Craig Robinson: Connecting the Dots

Followers of this blog know that there’s no TV here in the Palm Springs condo. I watch streaming video on the Net and catch up on the tube at the California Pizza Kitchen downtown.

Today, ESPN was on (as usual) and I didn’t feel like bugging the staff to change the channel to CNBC or Fox Business News to get a stock score, I mean price.

So, I’m eating my Cobb salad and looking up at the screen and all of a sudden there’s Michelle Obama’s brother. I recognized him because he was at the Democratic National Convention. I even know his name is Craig Robinson. What I didn’t know is that he’s a basketball coach for Oregon State University.

O.K. How many of you knew that? More on Craig’s chart and maybe some synastry with the First Lady later in the week.

I made my reputation by calling Kansas as the winner of the NCAA last year — when the bracket was down to four teams. (I’m not that good!)

So I’m getting my March Madness game on. Given the “synergy” in the world, we can’t leave out Oregon State. (Don’t ask me what their record is this year.) Maybe the First Brother-in-Law can go all the way.

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The First Lady from the City of Big Shoulders

Hey, has anyone else out there been following the controversy dogging First Lady Michelle Obama for her choice of sleeveless dresses? Bonnie Fuller has an excellent piece about “Sleevegate” over at Huffington Post.

I didn’t need Fuller to figure out that a woman who bares her arms isn’t just showing off her well-toned biceps and shoulders; she’s indicating her willingness to work, even if the dress in question is an evening gown. And you have to have a little muscle on your bones to help out. Size 0s need not apply!

I also find it interesting that Mrs. Obama hails from the great city of Chicago, which Walt Whitman christened the “City of Big Shoulders.”

On another fashion matter, I recently read a piece about the First Lady’s dazzling selection of flat shoes. No doubt the Capricorn wears them so she doesn’t appear taller than her Leo husband.

How retro, you say? Any Goat worth her salt will tell you that flats are more comfortable when you’re climbing the mountain than heels.

Check out the double-pearls and the black dress in the official White House portrait above. How Capricorn can you get?

Pamela and Monica Parse the Democratic National Convention

Pamela Cucinell and I have moved the time for our AstroChatter BlogTalkRadio show from 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays to noon. Today, Pamela and I chatted about the speeches of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Ted Kennedy, and Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention last night.

If you want to listen to our spirited exchange, you can click here. (Even though this is called BlogTalkRadio, it’s actually a podcast and you can actually listen to it anytime, not just while it’s being recorded.)

Pamela delivers a great interpretation of Pisces Ted Kennedy’s chart and the Massachusetts Senator’s continuing commitment to health care as a right, not a privilege. Last night, Kennedy fired up the crowd assembled at the PepsiCo Center with a rallying cry: “The dream lives on!”

Although the Senator recently had surgery for a brain tumor, he promised delegates that he would be in Washington to see Obama sworn in as President in January. Kennedy’s speech brought tears to the eyes of his niece Maria Shriver. Was that Jon Stewart standing next to her at the convention? It certainly wasn’t Shriver’s husband, California Governor Arnold Schwarzegger.

In our broadcast, Pamela and I take a page from The View and get girly by dishing whether Michelle Obama is a Pisces or Aquarius Moon based on the blue-green color of the dress she wore last night for her DNC keynote. We’re leaning toward Aquarius, which is getting the transit of dreamy Neptune. Here’s the thinking: Aquarius Moon equals cobalt-blue dress, which gets watered down to a seafoam green or turquoise by Neptune.

Those waiting for Michelle to deliver the baby news were let down last night, but her speech praising the virtrues of the working class was a triumph. I wonder who’s feeding Rush Limbaugh the story about Michelle expecting? There was no sign of a bump under that clingy dress.

I haven’t seen a time of birth for Michelle, but evidently Stars Over Washington has got one and confirms that she’s a late Aquarius Moon. Stars Over Washington is one of the many places that Jude Cowell of Jude’s Threshold hangs her hat.

Another highlight of today’s AstroChatter broadcast: Pamela talks about the solar return of the U.S., based on the Sibley chart.

Michelle Obama’s Moment to Shine

A lot has been written about Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, and most of it hasn’t been very nice. Furthermore, the photographers who seemed determined to make Hillary Clinton look pear-shaped like to catch Michelle Obama in a pout or a scowl.

Well, tonight I think she’s going to positively shine at the Democratic National Convention. There will be no stopping the Democratic candidate’s wife, as transiting Venus and Mercury in Virgo trine her Capricorn Sun. With the Virgo emphasis, I think Michelle will make inroads with female working-class voters who supported Hillary but haven’t yet jumped on board the Obama bandwagon.

Here’s Michelle’s natal chart (no time of birth), courtesy of Astrodienst, with transits for today.

Transiting Neptune is on her natal Saturn tonight so I think she’ll be able to soften her hard-nosed image, and it’s traveling with the North Node and Chiron, so I think she’ll strike a chord with the public.

There might be some technical disruption as transiting Saturn is sitting between her natal Uranus/Pluto. Will she face a TelePrompTer malfunction the way her husband did in Bristol, Va. on June 5? I wouldn’t be surprised. But I predict whatever happens, she’s going to come out smelling like a rose.

Rush Limbaugh (my birthday twin but not the same year) is speculating that Michelle is pregnant and that she’ll mention it tonight in her speech. Interesting that both Limbaugh and Michelle are Capricorns. If Michelle is indeed expecting, it would be a good reflection of the Moon/Mars on the Ascendant opposing Uranus on the Descendant in her husband’s solar return.

In my post on Obama’s solar return, I noted that Reinhold Ebertin’s The Combination of Stellar Influences says Moon/Mars equals Uranus can be a “sudden experience in a woman’s life.” That prompted commenter Mandelay to predict that Michelle would have a baby in the White House the way that Jacqueline Kennedy did.

Maybe an Obama pregnancy is what the Democratic candidate needs to show voters that he’s got cojones.

The Astrology of the Democratic National Convention

Astrologers have begun to look at the constellations surrounding the Democratic National Convention, which begins Aug. 25 in Denver. I haven’t weighed in on this myself, but I plan to after I put my niece and nephew on a plane on July 16.

In the meantime, here’s a link to Elsa P.’s blog, which has a thread going on the subject.

Jude’s Threshold also has a page on the convention and is inviting readers to comment.

I encourage readers to post their comments at Elsa and Jude’s site and to comment here, if you’d like. The chart has a grand mutable cross formed by the opposition of Venus/Mercury on the Ascendant in Virgo and Pisces on the Descendant crossed by the opposition of Moon in Gemini and Pluto in Sagittarius, depending on what time you use for the Aug. 25 chart. Sounds like a recipe for lots of surprises!

I’m not the first person to have observed this, but that Venus/Mercury conjunction rising indicates a woman will be making some important remarks. With Uranus opposing the conjunction, the comments may be construed as controversial. So what woman will be talking? Hillary Clinton? Nancy Pelosi? Michelle Obama?

It’s safe to say a woman will have center stage at the convention. You know how I like to go out on a limb. I don’t think it’s Hillary, but perhaps Barack Obama will ask a woman to be his vice-presidential candidate.