In the third and final article in this series, we discuss the aftermath of the Mercury Retrograde period (July 14 to Aug. 8). Let's review some of the unusual events that occurred during the 3 Weeks When The World Goes Haywire courtesy of the cosmic "trickster," known as Mercury Retrograde. If only the cautionary advice in this column was heeded!
To understand the effects of Mercury Retrograde you must first understand Mercury's influence on you. Mercury rules your intelligence, mind, memory, as well as all types of information and communication ranging from talking to texting. In a more public sense, it rules commerce, computers, telephones, transportation, and air travel.
As we discussed: When Mercury goes RETROGRADE three to four times a year, communications of all types go awry or "haywire!" During the past three weeks, under its planetary influence, you are likely to have experienced misunderstandings, miscommunications, misinformation, and human errors like you've never seen!
At work: negotiations breakdown, projects fail, clients change their mind, and people "go back on their word." Things are not what they seem. People say thoughtless or embarrassing things.
You experience frequent cancellations, long delays in air and car travel. It's a time when you can expect major computer glitches and inconvenient mechanical breakdowns. It's a time when you lose things. Fortunately, if you lost them when Mercury was "direct" you might actually find them during the "retrograde" period.
The problem is that during the time that Mercury is in retrograde, people's mental faculties "go on vacation."
Let's review the TOP 13 Retrograde news stories of the past three weeks. They are not meant to be funny. While funny and crazy things occur during this time period, there are often mistakes made under Mercury Retrograde that bring misfortune and even death. The Retrograde period should be taken very seriously!
- French president's 'Mr. Normal' image hit by "tweetgate!" -- AP, Paris reports -- A "tweet" communication exposed a feud involving the French President François Hollande, his live-in girlfriend, his former partner, and his eldest son. It may have tarnished the new leader's carefully cultivated image as "Mr. Normal."
- Dick Cheney: Picking Sarah Palin for VP Was 'A Mistake' -- In his first interview since receiving a heart transplant in March, Cheney told ABC News that John McCain's decision to pick Palin as his running mate in 2008 was "a mistake."
- Cop's alleged threat against Michelle Obama being investigated by Secret Service -- msnbc.com reports, A Washington, D.C. police officer has been removed from his unit and placed on administrative duty over remarks he allegedly made about first lady Michelle Obama. According to the Secret Service, the officer, who worked as a motorcycle escort for White House officials, "allegedly said he would shoot the first lady and then used his phone to retrieve a picture of the firearm he said he would use," according to The Washington Post.
- United Passengers Revolt After Being Stranded for 3 Days in China -- United Airlines Flight 87 from Shanghai, China, to New Jersey should have taken just 13 hours instead of three days. The flight was canceled twice because of maintenance on the Boeing 777, and a third delay came because the flight crew had been on duty too long.
- Cop Shoots Man Dead... At "Wrong Address" - A story in The Huffington Post confirms that Police in Florida fatally shot an innocent man over the weekend after they mistook him for an attempted murder suspect.
- Man bit needle in Delta Airlines sandwich -- One of the airline passengers who bit into a sandwich containing a one-inch needle earlier this week has now been put on antiretroviral drugs used for the treatment of HIV. The passenger has stated that the FBI is investigating the incidents aboard four Delta Air Lines flights as a criminal case.
- Man Finds Prized Austin Healey On eBay -- 42 Years After Being Stolen From His Home -- NBC News reports a prized sports car, stolen 42 years ago, was found by the rightful owner after he spotted it on eBay. According to authorities, it had been stolen in 1970.
- Stolen Matisse recovered after 10 Years -- A $3 million missing Matisse painting, that had been stolen nearly 10 years ago and swapped for a fake at a Venezuelan museum, has reportedly been recovered by FBI agents. The agents were posing as art collectors at the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach Tuesday.
- Marlins' Baseball Team Owners conned Miami, lined their pockets and held a fire sale! -- Jeff Passan, sportswriter for Yahoo! Sports, reports: "Here is how the con worked. The Florida Marlins owners whined, and they brayed, and they swore up and down that they couldn't afford the new stadium necessary to raise their payroll from embarrassing levels and compete annually." Subsequently, that got the taxpayers to pay for the stadium while taking most of the ballpark's revenue streams for themselves. After spending $100 million to assemble a "dream team (removed comma)" they proceeded to shed $32.75 of that payroll commitment; thereby "disassembling" the "dream team" they had previously committed to in order to get their new stadium.
- Knight Capital Loses $440 Million Trading Loss From Trading Glitch -- Knight Capital Group, a major brokerage, said it lost $440 million in a trading glitch that rattled the stock market and renewed concerns over computerized trading on Wall Street. Knight pinned the technological malfunction on newly installed software that sent "numerous erroneous orders" into the stock market on Wednesday.
- Police lose keys to Wembley Stadium -- Police guarding Wembley Stadium, where Olympic football matches are being played, revealed Monday that they have lost a set of keys to the venue. Officers searching the stadium in London, ahead of the start of the Olympic Games, misplaced the keys prompting an investigation by Scotland Yard, but organizers insisted that security has not been compromised.
- Utah man's confessional obituary owns up to life of pranks -- Appearing in The Salt Lake Tribune, Val Patterson's obituary notes: "Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I should now say. I never earned an advanced engineering degree from the University of Utah" (that gained him entrance to his chosen professional career). "What happened was that the day I went to pay off my college student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my receipt into the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the mail. I didn't even graduate, I only had aboutthree years of college credit. In fact, I never did even learn what the letters 'PhD' even stood for."
- Couple to remarry almost 50 years after divorce -- Never doubt the power of second chances. A couple, Lena Henderson and Roland Davis of West Seneca, N.Y., who divorced in 1964, are remarrying almost 50 years later. According to a story in the Buffalo News, the two married as teenagers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and divorced 20 years later. When Davis' second wife died, he popped the question to his ex-wife over the phone. Davis asked, "Will you marry me again?" She answered, "Well, well, yes." The 85-year-olds tied the knot for a second time on Aug. 4.
BEWARE: Ironically enough, the next Mercury Retrograde occurs on Nov. 6, 2012 -- the Presidential Election Day! Stay tuned to this column: This will be one Presidential Election you'll never forget!
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