Forget phone hacking, it's written in the stars...
I used to work at a tabloid newspaper in Lunnon. It featured a "Your Stars" column. Being very, very far down the food chain, one of my jobs was to sub it and put it on the page. The astrologer was advanced in years and, perhaps due to unforeseen circumstances, would often forget to file their copy or file the previous day's "predictions". In these circumstances I would use older columns but mix around the different signs' "predictions" so Ares, Pisces, Yog Sothoth and the rest wouldn't have a repeat reading.

I was not alone in doing this and nobody in the editorial hierarchy gave a toss.

My second job of the day was to sub the letters, most of which went on about how spookily accurate the horoscope was...
( calgacus Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:40, 7 replies)

You got there in the end I see.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:44, closed)

Not the first time I've heard this...
...I knew a chap whose job included doing the horoscope for a well known media outlet.

Aquarius: Don't eat the salad
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:52, closed)

Not the first time any of us have heard it,
www.b3ta.com/questions/notme/post1354656
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 13:56, closed)

That's a bit specific for a horoscope
"A vague, not very unusual thing may happen in a vague way at a vague time."
( calgacus Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, Thu 15 Sep 2011, 14:01, closed)

i used to do exactly the same thing,
i worked as an art director for some crappy magazines back in the eighties.
when the syndicated ones dried up, due to not paying for them, i cut and pasted them together from old copy, or just plain made them up.
( amoebaboy chose for death by unga bunga on, Sun 18 Sep 2011, 15:58, closed)

" or just plain made them up"

As opposed to?
(MayorBoris, Mon 19 Sep 2011, 13:44, closed)

As opposed to
...consulting detailed emphemeris charts and tables and arcane ancient knowledge to draw up detailed natal charts then consulting with the cosmos to refine the predictions so as to instruct the patient astrologer on how best to make a load of old wank up.

Or, this being the 21st Century, buying an expensive computer program to give you a framework of bollocks to hang your bullshit on
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Tue 20 Sep 2011, 17:30, closed)