Upcoming: Year of the Black Water Snake

ōng xǐ fā cái !

[Chinese New Year's greeting: "May prosperity be with you!"]

 

I could have written these predictions for the upcoming year without any knowledge of feng shui whatsoever.

 

.... As they bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon, the fortune tellers warn that the "black water snake" that emerges to replace it on February 10 -- the first day of the Lunar New Year -- could be a venomous one that brings disaster.

Previous Snake years have been marked by the September 11, 2001 terror strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people, the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The 1929 stock market plunge that heralded the Great Depression also occurred in a snake year....

.... Astrologers say this year's snake is identified with the element of water -- symbolising fear -- that sits on top of the fire element, representing joy and optimism. They say conflict between the two will bring turbulence in May.

"This is a disaster year... a lot of things will not go smoothly," said Singapore's "Grand Master" Tan Khoon Yong...

.... "As befits "skin-shedders", Snake years are marked by major transformation and change -- and sometimes great upheaval," CLSA said.

 

This greeting card company advises us: "Saving money and being thrifty should be your top priorities" this year. "Delusion and deception are common in the year of water Snake." 

Roger that.

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

What a fitting illustration: Barack Obama as a patent-medicine hustler -- the consummate con artist. I have an old advertising poster for something called "Brown's Household Panacea" -- a nostrum that, according to the poster, cured "internal and external pain; rheumatism; pain in the stomach, bowels or side; colic; diarrhea; colds; cough; sprains; burns; cramps; and bruises." And a bottle cost only 25 cents! That was the beauty of snake-oil: it promised to put an end to every pain, every disease, every sickness, with no exceptions -- a ticket of admission to a kvetch-free world. And -- best of all -- it was cheap! Sound familar? Of course. Obamacare is the ultimate -- the ne plus ultra -- snake-oil. And Obama is -- without doubt -- the world's greatest pitchman.

[Elan]

Mannie -- this reminds me of the proverbial product once sold at circuses: Eucalyptus Oil. Only 10 cents, and after you took it, you couldn't stop saying, "Man, you clipped us!" ObamaOil is an even more amazing product. After a recent four-year test, more than 60 million Americans responded by endorsing the product, saying "Yes we can again ..." without being able to finish the sentence. Miracle drug. It didn't even cost anything: paid for entirely by borrowed money.

[Mannie Sherberg]

Elan -- I fully expect Obama to announce -- any day now -- that Obamacare will guarantee unlimited visits to the Fountain of Youth, which will, in effect, mean that anyone insured under the plan will live forever (and without a single arthritic ache). Ain't science grand?

[Shelley]

Thank you for the tips. We will remember that and try to save as much as we can so that when disasters come, we will be able to survive. A feng shui consultant is advising not to disturb the path of the snake to avoid the misfortune that could happen. http://www.fengshuiconsultant.asia