This week's Astro-Barry

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Now that Mars has landed in your sign and pumped up your engine with premium fuel, I'm no longer going to continue urging you to avoid confrontations. Does that mean you lunge full-throttle toward whatever people, problems or projects have been frustrating the heck out of you and beat them to a bloody pulp? Well, that's one strategy, Taurus. With your ruler Venus tied up with Saturn and Neptune, however, it's only a viable one if you don't get so upset as to disturb your own well-being… which unfortunately is quite possible, seeing as how long you may have been holding it in, patient-Taurus-style. And if you overdo it, you'll actually obstruct your own ability to triumph, by blowing your wad prematurely or blasting yourself way off-course. That said, I certainly don't see any necessity in sitting silently by while those around you keep beating around the bush or missing the point, persisting in the same bothersome behaviors you've borne up 'til now. Go on, call it like you see it… and get a little bit unruly if you must. Still, you'll want to maintain the voice of reason (even if it's a very loud one!), which will give you the upper hand but won't make you particularly popular. Of course, we know it isn't about being liked. It's about doing the right thing—and you have all the inner strength you'll need to do it right.

Boy, does this sound like how my day was going yesterday.

Also, this week's Michael Lutin:

Taurus: A lot of your motivation now comes from your desire to both honor and escape your roots and your home life and your origins, and who knows, the contribution you are trying to make could have much more far-reaching consequences than just overcoming your childhood.

Scorpio: Nobody is just ALL career or ALL family. Especially you. As hard as you try to be all business, the fact is you've got whopping personal yearnings,as well as private antics, most of them pretty unconscious, that will undermine and screw up all your ambitions unless they are satisfied. So you can't very well appear on TV all buttoned up and proper-like without the autistic child running across the set, or, even worse, somebody asking a personal question you would rather not answer in public.