Happy Birthday to Leap Year Babies

I’ve always been fascinated with Leap Year.  How could we have one day on our calendar that only occurs every 4 years?  Whose idea was this and why?  And what about all the people born on leap year?  When do they celebrate their birthdays on the year when their birthday doesn’t appear on the calendar?

So I did some digging.  The reason for having a Leap Year is to keep our calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolutions around the sun.  I knew it had something to do with the planet and the sun, after all, that is how we keep time and how the calendar works.

There are two different methods of calculations to determine which years will be leap years.  The Gregorian calendar, which most modern countries utilize, uses the following criteria:

1.  Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year;
2.  of those years, if it can be divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless
3. the year is divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

So, as an example, the years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years, while year 2000 and 2400 are.

Before the Gregorian calendar had widespread use the Julian calendar was popular.  It also had leap years but the math was a bit easier.   Any year divisible by four was a leap year.

It’s interesting to note that no matter what, our calendar is not 100% spot on.  Today’s calendars can be off by seconds or even days every year.  In fact, new calculations will need to be introduced to keep calendars on track.  When we say a year is 365 days that’s not quite true, it is actually closer to 365.242199 days in a year.  OK, we’ll continue saying 365 days.

Some Famous People Born on Leap Year 

* 1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (William Tell, The Barber of Seville) (d. 1868)
* 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
* 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
* 1960 – Richard Ramirez, American serial killer
* 1960 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins, American motivational speaker
* 1972 – Antonio Sabàto Jr, Italian-born actor
* 1976 – Ja Rule, American rapper and actor
* 1980 – Chris Conley, American musician and songwriter/composer

Some Famous Leap Year Events

* 1692 – First accusations began during the Salem witch trials. The trials occurred in Massachusetts in the United States, where more than 150 people were arrested and at least 25 people died by hanging, torture or during their prison stay.
* 1940 – Hattie McDaniel was the first African American actress to win an Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind. The movie won eight Oscars.
* 1952 – The first “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs were installed in New York City.
* 1972 – The Carpenters received a gold record for the hit single Hurting Each Other. The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo of siblings, Karen and Richard, who produced a softer style of music in an era when loud rock was in demand. They were one of the best-selling music artists in the 1970s.

The people and events listed above are just a sampling.  I’m sure there are many more to add.  In fact, there are an estimated 4 million people born on February 29th!  I wonder if St. Petersburg, FL, holds a Leap Year birthday party because it was incorporated on February 29, 1892.

I’ve read differing stories of how people born on Leap Year celebrate birthdays.  One gentleman stated that he only got a birthday party every four years, on his actual February 29th birth date.  He admitted that as a child it was difficult to understand why he didn’t get a party every year, but he also explained that when there was a leap year he had a very big celebration.  From my readings it seems that others celebrate every year on the last day of February.

There Used to be February 30th

In 1700 Sweden switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar but the year they picked to do so put them out of synch with both so they switched back in 1712.  That year they two leap days and added February 30th and kept it until 1753, when they switched back to the Gregorian calendar.

The Soviet Union added a calendar in 1929 that included February 30th from 1930-1931.  This calendar was really different having 5 day weeks with the extra days to every month being monthless holidays.  In fact, they kept this secondary calendar (the Gregorian calendar wasn’t completely abolished - how confusing was that) until 1940.

So imagine that there are people alive today who were born on February 30th, a day never to be seen again!  They never get a true birth day.

A Tragedy, A Recovery and a Reminder

Once in a while I find a story that isn’t related to real estate or the southwest suburbs and I need to write about it. This one is about a little Palos Heights boy, John Dytrych, who spent 75 days in the hospital with only a 20% chance of surviving. He is recovering but does suffer from physical problems that require him to wear leg braces and he needs speech, physical and occupational therapy.

This all happened on January 24, 2007, when John’s Mom, Carrie, left John (then 21 months old) alone for a short time sitting in front of the tv. This is a family of four kids and at first when we read stories like this it is easy to blame the so-called negligent parent. Now, if you’re the most perfect parent in the world then I guess you could place blame. But with just three children I have not had my eyes on my kids every single second of the day. My goodness, we’d have to huddle them all together to accompany us to the bathroom every time we had to go, and that could be pointed out as another form of neglect!

When Carrie came back into the room she saw John holding one of several kerosene lamps that had been on display for 15 years (they were wedding presents). Her first reaction was that John would drop it. But soon after John passed out and that was the beginning of a long ordeal.

John was rushed to Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn. His doctors are surprised at his recovery as expectations were so low. John is expected to recover fully and I wish he and his family the best.

I kept a kerosene lamp around when my children were young and we even used it. It blended in well with my antique decor. After reading this story, I thank my lucky stars that none of my children decided it looked good enough to drink! We just don’t know how children see different things.

This is just a reminder that if you have children or grandchildren (like I do), you might need to go through the house and make sure all poisons are well out of reach. And you might have to rethink certain items, such as a kerosene lamp, that you wouldn’t even consider as a poison.

Cook County Potholes Galore

Mega-Pothole, closeup Originally uploaded by Eloise Mason

You can tell it’s been a rough winter by all of the potholes in the streets in the area. I did some driving today and couldn’t believe the bad shape of our roads. Southwest Hwy., Cicero, Harlem, 131st St., 143rd St.; every one of these streets had bad potholes. There was a lot of swerving done by drivers on these roads.

There was a huge hole on Cicero & Southwest Highway that is probably not visible at night and looks like it could cause some damage. A few weeks ago I was showing Frankfort IL real estate at night and hit a huge pothole. My tire went flat immediately. It was so damaged I had to buy a new tire but at least I didn’t damage the frame. A guy at the nearest gas station said he had hit the same pothole and had even worse damage. We both should have probably notified Frankfort but I’m not sure who is responsible.

Is the city liable or is it the county? I did a quick search and could not find an answer. I know the City of Chicago has it’s own public works department that takes care of potholes in city limits. So who is responsible for some of the main streets like Harlem, Cicero, etc.?

If you damage your car (I have special tires that had to be ordered) can you expect some kind of payment? It’s too late for me, I should have reported it immediately. I can’t even remember the exact street I was on now as it was dark and we were using the GPS to find the newer subdivision I was showing a townhouse in.

Not only do these potholes cost car damage that someone has to pay for, but I believe they can be dangerous. I wonder how many accidents are caused by someone trying to avoid a deep gap in the road at the last minute. Be careful out there!

Tinley Park Tragedy

I want to acknowledge the five women who lost their lives in such a senseless, brutal way in the shooting deaths that occurred in a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, IL, supposedly from a botched robbery. I also want to share my joy that one of the six victims survived. Hopefully, she will be able to give enough details so this callous criminal can be apprehended.

This horrific event affects everyone; Tinley Park residents, all the Chicago suburbs, all of Illinois and the nation. We are so shocked because something like that doesn’t happen here.

This brings back memories of the Brown’s Chicken massacre that occurred in Palatine, IL in 1993. No one was brought to justice until May 7, 2007, when one of the criminal pair, Juan Luna, was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison. It seems like the other perpetrator, Jim Degorski, is still awaiting trial.

I hope it doesn’t take as long to find the Tinley Park murderer. I offer my condolences to the victims’ family, friends and acquaintances. It will take a long time for everyone to heal. Hopefully, they will find some closure and sooner than it took for the Palatine case.