TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Aries (March 21-April 19):

A foreign place intrigues you. What’s so appealing? Which element of your personality is hooked into this fantasy? The answer to these questions will help you make yourself happy in the here and now. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Powerful internal forces can be resistant to progress. Put another way, in the zoo of your mind you are both the elephant and the animal trainer. Use treats. All moves, however slow, should be taken as progress. Gemini (May 21-June 21): Remember when you felt in sync with the world and excited by the challenge before you? That had something to do with the people around you offering the same kind of camaraderie and encouragement you’ll receive today. Cancer (June 22-July 22): How you got caught up in a particular belief system is a long and perhaps currently irrelevant story. You’re caught in its net. To get free, take out your mental scissors and snip away at everything that’s not freedom. Leo (July 23-Aug. 22): Though the gentle way is, over time, the most powerful, some projects and relationships are so brief that unless you exert yourself in powerful bursts you’re not going to get the chance to make a change or even an impression. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Lead with your warmth. Your warmth will relax the socially rigid. You’ll connect with people who aren’t easy. Your emotional sunshine will melt away the fear people have about letting down their guard. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23): Think carefully about how you’re positioning your ideas. The first thing you present to people will put a thought in their mind by which all subsequent references will be compared. Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): Because you sense that people will act illogically and unpredictably, you’ll stand back and watch what’s going on for a while. This information-gathering moment will be your ticket to success — or at least your way of avoiding trouble. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Do not doubt that practice will make you better. The slow, deliberate, consistent kind will, in fact, take you beyond where you ever thought you’d be. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Apply that massive creativity that’s running through your veins today to your own scene. If you can somehow align your more serious goals to what you’re doing for fun, two areas of your life will improve at once. Politician, diplomat and civil rights activist Andrew Young is 87. Actress Barbara Feldon is 86. Broadcast journalist Lloyd Dobyns is 83. Actresssinger Liza Minnelli is 73. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is 72. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 71. Former Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is 71. Rock singer-musician Bill Payne is 70. Actor Jon Provost (TV: “Lassie”) is 69. Author Carl Hiaasen is 66. Rock musician Steve Harris is 63. Actress Lesley Manville is 63. Actor Jerry Levine is 62. Singer Marlon Jackson is 62. Actor Jason Beghe is 59. Actor Courtney B. Vance is 59. Actor Titus Welliver is 57. Former MLB All-Star Darryl Strawberry is 57. Actress Julia Campbell is 56. Actor Jake Weber is 56. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is 51. Actor Aaron Eckhart is 51. CNN reporter Jake Tapper is 50. Rock musician Graham Coxon is 50. Country musician Tommy Bales is 46. Actor Rhys Coiro is 40. Country singer Holly Williams is 38. Actor Samm Levine is 37. Actress Jaimie Alexander is 35. Actor Tyler Patrick Jones is 25. Actress Kendall Applegate is 20.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s not that you’re overly afraid what people think of you; it’s that you really want to do what’s most respectful and appropriate to the situation. There’s something beyond just you that depends on it. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): Habits get established without regard to health or effectiveness in solving a problem. Instead, they are created because the logistics have aligned in such a way to make them the easiest sequence to follow. Today’s birthday (March 12): Some of your closest loved ones come from a worldview very different from your own, a dynamic that creates good fortune, amusement, adventure, education and pleasure. In the spirit of tolerance, together you’ll do something important for the world. A financial boon comes in the next 10 weeks. Virgo and Aquarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 9, 50, 5, 18 and 41.