigger symbol of manliness.”  


    The Continuing Crisis 

    Registered sex offender Jason Lee, 28, was arrested in Cincinnati in February and charged with several counts of deception for his seemingly benevolent acts of posting bond for two female strangers who had been arrested. Later, according to police, he had demanded sex and drugs from the women as payback, and a prosecutor said Lee had trolled for names of arrested women on the Web site of the Clerk of the Court. 

    Questionable Judgments: Jason Fife was sentenced to probation and community service after harassing his estranged wife’s boyfriend with a special package delivery. Fife, said his lawyer, now “understands that in a civilized society, a person cannot send (someone) a severed cow’s head....”  

    In December, Sister Kathy Avery of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School in Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., held all fifth- through eighth-graders after class in the school’s chapel so she could inform them of the new rules against cussing. According to the kids, Avery held nothing back: She recited a list of the actual, blush-producing words and phrases she was talking about. Said Avery afterward, “It got a little quiet in church.” 


    Least Competent Criminals 

    Krystal Evans, 26, and Denise McClure, 24, rifled through packages on a DHL delivery truck in December in Crescent City, Calif., looking for their urine samples headed for the lab because they were certain theirs would test positive, which would have meant their return to jail. The driver summoned police, and the women were arrested for destroying evidence and violating their probation and in March were convicted and could face two years in prison. Evans’ original sample turned out to be clean, after all, but during the December arrest, she tested positive for methamphetamine. 


    COPYRIGHT 2008 CHUCK SHEPHERD   

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    (Rated PG-13)


    Rated: Not even on the charts

    {mosimage}Sometimes the tag line on a movie is cute. Sometimes it’s catchy. And sometimes, it’s prophetic. Such is the case ofDrillbit Taylor, the latest release of Owen Wilson. To put it in layman’s terms, this movie was more than disapponting, in fact, I would call it simply bad. Forget about what the tabloids said about Wilson’s recent depression. It had nothing to do with his love life. Truth to be told, it was probably this movie.

    Wilson has great comedic timing. You expect him to play off-beat characters. You expect the delivery of his lines to be sarcastic. And he delivered on those expectations. It was the script that left him in the lurch. 

    The brain child of John Hughes, the man who gave us all of those great ‘80s movies čThe Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, the National LampoonVacationmovies čDrillbit Taylor is a story Hollywood likes to retell in various formats. 

    It’s the story of two boys getting ready to start high school č no shocker here, they are stereotypically geeky. And as is true of most geeks, they have good hearts. On the first day of school, rather than celebrating in the fact that another kid even geeker than them has drawn the attention of school bully Filkins (played by Alex Frost),  Wade, played by Nat Hartley, steps in to stop the bully from putting the kid in a locker. As expected, his intervention draws the ire of Filkins, and he, and his best friend, Ryan (Troy Gentile) become the target of the bully’s ire. The three, the geeky kid, the fat kid and the “awesome” kid have big targets on their foreheads.

    Things go from bad to worse when they take the matter of bullying up with the school principal who embodies every stereotype of the dumb principal. After being chased down by Filkins in his car, they decide to seek the services of a bodyguard č  enter Drillbit Taylor.

    Taylor represents himself as an Army Ranger, a master of dark ops and martial arts. He is, in fact, none of those things. But, he manages to keep the kids convinced that he’s on their side, all the while plotting to rob them of their excess. After Wade gets punched, Drillbit decides he needs to be in school with the kids, and poses as a substitute teacher. As he tells his friends, “All you have to do is walk around with a cup of coffee in your hand and nobody asks you any questions.” 

    As can be expected while posing as the sub, Drillbit becomes a favorite of the faculty and students č with the exception of the bully, whom he constantly gives a hard time. He also manages to win the adoration of an over-sexed English teacher who has a way of picking out real losers. 

    As the plot turns, the kids learn Drillbit is not who he says he is and their disappointment in him is crushing. “I thought you were my friend,” said Wade. 

    Not to spoil the movie for you, if you really want to waste $7, this is an undedog movie, so things always come right in the end. Maybe just not the way you thought.

    There are some good performances of bad characters by Wilson and Gentile. Gentile’s rap off against the bully brings some laughs, as does a few of  Wilson’s scenes with Hartley and with his street buddies. But by in large, the writing was weak, the plot was predictable and the characters never really grab you.

    Drillbit Taylor should stay at the bottom of your to see list. But if you’ll take some friendly advice, never even put it on the list.

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    {mosimage}The furor dies down in the final episode ofJohn Adams (Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO). The British have been defeated, the United States has been created and Adams’ epic struggles as ambassador and president are behind him. He is an old man puttering about his farm with stringy white hair, bad teeth and an ever-present scowl. Very little happens over the course of the hour, and yet this is perhaps the richest of the seven episodes.

    Much of the credit goes to Paul Giamatti. He creates an unforgettable portrait of an aging titan obsessed with the past. This is no saint, but a conflicted human being who struggles with resentment and regret. He feels neglected, his achievements undervalued. “In some circles I am openly despised,” he groans to wife Abigail (Laura Linney. “In others I am irrelevant.” Abigail rolls her eyes, and so do we.

    But a kind of redemption comes as Adams begins a correspondence with old enemy Thomas Jefferson, his only surviving peer from the revolutionary days. He sets aside jealousy sends a note to Jefferson at Monticello, one melancholy genius to another. “You and I are not to die until we have explained ourselves to each other,” he writes.

    You’ll just have to believe me when I say that a simple exchange of letters is the most moving TV climax you’ll see all year.


    The Sarah Jane Adventures

    Friday, 8 p.m. (Sci Fi)

    ThisDoctor Who spinoff is set on earth, but don’t expect any shortage of alien action. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) uses her expertise in intergalactic affairs to keep extraterrestrials from conquering the planet. Why these creatures can’t keep their cotton-picking claws out of our orbit is beyond me.

    This BBC production clearly has limited funds for sets and special effects. But it offers great English acting, cheeky satire and a rare chance to see a middle-aged woman save the world. Given all that, you’re willing to overlook the occasional rubbery monster with sagging tentacles.

     

    Princess

    Sunday, 8 p.m. (ABC Family)

    Enchanted delightfully satirized a Disney-style fairy tale while also delivering all the genre’s conventional pleasures. You appreciate this achievement even more after watchingPrincess.The TV movie goes for a similar tone and bungles it every step of the way. Did someone put an evil spell on ABC Family?

    A guy who lives in a contemporary city (Kip Pardue) falls for a real princess (Nora Zehetner) in a nearby castle. The movie doesn’t bother making sense of this scenario. What’s a woman in a Snow White getup doing in modern times? And what does she see in this charmless Prince Charming? You’re supposed to give yourself over to their fairy-tale love, but the crude stab at satire makes that impossible. The references to lesbians, drugs and stalkers strain to be hip, but even Dopey would find them dopey.

    Where’s a poison apple when you need one?


    American Experience

    Monday, 9 p.m. (PBS)

    This week’s episode details the inspiring life and tragic death of baseball star Roberto Clemente. Clemente transcended every kind of hardship to become one of America’s great heroes. He was born into a poor Puerto Rican family and began working in the sugar cane fields at age eight. His athletic ability brought him to the big leagues in the 1950s, when the odds were stacked against a black Latino. But Clemente fought against prejudice to become a beloved superstar, conducting himself with dignity as Puerto Rico’s de facto ambassador. He threw himself into civil rights and humanitarian causes as passionately as he did into baseball.

    If you skip the last 10 minutes, this program will lift your spirits for the whole day.

     

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    {mosimage} So many times we hear, “anything is better than nothing.” I even tell folks that╔ and it’s true to a point. BUT, it may not be enough to make a positive change in what our body looks like, feels like or acts like - it is simply a start! What that means is that, yes, you’ve started something, and while it’s a step in the right direction č  you might even see some change, it is not enough to carry you to your goal of “toning up,” sculpting the “wavy arm syndrome,” getting rid of a beer belly made for five years of a hard college indulgence or reversing a health problem! It is merely a start.

    Let me explain╔

    It’s a wonderful thing when someone starts on a new plan č the body responds by shedding a few unwanted pounds or inches; getting a little bit stronger, and we generally feel better about ourselves, which in turn spurs us on for a little while longer. The reality of this is that it is simply your body’s natural reaction! What’s happening is your body is responding to a new stimulus forcing it to respond. Once it’s adapted to that new stimulus, it’s now nothing more than the new “normal” for us!

    What that means is that our bodies will no longer respond to that stimulus! It’s simply part of our daily norm. Some days might be harder than others, but all in all, the body will no longer be forced to change. See, our bodies are a naturally adaptive organism designed to respond to stimulus. Positive stimulus equals positive response; negative equals negative. Nothing new equals no change!

    To make constantly improving changes to our bodies, we must constantly change what we are doing. I know I’ll step on a lot of toes out there, but once your body has responded to walking, it becomes nothing more than transportation! Yes, you can walk further and or faster, but ultimately, it just means going further and faster....Very little will change!

    Same thing with how many days you should exercise. Yes, I tell people that two days a week is a great start and we have many people who do see good results in twice a week. But, in all reality, you do need exercise the body four or five days a week╔ you just don’t have to live in the gym! We’ll talk about that in future issues.

    Two of the most important things you can do outside of proper nutrition and rest, is constantly vary your workouts and use intensity!

    How do we do this? First, start by selecting exercises that are going to illicit a huge physiological and neurological change in your body. These are compound movements that use the whole body like squatting, deadlifting and pressing. Leave the fluffy exercises till the end or skip them all together. These “big” exercises can seem daunting if never done before, but once you master them, you will find they do a lot more for you than the machines at your local gym. Next, combine your weight training with your cardio╔ mix it up. Constantly change how you exercise and do this three or four times a week.

    After that, exercise with intensity! Now that is relative to the individual╔. Intensity for someone never having exercised before is possibly five minutes and if that’s you, that is awesome! Five minutes is a HUGE accomplishment for someone who hasn’t exercised before. For those of you who go to the gym regularly, here is what intensity is not: using a piece of cardio equipment, reading a magazine, talking on a cell phone and catching the latest rerun ofFriends! 

    If you want to see changes in your body, in how you look, and how you feel, your workouts should be challenging and done at a level that you struggle to accomplish it. I don’t believe in the old adage, “no pain, no gain.” That’s a means to an injury, but I do believe that it should not be comfortable. Remember, we got where we are by being “comfortable.” Do we really want to stay there?


    John Velandra is the owner of Designs In Fitness and Cross Fit Cape Fear. COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com

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    {mosimage}Donnaha Station may sound like a curious name, but before you start scratching your head too hard, pull out a map of North Carolina and look toward the western edge of Forsyth County. Sure enough, you’ll find it. An old Native American village, Donnaha Station is the small town that welcomed guitarist Brian Spainhour into the world. And even though he’s moved down the road to Ararat, he’s given his band the name of his birthplace as a tribute to his heritage.

    During a typical set, the band will play the Doobie Brothers, The Who, Lynrd Skynrd and even Chuck Berry. “They play rock ‘n roll that’s 30 years old,” joked Brian’s father, Michael Spainhour, who saw the band’s potential. He was the one that bought their first drum set and has been behind the band from the start. He pointed out the irony that, despite the average age of the tunes the guys play, the oldest member of Donnaha Station is only 27.

    Starting out in little camper down by the river, Spainhour recalled, “They were all out just clanging on instruments when everybody noticed that Brian was kinda gifted č he could listen to a song and pick it out.” Then he would show the others how to play it. “And the next thing you know, they all took off.”

    Brian Spainhour plays the guitar, Josh Cook sings and plays the drums and Robbie Sturgis plays the bass. Michael Spainhour is the manager, booking agent, provider and dad. He also writes the poetry that Donnaha Station puts to music. He describes Brian as one of the best guitarists in the state č and not just because he’s his son. “He’s often been told that hes’s one of the best that’s around,” he said, “he can really burn that thing up!” He said that Brian can play the little frets better than most people play the big ones, and that’s what makes the differenence. “He can do some wild stuff. It really is something to watch him,” he concluded.

    Spainhour doesn’t hide his pride in the other band members either. He said that Cook “is truly a gifted musician, too.” Explaining that he can play anything, from the guitar, to the piano and the drums, “╔ but he’s excellent on the drums. That’s why he stays on them, I guess.” 

    The newest member of the band is their bass player, Sturgis. They needed a replacement for long-time member Bruce Draughn who has been very ill recently. “He’s coming along just fine,” said Spainhour, “He rode the bus all the way here from Mississippi to join the band, he’s determined to play the bass.”

    Spainhour described how the biker scene has responded really well to Donnaha Station. “They liked the 30- year-old music, and the young guys like some of the ACDC and Ozzy they play,” he said. 

    The guys ended up playing a string of gigs at Daytona’s during bike week and were introduced to Jim Sawyer, president of The Special Forces Association, at a poker run. “They asked us to play there (at a benefit concert), but we had another gig set up for that day,” Spainhour explained, “but we went ahead and told them we’d play anyways.”

    That’s when the ball started rolling. After some time and schedule wrangling, Donnaha Station decided to jump on board for the 3rd Annual Special Forces Association Benefit Festival, which will be held on Saturday, May 31, from 11 a.m to 11 p.m, at Festival Park. Donnaha Station will be one of seven North Carolina bands to hit the stage and rally funds for the Special Forces Association Scholarship, Tribute, and Benevolent Funds.

    The festival will include a ride-in motorcycle and bicycle show, a 2008 Chevy Colorado pick-up truck raffle, cash and prize raffles throughout the day, as well as other family entertainment.

    For more information about the Special Forces Association Benefit Festival, call or email Jim Sawyer at 309-0388 or chaptercpres@yahoo.com. 

     

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    {mosimage}Dear EarthTalk: How can I find out which seafood to avoid if I am concerned about lessening my impact on the environment and avoiding consuming unhealthy pollutants?   -- Pat Kelly, Seattle, WA


    Several decades ago a fish-centric diet was considered to be not only healthy but also environmentally friendly. But today those of us who eat a lot of fish may not be doing ourselves or the environment any favor. The two major concerns are overfishing and pollution.

    Demand for low-calorie, protein-rich fish has grown tremendously alongside increases in world population. At the same time, the technologies employed for catching seafood have improved to the point that the commercial fishing industry has essentially stripped the ocean of its once teeming fish populations. One recent analysis concluded that only 10 percent of the large predatory fish that once roamed the world’s oceans are left, due to overzealous sport and commercial fishing. Another study concluded that three-quarters of the world’s fisheries are either fully fished or overfished.

    Pollution from industrial, agricultural and other everyday activities like electricity generation and automobile driving has also taken a serious toll on the health of the remaining fish species. Scientists routinely find unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides and other harsh toxins in the fat, internal organs and even muscle tissue of many different kinds of fish. These contaminants are then passed on up the food chain to our dinner plates.

    According to Seafood Watch, a project of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that works to educate the public about the seafood crisis, consumers can make a difference by getting educated so as to make smart choices about what seafood to avoid. Consumers can download and print out free Seafood Watch pocket guides to the “best choices” across six different regions of the U.S. č after all, what’s abundant and sustainably harvested in your area may not be the same for someone across the country.

    Another convenient way to get the low-down on the fish you may be contemplating buying at the grocer or a restaurant is to text “30644” with the message “FISH,” followed by the name of the specific fish in question. In a few seconds, an automated response will come back from the non-profit Blue Ocean Network’s FishPhone service with information on the status of the fish in question č and alternatives, should Blue Ocean consider the fish an undesirable choice.

    The basic skinny on fish consumption is that if you like it, you should eat it, but responsibly č that means in moderation and armed with the proper knowledge of which types of fish to buy and which to avoid.

    For those looking to cut down on or eliminate seafood from their diets but still gain the health benefits of eating fish, plenty of alternatives exist. As most vegetarians know, beans, tofu and many nuts can be significant alternative sources of protein. And walnuts, flaxseed and hemp oil/seeds are all rich in the Omega-3 fatty acids common in many fish and thought to help ward off heart disease, cancer, macular degeneration (age-related blindness), arthritis and inflammatory disorders.


    GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

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        Reflections on family and history will dominate during the opening of a new exhibit by artist Dwight Smith at Gallery 208 on Thursday, April 17, at 5:30 p.m.
        Smith, a Michigan native who now resides in Fayetteville, has been working on the art in the exhibit since the late ‘80s. To him, the works reflect his thoughts and ideas on family.
    “Since the late 1980s, I have been creating artwork thematically described as Ancestral Reflections or Ancestral Dialogues,” he said in his artist statement. “The works were personal reflections about family and history. These works, while adhering to philosophical and stylistic tenets of abstract expressionism, significantly draw inspiration from elements of design visible in African masks, multistrip textiles, shields, body cicatrizations, ideograms and other material manifestations of African folkways. Such inspirational sources have become metaphors for my rich cultural heritage and the catalysts for making art.”
    While Smith’s collection is varied, this grouping is more personal.
        “The works in this exhibition are very special to me. They represent my artistic voice at various stages of my creative growth and development,” he explained. “When showing a large body of works at any given time, I always enjoy showing a variety of works. The visual harmony between the paintings, drawings or works on paper becomes a choir of visual voices that help me keep my artistic dialogue fresh and always interesting. I like listening to my inner responses evoked by the compositions and following the path to where they will lead me.”
        He added that many of the works are “celebrations of life or tributes to artists I know or have been fortunate enough to meet,” while others tackle “social realities concerning the world of African-American art histories and global perspectives.”
        Smith has shown both nationally and internationally. His 30-year career has allowed him to work in a variety of media, with concentration on four very different and distinct themes: abstract imagery, landscapes, textiles and mask-life forms.
        “I am fond of using the Adinkra symbols (found in the culture of West Africa). They are a visual language and each of the symbols has a message,” he said. “Such inspirational sources have become metaphors and guides for grounding myself in my rich cultural heritage and the creation of my art.”
    Along with exhibitions in the United States, Smith’s works have been seen worldwide with shows in Dakar Senegal and in 1996, his work was included in a touring exhibition North Africa. In 1999, he received critical acclaim for his solo exhibition, Peintures (Paintings) held at the L’Escalier Gallery in Aurillac, France.
    Smith is a member of the National Conference of Artists (NCA) a national organization of African American artists, art educators, curators and historians. Smith has held positions with NCA as the national president, president of the Michigan Chapter and Board member of that Chapter.  He is also a member of the Fayetteville Arts Guild.
        Smith is the president and chief executive officer of the Ellington-White Community Development Corporation, a community-based visual arts organization for young people located in Detroit and now in Fayetteville. Its mission is to promote the cultural arts and provide healthy lifestyle programs that offer young people mentoring, job training, work experiences, career exploration and leadership skills which are vital to the growth and development of a healthy community.
        “Up & Coming Weekly is delighted to have Dwight’s artwork on exhibit at Gallery 208,” said Jean Bolton, general manager of Up & Coming Weekly. “He has become an integral part of our arts community since his move to Fayetteville and we are fortunate to be able share his work with the community.”
    Gallery 208 is the downtown gallery of the Fayetteville Museum of Art. It is located in the corporate headquarters of Up & Coming Weekly. The exhibit opening will feature not only great art, but great food and excellent company. The event is free and open to the public.
        Gallery 208 is located at 208 Rowan Street. The Up & Coming Weekly offices are open from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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        Area university art students have filled two downtown art galleries with a wide range of subjects, styles and media. The Fayetteville Art Guild invited Fayetteville State University art students to exhibit with many of its members in an exhibit titled City Image at the Arts Council on Hay Street. One block behind the Arts Center, on Maxwell Street, Cape Fear Studios is hosting an exhibit titled Paintings by the Students of James Biederman, a University of North Carolina at Pembroke professor of art.
        In the interest of fairness to both universities, I want to highlight the strengths of both exhibits and how art students, no matter where they attend, are faced with very similar problems. In the case of Biederman, it is not easy coming into a region where artists predominantly prefer the narrative and the representational to exploring non-objective abstraction.  {mosimage}
        Biederman, an abstract artist from New York City, is exhibiting a small painting with his students. Fifteen of his students are showing works that range from landscape interpretations to non-objective paintings.
    UNCP student Storm Faith has incorporated the landscape with her investigation of abstract spatial properties. Still recognizable, the tree line interprets qualities of nature and color theory. Bright in hue and dense color saturation, the viewer will read across the surface of her painting pausing in the contours of the tree shapes.
        Faith’s classmate, Scotty Thompson, investigates the potential of color as pattern, texture and surface. In the painting titled Unititled by Thompson, the artist moves the viewer across the surface of her painting with thick application of paint, her composition broken up into units and outlines.
    Kiatl Godwin uses primary and secondary colors to move us across the surface of her paintings like a broken surface. Like Thompson, Godwin breaks her paintings up into units, sections of color and texture with defining boundaries.
        Unlike the flatness of Thompson and Godwin, Shelly Romero is an example of what many of the other students were working towards—how to create depth and spatial movement with color. A difficult task for young painters, it is easy to see how Biederman works with each student individually to try and get them to grasp the concept of recession and advancement in space with color, degrees of definition and ways of working with a limited range of hues.
        Like Biederman, the faculty at Fayetteville State University is working with students to use color as a major source of energy, emotion and expression. Faculty at both institutions know color immediately communicates and heightens expression. Colors are never emotionally neutral. {mosimage}
    Rick Kenner, a painting major, uses color, value, his own x-rays and hard edge painting to evoke a sense of heightened expression in the painting titled Pathways.
        Kenner builds his Masonite forms and framing with meticulous detail, his color choices are no less meticulous in selection and application. In Kenner’s work, color is often used in contrast to a neutralized dark background.
        Twenty-five FSU students are exhibiting work, from six different studio areas: painting, drawing, computer graphics, photography, printmaking and sculpture. From the politically challenging computer graphics by Shantel Scott, to the mixed-media sculpture by Amanda Stevens (her work titled Mixed Nature is a life size fish, painted red ready to be scanned, the computer scanner in covered in fur), all the works in the FSU student exhibit show stages of development and a range of subject matter, technique and message.
    Techniques and subjects are as varied as the differences in the students in the program. Daryl Evans’ painting focuses on an oversized, magnified still life of a yellow flower next to a watch — stillness and silence exudes. In contrast, Ann Vaeth paints from life using the placement of a single chair and vegetables to construct her composition. Mike Romangano explores color, surfaces and integrating anatomy; while April Bell applies an actual ladder, constructed of branches, to the front of her painting.
        Printmakers Jonathan Diaz, Maria Marois and Dominique Johnson all investigate the possibilities of relief printing and the monoprint. Self identity dominates as a subject in their work. Diaz explores club life as a subject; for Johnson it is beauty and the African-American female, Marios focuses on the figure as part of a family construct or in abstracted space.  
        Whereas the UNCP exhibit is restricted to their painters, it is difficult in City Image to know which works are students and which are members of the Fayetteville Art Guild.
        Starr Oldorff, Fayetteville Art Guild president, was very happy with the turn out of FSU students. As best stated by Oldorff, “This exhibit gives students a venue to display their works and is an opportunity for citizens of Fayetteville to see the wealth of talent the Fayetteville Art Guild and FSU art students bring to the area.”
        Many of the long-standing members of the Fayetteville Art Guild are exhibiting. Alphonso Peppers and Rose-Ann San Martino both have interpreted the skate board tree, Peppers in the medium of photography and Bryda as an abstracted painting.
    Visitors to City Image will see the diversity within the membership of the Fayetteville Art Guild: welded steel by David McCune, textile wall hangings by Romana Gennaro, a realistic pastel portraiture by J.D. Blanton and many more styles and varied subject matter.
        One of the more striking works is the painting of a downtown cityscape by Brian Steverson titled Springtime in Fayetteville. In an impressionistic style, Steverson captures a moment of beauty and stillness in the downtown area.
        Visitors to City Image will also see work by new members to the organization. New guild member Vicki Rhoda is exhibiting a painting from a series she is presently working on titled I Look to My Family and My Family Looks Down on Me. Behind a small chair with a mask on the seat, trees in the background reach upward in a flattened space of earth colors and pattern. The title speaks to the significance of family, narration and the voice of a painter.
        Like Biederman, several FSU professors are exhibiting with their students: Shane Booth, Jonathan Chestnut and yours truly. In the spirit of a “teaching moment” please indulge me while I list all those who participated in the exhibit, yet not mentioned above, to encourage those who made the effort to get work framed and to the galleries and for their effort to share their voice with you in the discipline of visual arts.
    Additional UNCP students exhibiting include the following: Malinda McKoy, Lynwood Cox, Amber Ragland, Alenander Sauners, Daniel Webb, Themla Lou Gaines, Jason Young, Kevin Locklear, Matthew Wilson and H. Locklear.
        Additional FSU students in City Image include the following: Kimberly Anderson, Chris Boyd, Marcus Davis, April Harmon, Cathy Johnson, Lindsey Loewen, Mike Lopez, Casasndra Ortiz, Robin Jade, Lovell Pulley, Decorris Smith, Paul Smith, Angela Williams, Jasmine Wilson and Carmen Yeager.
    Additional Fayetteville Art Guild Members include the following: Stan Bryda, Peggy Hardiman Carter, Ruth Hatcher, Noreda Hess, Cathy Johnson, David McCune Sr., Grace McGrath, Starr Oldorff, Merle Prewitt, Martha Sisk, and Helen Pat Zumbahlen.

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    My boyfriend of nine months leaves a mess in my home, and it infuriates me. Although he’s otherwise a great guy, just a glass not taken to the kitchen makes me boil with rage. He doesn’t only leave glasses around, but dishes and trash, napkins and soda cans. Jackets and sweatshirts are dropped wherever. He lies on the bed without taking his shoes off...arrrrgh! And he spits toothpaste into the sink without rinsing it out, and never does dishes when we cook or put carryout on plates. I don’t understand my anger because I sometimes leave a glass out, too. I do know I shouldn’t approach him about this while I’m this upset. 

    --Pigpen’s Girlfriend 


    Where does your boyfriend think dirty dishes go to die? Do they jump out an open window and smash themselves on the pavement? Leap into a sinkful of soapy water and drown themselves? Or, do they hire a hit man to do the job? Maybe an aging housewife who breaks into your place in the dead of night, slowly and methodically pulls on rubber gloves, then holds the plates under water until the deed is done. 

    Your boyfriend could be pondering this question nightly, but it seems he’s too busy flopping on the bed, swinging his big shoes onto your duvet, and snoring. Meanwhile, you’re storming around the house collecting cans, snarling, “What does he think, that I answered an ad for a fully furnished dumpster with cable TV? Or was he worried I’d get lost making my way back from the living room to the kitchen? How sweet of him to leave a trail of dirty napkins to mark my path!”

    Next, he’ll complain there’s no mint on the pillow č or, worse yet, he’ll slip and call you Mom. Who, exactly, does he think picks up all this stuff he drops? Actually, he probably hasn’t the slightest idea. In fact, while, for you, one empty Chicken McNuggets box on the couch turns your apartment into a Superfund site, your boyfriend might have to sit on the thing to realize it’s there. As I’ve written before, research shows that, in general, straight men don’t have the filth- and clutter-vision women and gay men do. Men generally have better distance vision, and can maintain intense focus on small-scale projects, but they’re prone to overlook environmental detail č increasing the chance that they’ll let the chips (and the empty potato chip bags) fall where they may.

    Okay, so the glass is not only half-empty, it’s been on your foyer table for three whole days. How could your boyfriend not know how upset this makes you? Well, there is the fact that, instead of sweetly telling him what works for you, it seems you’ve spent the better part of a year festering with hate. Your inability to ask, “Mind doing the dishes tonight?” or tease him about the difference between a bedspread and a sidewalk, suggests there’s more to this than liking things tidy. Are you anxious or insecure, and manifesting it in a Gestapo-like need to control your environment? Are you skittish about commitment and seeking an out, like the idea that he doesn’t respect you? If you want to be with him, tell him what you need. If he cares about you, he’ll make an effort. He might sometimes screw up, but he’ll probably put a good spin on it: Dinner with you was so romantic and wonderful, he wanted to leave you a little something to remember it by č something day-old and encrusted on a plate. Come on, look closely at that petrified moo shu. Can’t you see a heart? 


    Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA╩ 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com)

    (c)2008, Amy Alkon, all rights reserved.

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    While March Madness dominates intercollegiate athletics, another group of collegians works out amidst coaches’ whistles, endures bloody, 12-hour practices, and cheers on teammates preparing for the national championship in meat-judging, in which about 40 colleges compete, according to a March Wall Street Journal report. Coaches at powerhouses like Colorado State and South Dakota State say skills such as evaluating T-bone cutting and spotting whether a pig has too much back fat come with determination and concentration (and, of course, practice, as one coach said it all comes down to time spent in the meat locker, at 38 degrees (Fahrenheit)). (And pro scouts are watching from the stands, representatives of U.S. meat companies, seeking talent.)


    Fine Points of the Law 

    Italy’s highest appeals court ruled in March that it is not illegal for a woman to lie in a police investigation if the reason is to cover up her adulterous affair. Court of Cassation judges said that her honor is more important than providing intimate information about her lover. 

    The North Carolina Court of Appeals voted 2-1 in February to approve a worker compensation claim for only one of a woman’s breast-implant replacements, ruling that the other implant ruptured (in a job-related accident) only because it had been improperly installed. (The dissenting judge said, even so, the compensation fund should pay for the second replacement, too, because to achieve their purpose, both breasts must be aligned properly on the chest.) 


    The Entrepreneurial Spirit! 

    When Johnny Diablo’s year-old vegan restaurant failed to catch on in Portland, Ore., last year, he converted the space into Casa Diablo’s Gentlemen’s Club, which is what he believes is the world’s only vegan strip club. He has no rule against meat-eating dancers, he told Willamette Week newspaper in February, but won’t permit leather, fur, silk or wool outfits on stage (no “murder victims” in the club, he said).  

    Cosmetics from the American company Blue Q, under the “Lookin’ Good for Jesus” brand urging users to “Get Tight with Christ,” were pulled from stores in Singapore in February due to complaints, but Blue Q said it’s not abandoning that line of hand and body creams, lip balm, breath spray and bubble bath. (Of course, Blue Q also markets similar cosmetics under such brands as “Dirty Girl,” “Cute as Hell,” “Total Bitch” and “Virgin/Slut,” as well as a car air-freshener by its brand “Cat Butt.” 


    Science on the Cutting Edge 

    A team of researchers from the University of Calgary and the Tokyo Institute of Technology proudly announced in February that they had successfully stored “nothing” inside a puff of gas and then had managed to retrieve that same “nothing.” That “nothing” is called a “squeezed vacuum,” and the physicists tell us that a light wave can be manipulated so that its phases are of uncertain amplitude, then the light itself removed so that only the “uncertainty” property of the wave remains. 

    In February, the South Korean cell phone company KTF announced a new voice-analysis program for its customers to enable them to evaluate their sincerity when calling a lover. The caller can point the phone’s camera at himself and see a meter on the screen measuring his own passion, then receive a text message afterward noting voice expressions by the person receiving the call (surprise, honesty, etc.). 



    COPYRIGHT 2008 CHUCK SHEPHERD   

     

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    {mosimage}Dear EarthTalk: How safe are the fire retardants that are used to quell forest fires across the American West?

    -- Barbara, Minneapolis, MN


    So-called long-term fire retardants - those usually dropped from airplanes over forest fires - are comprised of water mixed with a slurry of chemicals, thickeners and corrosion inhibitors designed to prevent plants on the ground from igniting, keep the ingredients from separating and dispersing during targeted drops, and ensure that the harsh chemicals on board the plane don’t endanger the flight’s safety.

    Firefighters sometimes add iron oxide to make the fire retardant turn red when applied so they can see where they have already covered. Ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate, known for their use as agricultural fertilizers, are also often added to provide nutrients to help the forest regenerate after a burn.

    In recent years, where global warming and droughts have exacerbated forest fires across the American West, federal and state firefighting agencies have upped their cumulative annual use of long-term fire retardants to some 20+ million gallons a year spread across tens of thousands of individual fly-overs. 

    While such chemicals have been valuable in minimizing the damage of forest fires, their use comes with a price. The nitrogen in ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate can wreak terrible havoc on aquatic ecosystems, creating algae blooms that kill fish by choking out their oxygen. A 1998 study by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, found long-term fire retardants to be “very toxic to aquatic organisms including algae, aquatic invertebrates and fish.” The study also said that fire-fighting chemicals “could cause substantial fish kills depending on the stream size and flow rate.” 

    These chemicals have also been shown to affect some plants’ reproductive capacities. One study found that spraying fire retardants in some cases decreased plant species diversity, as weedier species better adapted to make use of excess nitrogen in the soil tended to thrive while native species were not able to compete.

    In 2000 the U.S. Forest Service issued guidelines for use of fire retardants by aerial fire fighting crews. While the focus of the document was fire control and safety, it encouraged pilots to avoid applying retardant within 300 feet of waterways or other sensitive areas. The Forest Service acknowledges the risk of using retardants, but believes that their use in moderation is a net gain; as fewer “ground troops” need to be sent in to risky situations while more property can be saved from the ravages of a fast-moving fire.

    Fires are actually an essential part of forest ecology and many species of trees and plants thrive in part because of the natural occurrence of fires (sequoia trees, for example, depend upon the high temperatures of forest fires to pry open their cones so new seeds can spring forth and take root). The main reason that such catastrophic, news making fires occur in the first place is that humans have sprawled too closely to the forest edge. This has lead to forest management policies that suppress natural fires, causing large build-ups of tinder-like woody debris that eventually ignites and burns out of control.


    GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

     

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