TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Aries (March 21-April 19):

There’s a job that needs doing and you’ll be assigning duty. Keep in mind that not all confident people are capable and some of the most capable people are severely unconfident. Taurus (April 20-May 20): The usual self-help advice says you can either react emotionally to events or use them as lessons. Why then, in the moment, does it seem like you don’t have a choice? Maybe because you’re not a robot. And that advice is overly reductive. Gemini (May 21-June 21): When opportunity knocks, it’s your chance to show initiative, charm, brightness and the intention to understand and help. These are the qualities that will encourage opportunity to come around more often. Cancer (June 22-July 22): It’s one thing to help people who don’t help you back, and it’s quite another to help people because they can’t help you back. In that helper lives the heartbeat of kindness. Leo (July 23-Aug. 22): Don’t get caught up in measuring yourself to anyone, not even your former self. You are, after all, not that person either. All you can be is the best possible version of your current self. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Social circles, much like solar circles, run on principles of attraction and repulsion. Your conscious awareness of what some people are attracted to will play into this and you’ll make a choice about what to present. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23): To lay your heart on the line would normally require courage, though today it just may be a matter of math. The potential gains from confessing your feelings are greater than the risk. Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): Make the right choice, learn, make the wrong choice, learn ... and it will keep going back and forth pingpong-style today. You’re awake and so you can’t help but come out of the game smarter. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): People’s tests for one another are not often conscious. They run one another through obstacles and observe the results in order to figure out who is worthy of attention, how much and what kind. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If all you do today is understand a little more than you did yesterday, it’s a good day. And if you somehow diminished the suffering of others, too, you can count the day as great. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In life and art, the value of framing cannot be underestimated. The obvious focal point is for amateurs. Also, consider the scale of Actor Don Murray is 89. Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 87. Actress France Nuyen is 79. Actress Susan Flannery is 79. Singer Lobo is 75. Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 74. Former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 74. Singer Gary Lewis is 73. Actor Lane Davies is 68. Actress Susan Wooldridge is 68. International Tennis Hall of Famer Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 67. Actor Barry Van Dyke is 67. Actor Alan Autry is 66. Jazz composer-musician Michael Wolff is 66. Actor James Read is 65. Actor Michael Biehn is 62. Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash is 61. Actor Dirk Blocker is 61. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is 60. Rock musician Bill Berry is 60. Actor Wally Kurth is 60. Actor Wesley Snipes is 56. Country singer Chad Brock is 55. Musician Fatboy Slim is 55. Rock musician Jim Corr is 54. Author J.K. Rowling is 53. Actor Dean Cain is 52. Actor Jim True-Frost is 52. Actor Ben Chaplin is 49. Actor Loren Dean is 49. Actress Eve Best is 47. Retired NFL quarterback Gus Frerotte is 47. Actress Annie Parisse is 43. Actor Robert Telfer is 41. Country singer-musician Zac Brown is 40. Actorproducer-writer B.J. Novak is 39. Actor Eric Lively is 37. Country singer Blaire Stroud (3 of Hearts) is 35. Singer Shannon Curfman is 33.

things. What if you went bigger? What if you zoomed in? Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): You lost something back there. At the time you thought it was everything, and now you’re perfectly content (if not better off) without it. In that light, maybe today’s stress needn’t affect you much. Today’s birthday (July 31): This year is like traveling on a gigantic cruise ship. You’ll make yourself at home, live it up, have your needs taken care of while barely noticing that you’re also on your way to an adventurous destination unlike the last. The opportunity to start a new business or change jobs happens in October. Romance and fun in 2019. Capricorn and Virgo adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 44, 38, 1 and 9.