Almost**  every four years we get a leap year; that is an extra day added to February. Which means:

• If you have a salaried 40 hour a week job, your average daily wage decreased by 0.3%

• If you rent, your average daily rent decreased by 0.2% A free day of rent!

• There is another full day available for political messages this year. Is it a coincidence that presidential election years are always leap years??  What better year to lead the lemmings.

• It may not be coincidence that a record number of parachutists who leap out of airplanes have splattered this year at their local jump site in Perris, California?

• People who are born today really get screwed on future birthdays. Plus if they want to retire at age 65 it won’t be until the year 2272.  Plus they will need a facelift by age 13.

**Leap years were added by Julius Caesar in 45 BC to correct the calendar for the actual solar year which is about 365.2425 days. But the extra day every four years makes the average year 365.25 which over-corrects by 0.0075 days (about 10 minutes). So leap centuries were instituted once every four centuries to correct the over correction. The year 2000 was a leap year, but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not be.

Token Rhyme:

Every four years we add a day

To correct for the solar year

In the same cycle the political fray

Gives me reasons for drinking more beer

Copyright 2012  Patrick Granfors