Sign up with your email address to be the first to know about new products, VIP offers, blog features & more.

Question of the Week: Zodiac

By Posted on 58 1 m read 2.7K views

Rest in peace, Cletus. xoxo

*

Sunday is my birthday, so today’s question is, What’s your sign, and what’s your age? Come on, be brave.

*

Wednesday you’ll see something that developed in the comments section a few months ago, when several of you mentioned that you’d lost your parents, and I encouraged those of you who were interested to put a little something together about that.

It seems like a week talking about birthdays might also be a time to remember the people whose birthdays still come and go and remind us of their impact on our lives. As you’re typing in your sign and age, feel free to type in the sign and age of anyone you’re missing.

Share this article

Leave a Reply to Carolyn Burns Bass Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

58 Comments
  • Myfanwy Collins
    March 19, 2007

    Happy Birthday WEEK!!!

    Me: Scorpio, age 39

    missing: Pisces, age 75 (this is the hardest month of my year as my mother’s birthday is the beginning of March and she died on April 1 several years ago).

  • Avital
    March 19, 2007

    I hope this month won’t be too hard on you, dear Myf.
    I know how hard it can be. My mother died a week before I turned 17, and for many years December was my cruelest month. She was born on November 10th. My father, who died when 2 months after I turned 12 (my bat-mitzvah, I don’t know how but he was at home for the party) was born on the 15th of August.
    My birthday is 22 of December. Until I turned 23 I considered my self a capricorn. Then, an Indian astrologer mad a detailed map and found I was actually a sagittario.
    The papers don’t seem to agree with him, so I’m still having a split personality between Capricorn and saggitario. You can pick the one you prefer most…Happy upcoming birthday, Sue!

  • Robin Slick
    March 19, 2007

    Hey, sorry about your friend, Cletus…but what are the odds that you and I both have the name “Cletus” in our respective blogs today albeit for completely different reasons?

    And yep, Happy Birthday week, Sue! It figures you are an Aires. If I believed in horoscopes, which I do not — you, along with Sagittarius (my husband), are my most compatible signs.

    Because I am a Leo. August 17. And oh god, I’m over thirty, that’s all you need to know.

    Missing: My mom, who died decades ago when I was a young girl and never got to meet her own grandchildren nor see how her very young son — who, as I’ve probably told you ad nauseam, I became legal guardian of before I was like legally allowed to drink — turned out (he’s a gazillionaire living with his beautiful wife and two young sons in Connecticut)…she would have been 77 this year and she was a Sagittarius, too.

  • A.S. King
    March 19, 2007

    A fellow Pisces –

    Just turned 37

    Our best friend Ian, whose birthday is a few days before mine, would have been 41. He is missed more every year.

  • LaurenBaratz-Logsted
    March 19, 2007

    Happy Birthday, doll!

    Me: Cancer, 44.

    Avital, my dad was born on November 10 as well and died first week of December, 1992. He was born in 1921.

  • Nathalie
    March 19, 2007

    Born 28th November 1964, which people tell me makes a Sagittarius out of me.
    I prefer to think that I am a dragon, but nobody seems to get excited about this, whereas they get quite vocal on my being a Sagittarius. I admit of feeling a little nonplussed.

    Do try to enjoy your birthday despite the loss.
    My best friend was born today as well and she’s the person I miss the most. She died of cancer shortly after her 39th birthday and each year, on her birthday, I have a Guinness or a Fernet-Branca in her memory and do something wild, like she might have done. This year, I have been a little reasonnable and just posted a picture of her in my blog (she was an internet addict).

  • mikel k poet
    March 19, 2007

    happy birthday susan. i m a cusp gemini born june 20, 1957 which soon makes me five oh.

  • Jim
    March 19, 2007

    Happy birthing day, Sue!

    Capricorn here, with a psychic age (the only one I acknowledge) of 42.

    I miss Donna, first love and fellow Capricorn.

  • Paula
    March 19, 2007

    I’m 37 (I have to stop and do the math sometimes now, which I consider a bad sign) and a Libra.

    This is spooky, because hours ago I just posted a blog about my beloved grandparents who have died. And that got me thinking about the last birthday present I gave my grandmother for some reason. I have it now, a music box.

    I also miss one of my best friends who died just two days after we had been celebrating my birthday — that was the last time I saw her alive.

  • Laini Taylor
    March 19, 2007

    Like Avital, above, my birthday is Dec 22 — I’m always meeting people with my birthday! I’m 35, born on the first day of Capricorn. Also, like Avital, I’ve never identified with Capricorns, not that I’m into astrology. Also, I learned in a college astronomy class that there actually SHOULD be 13 signs — there are actually 13 constellations that lie on the sun’s eclliptic. The 13th is called “Ophiucus,” which means “the serpent bearer” and it falls between Scorpio and Sag. I don’t know why “they” elected to leave it out.

  • Robin Slick
    March 19, 2007

    I’ll tell you what’s spooky.

    Nathalie – my husband’s birthday is November 28 and today is my evil, estranged father’s birthday which would make it a horrible, sad day for me as well if not for the fact that it’s also the anniversary of my first date/kiss with my husband (I remember it well because he was my father’s pot dealer…we got stoned with my dad, got munched out, ate his birthday cake with a gallon of cheap wine…and then…err…made out in the woods nearby even though it was below freezing outside. We were all of sixteen years old and yes, I know, there’s a whole story there and yep, I wrote a book about it)…and in a completely bizarre case of history repeating itself, today is also the anniversary of my daughter’s first date/kiss with her boyfriend…three years ago today…they had pizza in an Italian restaurant where I used to go on dates with their dad at age 16 and have continued the tradition yearly, which is completely crazy in itself. (That the restaurant is even still around, for one thing)

    And Susan, weird, it’s actually “Cleetus” and “Cetus”, two completely separate entities, I mention in my blog today. But still…

  • Shannon
    March 19, 2007

    33. Virgo, pushing the Libra cusp. This means, I alphabetize my books but prefer daydreaming or aimlessly wandering in sunshine to organizing anything in my apartment.

  • Ric Marion
    March 19, 2007

    Just celebrated my birthday – the Ides of March – and I fit Pisces to a tee. 56 this year – should be retired – oh, wait, that takes money – and, oh yes, maybe I should decide what I want to be when I grow up – but I’m still young, have another 40 years or so.

    Happy Birthday, Susan.

    Ric
    http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/RicMarion/

  • Betsy
    March 19, 2007

    Gosh, the losses we’ve all had. Sue, I am sorry for yours, and for everyone else here as well.
    Me: 5/18/61 = Severe Taurus
    Mom: 6/15/37 – 11/24/98 = Total Gemini = would have been 70 this year.

  • Lori Oliva
    March 19, 2007

    Happy birthday! I’m a Libra…while I have many Libra qualities (balanced, lofty, strive to see the beauty in all things), I possess a lot of Scorpio in my astrological make up as well (intense, passionate, dark)oh, and I’m 41. I’m thankful that my parents are still with me and healthy. We are a very close family and I have two great sisters who have started their young family. In May, I’ll become a Godmother!

  • Kris Yankee
    March 19, 2007

    Me: 38 and a very typical Leo.

    Missing: A dear aunt whose birthday is at the end of this month. What was ironic was we celebrated her birthday every year on the 28th. When she died and we found her birth certificate, her actual birthday was on the 27th. She was like a grandmother to me, and I miss her very much.

    Happy Birthday Susan!

  • Simon Haynes
    March 19, 2007

    Age 39 and I’m a Scorpio.

  • lance reynald
    March 19, 2007

    36, Libra…very much so! ask around.

    missing:
    best-friend- Aries. left when we were 19. overdose.
    first true love-Virgo. left when I was 23. suicide.
    Mom- Virgo- left when I was 32. Cancer.
    Dad- Scorpio. left just a month ago. Heart attack.

    I miss them all…very much, everyday. They’re always with me, and certainly with each other now; watching. I try to find comfort in the fact that they must still have hopes and dreams for me. But, everyday I want to pick up the phone and call each and every one of them, just to hear their voices…share my news…wish them well…catch up…or just to tell them I love them.

    but, telephone calls are a daydream. the missing is a part of day to day life now.

    Happy Birthday Week, Wondertwin!!

    xoxo! LR

  • Ellen Meister
    March 19, 2007

    Me – Scorpio, November 18. Age: Younger than dirt, but only slightly.

    Missing – Fern Meyerowitz, a Capricorn born on December 29. (More here: http://ellenmeister.blogspot.com/2005/12/fern-meyerowitz_29.html) I miss you, Fern!

  • Aurelio
    March 19, 2007

    When I was growing up as one of a family of 8 kids, we celebrated birthdays nearly every month of the year! I got stiffed though, because I’m a Capricorn, born December 27th 1957. (Pssst – If you don’t do math, that makes me 49.)

    Yep – I’m old – turn 50 this year.

    My folks usually just held back a Christmas gift to give me on my birthday. Like a kid isn’t gonna figure out he got one less gift than the rest of his 7 his sibs??? Nice try, folks.

    The person I’m missing the most these days would be my partner, Chuck’s, dad, who passed away just a few years ago. He made me martinis that would fill a milk glass (no ice cubes to get in the way) and for some reason liked to tell everyone I was smart.

    Have a Happy Birthday, Susan! Hmmm… I’ll have to think of something special to do to help you celebrate! 🙂

  • Nicole
    March 19, 2007

    Hi …
    My name’s Nicole, I’m 43. I’m a Scorpio and I like long walks on the beach.

    Ok, I don’t really like long walks on the beach. I mean, they are OK, but that’s not the first thing I’d tell you about me. I just thought it went with the sentence.

  • Carolyn Burns Bass
    March 19, 2007

    I was born May 5, in the year Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote was published, Auntie Mame won the Oscar for best picture, Johnny Cash was signed to Capitol Records, Perry Como and Ella Fitzgerald won Grammys for best male and female performances, and the Mercury space program was established. I would be a Taurus.

    I lost a dear friend to a suicide 23 years ago. She was my mentor in life and in death, as what I learned from her passing is to take care of myself spiritually, mentally, and physically. I miss you, Linda G.

    Three other significant passings, chronological:

    1989: My father, Henry (the former sword swallower), died alone on his sailboat in Long Beach harbor, of a heart attack in his sleep. Living in Japan at the time, I recall standing inside the little post office on the American airbase, looking at this white envelope from the LA County Coroner. Beneath the address block on the upper left of the envelope was typed: Coroner Case XX: Burns, Henry A. The Red Cross contacted me later that afternoon and the next day, six-months pregnant, with my 16-month-old daughter in tow, I was on a flight from Osaka to LA (husby had to wait for emergency leave). His birthday was March 6.

    1990: My sister, Angela, angel of mercy (a nurse), single mom, mother to 5-year-old Jacob, who’s now 22. Even her close ties in the medical community couldn’t save her from the easiest cancer to catch and cure, but one of the most deadly if not found early. Melanoma. All those days at the beach when we were young were literally killing my blue-eyed, freckled face sister. Her primary melanoma was partially removed when she was 15, but the lab mislabeled it and she was never treated for the follow-up. Her birthday is May 15. I always send a donation to the American Cancer Society in her memory.

    2003: My mother, Elnora, named for the heroine in the novel, A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST by Gene Stratton-Porter. She was a gifted vocalist with a three-octave range, who performed pop standards on the piano at home, but loved singing most of all in church. Her last two months were spent in the hospital with undiagnosed cancer. I sat beside her every day, listening to her sing the songs of my childhood and wishing I could see the imaginary people she saw at the end.

    Hey Stella! (A.S. King). So glad you stopped by. You’re going to like it here.

  • Anneliese
    March 19, 2007

    40, dammit, although I swear I’m still 17. Scorpio, born in the year of the Fire Horse – the Chinese used to kill daughters born in Fire Horse years – too independent, no good.

    I miss my grandma all the time. She was a cancer. She died a handful of years ago of just being too old and tired of it all. The older I get, the more I understand her. She was like a mother to me because my mom died when I was 3. Thanks for letting me shout that out.

  • Anneliese
    March 19, 2007

    p.s. I meant to capitalize that “cancer” to Cancer, so you would understand that to be not The Big C, but the other kind of Cancer. 🙂 No edit function, foiled again!

  • Brandon Hobson
    March 19, 2007

    Happy Birthday Sue.
    I’m 36 and a Taurus (4/27/70).
    Have a great one!

  • Julie Ann Shapiro
    March 19, 2007

    Gemini – May 31st – Young at heart and an old soul. What do you expect? I’m a gemini -the twins sign you know!

    I miss my Grandma. She visits me in my dreams sometimes and that’s really cool. We talk there and travel and go places that neither of us did when she was alive. She tells me messages there and if I’m lucky when I wake up the message is still with me.

  • Noria
    March 19, 2007

    I’m 37. Born the day before Halloween. Scorpio sun, Aquarius rising, Cancer moon, Venus and Mercury in Libra.

    My father was a Capricorn born on New Year’s Day.

  • Kimberly
    March 19, 2007

    Wow. I’m really the first Aquarian to fess up? Cool!

    Actually, I’m an Aquarian-Ox, and fit every darn trait I’ve ever read about both signs. Makes me happy, I love being an air sign and a stubborn hermit!

    B’day: February 3, 1973 – just made it through my “Jesus-Year.” Feelin’ pretty good about that!

    Missing birthday: March 14. Grandpa Gilmartin. The 20th anniversary of his passing is next month. I still cuddle under the patchwork quilt he made me for my 14th birthday on cold nights and can’t ever wash it, because I’m totally superstitious and fear that’s when I’ll totally lose him…

  • Ronlyn Domingue
    March 19, 2007

    Have a wonderful birthday, Susan!

    I’m a Virgo with Scorpio rising. The two battle it out. I’m 37.

    Missing…my grandmother Dorothy who died in 2006, three days after her 87th birthday. She was a Pisces, a magician with mere cloth and thread, an outstanding cook, a brave heart, a beautiful soul.

  • Alexi Lykissas
    March 19, 2007

    Happy Birthday, Susan!
    I’m an October Scorpio born in the year of the dog, with Aries rising.
    I’m only 24, which generally makes me the youngest person among any group of writers that I know.

    Missing: my Greek grandmother who passed away around this time in 2002, she was born March 3 and two years ago I visited her grave in Athens on her birthday. I’ll never forget her great cooking and warm hugs.

  • Larissa Shmailo
    March 19, 2007

    Happy Birthday!Now that the new moon has brought a solar eclipse today, I’ll tell you my chart, in part: Sun Gemini 1956, Moon Pisces, Rising Sagittarius, Mars Aquarius; wouldn’t you know that I don’t know where my Venus is? I have a new poem on myspace http://blog.myspace.com/larissaworld
    called Between Eclipses with an oblique reference to horoscopes in Lear Act 1 Sc ii, “oh these eclipses do portend fa sol la mi …”

  • Malcolm Campbell
    March 19, 2007

    Leo, 62
    Missing: parents, gone 19 and 20 years respectively, mother who was Sagittarius, father who was Aquarius

    Old friends, all around the zodiac, wandering about out of sight but not out of mind

    –Malcolm

  • Kaytie
    March 19, 2007

    May 27, Gemini, as fickle as they say.

    I miss my grandmother, (May 28) who died a few weeks after her last birthday. We used to spend our birthday weekends together…

  • Aimee
    March 19, 2007

    I am a 31 year-old Virgo. I am the typical perfectionist Virgo.
    I miss my Grandfather Olaf who was born the same day as my SO Aaron, Feb 13th. He passed away Nov 7th 2003.
    I also miss my friend and fellow Virgo Todd, who passed away in 1994 just a month after turning 21.

  • Julie Ann Shapiro
    March 19, 2007

    Susan,
    Have a Happy Birthday!
    Julie

  • Grant Bailie
    March 19, 2007

    Happy birthday.

    I am 45 and a Virgo, but I mean to have my sign legally changed.

    My Mom was a Virgo. I miss her.

  • Daryl
    March 19, 2007

    I was born on my mother’s birthday, September 2, 1958. She was born in 1929 and was 29 years old at the time I was born. So I am 48 now. I have a 24 year old son. My father died when he was 36. I was 12 years old at that time. I am the sloppiest, most unkempt Virgo walking the western coast of this continent – I swear, but I over-analyze the hell out of things in my mind. Mind you, I’m not judgmental of people or friends but thinking so hard prevents me from actually getting things done. Miss dad the most.

  • Jordan
    March 19, 2007

    The virgos are all at the end there… wonder what that says about us. Actually I’m told I come off as more Leo than Virgo.

    August 30th. 32 years (and 1/2 🙂

    Missing: My cat Figaro, who I believe was an Aries–died January 9th of this year.

    Honestly, I miss him most of all. My grandparents passed on many years back now. I’ve been lucky to lose few others.

    One of my writing teachers, Stephanie Moore, I believe a Sag, died far too young–age 51, January, 2006. Come to think of it, all major deaths in my life and loved ones’ lives have happened in January. My maternal grandparents. My husband’s father. Our beloved stinky boy.

    Part of why I despise that month, no offense to you capricorns and Aquarians.

  • Laura
    March 19, 2007

    Taurus, May 9, 1962…another trip around the sun almost complete.

  • Susan Henderson
    March 20, 2007

    Hey, all of you, I love your stories and thinking about your birthdays and hearing about the ones you miss. Just want you to know I’m taking it all in.

    Hi and welcome to all of you who are new here.

    Cletus Anderson, by the way, is someone Mr. Henderson and I have known since we were teenagers, and he died Friday afternoon. It’s been kind of an emotional weekend here because Cletus was somewhere between friend and father figure, and our boys don’t remember all their times with him at his house but he was good to all four of us. I’m not exactly sure how he ended up doing campy horror films because he was a gentle, geeky, gourmet cook type of guy. But if you want to watch Creep Show in his honor this week, or really any of the George Romero movies, maybe he’d get a kick out of that.

    xo

  • Mark Bastable
    March 20, 2007

    Sagittarius – December 16th, the same day as Jane Austen, Ludwig van Beethoven and Noel Coward.

    Me, Ludwig and Noel kinda feel that the Austen broad kinda puts a downer on the whole event.

  • Claudia
    March 20, 2007

    9/29/69 – I’m a Libra.

    I miss Crissy, who saved me from sixth grade loneliness. She would be my age, well, a few months younger, and she died over three years ago.

    I also miss my grandpa, and have been missing him since 1988. He was born on St. Patrick’s Day.

  • Claudia
    March 20, 2007

    I will see if I can watch some Creepshow, Sue.

    My grandpa’s name was William Henry Cupp but everyone called him Bill, and my grandmother called him Billy. I miss her, too. She died in 1982. She was something like fifteen years older than he was so she would be almost a century old now, I think; he would be in his 80s. I’m terrible at remembering signs, but I think Crissy was a Leo.

  • n.l. belardes
    March 20, 2007

    Hi Susan,

    This is a great topic, just a little too close to home for me. Thanks for taking down my comment… I was all teary-eyed after I posted and had to go for a walk. I appreciate you and everyone on here who have told such personal details!

  • Anneliese
    March 20, 2007

    n.l.: if it’s of any interest, your sharing attracted me to click your link, which led to your site, which led me to your MySpace page, which let me know more about you. So, however personal, it was very much appreciated by me, and I’m glad to know you.

    Another California writer,
    Anneliese

  • Terry Bain
    March 20, 2007

    Damn. I missed yesterday. Been down with cold and sniffles. Happy birthday, Sue.

    My birtdhay is in July. I’m a Cancer. And I’m 39.

    Blessings.

  • EminemsRevenge
    March 20, 2007

    Happy birthday…and I am somewhere between 6 and sixty depending on how i wake up in the mourning…LOL…MOURNing all the time i misspent in me youth:(

  • Jason Boog
    March 20, 2007

    I’m a cusp baby born on April 20th. My birthday is also 4-20, a date revered by potheads, a date that also has some really grim birthdays and anniversaries too…

    Some call us Taurus, some call us Aries. I say Taurus if anybody asks.

    I’m turning 30 this year, and the only thing that bothers me about it is that I’m not even close to meeting all my little writing deadlines I set for my birthday.

  • dennis mahagin
    March 20, 2007

    Happy Birthday, Susan!

    I’m an Aquarius in my mid-forties.

    I too enjoy walks on the beach–but of shorter duration these days, so as to make room for Vain Bonfires at Dusk, Horseshoes and perhaps the occasional round of Jarts–I mean, those special kind of Jarts that work better in sand than grass on account of the rounded-off “safety points.”

    Best,

    D 😉

  • James
    March 20, 2007

    CONGRATS, SUE! Let’s go grocery shopping with a microphone! You’re the best!

  • Amy Wallen
    March 20, 2007

    Susan, What a great b’day present!

    I’m a Capricorn, which means I don’t believe in any of that crap, but find it ironic that I fit the description to a tee.

    My grandmother was a Capricorn from Texas, and she used to say, “Why do you live out in California and you ain’t never been on one of them game shows?” Being on a game show was her dream. So, I modeled one of my main characters (Loralva) in MOONPIES AND MOVIE STARS after my g’ma and put her on the Price is Right. She didn’t live to see the book published, but I hope somehow she knows how she did on the show!

    May you win the Showcase Showdown on your b’day!

  • lance reynald
    March 21, 2007

    n.l. hey friend, I caught your bit before it came down…and considering the road I’ve been on for the past month…I appreciated it. and want to just take this moment to thank you for it. keep it around, maybe just close to your heart…but, keep it. thank you, you may not have realized it from where you are with it; but it helped me.

  • Shelley Marlow
    March 21, 2007

    happy birthday, Ms. Aries!

    My birthday was Feb 25. I turned 48, yikes. This is what 48 looks like.

    My Scorpio aunt died today, sadly. My Leo uncle died a few weeks ago. Too many funerals.

  • Sarah Roundell
    March 21, 2007

    I’m 30 now and a Gemini through&through. I think my sign defines me in so many ways and can’t imagine what it would be like to be born at any other time of the year.
    I see that many on here are missing someone and I share in that as I could spend a fair chunk of time writing about the loved ones that have passed on.
    I’d rather say how much I’m missing the British boy who takes up space in my heart. He’ll be 24 on March 26 and believe it or not the Aries in him brings out the best in this Gemini. The distance between us does help with the creative juices though. I wonder if I’ll be able to write at all when he lives here…

  • Mary Akers
    March 21, 2007

    Happy birthday, Sue! I’m a Taurus (5/20/65), cusp of Gemini, and I’m missing my cranky Virgo grandmother and my frank Scorpio father.

  • Aida Wojcik
    March 21, 2007

    Happy Birthday Susan!!!

    (from 57 years old Gemini :))

  • Amy Kiger-Williams
    March 22, 2007

    Happy birthday Susan!

    Last Friday was a toughie for me. I lost my grandmother on 3/16/00 (at 79) and my husband’s grandmother on 3/16/02 (at 92). Both of them died at 4:00 in the morning, a coincidence that I find strange and somehow weirdly karmic in some way that I don’t think I’ll ever understand, especially since they lived halfway across the country from each other and they never met.

    I’m a 39 year old Sagittarius, with Taurus rising. The plodding, worker-bee Taurus in me keeps all the free-wheeling, carefree Sagittarian traits that I desire to possess firmly in check. *sigh*

  • Bruce Hoppe
    March 22, 2007

    Happy b-day Susan.

    Mine: March 20, 1943, and that adds up to 64 big ones. Which means that the Beatles tune I once performed in various 60s pickup bands now gets dusted off for a reprise with, alas, new implications.

    A Pisces, but being on the cusp gives me some leeway to mix and match things.

Susan Henderson