Leap Year, The
Calendar's Gift To You Every Four Years
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Ever had a leap year cocktail? If not, tonight could be your night! Here's the recipe - use it responsibly!
Every four years, our calendar gives us one more day of fun.
It’s certainly worth the wait. Think of all the other things we have to
wait four years to see: Presidential elections, the Summer Olympics
(Winter Olympics intentionally excluded because it includes a sport that
combines shooting and skiing. You know someone is having a laugh about
getting that through), and the World Cup (soccer for all the American’s
out there, football, but no explanation needed for everything else).
Forget all those, the one that people really wait for and anticipate is
that extra day in February. You can tell since everyone seems to be
searching for both "leap year" and "leap day," as they both appear in
Google Hot Trends top 10.
What’s Leap Year all about anyway? It’s really a great example of
incompetence through the ages. The only reason why there has to be an
extra day added in from time to time is that we use a calendar that
isn’t accurate. It’s supposed to tell us when a year begins and ends
(among other things, like the date of Arbor Day). When does a year begin
and end? One year is supposed to be one trip around the Sun. The problem
is that our calendar has 365 days and the Earth seems to think it’s
sooooooo special that it can take 365.2423 days to go around the Sun.
Most of us in the world use the "Gregorian" calendar. I found a
transcript of the Great Calendar Convention of 1582. Settling on the
number of days in a year was a "breakout" session. Yes, conventions in
the 16th century were as horrible as they are today.
Head Calendar Guy (HCG): Well, Tom, Bill, Harry,
looks like we’ve got a problem. It seems like our idea to have 365 days
isn’t going to work. One of those new "scientists" discovered that a
year is actually 365 and a quarter days long...sort of.
Tom: Can we burn this scientist at the stake?
That’d take care of it.
Bill: I have some extra gopher wood behind my
shed.
HCG: No, no, no. That won’t work. We already
beheaded him, but it didn’t seem to help. We need another option.
Harry: Okay, I’ve got it. We add an extra day every
four years except in years which are divisible by 100, unless they are
also divisible by 400, in which case we do add a day. Simple.
HCG: ...
Bill: ...
Tom: ...
HCG: Get the gopher wood.
The rest is history.
Everyone is searching for "leap year" today I can only guess in great
anticipation of what’s to come tomorrow and probably to learn one stupid
fact that they think no one at their office will know. If you’ve read
this far, you know a few. Don’t mention the Convention.
My biggest beef with this whole leap year thing is where they stick
the day. I don’t need an extra day of February. I need an extra day of
July. Tomorrow it’s supposed to snow and be 25 degrees (-3.88 degrees
Celsius for all you non-Americans) where I live. I think I’d rather have
an extra day in July especially if we can all agree that Leap Day be a
national holiday. That I could get behind.
So, get ready for tomorrow at the office and arm yourself with the
facts about Leap Year. Here’s one more...I tried to find a list of famous
people whose birthday’s are on Leap Day. Apparently, no one of any
consequence was ever born on February
29. The only person I’ve even heard of is Dinah Shore. Born
in 1916, Dinah would have been 23 tomorrow. She left us far too
soon.
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