believe them. Some exclaim, ''You poor thing!'' Others say, ''Lucky you.''
Raenell Dawn knows she's lucky. Born on Feb. 29, 1960, she leads
the Honor Society of Leap Day Babies, a group of
people born on that distinctive day. The group functions primarily
through its Web site, www.leapdaybabies.com.
When Ms. Dawn got a computer, she did a Web search on leap year.
''I found technical information,'' she said. ''I didn't
find anything fun at all.'' She decided to remedy the situation with
the Web site, which is filled with leap year tales and trivia.
As the big day approaches, there has been a burst of activity at the
site.
Wondering what to name your leapling? How about Leapa, Leapanne,
or Leaptoria? Haven't figured out what a leapling
is? According to the ''leaptionary'' at Ms. Dawn's Web site, it is a
newborn leap day baby. Ms. Dawn, who lives near
Salem, Ore., signs her correspondence with ''Leapest regards,''
which, the leaptionary says, are deeper than ''Deepest
regards.''
The site also publicizes Ms. Dawn's crusade to have Feb. 29
denoted on calendars as Leap Day. ''The day is a holiday that
celebrates the calendar,'' she said. ''It should be in print, just
like Groundhog Day.''
Web visitors are encouraged to relate their leap year stories.
One person expressed dismay at the lack of a birthday
horoscope. Another got out of a speeding ticket because the trooper
shared his Feb. 29 birthday. Another wrote that her
birth certificate was doubly peculiar, listing the day of her birth
as ''Thuesday.'' Plenty of people grumble about computers
that consider their birthdate nonexistent when they need to enter it
on computer forms.
The site also announces
leap year celebrations around the world, like the Worldwide Leap
Year Festival, held in Anthony,
Tex., which calls itself ''Leap Year Capital of the World.'' The
quadrennial festival began in 1988, when Mary Ann Brown,
born on Feb. 29, 1932, decided that Anthony, a farm town, needed a
promotional tool. The Chamber of Commerce,
shared with neighboring Anthony, N.M., is anticipating 10,000
visitors. Details of this year's festival are at
www.leapyearcapital.org. The four-day celebration culminates in a
parade, a dinner and fireworks. Graham Nash of
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young will entertain -- it's a birthday
present to his wife, Susan.
The Web site of the astronomy department at New Mexico State
University in Las Cruces also posts a festival schedule
(astro.nmsu.edu /lhuber/leapyear.html). The department's systems
analyst, Lyle Huber, includes links to several pages
explaining the origin of leap year and the history of the calendar.
This year, Mr. Huber has received messages from people wondering
about February 2000. ''Because it was the centurial
year,'' he said, ''some people thought it would be a super leap
year,'' with 30 days.
''Some people are very misinformed,'' he added.
Mr. Huber also links to www .mystro.com/leap.htm, run by John
Strohsacker of Baltimore, born Feb. 29, 1968. Mr.
Strohsacker's is considered the original leap day site. Four years
ago, he said, his e-mail came primarily from leap day
babies who had never met any others. This year, he is getting
technical questions, including some from computer
programmers concerned about glitches. Mr. Strohsacker includes links
to sites about population (www.census
.gov)
and time, including the site of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich,
England (www.rog.nmm.ac.uk).
Some sites, including Mr. Strohsacker's, have lists of famous
people born on Feb. 29, but many of the people are not all
that famous -- Herman Hollerith, for example, the inventor of the
electronic tabulating machine. But Mr. Strohsacker's list
also includes the composer Gioacchino Rossini, the astronaut Jack
Lousma, the football player Fran Tarkenton and the
band leader Jimmy Dorsey.
Additional links about time are provided by Andrew Starr, who has
''always enjoyed offbeat holidays''
(emailman.com/leapday). Mr. Starr, a lawyer working near Kansas
City, Mo., also highlights an explanation of the ''leap
second.''
An especially good account of leap year comes from The Straight
Dope by Cecil Adams
(www.straightdope .com/mailbag/mleapyr.html). Most people know that
years divisible by four are leap years, but there
are exceptions. For example, there was no leap day in 1700, 1800 or
1900, but there is one this year.
And for those really looking ahead, Mr. Adams points out another
exception: The year 4000 and its later multiples -- 8000,
12000, etc. -- will not be leap years.