Astrology is taken very seriously in Sri Lanka with many people, including politicians and businesspeople, not taking major decisions without first getting advice from astrologers as to what the decision should be and the proper time to take action. When my daughter was born in the US, we refused to tell people back in Sri Lanka what time she was born in order to thwart some relatives there who asked for that information because we knew that they would use to create a horoscope for her and we did not want her to be saddled with this nonsense.
Even in the USA astrology is extremely popular. Many people consult their horoscopes and some do so with great devotion based on strong beliefs in the preposterous idea that the distant stars can have an effect on their lives. Because of this, even in these days when newspapers are cutting back on the number of print pages, they still devote space to publishing daily horoscopes.
While I can understand papers publishing horoscopes as a means of boosting sales, one presumes that the editors at least realize that it is pure bunkum. But maybe not. I was amused to read that the online news outlet Politico actually commissioned horoscopes from at least three different astrologers for the new granddaughter of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
They got back the usual drivel. The baby was apparently born in the ‘Scorpio Moon’ position that “sets her up for a strong relationship with her grandmother.” What was clear to me from reading the astrologers’ ‘predictions’ was that they knew full well who their audience was and what they were looking for and obligingly dished it out.
I can’t bear to extract and quote any more of this rubbish but I invite you to follow the link and see for yourself.
I predict that the child will lead a life of wealth and have many opportunities show up for her.
Now how do I get on Politico’s payroll?
I recently saw a billboard for a psychic along a rural highway that announced that “walk-ins are welcome!” I thought, Isn’t the very idea of making an appointment with a psychic an oxymoron? The psychic should already know you are coming, right?
😉
Here’s an unusual set of horoscopes. You can’t imagine the amount of work that goes into compiling these columns.
Those horoscopes are more informative than many!
Certainly very revealing of something…just not of anything in the reader’s life.
Hello Mano old pal
Good to read your writings!
Shall write again soon.
Regards from
Kesara
Good morning Mano,
When I was fresh out of Journalism school I had a friend who went to work for a small-town newspaper. This was in the days before computer pagination and the paper still did a physical paste-up of each page.
Part of my friend’s job was to assist in that process and she had the particular assignment of keeping track of the daily horoscopes. Each month the paper received the next month’s horoscopes on single sheets and my friend had to cut apart the sheets and paste the right horoscopes in the right columns.
One day, when she was bored, she decided to mix up the messages, putting Virgos down as Tauruses, substituting Libras for Capricorns, &c. No one noticed.
She continued the practice until she could find a job at a bigger paper where she could focus solely on being a reporter.
The readers of her paper never caught on.
Do all you can to make today a less predictable day,
Jeff