Notepad

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Millions of women across the U.S. start each morning on the bathroom scale; many will skip breakfast — and spend the day plagued by thoughts of food and their bodies. According to the nonprofit organization Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, as many as 10 percent of U.S. girls and women suffer from eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, not to mention the countless others who suffer from negative body image.

“In a society that equates thinness with success, achievement and worth, it is not surprising that so many women are willing to risk their emotional and physical health to attain the ‘perfect body,'” states a press release from the HOPE psychiatric services department of Park Ridge Hospital in Fletcher.

Park Ridge and other educators, therapists and health professionals nationwide are teaming up with EDAP to host the 11th annual Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Feb. 23 through 28.

Park Ridge will sponsor a free slide show and info-sharing session on Feb. 25 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Henderson County Public Library, and a free (and confidential) eating-disorder screening on Feb. 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lutheran Church of the Nativity in Arden.

People with eating disorders often suffer from depression and feelings of helplessness and low self-esteem. The awareness campaign focuses on the root of eating problems, described by EDAP as the “social and psychological misconceptions about weight and body image.”

To learn more about local events, or to volunteer, call Jane Lawson of Park Ridge Hospital at 681-2726.

WNCAP meets

The Western North Carolina Aids Project’s annual membership meeting is scheduled for 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, at St. Joseph’s Hospital, in conference room 1.

Recently, some of the agency’s clients and their friends have claimed that WNCAP employees haven’t treated their clients with respect — and, worse, that WNCAP has done a poor job of reaching out to the black community.

In response, board member Dr. Christina McQuiston will summarize general points that have been expressed during WNCAP’s community meetings, and she will discuss potential programming changes. Financial reports also will be presented. The meeting is open to the public. But if you have a complaint, be forewarned: There won’t be time for public comment.

Mystifying law

Practicing the arts of phrenology, palmistry, clairvoyance, fortune-telling and “other crafts of a similar kind” is unlawful in Buncombe and other surrounding counties, according to a North Carolina law that was updated as recently as 1995.

The law, however, does not prohibit “the amateur practice of phrenology, palmistry, fortune-telling or clairvoyance in connection with school or church socials, provided such socials are held in school or church buildings.”

The law (N.C. General Statute 14-401.5) also applies in Haywood, Madison, Transylvania, Henderson, McDowell and Rutherford counties.

Phrenology is based on the idea that a person’s mental faculties are indicated by the shape of his or her skull.

Oscar’s baby

Attention, wannabe movie makers: Don your shades and take heed. The 25th annual Student Academy Awards competition (judged, in its final round, by the same great ones who dole out the Oscars) is now accepting entries.

Primary-round winners will fly to Los Angeles in June for a fantastic week of “industry-related activities and social events,” including seeing their films screened at the Academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills, according to an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences press release.

Competing films should fit into one of four categories: alternative, animated, documentary or dramatic. To be eligible, entries must have been made by students, on film 16 mm or larger, under the guidance of a teacher within the curriculum of an accredited college or university, and completed after April 1, 1997.

For the competition, the U.S. has been divided into three regions. Students from North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and other states will compete in region II, whose deadline is April 1. Winners in each category from each region will compete against each other in California in June, where the grand prize in each category will include notoriety and $2,000 (second- and third-place winners get cash, too).

Interested students should send an application request, along with a business-size SASE to: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.

For entry info, call Barbara Scharres at (312) 443-3735, or Dan Ladely at (402) 472-5353.

Collectors club

From jukeboxes to matchbooks to ceramic pigs: If there’s more than one of something out there, somebody’s bound to collect them.

If you’re one of those somebodies, the Swannanoa Valley Collectibles Collector Club might be for you.

The club is open to anyone of any age who collects anything, or who wants to start a collection, explains founder Bob Ricketts, who says he collects “a little bit of everything,” including coins and stamps.

Ricketts hopes the club will be a venue for collectors to meet each other, talk about their collections, trade and listen to speakers.

And right now, the club is so new that there’s still time to become a special charter member (especially tempting to those who collect charter memberships).

Call Bob Ricketts at 669-6860 to learn more.

Music classes for old and young

Beginner classes for adults in old-time fiddle and mandolin and bluegrass banjo, along with a beginner fiddle class for kids 7 to 14, will start on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at Warren Wilson College.

Wayne Erbsen — musician, host of WCQS’s “Country Roots,” and author of Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus!” and 18 other books — will teach the adults.

Fiddle champ Leanne Erbsen — who is Wayne’s 13-year-old daughter — will teach the youngsters.

All classes will be held in the Kittredge Music Building on the Warren Wilson campus. The adult banjo class will meet Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m.; the adult mandolin and fiddle class will meet from 8 to 9 p.m.; and the kids’ fiddle class will meet from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The adult classes will run for eight weeks and cost $96, and the kids’ will run for six weeks and cost $59.

No musical experience is necessary, but students need to bring their own instruments (a few are available to rent).

Call Wayne Erbsen at 299-7031 for more info.

AIDS quilt needs a hand

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt’s stopover at Western Carolina University beginning March 25 needs volunteers.

“There are numerous ways that people can get involved with this significant event,” says WCU Dean of Students Bill Haggard, the co-chair of the committee bringing the quilt to the school.

Volunteers will help unfold the quilt and read the names of AIDS fatalities, among other tasks. Organizers are also seeking new panels made by local residents to add to the traveling exhibition.

In 1987, Cleve Jones started the quilt when he spray-painted a friend’s name on a piece of cloth about the size of a grave. Since then, friends, families and lovers have commemorated AIDS victims by adding panels made of everything from T-shirts to photographs to teddy bears to the quilt.

This 296-panel section of the 27,000-panel quilt will be on display in the A.K. Hinds University Center at WCU from 7:30 to 11 p.m. on March 25; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the 26 and 27; and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the 28.

To learn more, call 227-7205.

Seeger songwriter

Singer/songwriter Peggy Seeger will play a benefit concert for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 at Jubilee! in downtown Asheville.

Born into a family of musicians, Seeger has been singing and touring the world for 40 years and recently settled in Asheville. Her songs cover topics as diverse as pollution and the experience of being a mother.

Tickets cost $10 and are available at Jubilee! and Malaprop’s, or from WILPF members.

For more info, call 687-7618.

College for seniors

The N.C. College for Seniors is accepting applications for its spring term, which begins March 2. College membership is open to people 55 and older.

The college is offering more than 40 classes during two 10-week terms. Topics include the history of the Civil Rights movement, the evolution of the pipe organ, water fitness for nonswimmers, and Scandinavia (this course includes a field trip).

Membership in the college costs $70 (which includes library and health-and-fitness-center privileges), plus class fees.

For more info, call 251-6384.

City wants input on downtown sidewalks

The city of Asheville and the Streetscape Committee will hold a community meeting to discuss downtown-sidewalk usage. The session will be held Thursday, Feb. 19 at Cafe on the Square, 1 Biltmore Ave. Refreshments will be served at 6:15 p.m.; the meeting will begin at 6:30.

For more information, call 251-9973.

— compiled by Jill Ingram and Brenda Fullick