February 29, 2016 Monday)
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.
If today 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.” Click on this image to go to YouTube if you would like to review it. (It has nothing to do with Leap Year but I just like to hear it sung by this amazing man).
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, which insists that 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).