Leap Year Fiasco

[_WW_]

I need for someone to give me the name of the guy that decided we needed an extra day in winter every four years. I suspect it was an Aussie so they could get an extra day of summer. We need to lobby/bribe the head calendar guy and get this day moved to June.

 

[Mossback]

Isn't time just an artificial construct whose only purpose is to protect us (with our limited intellects) from having to experience existence all-at-once ?

 

[_WW_]

Isn't time just an artificial construct whose only purpose is to protect us (with our limited intellects) from having to experience existence all-at-once ?

That and getting your car payments in on time.

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

I need for someone to give me the name of the guy that decided we needed an extra day in winter every four years. I suspect it was an Aussie so they could get an extra day of summer. We need to lobby/bribe the head calendar guy and get this day moved to June.

Completely agree, that and having the longest daylight in June is terrible engineering, feels like summer is ending before it even started, should be the beginning of August - I would like to have a word with whoever is in charge of this.

 

[RCF]

Lets just have 365 days a year every year. That way, over time, summer will become short days of light and winter long days of light. AND no more daylight savings!

 

[Stonedfish]

Anyone know anyone born on Feb 29th?
My dad's good buddy and old clam digging and oyster picking partner, Jack, was born on the 29th. Maybe being born on the 29th is what made him such a interesting character. Hell of a steelhead angler as well.
SF

 

[Salmo_g]

I retired on February 29, 2016. I knew that Leap Day would be easy to remember so I can celebrate the day I joined the gainfully unemployed.

 

[Mossback]

Congrats Salmo...
Your retirement, or as we call it "The day our fisheries began to recover", was a great day for all.

 

[O' Clarkii Stomias]

Congrats Salmo...
Your retirement, or as we call it "The day our fisheries began to recover", was a great day for all.

Seems to me that's when the anadromous runs began to crater.

 

[Zak]

Anyone know anyone born on Feb 29th?
My dad's good buddy and old clam digging and oyster picking partner, Jack, was born on the 29th. Maybe being born on the 29th is what made him such a interesting character. Hell of a steelhead angler as well.
SF

That was the paradox in Pirates of Penzance.

 

[Dr. Magill]

My brother in law passed away on the 29th. 1992

 

[joefromchicago]

Stupid universe, can't make freakin' solar system that obeys humanistic hubris. Where do I find a new one?

 

[Westfly Refugee]

Be grateful for what you got...and that we're not on the Mayan Long Count calendar... you'd need gutter spikes to pin that SOB to a wall.

 

[Rob Allen]

Completely agree, that and having the longest daylight in June is terrible engineering, feels like summer is ending before it even started, should be the beginning of August - I would like to have a word with whoever is in charge of this.

Longest daylight should be first week of October

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

I propose we suspend leap year and just jump to about the year 2200, then re-institue leap year - that would put the summer solstice somewhere in August, where it belongs.

If we go with @Rob Allen proposal we need to jump all the way to sometime early in the 2400s

Leap years: What would happen if we didn’t have the extra days

CNN answers the question on many people’s minds this February 29.

www.cnn.com

I am willing to spearhead this movement, who do we write to get this done?
(yes, this is classic work avoidance).

cheers

 

[Mukman]

 

[joefromchicago]

I need for someone to give me the name of the guy that decided we needed an extra day in winter every four years. I suspect it was an Aussie so they could get an extra day of summer. We need to lobby/bribe the head calendar guy and get this day moved to June.

Julius Caesar

Another fun fact: He came up with the idea long before it was realized that the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa.

Whoops! Sounds like the start of another post.

 

[_WW_]

Julius Caesar

Another fun fact: He came up with the idea long before it was realized that the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa.

Whoops! Sounds like the start of another post.

Well...I think I would have stabbed him too.

 

[joefromchicago]

Well...I think I would have stabbed him too.

Et tu, _WW_.

 

[Wadin' Boot]

And on February 29, Julius Caeser made Caeser salads for all his buds to celebrate the leap day. As he handed them out he said:

"Best salads in the five-hills a Rome, yo' mama couldn't do bedda......Badda-bing, badda boom" like a true Salad slingin' wiseguy....

Made 'em for almost everyone, Except Brutus who said in his super whiny way:

"Just because I don't like anchovies doesn't mean I didn't want a salad, Julius"

In the next two weeks this snubbing really frustrated Brutus, and on March 15th he, along with some of his toga wearing buds (Not Cicero, Not Mark Antony), invited Julius into the Senate and stabbed Julius Caeser, otherwise known as Jules the Salad Guy.

Then all the poor people of Rome found out that "Senate stabbed Jules.....you know....the SALAD GUY!"

Which was not viewed well.

"I mean what were are we going to eat now, fermented fish paste? Gyros? Hummus? Spanokopeta?"

This was before you could get a Calzone, a slice of pizza, or even spaghetti and meatballs which had yet to be invented (for that goodness you would need to fast forward to New Jersey about 1900 years later.)

Gladiators and Centurians were not sure which side to pick- the Salad Eaters or the Toga Wearing killers who purportedly were supposed to represent them.

Anyway, this chapter in food history is one of many that lead to a slow and bloody diminishment of Roman Influence best summed in Gibbon's 6-volume classic, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Fortunately Gibbon saw fit to keep his focus on Romans and food. This time in the New World, thus avoiding a sophomore slump, with the classic 3-volume follow-up Vinnie, don't put too many onions in the sauce: The Rise of Roman Diet and Influence in Prohibition era New Jersey and New York