Emily Fritz | a&e editor

Contrary to reader suspicion on the Duquesne Snapchat story, the horoscopes have never been AI-generated, but their randomness comes with a quirky and disjointed history over The Duke’s 100 years.

Looking back through decades worth of past editions, the first recorded horoscope came from Sid Beshkin in the weekly column, “strictly caf,” but only covered one sign and only on November 6, 1959.

“If you were born under the sign of Libra and have a Physics test next Wednesday at 11 a.m., don’t even open the book. You’ve got it made. This is your day,” Beshkin wrote.

Then, in 1995 the birthday-based predictions appeared through a syndicate with King Features, who was less angsty, but captured the vagueness and universality of the traditional horoscope for eight weeks.

In 1999, the horoscopes reappeared for a two-week stint from the Associated Press.

It wasn’t until 2004 that the predictions were a joint effort among The Duke editorial staff and appeared in the “Distractions” section. But it was gone again by 2006.

On Jan. 17, 2019, staff writer Griffin Sendek took to the stars to cast a funnier rendition.

“Hydroflasks double as melee weapons. Keep this in mind. You may need it,” he wrote.

Sendek (then features editor) passed the responsibility onto Arts & Entertainment Editor Josiah Martin, where they still live today. His successor Capri Scarcelli decided to make the horoscopes even more off-kilter, citing “inside jokes between friends” as inspiration in her farewell column.

Six years running, the section continues that tradition. The little section is full of quotes from family, friends, newsroom staff, tweets and Tumblr text posts, all from real people, taken wildly out of context.