Every species of animal has its unique collective nomenclature (a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, an obstinacy of bison, a brood, flock, cluck or peep of chickens, etc.), so why not astrological natives? Since I have seven or eight Virgos in my life, I figured that's a good place to start. (Please don't … Continue reading Cheap Shots #16: What Do You Call a Group of Virgos?
Humor
A Fundamentalist Sex-Education Fable
I think even the Shakers would have caught the satirical drift of this one! Maybe the Tea Party would endorse teaching it in Sunday School. "In the beginning were the primordial “dot” [ . ] and the “cipher” [ 0 ]. Excitation of these principals soon begat the “exclamatory” [ ! ] and the “parenthetical … Continue reading A Fundamentalist Sex-Education Fable
A Common Core Fable
My wife was an elementary school math teacher before her retirement, and deplored the aberration that is Common Core arithmetic. I decided to poke some well-deserved fun at it. The New York Times reports that President Obama has just appointed a blue-ribbon panel of musicians – headed by internationally renowned fantasy author Douglas Adams – … Continue reading A Common Core Fable
A HazMat Fable
For years I had been stewing over the fact that I can no longer buy oil-based deck stain due to environmental concerns over its manufacture. The regulations were a Clinton-era initiative (1998), and resulted in the replacement water-borne products being entirely unsatisfactory. I decided to vent my frustration in a little humor. This one is … Continue reading A HazMat Fable
I, Gadfly
I confess to being more than a little curmudgeonly when it comes to all things political; I think the only good politician is a retired one (even I'm not cruel enough to say a "dead one"), and then only if the obscene life-long retirement benefits are rescinded. My displeasure is of the non-partisan "equal-opportunity" type, … Continue reading I, Gadfly
Serena’s Tarot Light-bulb Joke
I haven't read this one in a while, but thought I would share it because it offers a lot of sound tarot wisdom in humorous form (© 1999 by Serena Powers). Q: How many Major Arcana does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: All of them: • The Fool has already started … Continue reading Serena’s Tarot Light-bulb Joke
“Cheap Shots” #6
Now don't get your back up here, but . . . Who comes up with these crazy notions? First it's "You should leave each and every card in a spread face-down until you're ready to read it," apparently so you don't contaminate your fragile intuitive apparatus with undigested premature details or derail your narrative train-of-thought … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #6
Hop-Frog, the Ourangoutangs and the Tower of Babel: An Allegory about Jumpers
(I hope Edgar Allan Poe forgives me for pinching his story title.) Hop-Frog (the amphibian, not the dwarf) was happily riding along in the turnip truck with 77 other itinerant farm-hands from Frog Hollow. But the driver wasn't paying attention and hit a pothole. Hop-Frog was bounced out into the middle of the road. He … Continue reading Hop-Frog, the Ourangoutangs and the Tower of Babel: An Allegory about Jumpers
“Cheap Shots” #4
Sometimes a deck - even one you've owned and used for years - seems to betray you and starts "speaking in tongues." I'm not one who believes that tarot decks have personalities, only idiosyncrasies introduced by the creator's unique perspective, so I think the fault, if it can be called that, lies with the reader's … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #4
“Cheap Shots” #3
New Age? What "New Age?" I've been haunting the byways of the New Age phenomenon since shortly after its beginning - that's me as an art student in Central Park in 1967, the day I marched down 5th Avenue with the Hare Krishna people in their saffron robes and shaved pates, chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare … Continue reading “Cheap Shots” #3
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 