Johnny Carson, Weird Al Yankovic, and Ryan Reynolds were all born on the same day of the year as me. My daughter thinks the Ryan Reynolds part is cool, as she believes this might indicate a mysterious source of Deep Rizz that I may be astrologically heir to, and perhaps could still emulate…someday.

But the big news for me this year is the return of my lunar zodiac sign, the Fire Horse. It only happens once every 60 years, due to, I guess, math. Let’s see: the animals (12 in total) change from year to year, but the elements (there are five of those) cycle around every two years. That creates a 60 year cycle, so in a typical human lifetime, a person may be lucky enough to revisit their birth sign year once.

This is my once, now.

In natal astrology, my birthday directly straddles the signs of both balance (Libra) and extremes (Scorpio). That’s fun. I do think a perfect weekend is going to a classical ballet on Friday night and a monster truck rally on Saturday afternoon. Which we did, once, and it was amazing. And I guess I’ve been described as both balanced and extreme (if not “extremely balanced”).

But the Fire Horse year holds a darker heritage. In 1682, a 16 year old girl accidentally set fire to (what is now) Tokyo during a plan to reunite with the temple page she was in love with. Shortly after that it was thought that folks - particularly women - born as Fire Horses were bad news - so much so that birth rates in Japan dropped by over 25% in 1966.

So even though Fire Horses are supposed to be active, independent, headstrong, and dependable, th e year itself is to be one of Great (and not entirely welcome) Volatility.

I mean, 1966. Not to get all “We Didn’t Start The Fire” about it, but the Vietnam War was raging overseas, civil rights were being fought for in the USA, the ATM and the videogame were invented, and the national arts were elevated in New York City by both the opening of The Metropolitan Opera House and the holiday premiere of “The Yule Log” on WPIX.

And though the legendary albums Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys) and Revolver (The Beatles) were released that year, they were surpassed in weeks at number one by the self-titled debut of The Monkees. Which I know is supposed to be some kind of travesty, but I mean c’mon…it’s The Monkees.

But otherwise, definitely volatile times. Absolutely.

Astrology makes us associate ourselves with total strangers that happen to have been born around the same time that we were. It’s a little weird.

Where my Fire Horses at? I see you, Ms. Janet Jackson! What’s up, Helena Bonham Carter? Never givin’ YOU up, Mr. Rick Astley!

There’s also a writer/actor from the UK named Mark Gatiss: he turns up in all kinds of things and is always inspiring… I was pretty happy about that one. But my second-favorite random name with fame born in the same year that I was? Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The year after I graduated college, her music was the soundtrack of my cross-country train trip: the heartfelt soundtrack to Every Single Little Town.

Still, it’s hard to see any real connection there. Though I did just attend a “birthday reunion” party of classmates from college, where most of us are Fire Horses, and I have to admit we all still seemed like troublemakers, even if we now preferred to get to sleep by 10:30.

Whatever. There’s still plenty of trouble to be made in daylight.

My absolute favorite 1966 association premiered a little over a month before I was born, at 8:30 PM on September 8th.

Eventually called “television’s most successful failure”, Star Trek did not do well at all in the ratings, but it worked hard to hold its own for three seasons…and then 13 films, 18 more original tv series, 850 books,

and now over 6 decades.

I guess that Star Trek is the Fire Horse I feel most closely aligned with. Kind of weird, sentimental, a little cringe here and there, but filled with true emotion and courage and humor and respect for the dignity of other people (even when they weren’t people). I wouldn’t mind being championed by Lucille Ball, or watched every week by Martin Luther King and his family, or to say things that hold true through three generations.

So like it or not, this is my year. Gangly artist vs. legendary volatility and mythical instability. I’ve only got one shot at this Fire Horse thing, so it’s ahead full gallop, mane ablaze: and if I’m walking down the street getting the funniest looks from everyone I meet, my goal is to be too busy singing to put anybody down, live long, and prosper.

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