When I was a managing editor, my boss – the editor – wanted to get rid of the daily horoscope. I did a reader survey and found that it was – next to Ann Landers – the best-read feature in the newspaper. And he reluctantly let me keep it.
Back then, newspaper editors were interested in facts – not hocus-pocus. To these logical beings such nonsense was nothing but a waste of space.
But I’m sure you know how fascinated most people are by their horoscope.
And now it seems they haven’t even been getting their sign right.
For example, I was born March 23, and considered myself a fiery Aries. Now it turns out I’ve been a watery Pisces all this time.
Researchers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society double-checked the calculations that Babylonian astronomers used to determine the signs of the Zodiac (during the first millennium B.C.) and found the signs have changed. Over the past few thousand years, the pull of the moon’s gravity has shifted the Earth by about a month, changing the position of constellations along various spots on the sun’s path. And, as you probably know, your star sign is based on the position of the sun along the Zodiac on the day you were born.
The result: your sign is not what you thought it was.
Here’s the new table.
Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus:* Nov. 29-Dec. 17.
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.
So perhaps that hot chick (or cool guy) you thought was your soul mate really isn’t right for you, after all.
