Yesterday I believed that one of the great disadvantages about living in Great Barrington is the number of times each year you have to hear that Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde. If someone loses her car keys, it\u2019s because Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde. If your friend shows up an hour late for lunch, it\u2019s because Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde.<\/p>\n
Early on, I tried to make a joke about it. Like \u201cMercury\u2019s in my thermometer!\u201d Well, that didn\u2019t work big time. Because the people who care about where Mercury is, really care about it. And they definitely didn\u2019t appreciate my mocking the higher powers.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know anything about astrology. So when someone told me that this year, Mercury would turn Retrograde four times not three, I wasn\u2019t sure whether I should be happy or sad. Or what exactly it meant that everything will straighten out by June 14, just before Jupiter turns Retrogade in Aquarius. <\/p>\n
Luckily a lot of people care a lot about Astrology at Fuel. In the old Deli, everyone fought to read the New York Post, mainly for the Sports section. The late great Herbie Reid got it first. But now people like Cassie and Steph and Robin and Jess and Jes, who could care less about the Sports section, want, actually need, to check their readings. Sometimes, there\u2019s a hole in the Eagle where the Astrology column appears. Sometimes you can find it taped to the register up front. And Robin swears it\u2019s not just a \u201cchick thing.\u201d A lot of guys, she says, want to check their chart too.<\/p>\n
I unsuccessfully tried to go with the flow. But there was something stopping me. For a while I smiled enigmatically when people asked me my sign. But that seemed to annoy just about everyone. So I gave in. But whenever I told people my sign was Scorpio, they\u2019d give me this deep penetrating look and say, \u201cNo wonder.\u201d Or \u201cThat figures!\u201d Or ever worse: \u201cThat explains everything!\u201d And it was pretty obvious as I watched them shake their heads that I was in trouble. And quite obviously must have been for a pretty long time.<\/p>\n
Anyway I thought if I was going to write about this the least I could do is check my reading. So for those of you playing along at home, you can check Holiday Mathis\u2019 horoscopes for Monday, June 15, 2009.<\/p>\n
This what Holiday said about me \u2013 and the rest of you Scorpios: \u201cTo recognize that a situation is futile may be smart. However, it might also be lazy. Stay in the game even when you know the odds are stacked against you, and you\u2019ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Holiday saying that I should know better than to be writing about this? Is Holiday suggesting I\u2019m being lazy? Am I supposed to be writing about global warming? I know I\u2019m supposed to stay in the game, but I honestly don\u2019t know which game I\u2019m playing. Is this is a Scorpio thing or a Mickey Friedman failing?<\/p>\n
Thank God, Holiday answers astrological questions and offers celebrity profiles. That turned out to be the life saver for me because there was obviously so much I didn\u2019t know. Like the fact that \u201cCourtney Cox grew up as a Southern belle and had to work to lose her accent. Throughout her life, she has shown her Gemini versatility taking on work as a model, actress, film producer, designer, wife and mother. With natal Mars and Jupiter in Taurus, Cox is not adverse to hard work.\u201d And as everyone who truly knows me knows \u2013 and because I\u2019m a Scorpio \u2013 there probably isn\u2019t anyone who truly knows me \u2013 I am a huge Courtney Cox fan, ever since the Bruce Springsteen music video. Go, Courtney go!<\/p>\n
Suddenly, like a lightning bolt from the sky it all came clear to me. Like, wow \u2013 it\u2019s June 15th. It\u2019s not the 13th anymore. Of course, a stubborn, willful, Scorpio wouldn\u2019t get it. Just wouldn\u2019t take the time to check out where Mercury was.<\/p>\n
Thanks to today\u2019s reading I\u2019m going to google \u201cGemini versatility\u201d and order some online. And I don\u2019t know about the rest of you Scorpios, but I\u2019m out of here. I\u2019m going to change my sign. I\u2019m with Courtney Cox on this one. Goodbye Scorpio. Hello Gemini. And as Holiday says about us Geminis today: \u201cif each person takes responsibility for himself or herself, the day goes smoothly.\u201d Count me in.<\/p>\n
And, as of today, like the rest of you Geminis, I\u2019m plenty glad Mercury Is No Longer in Retrograde,<\/p>\n
Thursday June 18, 2009 \u00a9 Mickey Friedman – All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday I believed that one of the great disadvantages about living in Great Barrington is the number of times each year you have to hear that Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde. If someone loses her car keys, it\u2019s because Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde. If your friend shows up an hour late for lunch, it\u2019s because Mercury\u2019s in Retrograde. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5,"menu_order":995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-145","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5pvz8-2l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256,"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions\/256"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mickeyfriedman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}