For the Week of: 4/17-23/2003
“Vengeance rot you all!”
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus [V.i.58]
There’s a movie version of “Titus,” and it’s one of the better versions of an early, sometimes problematic Shakespeare play. Highly recommended. Vengeance is a theme brought on by the way Mr. Mars is just fixin’ to change signs.
Last week’s question was about the term Maverick and from whence it originated, this week, another San Antonio native, blood kin to the original, correct* answer, coined another word that is still in common usage today. Word and sources? In 25 words or less? For a free “el-cheapo” report of some flavor? [contest ends 4/22/03]
Upcoming: South Austin’s own special brunch & reading. Goes well with turning off your TV.
Aries: This last round of Aries birthdays hasn’t been the greatest. I know that feeling rather well, it’s happened to me, too. I remember the pain, the anguish, the “low-level” depression caused by the ongoing Mars scenario.
Cardinals are red birds with pointed little heads. Sort of a curious, colorful kind of a feathered friend. The male cardinals are brilliant red, rather colorful, and little precocious, at least, as far as birds go. In the bird world, as I understand, the female cardinal does all the hard work, she builds the nests, lays the eggs, fetches up the food for the young ones, and so forth. Not that this is unlike the real world where us non-feathered types seem to live, either.
The deal is, the female isn’t that bright red color, the girls are more of a dusky, sandy color. There are a few red highlights, but the color is much less pronounced. I think the way this works is that the male spends a lot time attracting the attention of predators while the girls can get some work done. Think about that: you may not be getting all the attention you feel like you deserve, but you are being allowed a chance to get more work done. Besides, I tend to find the dusky dun colored females a lot more attractive.
Taurus: The weekend is good, but it’s a time when it’s best to keep a low profile, in Taurus land. Why? It’s not your birthday yet. Then, as next week starts, as the best sign begins to get ready for the birthday celebrations, I just need to sail one idea across your Taurus bow: take it easy. It’s usually hard for the typical sun sign to take it easy during the birthday times, but Taurus is not typical.
Ain’t nothing normal about you guys, and the problem is, the birthday month starts out with a little “bang.” This can be a metaphor, or this can be the real thing. I saw this other day, as I was cutting through an intersection [I was on foot], there were two [company name deleted] trucks at the stoplight, one in front of the other. The guy in the back was a little on the young side, a little on the exuberant side, and maybe a little infected with that “spring is here, let’s party!” attitude. He gunned the motor on his truck and then gently bumped his buddy’s truck in front of him. This was nothing more than bumpers “kissing” each other. But the look on the front driver’s face sort of told it all–it was that, “If he does that again, I’m going to get out and teach him something about playing tag in traffic….”
I can see that you can be either one of these fellows, the exuberant one in back, bumping bumpers or the one in front, getting exasperated with youthful indiscretion. While you might find the game of bumper tag on a busy street as an amusing form of sport, I’m not sure everyone will agree with your Taurus self. That’s why I suggested you take it easier than you planned.
Gemini: One of the problems I have with Gemini’s is their need for grand gestures. Subtleties are usually lost on the Gemini portion of the sky. But it’s these selfsame subtleties that are so important during the next few days. Imagine, if you will, for just a second, that you’re in the front of my bass boat. Imagine that we’re fishing on local lake. Pretend that it’s been sort of a slow morning, not a lot of fish action.
Now, pay close attention: watch as you’re reeling in your bait, probably a plastic thing with a big, sharp hook stuck through it. The lake water is clear enough that you can see, chasing after your bait, a nice-sized fish. That fish, he’s really interested in what’s on the end of your line. But reeling it in too fast? That’s the problem. Slow down. Let the guy take the bait. It’s subtle thing, this fishing stuff. The deal is, luck’s with you, you just have to slow it down so the target can rise and take your Gemini bait.
Cancer: The “R” word: relationship(s). It strikes terror in the heart of any single male. As other authors have humorously pointed out, there’s this persistent idea that somewhere, somehow, a single guy is busy having a lot more fun than anyone in a serious, committed relationship. From that single guy’s perspective, it’s just not true.
But don’t let that stop your imagination from imaging all the wild experiences that supposedly occur in my trailer park every night. Go with what works for your own imagination. Now, the real reason we’re discussing the “R” word is that it becomes a central focus for Cancer in the coming weeks. Big time stuff here.
Do something with it, too. Frequently, though, I’m forced to disabuse folks of the notion that the term “relationship” or the plural, “relationships” means something of a definite romantic [psycho-sexual] type. Doesn’t always have to be that way. This could be your relationship with your boss, the clients you have, or even, in my case, the cat. Give some attention and thoughtful considerations to your “R” word. All of them, too, not just the romantic variety.
Leo: There’s a Mark Twain quote I’m fond of, I used to have it printed up big, and tacked up on the wall here, “Tell the truth or trump — but get the trick.” [it’s from Pudn’head Wilson’s Calendar] Sage advice, from a Sagittarius [Mark Twain’s the Sagittarius, not me, as I’m not usually full of sage advice. Might be full of something else, even though I am Sagittarius.]
My most excellent Leo friends would do well to take heed, even before the approaching weekend gets here, and follow that one writer’s advice. Play this weekend like it was a game of cards, and you’re fully aware of what’s at stake here. All’s fair. Go for it. Then, next week, if you’ve played you cards right [having looked at your horoscope, you know what to do, right? Right.] Play them suckers the way you know how to do it, and you’re sure to benefit. Might have to use a poker face, kind of hard for a Leo, but I have faith in you.
Virgo: Nothing bad is going to happen in Virgo, not for the next couple of days. No sooner do I posit that prognostication, when, with lightening fast acuity, I get a blazing response from elsewhere.
Problems? There really shouldn’t be any, nothing more than the usual, ho-hum, humdrum usual tedium at the office. The little shift in the planets’ relative positions doesn’t hold much that’s ill for the Virgo slice of the sky.
There are some problems, but nothing you can’t surmount with relative ease and grace. Try being a little nicer, a little less quick with the rapier-like wit. Leave such comebacks and rejoinders for other signs. Lose some of that Scorpio-esque sarcasm for the next few days. Sometimes, that’s a very effective shield, and other times, like this next little swing through the lunar phase, it’s not nearly as important.
Libra: As soon as the weekend is over, as soon as next Monday gets here, maybe even a little before, perhaps before the weekend is ever done with, life gets good for my Libra friends. Might already have happened, never can tell. The tail end of the Aries Sun snaps at your Libra heels one last time, but just as soon as that’s over with, life is grand.
Here’s a suggestion from the lazy bones here at Fishing Guide to the Stars World Headquarters [and live bait]: push a little. One project, one idea, one thing: push on that one button, see if you can’t make something happen for yourself.
I’m on your side, that’s important you understand. But there’s one task that’s been left unfinished, one job you can attend to. I’m suggesting you exert some effort in that direction. Around here, this kind of advice means it’s time to look at the “tourist” fishing reels. The ones we loan out; something like that needs some attention. It might only be a single drop of oil, or winding some new fishing line onto a backup unit, but still, it requires a little effort from the Libra slice of the zodiac pie.
Scorpio: There’s a “Chinese all-you-can-eat” buffet place close by. What’s unusual, if you know anything about Eastern cuisine, is the food is not limited to Chinese, but the buffet includes Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese cuisine. Matter of fact, at this one place, they even have Steak Fingers and Cream Gravy.
Steak Fingers, last time I checked, seemed to be a unique Western American treat. “Steak Fingers” are more like mystery meat, battered and deep-fried, and cream gravy? Don’t even start me on that stuff.
See: Scorpio life is laid out like that “all-you-can-eat” buffet, several different styles and flavors are all represented. Better yet, there’s even something from the traditional white-boy comfort food group. I know that it’s not food you’d expect to find there, but in the buffet tables of life, there’s always something that you can enjoy. My best Scorpio advice, though, even as Mars is moving to heat up your life a little? Take small samples of everything to find out what suits your Scorpio palate for the next couple of days. Personally, I prefer the spring rolls, sort of like a pre-packaged salad.
Sagittarius: There’s this one, little shift. It’s not that big of deal, except that the planet I’m looking at in your chart has a way of disrupting normal lines of communication. This is like an electronic mail gateway that’s been blocked. In order to combat spam, I had to put some mail blocks up on the server I use. Inadvertently, I blocked everything from MSN’s “hotmail.com”. Not a good move on my part. What it allowed, the way I set it up, I could send to them, but the folks couldn’t reply back. I wondered if I was living in a void for a little while until some enterprising individual forwarded me a copy of the bounced message from a regular e-mail account.
That leaves a few choices, for this communication stuff: you can struggle under the burden of spam, struggle with choices us Sagittarius types have made, or we can go in and correct our mail blocks. Once corrected, we can sit there and blame ourselves, get all worked up, or we can settle ourselves down, and deal with the communication problems. Remember: it might not be your e-mail, but something is going to freak out, and you don’t need to heap panic on top of the situation. Let your cooler mind prevail.
Capricorn: There’s always one last Aries birthday I manage to forget. Once I get through that, though, then things are starting to work well for you. Mars is finally getting his sorry butt out of your sign, and that means everything is supposed to calm down for a spell. It’s a good thing, at least, I hope so. [Mars = Aries].
The Mars Movement plus the Sun’s new position, moving into Taurus, all hold good stuff for the Capricorn slice of the sky. This is the beginning of the good times. I’m looking forward to this, and you should be, too. It’s the springtime in Texas, idling up towards the summer [looks like it’ll be a hot one]. I get a chance to quit guessing at whether I should have the AC on or the heater on. The nights aren’t quite as cool as they were, and the days are downright warm. It’s a time when not a lot gets accomplished.
Take a hint from me, lower what your copious expectations are. Lower your standards, your goals, lower everything but your attempts at fun.
Aquarius: I like taking long walks around the hike and bike trail. It clears my mind from the leftover stuff, that mental detrius accumulated from looking at astrology charts. It gets me out of the trailer. It’s supposedly good exercise, but I wouldn’t know anything about that. In March, I find myself being buffeted along by the spring winds. When the wind is at my back, I feel like I’m being blown forward, like a sailboat, and I tend to let myself drift along. With the wind at my back, I’m always reminded of a quote from a modern poet, something about “at my back…” and I don’t recall the rest of the poem.
Know what verse I’m talking about? If so, send it along in an e-mail, and if you get it right, you’re in the running for a free [e-mail delivery only] “FGS Planet Profile”. Now, when the wind is not at my back, but I’m facing into it, I feel like a turbocharged engine. My stride picks up the pace, I start moving at a little better speed. Mars is entering your sign, and it’s like that wind shifting direction, from being blown around to feeling like you’re turbocharged.
Pisces: I will not be fishing with any Pisces this weekend. Look at the chart: you guys will talk too much, all weekend long. That’s a problem, if your audience doesn’t want to listen. Then, next week? After the talk-talk-talk weekend? You realize that you’ve been running off at the mouth for a while, and it’s time to listen.
When I make prognostications like this, I’m looking at several influences, but it seems like there’s a lot of stuff happening in your “talk, now shut up” department. Make a decision, maybe talk it out with some friends over the weekend to make sure you’re making the correct decision–then silently abide by your decision, whatever it is that you arrive at. Here’s a hint: whatever that decision is? I’m sure you will choose correctly, after you’ve talked it out. Just don’t plan on talking with me while we’re fishing.
(c) 2002, 2003 by Kramer Wetzel for astrofish.net
*Answer:
> Samuel Augustus Maverick, an owner of unbranded cattle-lived 1803-1870, the
> term drifting down the language trail to mean unbranded cattle and eventually
> describe to a person like myself who refuses to conform to the norm and acts
> independently, i.e. a person with his head out of his ass finding himself
> surrounded by mental patients that lock themselves up at night.Good old
> Webster’s dictionary 1987 version. .
