February 29, 2020 (Saturday)
In Gilbert and Sullivan’s delightful comic opera, “Pirates of Penzance,” Frederic, having been adopted by pirates as an infant, readies himself to leave the ship. He has served for 21 years, and is now being set free by the pirates. His birthday, however, is on February 29, and when the contract is read, it says he is to be released from servitude on his 21st birthday, and this is only his 5th birthday, having been born on February 29. He must, therefore, remain on the ship for more than 60 additional years.
The story develops from there, and is a lot of fun to watch and hear.
Every four years we add a day to the calendar to make up for the 6 hours we lose in each common year because our clocks don’t harmonize completely with the solar system. A year is actually 365 days and 6 hours. (But not exactly 6 hours, and that is corrected every 400 years–but that’s another story).
If February 29 is your birthday, which one is it, really? How many birthdays have you had?
One of the greatest songs in the show is the one by the “Modern Major-General.” (It has nothing to do with Leap Year but I just like to hear it sung by this amazing man).
I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General
I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I’m very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
I know our mythic history, King Arthur’s and Sir Caradoc’s;
I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!
Then I can hum a fugue of which I’ve heard the music’s din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform,
And tell you ev’ry detail of Caractacus’s uniform:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
In fact, when I know what is meant by “mamelon” and “ravelin”,
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin,
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I’m more wary at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by “commissariat”,
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery?
In short, when I’ve a smattering of elemental strategy?
You’ll say a better Major-General has never sat a-gee.
For my military knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury,
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.