document.write(" Happy Birthday, Cancer!  No matter what you say or do, your intent is to help, rescue or assist others.  Very protective of friends and family, you feel somehow responsible for others' welfare and care. At times, you feel imposed upon - even martyred - because you work hard but your efforts are not consistently acknowledged. You need to feel in control and may take a lot of heat for being bossy, autocratic or manipulative. Behind every decision you make is the desire to preserve safety, quality and security. Your intention is never to deliberately harm another, although some may view it as such. You're a realist that understands the value of consistent hard work and sacrifice. You're able to go without vacations, personal time and other niceties while building a career. Once you set your mind to it, you're able to hammer out a successful, prosperous life that sustains you and those you care about for years to come. Your success, however, may come with a substantial price tag. Your personal life is likely to take a secondary role to career ambitions and a tough-minded work ethic. It's so important to work on improving friendships and other important bonds with as much fervor as you give to material pursuits. Very few people can outperform you once you're committed to a goal. Just don't allow personal happiness to be a casualty of your drive for excellence. You are highly competitive - especially with yourself. You set lofty goals and standards, and then systematically attempt to exceed them. Yes, you are your own toughest taskmaster. A lot of responsibility may be entrusted to you. You may find yourself shepherding large projects or groups of people. Because of your dedication, you rarely let others down. You have a deep-seated need to express yourself, no matter how shy or self-conscious you appear to be. Many of you are writers, storytellers or musicians. You find a way to reach out and tap on others' closed minds; and you're so seductive that others eventually stop resisting. You have wonderful, soulful, \"I’ve been there\" eyes that draw others in - hook, line and sinker. That note of vulnerability or sadness in your eyes makes you both poetic and appealing. You also have a gift for capturing others' fantasies and secrets with your words or music. People often think that you're writing or singing specifically to them. Because you're so responsive, you need to consciously choose companions with great care. You sometimes take on the mannerisms and characteristics of those around you, and tend to be a reflection of your environment. Besides your sexy, soulful side, you can also be a controversial, myth-busting iconoclast. At times, you seem reckless, self-absorbed and arrogant. Once you've gotten this phase out of your system, you generally return to a more modest, shy, hard-working and long-loving friend. You're certainly not a one-note cliché. You're very complicated, often moody and extremely talented. Sometimes you rebel. You can reject self-discipline, rules or prior commitments, and abruptly go your own way. Because you're an artist at heart, you feed off of emotional extremes, even if they sometimes hurt you or those nearby. Part showman, part magus, and drenched in deep emotion, you've been known to suffer for your art. As long as you don't allow self-destructive urges to take over, you can become a luminary in your field. You remain a creature of passion and inspiration, no matter how educated or sophisticated you are. Your motive always originates in your heart, not your mind. Over time, you find reasonable explanations to back up your choices or behavior. The truth however is that you're driven by emotional passionate urges that often lead you down inspired paths. You may believe that a relationship or connection is fated or preordained, largely because you are so convinced that it is what you want. Although Cancerians are normally considered to be cautious and self-protective, you're willing to make enormous sacrifices that fly in the face of commonsense in order to achieve a goal or maintain a desirable relationship. You can be stunningly stubborn once your mind is made up. On the other hand, you can also be tragic when you feel misunderstood or neglected. Like most Cancers, you need to avoid compulsive, addictive, obsessive thoughts and behaviors. Because you form habits and beliefs quite easily, you must carefully monitor what you do and what you think. Once a fearful or negative thought gets inserted into your receptive mind, it might be very difficult to eliminate it. Instead of focusing on the end result of an activity or relationship, learn to appreciate each moment as it occurs. Leave \"winning\" or \"losing\" out of your interactions with friends and loved ones. There is enough abundance and opportunity for everyone. Because you essentially live for love, your romantic relationship may be priority number one. Although many of you find yourself in the public eye, you require restorative privacy and serenity each and every day. It's taxing for you to be constantly surrounded by people, noise and activity. You need private space for your spiritual sanctuary or workstation. Water, woods and exuberant English or Italian gardens are superb tension busters for you. Because you tend to overreact to stress, symptoms of disease, or discomfort, you may experiment with over the counter drugs and remedies as well as exotic diets. Unless your doctor indicates otherwise, a normal balanced diet is best. Born this weekend are SHILPA PATEL-TEAGUE, Stephan Levesque, Paulette Betts Howell, John Waite, Neil Simon, Abigail Van Buren, Ann Landers, Gloria Stuart, Ralph Johnson, Matt Malley, Domingo Ortiz, Kirk Penghilly, Jeremy Spencer, Meyer Lansky, Michael Milken, Louis B. Mayer, Leona Helmsley, Geraldo Rivera, Stephen Foster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sir George Everest, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Calvin Coolidge, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Monroe, Lionel Trilling, Eva Marie Saint, Gina Lollobrigida, George Steinbrenner, Ron Kovic, Bill Withers, Rube Goldberg, Edie Falco, Marc Cohn, Shirley Knight, Robbie Robertson, P.T. Barnum, Jean Cocteau, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Warren Oates, Georges Pompidou, Huey Lewis, Julie Nixon-Eisenhower, Arthur M. Blythe, Michael Gismondi, Katherine Helmond, Fred Young, Robert Fitzroy, William Stead, David Farragut, 50 Cent, Frieda Kahlo, George W. Bush, Nancy Reagan, Susan Ford, Nathalie Baye, Gregory Smith, Jeremy Suarez, Pat Paulsen, Conrad \"Nicky\" Hilton, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ned Beatty, Gene Chandler, Merv Griffin, Nanci Griffith, Shelley Hack, Janet Leigh, Della Reese, Geoffrey Rush, Sylvester Stallone, Jamie Wyeth, Bill Haley, John Paul Jones, Harold S. Vanderbilt and Jennifer Saunders. ");