Boxcar Willie, 1931–1999 (American country music singer)

* Country music legend, Boxcar Willie, sold more than 100 million recordings, profiting from his unaspected and tight triple-conjunction of Neptune, Venus and the Sun. Born Lecil Travis Martin, he took his nickname from a boxcar, the North American term for an enclosed railroad freight car typically with a square end. Fittingly, Boxcar Willie had a distinctive Grand Square or "box" pattern in his chart, plus "iron horse" planet Jupiter unaspected in the Sagittarius decan and duad of Leo. Not to mention the Uranus-Moon conjunction in the Sagittarius decan of Aries forming the handle of his Bucket shape. A strong Jupiter and a prominence of Sagittarius can indicate the potential for country music stardom.

www.boxcarwillie.com

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WIKIPEDIA BLURB

Boxcar Willie, born as Lecil Travis Martin (September 1, 1931 – April 12, 1999), was an American country music singer, who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Willie" was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name.

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Lecil T[ravis] Martin, 1 September 1931, 00:35 (12:35 AM) CST (+6), Ovilla, Texas, USA (32n31, 96w53). ASC: 27 Gemini. RR: (from birth record). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (©) quotes birth certificate on file.

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Xiao Qian, 1910-1999 (Chinese writer, literary figure)

* For some Taurus-rising folk discovering the details of their birth can be a long and slow process. Xiao Qian ― one of China's finest writers ― did not find out his Western birthdate until he was almost 70. Apparently Venus ruling from the first degree of Pisces kept the information hidden. Xiao, who wrote over six million words in one series of books, had MC conjunct Mercury and the Sun, the latter ruling his 3rd House.

Wikipedia Biography

Xiao Qian (27 January 1910 – 11 February 1999) was a famous essayist, editor, journalist and translator from China. His life spanned the country before and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

As a journalist, he wrote a variety of publications. One of them is his book: xin bian wen shi biji cong shu. The series contains 50 books, in which 6,000,000 words were written. These series were written between the 1980s and early 1990s. The books collected a range of anecdotes and highlights from over 2000 celebrities and researchers. The series became highly reputable and widely accepted when it was released. As the last volume of the series was published in October 1994, another edition of the series were published in Hong Kong and Taiwan shortly after. The work was awarded the "Chinese Book Prize" as early as in 1993.

Written by Xiao between 1939 and 1946, the books, Symphony of Contradictions, Bloody September, and London under Silver Kites reflected his experience during the Second World War while he was living in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. They were mostly concerned with the day to day life of ordinary English citizens. They contained an analysis or speculation about political and military matters. While he was impressed by the determination of the English to defeat Germany, he also observed their negative cultural traits.

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Xiao Bingqian, 27 January 1910, 12:00 (12 noon), LMT (-7:45:40), Beijing, China (39n55, 116e25). ASC: 24 Taurus. RR: A (from his aunt's memory). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes Xiao Qian, Traveller Without a Map [1990]. Trans. Jeffrey C. Kinkley (Stanford University Press, 1993), pp. 1-4: "the north-eastern slums of Peking where I was born . . . But every year, when the seventeenth day of the last lunar month came round, my elders would tell me I'd grown a year older. . . 'You were born in the first year of the Xuantong Emperor [Puyi]' she [my mother] told me. . . an aunt said crossly, 'Gracious, no wonder you noon-born cocks are called troublemakers! (Roosters are supposed to disturb people in the morning, not at mid-day). With that I even knew what time of day I was born . . . Professor Hans Frankel took down a book of conversion tables from his shelf and pinpointed the date of my birth in the Western calendar as 27 January 1910. It took him only a minute or two but the information was very welcome. It came just in time for my seventieth birthday, which otherwise I might very well have missed."

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William Emerson, 1701-1782 (Mathematician)

* William Emerson's father wrote in his old Prayer-book that the future mathematician "was born, Wednesday, May 14, at one o'clock in the morning and 40 minutes."

William Emerson (14 May 1701 – 20 May 1782), English mathematician, was born at Hurworth, near Darlington, where his father, Dudley Emerson, also a mathematician, taught a school. William himself had a small estate in Weardale called Castle Gate situated not far from Eastgate where he would repair to work throughout the Summer on projects as disparate as stonemasonry and watchmaking. Unsuccessful as a teacher, he devoted himself entirely to studious retirement. Possessed of remarkable energy and forthrightness of speech, Emerson published many works which are singularly free from errata.

In The Principles of Mechanics (1754) he shows a wind-powered vehicle in which the vertically-mounted propeller gives direct power to the front wheels via a system of cogs. In mechanics he never advanced a proposition which he had not previously tested in practice, nor published an invention without first proving its effects by a model. He was skilled in the science of music, the theory of sounds, and the ancient and modern scales; but he never attained any excellence as a performer. He died on 20 May 1782 at his native village, where his gravestone bears epitaphs in Latin and Hebrew.

Emerson dressed in old clothes and his manners were uncouth. He wore his shirt back to front and his legs wrapped in sacking so as not to scorch them as he sat over the fire. He declined an offer to become FRS because it would cost too much after all the expense of farthing candles he had been put to in the course of his life of study. Emerson rode regularly into Darlington on a horse like Don Quixote's, led by a hired small boy. In old age, plagued by the stone, he would alternately pray and curse, wishing his soul 'could shake off the rags of mortality without such a clitter-me-clatter.'

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

Photo source: unknown.

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HOROSCOPE NOTES

We expect abstract Neptune, Pisces and the 12th House to be strong in mathematicians' charts. Emerson had a Pisces Ascendant with Jupiter in Pisces in the 12th House ruled by Neptune at the apex of a T-square. His Piscean Jupiter rules the Sagittarius MC.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: 14 May 1701, 01:40 (1:40 a.m.) LMT (0:06:16), Hurworth-on-Tees, Darlington, England (54n31, 01w34). ASC: 22 Pisces. RR=AA (quoted from father's prayer book). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes The Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, Vol. 57, Part 2, p. 775: "'William Emerson' (one of the greatest mathematicians that this or any other age has produced) 'was born, Wednesday, May 14, at one o'clock in the morning and 40 minutes. Baptized June 10, 1701.' The above was extracted from a vacant page of an old Prayer-book, wherein Dudley Emerson (the father of William) has registerd his marriage, and the births of his several children."

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These blog posts and emails are for private recipients only. If it comes to your attention that these posts are being transferred to public media such as a mailing list please notify us.

Copyright Sy Scholfield. All rights reserved in all media.

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John Glassco (New Astrology data and chart)

* A biographer of John Glassco reveals that the Canadian writer was born shortly after midnight.

John Glassco (December 15, 1909 – January 29, 1981) was a Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist. "Glassco will be remembered for his brilliant autobiography, his elegant, classical poems, and for his translations." He is also remembered by some for his erotica.

Born in Montreal to a monied family, John Glassco (Buffy to his friends) was educated at Selwyn House School, Bishop's College School, Lower Canada College, and finally McGill University.[2] At McGill he moved on the fringes of the Montreal Group of poets centred on that campus, which included F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith. Glassco wrote for the McGill Fortnightly Review with Scott, Smith, and Leon Edel.

Glassco left McGill without graduating to go to Paris with his friend, Graeme Taylor, when he was 17 years old. The two settled in the Montparnasse district of Paris which was then extremely popular amongst the literary intelligentsia. Their three-year stay formed the basis of Glassco's Memoirs of Montparnasse (1970), a description of expatriate life in Paris during the 1920s.

The book is presented as a genuine memoir, although Glassco had lightly fictionalized some aspects of the work. In it, he describes meeting various celebrities who were living in or passing through Paris at the time, such as James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Ford Maddox Ford, Frank Harris, Lord Alfred Douglas and others. In the notes to the republished edition in 2007 further characters are identified as thinly disguised descriptions of Man Ray, Peggy Guggenheim and others.

Glassco, a bisexual, was, in the words of Leon Edel, “a bit frightened by certain kinds of women and nearly always delighted if he could establish a triangle.”

In 1931 Glassco contracted tuberculosis. He returned to Canada and was hospitalized. In 1935, after having a lung removed, he retired to the town of Foster in Quebec's Eastern Townships. He served as mayor of Foster from 1952 to 1954.

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

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HOROSCOPE NOTES

"A Gentleman of Pleasure"? Jupiter in Libra trine Venus, plus erotic Pluto in urbane Gemini on the MC.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: 15 December 1909, about 00:05 (12:05 a.m.) EST (+5), Montreal, Canada (45n31, 73w34). ASC: About 26 Virgo. RR=B (from biography). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes Brian Busby, A Gentleman of Pleasure: One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer (McGill-Queens University Press, 2011): "John Glassco's birth, shortly after midnight on 15 December 1909, a relatively mild Wednesday, was announced by way of a lone notice in that afternoon's Montreal Daily Star: GLASSCO – On December 15th, to Mr and Mrs A.P.S. Glassco, a son."

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Copyright Sy Scholfield. All rights reserved in all media.

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Doug Cameron (Newsmaker: New Astrology data and chart)

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* Doug Cameron, the Scottish-born Australian politician and trade unionist, recently chaired the Labor-led committee that has criticised newspapers standing against Labor's media reforms. Many thanks to Caroline Gerard for his data.

Douglas Niven Cameron (born 27 January 1951) is an Australian politician and trade unionist. He has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of New South Wales.

Cameron was born in Bellshill, Scotland. He was first elected to the Senate at the 2007 federal election. He won Labor preselection by mounting a successful challenge to then incumbent Senator George Campbell. Cameron previously served as the national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

Read more from his Wikipedia biography and parliamentary biography.

Photo by Bidgee.

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HOROSCOPE NOTES

Mercury in Capricorn ruling and quincunx the Gemini Ascendant from the 8th House has manifested in an outspoken and forthright speaker.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: Douglas Niven Cameron, 27 January 1951, 12:00 (12 Noon) GMT (+0), Bellshill, Scotland (55n49, 04w01). ASC: 9 Gemini. RR=AA (from birth certificate). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes Caroline Gerard in an email (21 March 2013) for data from birth certificate: "Born at 12 noon! In Calderbank House, Baillieston (a nursing home)."

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Bern Porter: Artist (New Astrology data and chart)

* The birth time of unconventional artist and writer, Bern Porter, was recorded, then corrected, in his baby book, which states he was born in 1910, not 1911 as is often claimed. (The exhibit of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2010 celebrated his centenary).

Bernard Harden "Bern" Porter (February 14, 1911 [1910, ed] – June 7, 2004) was an American artist, writer, publisher, performer, and scientist.

In 2010 his work was recognized by an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Porter is best known for his "founds", which he has published in numerous collections including Found Poems, The Wastemaker, The Book of Do's, Dieresis, Here Comes Everybody's Don't Book, and Sweet End. Publishers of these works included Something Else Press, The Village Print Shop, and Tilbury House.

Bern Porter's underground reputation as an artist-writer-philosopher-scientist is well established among visual artists and writers, and his philosophy of dissent is respected. Dick Higgins, the avant-garde writer and publisher/editor of the Something Else Press, was inspired to call Porter the Charles Ives of American letters'. Recognizing Porter as one of the earliest and most prolific practitioners of Found Poetry', Peter Frank (in his book on Something Else Press) has written: "Porter is to the poem what [Marcel] Duchamp was to the art object, a debunker of handiwork fetishism and exemplary artist-as-intercessor between phenomenon and receptor. He rejects the typical artist's role of semi-divine creator. Porter's eye never tires of seeking accidental, unconventional literature in odd pages of textbooks, far corners of advertisements, the verbiage of greeting cards and repair manuals, ad infinitum."

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

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HOROSCOPE NOTES

Porter had Uranus rising in the 12th House: he sought the accidental and the unconventional in his work.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: 14 February 1910, 05:30 (5:30 a.m.) EST (+5), Houlton, Maine, USA (46n07, 67w50). ASC: 28 Capricorn. RR=AA (from baby book). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes James Erwin Schevill's book, Where to Go, What to Do, When You Are Bern Porter: A Personal Biography (Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, 1992), p. 9: "According to his proud baby book characteristic of the turn of the century — a statement at the bottom of the page reads "A life to be satisfactory should be started right" — Bernard Porter was born at 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, February 14, 1910, on his grandfather's farm in Porter Settlement, just south of Houlton, Maine. On the next page of the baby book is a correction. He was born at 5:30 a.m., weighed eight pounds, and when he was two weeks old, his father placed a $5 gold piece for him in a savings bank. The first caller to see the baby was "Grandpa Porter." Later in the baby book, alongside an advertisement proclaiming that "The name Borden stands preeminent for all that is good in Milk," Porter's parents recorded milestones: Bernard sat at six months old, crept at nine months, . . ."

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Rajinikanth (New Astrology data and chart)

* A biography of Rajinikanth - Asia's second highest paid actor - includes his time of birth.

Rajinikanth (born 12 December 1950 as Shivaji Rao Gaikwad) is an Indian film actor, media personality, and cultural icon. He made his debut as an actor in the National Film Award–winning Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal (1975), directed by K. Balachander, whom the actor considers his mentor.

After a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films, he gradually rose to become an established film actor. He continues to hold a matinee idol status in the popular culture of India. His mannerisms and stylised delivery of dialogue in films contribute to his mass popularity and appeal. After being paid INR26 crore (US$4.73 million) for his role in Sivaji (2007), he became the highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan.

Rajinikanth has worked in over 150 films across various film industries of India. He has won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards—four Best Actor Awards and two Special Awards for Best Actor—and a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award. He was bestowed the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour in 2000. Other than acting, Rajinikanth has also worked as a producer and screenwriter.

Read more from his Wikipedia biography.

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HOROSCOPE NOTES

Pluto in Leo in the First House can confer unflappability and staying power. Rajinikanth's is a real rags-to-riches life story. With luck and hard work he became a superstar and one of the highest paid actors in Asia.

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NATAL DATA and ASTROLOGY CHART

BIRTH DATA: 12 December 1950, 21:45 (9:45 p.m.) IST (-5.30), Bangalore, India (12n59, 77e35). ASC: 13 Leo. RR=B (from biography). SOURCE: Sy Scholfield (c) quotes Gayathri Sreekanth's book, "The Name Is Rajinikanth" (Om Books International, 2008), p. 298.

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