If you had the spare time Miss Alkon, I'd have said amuse yourself with the tiny mind. Make up a sign on the fly, come up with some convoluted history that might as well come from the diaries of a mad man, and just see how long you can string them along before they figure they're being toyed with.

(Its usually a long time...and its as hilarious as it is horrifying)

Well according to HuffPo and NBC the zodiac is off by about a month.

Further googling says there should be thirteen or fourteen signs by now.

I used to read my horrorscope on a regular basis. But that was because it was generally on the same page as the comics and the Scramble. I don't think I've bought a newspaper in over ten years. The only time I have a newspaper is when someone hands me at a hotel/motel.

I'm going to do something here that I usually try to avoid, which is engage in inter-generational warfare. Back when I was a child, and the adults were mostly Silent Generation and WWII generation, I don't recall nearly the amount of irrational beliefs running around loose as there are today. Yes, the horoscope was in the paper, but people who read it did so only for mild amusement -- I don't recall anyone who seriously believed in that stuff. And no one talked about holistic water or whatever-the-hell. Maybe it was the circumstances I grew up in, around a bunch of engineers and scientists in a region of the country where Boomer nonsense had not yet managed to penetrate.

Well I am confused. Ignoring the illogic of astrology. Mr Professor is confusing and merging two different cultures and beliefs. Quick wiki look and Chinese Astrology is about 2200 years old. Western well maybe about 4000. Still both are different. It would be like trying to merge Hinduism and Christianity. Sure would make a confusing mash up. Hmm the Sacrament with the Kali. Ok you believe in Chinese Astrology and which version Vietnamese, Chinese, Korea and modern California hippy. Because I BELIEVE that you can take any list of attributes you are using and most would have been made up from some white flax eating hippy in the States. But what about Mayan and Hindu astrology. Whatever...

Mr Professor sounds like he is doing the classic buffet choice of beliefs. Hmm I would like a little Buddhist metaphysics, mix with some classic judeo-christian ethics. Ohh can not forget the natural health plan of the ancient Chinese, but I will pick out the tigers balls and stick with the greens. For fun, I will take the Chinese astrology appetizer. Know to pay for this... Shall I use the Bank Of Einsten "God and Dice" plan" or will "I go Shakespeare's "Heaven and Earth". No I will go old classic stubborn FAITH(tm). Damn I forgot that. Can you take TRADITION instead?

Mr Professor put you money where you mouth is. What blood type is your partner. Does it match. Got to be careful, I hear type B boyfriends are bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_types_in_Japanese_culture

My sign? Biscuits and Gravy!

There's a more direct path to stopping the astrology nut.

Point out that Stalin, Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Timothy McVeigh or Hitler were "their sign".

A horoscope is encouraging. Up to and only up to that point, it's useful.

My sign is Neon. I was born in the year of the Slime Mold.
Astrology loons - gotta love 'em. Since it's illegal in most localities to kill 'em.

If you had tracked this guy down to ridicule his beliefs, that would be rude, but he contacted you to ask about it.

I don't find the horoscope to be any more or less ridiculous than any of the other spiritual beliefs people hold. And generally new age people aren't trying to change public policy to suit their own flavor of neediness. They're just a little goofy.

I think you'd be a lot happier if you went offline while you're on FB. That way you won't have to deal with chatters at all -- or just the ones you choose to allow.

Well maybe Amy was a little rude, well more abrupt. In a sense she tried to be polite.
It is a hard to try and tell someone to go away. I mean sometimes I am on the phone or meet a person on the street. I do not always feel like chatting or am busy, so I have to literally to be abrupt. It is all well a good to be listen and be polite, but some people just do not get the clue or cues that someone may need to go. Common phrase of mine "Sorry, I have to be rude, but I need to stop you. I need to go, it was nice chatting...."

Plus, why should someone always hold back an opinion. Sometimes it just feels nice to just say I disagree. Still you can be polite in disagree.

Come on if I am talking to friend and they start expounding about how great it was to get stoned last night and me I go well sorry and say it was not a good thing to do. Maybe try to change the conversation. Friend then starts to get defensive and try to convince I am wrong, then makes me try and feel bad for my opinion.

Plus if you are a friend or even just and acquaintance, I learn to avoid certain topics. Like my friend from Saudia Arabia, why jump down his throat over politics or religion. I will enjoy just talking about comedy with him.

Over the time here on at Amy's I learn to avoid bringing up something LIKE how I am Mormon (inactive). The few times she rails on about Mormonism, well I just ignore it, maybe groan and roll my eyes. Just agree to disagree. I think she is wrong, why let that that ruin the other things I enjoy about her.

Mr Professor should have taken that hint, shrugged his virtual shoulders and moved on. But no he had to get defensive.

The point is that people should keep their personal spiritual/religious/magical/fantasy beliefs to themselves unless asked. It's like being a kid... only speak when spoken to. Or like being a middle-aged self-absorbed attention whore... don't record creepy lecherous thoughts about the hot teacher in a journal she will be grading.

Then again, if you are an active member on FriendFace and you accept random nutballs as friends, one must expect to be deluged with annoying questions and vapid messages. Also, if you respond to fools, it only encourages them to repeated contacts.

So, basically, you asked for it. However, it did make a nice post topic which is, at least, productive procrastination. Another positive is that he didn't ask for a sample of your bathwater...

I recall something from "Dr. Demento":

"I met a girl at a party, she asked me for my sign.
I blinked and answered 'neon' - I thought I'd blow her mind."

Tim: "Existential Blues." Amy, do you personally think it is rude to ignore messages from people you don't know? It seems like it would make your life so much easier if you did not engage these people at all. They will think you are rude no matter what you do, unless you make your life revolve around them.

Tim - reminds me of Elvis Costello's "Red Shoes" "I said I'm so happy I could die / She said "drop dead," then left with some other guy."

"So you don't think it's rude to ridicule my beliefs?"

"No, I think it's generous. If your beliefs aren't ridiculous they will satnd up to scrutiny and if not, if they are ridiculous, you have me to thank for helping you get rid of them. You're wlecome."

Sure, the "horoscope" is silly & useless, but if you look at someone's complete chart you can learn a lot about them.

That is my favorite thing I've read this week. Sure it's bullshit, but if I compile all the bullshit, it's actually really true!

John Facebookwackadoodle, if you're reading this, thanks for the chuckle.

Back when I was a child, and the adults were mostly Silent Generation and WWII generation, I don't recall nearly the amount of irrational beliefs running around loose as there are today.

Hmm...I am coming up short on Greatest Generation irrationalities. If I go back a few more decades though, there are rich pickings: Social Darwinism, theosophy, mediums, fairies, phrenology...

Astra, you have a good point about early 20th-century spiritualism. To a certain extent, I can let them slide because scientific knowledge had not progressed nearly as far at that time -- some people still alive then had been born before the germ theory of disease was worked out. But yeah, there was a lot of pseudo-scientific belief running around circa 1920. Maybe if one goes back through history, it's more of a cyclical thing than I thought. I'll have to do some research on that.

Aw, lighten up on the astrologists! It's just party chatter. It's fun.

I recently found out I'm a dragon, not a snake, because I'm born in January and the Chinese New Year starts at the end of January-ish.

So now it's wrong to ridicule the ridiculous?