Stories

LEAP YEAR ROUND-UP: Would you pout if you only had a birthday every four years?

What is the significance of being born on a day that disappears off the calendar for the next three years?
Just when you've convinced yourself that birthdays aren't really that significant, you have one on the fourth
year, and it's a big to-do.

Born on Leap Day, Feb. 29, Leap Year babies could get a complex. All their siblings and friends have
birthdays four times more than they do.

But no, Leap Year babies of The T&D Region don't seem to feel slighted at all; in fact, they seem happy
about their fate. Maybe their parents overcompensate to make sure they don't feel left out.

Or maybe it's because there is an official web site for Leap Year Babies, an Honor Roll for Leap Day
Babies and a World Wide Leap Year Festival that is celebrating its fifth Quadrennial event in the Leap
Year Capital of the World, Anthony, Texas/N.M. (it's on the border)

Maybe Leap Year babies feel some pride in their status because they have grandpas like George Benton
of Bamberg, who sent an essay to the paper to tell the world about his own special little Leap Year baby:
Emily Elizabeth Benton, who is actually celebrating her first "real" birthday today, Sunday, Feb. 29.

Dominique Frederick

Like Benton, Dominique Frederick is going to have a party today for her third birthday. When people ask
her age, she loves to say she's almost 3. She's glad she's a Leap Year baby and thinks "it's kinda funny."

Her mom, Bernadette Frederick of Orangeburg, says Dominique's birth was induced because she was more
than a week late and she had dilated four centimeters .

"I went into the hospital at 6 a.m. They gave me Pitocin and a Prostaglandin gel and broke my water. At
8 o'clock nothing else was happening, so they did a C-section. At that point, I wasn't really thinking about
Leap Year or anything; all I thought about was I wanted to have the baby," she said.

One of the questions Leap Day babies finally grow sick of is something like "Do you celebrate on Feb. 28 or
March 1?"

Dominique is a Februarian. Bernadette says they always celebrate Dominique's birthday on the 28th during
non-Leap Years.

Krysten Rael

Krysten Rael, like Dominique, will celebrate her third real birthday.

"I tried really hard to avoid the date," said mother Loxie Rael, a clerk in the Orangeburg County Probate Court.
"I was nine days overdue, and they were going to induce me on March 1 so it wouldn't have been Leap Year,
but I couldn't make it. She started coming on Feb. 28, and I thought we would avoid it, but she just decided to
come on Leap Day!"

Krysten usually celebrates with a sleepover, usually on the 28th, but when the 29th does come along, Loxie says
they do celebrate more. This year, she is having a Lizzie McGuire party, and for sweet 16 (her fourth birthday),
she wants to take a cruise!

"Krysten likes art, and she says being a Leap Year baby means she has special talents," Loxie laughs.

Ruth Carr Sharpe and Rudolph Carr

Born in 1932, the Carr twins will celebrate their "18th" birthday this year. And both of them celebrated a golden
wedding anniversary with their spouses in 2001.

"When we were little, it was during the Depression, and our mother had a time," Mrs. Sharpe says. "Sometimes,
the Sunny Vista Church of God outside North used to surprise us for our birthday."

Sharpe says you get older even if you don't have a birthday. She and her brother are going to get together even
if it's not on the exact day.

"We've invited all the children and grands," she said. "My brother called and said we haven't gotten together for
our birthday in a few years, so let's get together this time."

Originally from Hampton County, they live near each other on Drag Strip Road in North.

Joan Patrick Moore

One of the wise sayings about babies born Feb. 29 is that they don't age as fast, and Leap Year baby Joan Patrick
Moore says it's true. She giggled when I asked how old she is and refused to answer, and she says people have
always teased her about staying young though she celebrates it every year.

A procurement clerk at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, Moore is married to Mike Moore.

"I was born about 11:45 that night and delivered by Dr. Knight," she laughed, saying she keeps picking at her mom
about why she couldn't hold on for 15 minutes longer.

Marilyn Grant

Born in 1960 in Los Angeles, Marilyn Grant, now of Orangeburg, says she's always heard that she would age slower
because she's a Leap Year baby and she really does appear to be about 24, the age of her oldest son.

Having had only 11 birthdays, I guess it makes sense that she might feel younger than your average 44 year old. But
she's a single parent with six children - ages 24, 22, 20, 17, 13 and 3 - a full-time student at Orangeburg-Calhoun
Technical College and a full-time employee of Jolley Acres Nursing Home.

"Everywhere I go, people will be, like, 'You know you aren't that old," she laughs. "My son used to tell his classmates
I was his sister because they wouldn't believe him if he said I was his mom."

Grant says she has two sisters and three brothers, and when she was little, if she celebrated it on Feb. 28 or March 1,
they would tease her about it.

One advantage to the birthday is that she says she always wins against the Age Guesser at Myrtle Beach or the county
fair.

"I don't even care for a birthday anymore, and I don't celebrate unless it's the real one," she laughed, but she may not
have time to think about it. She would like to go on a trip, she said, but that's not an option right now.

"People tell me I gotta do something special, but what can I do?" she said.

Another old wives' tale Grant says she has always heard was that it is easier to get pregnant during a Leap Year. "People
would always say, 'You'd better be careful cause this is Leap Year."

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Harvey Garrick

It's one thing to be born on Leap Day. You can't help that.

But some people actually choose to get married on Feb. 29.

Martha Smith and Daniel Harvey Garrick of Cope chose that date in 1964 and are celebrating their 40th anniversary
today.

"People pick at them about it," says their daughter, Tracy Garrick Myers of Cope. "They said they picked the date just
to be different, but they kinda celebrate every year."

For the real thing this year, their children are giving them a surprise drop-in, with a sister from Georgia and a brother from
Orangeburg coming over. The children are daughters, Mrs. Tim (Rhonda Garrick) Harper of St. Simons, Ga., and Mrs.
Robbie (Tracy Garrick) Myers of Cope, and son Daniel Harvey Garrick Jr. and daughter-in-law, Amanda, of Cope. The
grandchildren will be there: Evan and Sims Harper, Evelynn Myers, and Madison and Tanner Garrick.

Another part of Leap Year folklore is the idea that women can propose to men on Feb. 29, made famous in the "Li'l Abner"
comic strip as Sadie Hawkins Day. One version of this tale involves St. Patrick, who was told, it goes, by St. Bridget that a
nunnery was mutinying for the right to propose. He suggested they could have that right every seventh year. St. Bridget flung
her arms around him, begging him to make it one in four.

"Bridget," exclaimed the saint, "squeeze me that way again and I'll give ye leap year, the longest of the lot."

The wily St. Bridget then proposed on the spot, and St. Patrick had to give her a silk gown as a forfeit for his refusal.

96-year-old celebrates 24th birthday on leap year

By CALEB HALE / The Southern Illinoisan

LAKE EGYPT -- Ken Willis and his wife, Mary Ann, have spent the last 28 years making a barn into a home.

Mary Ann admits Ken did a lot of the work, building a fence out of thick logs in the front yard, securing the inside of the roof
with 62 boards, laying seven boards a day and driving 60 nails into each one. He even laid the bricks of a fireplace in a room
replicating one owned by Patrick Henry.

Within all that work, Ken has only aged a few years. Well, technically. It helps that his birthday falls once every four years.
In 96 years, Ken has celebrated 24 birthdays. This year holds a special anomaly, as it is the first time five Sundays have
fallen in February since 1976, when Ken was 17 years old.

It hardly matters to Ken, since his wife said he does not care to reminisce much. Time can now stand still for the husband
and wife, anyway.

"We're absolutely through with the projects," Mary Ann said, taking a look around the open and eclectically-decorated
house.

The house is completed and filled with the memories and love.

ENERGY -- Katie Tackett likes to have fun with the numbers.

She's 72 years old, celebrating her 18th birthday today. It's the first time in a while she has been able to enjoy it on the
actual 29th day of February.

"I usually celebrate it on the 28th, when it's not on the 29th," Tackett said.

Having a birthday fall on a Leap Year gives plenty of people something to joke about, but she said she's gotten used to it
over the years. She's even taken to joking about it herself.

"I was married when I was four and a half years old," Tackett said. She was actually 17 years old; she had celebrated only
four birthdays at that point.

"When I was 64, I got a card that said 'Sweet 16,'" she said.

After only 18 birthdays Tackett has managed to become a mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She has two
grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Tackett's grandson, who is 35 years old, took to teasing her about her age long ago. "He said one day, 'Well, grandma,
I've finally passed you in numbers,'" she said.

Tackett gets a lot of kidding for being born on a day where the odds are against any one being born at all. Sometimes
she is even met with incredulity of her birth date.

"They'll always look a me and ask if I was really born on the 29th," she said.

It is the truth, she tells them, however for all legal and title purposes, Tackett signs off as being 72 years old.

All kidding aside, the number of birthdays a person celebrates doesn't stop the march of time, as Tackett agrees.

"Sometimes I kid my friends if we go into a certain place," she said. "I'll say I'm not old enough to go in there. But, they
can tell to look at you that you are."

Leap-year babies have their own day

By JULIE BLUM/Columbus Telegram

COLUMBUS -- February doesn't make sense to Austin Engel.

When the Humphrey second-grader was learning the days of the week and the months of the year, he couldn't understand
why his birthday did not appear on the calendar.

There was the 27th and 28th of February, but then it skipped to March 1. Where was Feb. 29? "He doesn't really
understand it," said Renee Engel, Austin's mother. "He is still trying to understand the concept (of leap year)."

Austin was born Feb. 29, 1996. Today he will be celebrating his 8th birthday or his 2nd, depending on how you look at it.
Unlike other people, those born on a leap day have a birthday only during a leap year, which usually happens every four
years.

During leap years an extra day (leap day) is tacked onto the end of February. The leap day is meant to make up for the
fact that it takes the earth approximately 365.25 days to travel around the sun, a quarter of a day longer than our calendar
year contains. Because the measurements are not exact, years divisible by 100 -- 1800, 1900, etc. -- do not have an
extra day, although years divisible by 400 -- 2000, for instance -- do.

The concept of leap year might be hard for an 8-year-old to understand, but Renee Engel said Austin is sort of getting
the idea.

When asked what being born on a leap day means, Austin simply said, "I get to celebrate (my birthday) early."

Renee explained that she and her husband Dan and their three other children usually throw Austin a birthday party during
non-leap years toward the end of February, preferably on a weekend.

Alice Wiese of Lindsay, who is 68 today, said she calls Feb. 28 her birthday when it isn't a leap year. The reason is simple
for her.

"Well, because there is no 29th (of February)," she said.

But Lietha Hake chooses to mark her birthday in March.

"I usually do the first day of March. I say I do that because at least I know that I have been around until Feb. 28," the
80-year-old Columbus woman said.

While growing up in Leigh, Hake said she never felt like she was missing out by not having a birthday every year.

"I thought I was special because I had one every four years. I'm able to say that I only age every four years," she said.

If you are counting by leap years, Hake is only 20 years old, younger than most of her 14 grandchildren.

"They are all waiting for Grandma to be 21 so they can buy me a beer," Hake said and laughed.

It is not every year that a leap day comes around, so when it does leap-year babies take the opportunity to really celebrate,
said Clarkson Manor resident Elmer H. Loseke, who turns 92 today.

He said he doesn't do much celebrating during the three years between a leap year. But when Feb. 29 does come around,
birthday parties are much livelier.

So was a huge celebration being planned today?

"Not a big one, but we are going to party a little bit," Loseke said.

When asking a leap-day baby his or her age, you are likely to hear two responses.

"I'm going to be 40, or in other words, 10 years old," said Louis Ziemba of Columbus, who was born Feb. 29, 1964.

He said that he has always had fun with the fact that he was born on a leap day, especially when people tell him he was
acting a little immature.

"When my ex-wife would tell me to act my age I would say, 'I am. I'm only 8 or 9,'" Ziemba said.

If that is the way his thinking goes, then Craig Arasmith of Columbus will be able to act like he is 6 today, even though
he is really 24.

In the past, Arasmith said he would feel a little left out, being born on Feb. 29, because "... you didn't have a real day
that you could celebrate (your birthday) on."

But his birth date has provided a few laughs for him. On his 21st birthday he said his friends took him to Las Vegas.
When showing his identification to get into casinos, some thought it was fake because of the date.

"I got a lot of grief over that," he said.

Elaine Mossman said she has never gotten much grief over having a leap-day birthday. In fact the 60-year-old Columbus
woman said she likes having a birthday on Feb. 29.

"It's always kind of special because every four years I really hear from my brothers and sisters and other people I don't
hear from because they really remember my birthday," Mossman said.

Other perks from having a special birthday came when Mossman was younger. There were the 100 baby chicks she
received from a new hatchery that opened on a leap day when she was 4 or 8, and a special appearance she and other
leap-year children got to make on the Lincoln-based television show "Mary and Mr. Bill" when she was 8 or 12.

Some of the biggest kicks she gets come from her 10-year-old granddaughter, who loves to hear how old her grandma
was for certain events in her life.

"My granddaughter will say, 'How old were you when you got married?' And I'll say, '5,'" Mossman said. "And she'll
say, 'Grandma, how old were you when you went to school?' I'll say, '1.'"

Reach Julie Blum at 563-7535 or jblum@columbustelegram.com.

Not forgotten today

By JOEY WEST/ The (Auburn) Citizen

AUBURN -- For the first time in four years, today is Feb. 29.

And it is the first time since 2000 that a select few people can officially celebrate their birthdays

Tammy Ibbs, of Cato, depending on how you look at it, turns either 40 or 10 years old today. She was born
Feb. 29, 1964.

The mother of three will be spending her day like many others.

"Everybody else gets more of a kick out of it than I do," she said. "Usually my kids will do dinner and a cake for me.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Probably the most exciting thing that has happened is that I've gotten flowers delivered or
something. I have a granddaughter that is six months old. That is more exciting than my birthday, I think."

Feb. 29 is added once every four years to synchronize the Gregorian calendar with the seasons. The leap year was
introduced in 46 B.C., with a few corrections along the way.

The time required for Earth to travel once around the sun is 365.24219 days.

The calendar year is 365 days during non-leap years. To accommodate for that extra quarter of a day that accumulates
each year, Feb. 29 was created to balance the calendar. When 56-year-old Earl Staring Jr. of Auburn was younger,
he took full advantage of not having a regular birthday.

"When I drank, I used to go out three days," he said. "I used to take the 28th, the 29th and the 1st because it would
only come out once every four years. I used to get a lot of tease about my birthday when I was younger, because I
had a big family. My mother had 16 kids."

He said that some find it hard to believe that he was born on Feb. 29.

"I find that most of the people don't believe that you are born on the 29th," he said. "Mostly kids don't believe you when
you tell them that."

Leanne Helmsman of Auburn is excited about today because she is seeing her father for the first time in 35 years and
it's her birthday. He used to live in Ohio and he recently moved up to New York.

Auburn resident Joann Sedor's son, Eric, is celebrating his birthday today as well.

"We celebrated them every year," she said. "It didn't really matter if it was in February or March. We just always
made a big deal out of it. It kind of depended on what day of the week it was. We just tried to celebrate it on the
weekends. But whenever the special one came, we always made sure that we had a birthday party on that day."

Heather Rejman's said her daughter, Claire Rejman, 4, of Scipio, knows when her birthday is but she is still a little
young to understand the full ramifications of her date of birth.

"She goes to pre-school," Heather said. "I don't know if she understands that part, but she knows her birthday is
on leap day. We're having a big party for her."

Auburn attorney Mike Bass had a large surprise birthday party thrown for him at Sunset Restaurant on Friday by
his wife, Christie. She told him that it was a political meeting. He almost backed out, but using her charm, she
persuaded him to go. Visitors including family members from out of town.

"I'll be 8," Bass said. "The big 8. I'll be old enough to play Little League now. I suspect I could probably hit a
few more home runs than I did the last time around.

Bass said his father always had a story for him.

"My dad told me that because I am a leap year baby, I am one of the chosen," he said. "Chosen for what, I don't
really know yet. I'm still trying to figure out what I was chosen for."

He said that during his school days, there were benefits to being born on Feb. 29.

"It's kind of neat because your the special kid," he said. "Most of the kids when you are younger don't realize what
leap year means, but all the teachers thought it was kind of neat. You got more attention, plus everybody felt sorry
for you when it wasn't a leap year. In the end, if nothing else worked, you could always play the pity card for some
attention."

Staff writer Joey West can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or joey.west@lee.net

Local residents enjoy their special day as a leap year baby

By THE STAFF, TIMES OF NORTHWEST INDIANA

Barbara Alonzo turns 16 today.

So will her first grandchild, Chelsea, in a few months.

The teenage twosome plan a summer of shopping and boy watching -- just don't tell Alonzo's husband of 43 years,
Albert.

Tony Hill is just 6 today -- "not really old enough to do anything," he complains -- but he's already the lead guitarist
in the punk rock band Egnaro (that's orange spelled backward) and a volunteer firefighter for the Lynwood Fire
Department.

To celebrate his day, he'll be out drinking with friends. "Hopefully they accept my fake ID," he quips.

Mercantile National Bank in Crown Point puts its financial faith in the hands of another 6-year-old, John Kryza,
of Portage. "I'm a quick learner," he said. "I had a major growth spurt around 5."

Kryza's getting a birthday cake with little race cars and the pinata from co-workers to help him celebrate.

Alonzo, Hill and Kryza are leap year day babies, of course.

Only one out of every 1,461 people is born Feb. 29, according to Leapzine, an online newsletter for Leapers as
it calls them.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the actual length of a year -- the rotation of the Earth around the sun --
is 365.2422 days. Without leap years every four years, the seasons would shift about a quarter of a day every
year. After 100 years, the seasons would be off by 25 days, the almanac said.

"There's something special about being a leap year baby," said the Rev. Steve Schunenman of St. Timothy
Episcopal Church in Griffith. "Everyone should have something that makes them special. Sometimes you just
have to discover what that is."

Schunenman was just a precocious 6-year-old when he joined the ministry; "now I'm all grown up at 12," he said.

Vicki Wayne will be the same age today as her daughter, Charlie -- 9. Like any preteen, she's looking forward
to presents. After all, she's been waiting three long years.

If Alice Rodriguez could leap back in time to her leap year age, 14, she'd be back home in Alabama with her twin
sister, Alline, and four other siblings.

"We grew up always on some kind of an adventure," she said. Alline lives a few doors away from her in Hammond,
but neither do much leaping anymore.

Just saying her age aloud makes Rodriguez feel younger, but she said she sure gets some strange looks.

Zackery Glasen says he acts his age -- 4.

"I'm the biggest kid out of my friends," said the Munster High School football team offensive and defensive lineman
who's having great fun with his unique birthday.

The leap year gives Lynne Eismin, of Munster, two 2-year-olds six years apart. Her son, Zackary, was born into
a little bit of fame eight years ago as the first baby born on leap year day at the University of Chicago. All the TV
stations filmed him.

Matthew Virus' little brother, Joseph, 7, may be older than he is today -- 3 -- "but I'm more mature," he said.

Matthew surprised parents Matt and Millie when he appeared six weeks early 12 years ago. He became their
miracle.

"It is neat to have a leap year baby," she said. They celebrate the miracle every Feb. 28.

It can be "kind of embarrassing. Kids think you're a big baby," Matthew said. "Otherwise it's quite cool. You
get a special day to be born."

When lives collide with leap year, things get wired

By DANETTA BARKER/Maysville Ledger Independent

FLEMINGSBURG -- This year Angie Mineer gets to celebrate a real birthday.

This is Mineer's ninth birthday, even though she is 36. Mineer was born on Feb. 29. Leap Day, Leap Year,
call it what you want, it still just comes once every four years.

'I celebrate for two or three days when it's not Leap Year,' Mineer said.

There has been a big argument in her family which day to celebrate when Feb. 29 is not on the calendar.

'Mom says to celebrate on Feb. 28,' Mineer said. 'Dad says March 1.'

Mineer's mother Hope Mers said her daughter was born in February, so when the 29th doesn't come around,
she celebrates on the 28th.

Kenny Mers, Mineer's father, said February was over when his daughter was born, so celebration on a non-
Leap Year should be March 1.

Hope Mers said she tries to make up for her daughter not having a birthday every year by giving Mineer a
big party on Feb. 29. She also puts a birthday greeting in the local advertiser on Mineer's real birthday.

'I felt like it is my fault she was born on Leap Day,' Hope Mers said. 'I have always tried to make her birthdays
special.'

Mineer's grandmother warned Hope Mers about having a baby on the 29th.

'My mother told me 'don't have that baby on that day,'' Mers said.

The due date for Mineer was Feb. 22, but she was a few days late, her mother said.

Mineer has endured jokes about not having a birthday every year and about being only 9 years old.

'One year I had a birthday party on my real birthday, I think it was 16, and someone brought in a stroller or
baby walker,' Mineer said. 'Everybody makes jokes.'

At work, at the Farm Service Agency in Flemingsburg, Mineer doesn't exactly know when to tell coworkers
to celebrate her birthday.

'We do a cake for everybody's birthday each month,' Mineer said. 'Well, when it's not Leap Year, they ask
which day is it; I say it's not.'

Mineer's husband Mark enjoys joking about his wife having only nine birthdays. But 4-year-old Austin,
Mineer's son doesn't understand yet that Mommy doesn't have a birthday every year. In fact, Mineer didn't
understand until she about 12 years old.

'That's the first birthday I remember,' Mineer said. 'I had a big party.'

One year Mineer had a party with a classmate, Pat Porter, who shares her birthday. One friend from school
always sent Miner a stuffed animal on her birthday.

'I got a little stuffed animal, like for a child, every year from a friend,' Mineer said.

Having a birthday on Feb. 29 makes every birthday more interesting, Mineer said. A co-worker reminded
Mineer that next time she celebrates her birthday, she will be 40.

'Isn't that great, I don't have a birthday for four years, then I'll be 40,' Mineer laughed.

At one end of Mineer's office building everybody jokes about her birthday coming just once every four years;
at the other end, Sharon Hunt jokes about her brother's anniversary falling on that day.

'My brother and sister-in-law wanted to get married on that day,' Hunt said.

Phillip and Tara McCord tried choosing a day that wasn't Feb. 29, but other things got in the way. The couple
decided to go ahead and tie the knot on the day that doesn't come but once every four years.

'We were married in 1992,' Tara McCord said. 'Phil picked it out. He said that way we would just have an
anniversary every four years.'

Phil McCord likes his anniversary. He likes that it only comes every four years. He especially likes that he
doesn't have to remember it every year.

'I don't remember dates very well,' Phil McCord said. 'I remember this one.'

The couple celebrate the anniversary each year. When Leap Year comes, Tara McCord can expect a big
celebration.

'Four years ago he got me a diamond ring,' Tara McCord said. 'This year we are going to General Butler
State Park for the weekend.'

Phil and Tara McCord's 11-year-old daughter, Miranda knows when the real anniversary comes around
that she is off to grandmother's while her parents go away for a few days. Tara McCord's daughter, Marsha,
always reminds Phil McCord to do something for her mom even when it's not Leap Year.

Unlike Hope Mers, who didn't have a choice about the day her daughter was born, Phil McCord said choosing
Feb. 29 to get married is a great idea.

'I wouldn't want to wait four years to marry on the 29th,' Phil McCord said. 'But when it's close by, I'd choose it.'

Contact Danetta Barker at Danetta.Barker@lee.net

Leap year salutes importance of time telling

By TONY REID/Herald & Review (Decatur)

DECATUR -- Leap year has a way of leaving people completely underwhelmed.

It's all to do with time and math, so it isn't off to a good start in public affections. Truth is, the Earth doesn't go
around the sun in 365 days precisely. The real year actually lasts 365 days plus a quarter of a day, or 365.242199
days, if you want to be exact.

To fix this, by international agreement, we add up these four quarters into an extra day every four years and tack
it on to the end of February. Voila, the leap year.

Yippee.

"No, we don't have much planned for leap year," said David Berns, president of the Decatur Area Astronomy
Club, which normally is transfixed by heavenly activities. "In fact, we don't have anything planned."

He did point out that the evening of Feb. 29 will see the moon lying six degrees above the planet Saturn, high
to the southwest, and Jupiter rising 12 degrees above the horizon in the east. This is not seen as a transfiguring
event in the star-gazing world.

Back on Earth, those for whom time is their stock-in-trade aren't leaping up and

down with anticipation, either. Jerry Watkins of Watkins Jewelry in Clinton has been in the clock repair business
for nearly half a century and has seen some pretty cool examples of antique horology with built-in calendars.

"You've got fancy grandfather clocks dating back to the late 1700s or early 1800s that have calendars able to
adjust for leap years," he said. "But you kind of wonder why they bothered, as it is just as easy to reach up and
adjust a clock calendar with your finger. But automatic leap year adjustment was quite an achievement in a
mechanical clock, and a lot of thinking went into it. Good sales gimmick, too, I guess."

To find a real leap year aficionado, you have to navigate over to Mattoon's Lake Land College and drop in
on a mapping class taught by geographic information systems instructor Mike Rudibaugh. To him, leap year is
emblematic of our obsession with time-telling accuracy, and he says the ability to tell precise time makes our
modern lives possible.

"It started with us needing to figure out the timing of the seasons so we knew when to plant the crops that feed
us," he added. "Later, in the 1700s, the invention of an accurate clock you could take on board a sailing ship
enabled sailors to calculate their longitude and, for the first time, know exactly where they were anywhere in the
world.

"That clock saved countless lives."

Rudibaugh says such an advantage also helped give navies such as the British and French control of the seas
and control of the world, shaping the entire course of history. Now, modern global positioning system equipment
uses atomic clocks on board satellites to calculate locations and draw maps accurate to within fractions of an inch.

"And yet all our modern advances are built on the accomplishments previous generations made as they struggled
to answer a question as old as human history: what time is it?" explains Rudibaugh.

"Leap year is a part of all that, part of the understanding of time essential to our civilization."

Why is it called "leap year?" The origin probably reflects that fact that, in leap years, any given date leaps two
days ahead, compared to the same date in the previous year. Normally, the same date advances one day from
year to year.

It's their day ... Local 'leapers' celebrate long-awaited birthdays

By KARIN KOWALSKI / The (Twin Falls) Times-News

TWIN FALLS -- Leap year day comes and goes -- it's a day this year, then it's not a day for three more years.

But for about 30 Magic Valley people, the enigmatic Feb. 29 is their birthdate.

Butch Colson might shoot some skeet, then take in a G-rated movie to celebrate his birthday today. After 44
years, he is on his 11th birthday, so he said a kids' movie would be appropriate.

The Jerome resident remembers a teacher in elementary school having each child write his birthday on the
calendar. He went to write down his birthday, but the date wasn't there. He said he thought he must be a
nobody if he didn't even have a birthday.

"As a little kid, it stunk," Colson said. Today he can have fun with it.

"I've got kids older than I am," Colson said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one out of every 1,461 people was born on Leap Day, for an estimated
200,000 Americans and 4.1 million people worldwide. St. Benedicts Family Medical Center in Jerome had one
"leapie" birth in 2000, three in 1996 and none in 1992 or 1988. Magic Valley Regional Medical Center had one
in 1984, four in 1988, two in 1992, three in 1996 and seven in 2000.

In the Magic Valley, leap year stories are as unique as the "leapers."

-- "It's just strange" -- Sue Clark of Filer turns 14 or 56 today, depending on whether she counts years or
birthdays. She recalls having problems being named as a dependent for her husband's Social Security because
her birthday did not exist in the computer.

"It's not bad," Clark said. "It's just strange."

-- Celebrating twice -- Rose Kurtz of Buhl has a daughter, Leah, born on Leap Day. Kurtz said on the years
her daughter didn't have the 29th, she would celebrate by opening presents on both Feb. 28 and March 1.

Today she turns 24 or 6. At Costco Wholesale she had to lie about her birthday because it did not compute.
She grew up in Troy, Mont., and now lives in Post Falls.

-- Extra attention -- For Helen Winegar of Twin Falls, leap years bring in more well-wishes and extra birthday
cards. She has a Beatles song of a birthday today, celebrating 16 birthdays in her 64 years.

-- Triple the fun -- John Petter of Buhl is also turning 14 with his two brothers, Jack and Harry.

"We're the only triplets I know who were born on the 29th," Petter said.

-- Too young to understand -- Laura Yeaman's daughter, Madilyn, is turning 8 and 2, but is still learning what a
leap year is.

"She doesn't really get it," said Yeaman, who is from Twin Falls.

-- "It's about the same" -- Tony Rigby of Sublett said he isn't doing anything special for his 36th/ninth birthday.

"It's about the same," Rigby said. "Just on the fourth year, it gets noticed more."

-- Feeling young -- Four years ago, Arlee Hupfer of Fairfield turned 16, and so did her granddaughter. Hupfer
has had 17 birthdays in her 68 years.

"That makes me feel younger," she said.

-- "It's kind of weird" -- Colleen Whittle of Oakley has a son named LeGrande turning 16 and/or 4. When he
was born, she remembers thinking he would be pretty old before he could borrow the car.

"It's kind of weird," LeGrande said. Everyone in Oakley knows his birthday, and people are always trying to
figure out how old he is.

-- First birthday at 4 -- When people ask Leah Trejo's daughter, Samantha, "'Why don't you act your age?' she'll
be the only one who can say, 'I am,'" Trejo said. The Twin Falls resident's daughter was born in 2000, so she will
be 4 years old while having her first actual birthday.

-- She doesn't mind now -- Pauline Walker of Glenns Ferry is starting to see the advantages of having a leap year
birthday.

"When I was a little kid, I felt so deprived," Walker said. "I just never thought that was fair."

Today she is 76, but prefers the other number.

"Now I can be 19," she said.

Leap to slow time

By TATIANA ZARNOWSKI/The Sentinel, Carlisle, Pa.

The Peanuts gang never would have been out in search of the Great Pumpkin on Halloween each year if it was in
April.

Santa would shuck his fur everywhere he went if Christmas occurred in June or thereabouts.

And you could find yourself acting the fool on any day -- not just April 1.

Just imagine a world in which fixed days become unglued and everything slowly slid around the year," says Gene
Chase, math and computer science professor at Messiah College.

Leapless years would do that. In fact, the world would be more than a year ahead of itself. And the winter Olympics
could take place in the summer and vice versa.

If Leap Days had not been added to the calendar in 46 B.C, today's date would be July 6, 2005, or 496 days
beyond today, says Barry Tesman, a professor of mathematics at Dickinson College.

Leap Day occurs only once every four years, but Feb. 29 keeps the calendar on target.

No leaps changes all

The cultural implications of a Leapless year has immense cultural implications, Chase says.

"I think we'd have to hang up the song 'White Christmas.' I think Punxatawney Phil would predict the next heat
wave in August."

Gone would be the traditional rush to the stores for new Easter spring dresses and shoes because new parkas
and boots might be needed instead.

As for the school calendar, the kids might find themselves in class in July and August, which would have been
tough before air-conditioning.

"I guess that would mean that the baseball team could get outside earlier to practice," says Bruce Neighbers,
assistant superintendent at Big Spring School District.

But back-to-school fashions also would change. Some students in south-central Pennsylvania wouldn't have to
change their dress at all even if the seasons were opposite from what we know now, Neighbers says.

As it is, "we have a couple of kids who like to wear shorts year-round."

And no more fall plays and spring concerts! Those names would fluctuate depending on the season in which they
did occur, Neighbers points out.

A world without leap years also would affect politics, too. Remembering when to hold presidential elections
might be a challenge.

How long would it take for the seasons to slip six months?

"After 720 years, our weather would be Australia's weather," Tesman says.

In another 720 years, the calendar and the seasons would be restored -- briefly -- to how we know them now.

Changing from a solar to a lunar calendar, or fixing the holidays on the seasons, could bring them back in sync in
a world without leap years, Chase says.

But he wonders whether it would be "Northocentric" to change the holidays, since people in the Southern
Hemisphere celebrate Christmas in the summer every year. "We insist on having our Christmas in the winter."

No fast changes

In any case, calendar slippage without Leap years would occur so slowly that a person would barely notice the
change of seasons over a lifetime. Every 120 years, the seasons would back up one month compared to the
calendar, Tesman says.

Without Leap years, legends surrounding Feb. 29 would not exist. Women in Scotland can propose to a man
during Leap Day; if he declines, he is fined.

Leap year is still celebrated today, although women can propose in any year.

But frogs, who are associated with the day, wouldn't be in the spotlight today because leaping never would
have come into style.