Ever wish you had more time?? Well, Fri. 29th was a bonus day.
Happy Leap Day, an occasion that comes around once every four years, resulting in an extra day on the calendar.
* Why we have it : The extra day helps synchronize the calendar year with the solar year, which is the time it takes for the Earth to complete it's orbit around the sun.

* Length of a solar year : 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.

* If we didn't have it : Those extra hours would add up, and during the course of a century, would equal about 25 days and begin throwing the calendar and the seasons out of sync.

* How long it's been observed : The Egyptians were the first to add an extra day to their calendar to stay in line with the solar year. And the Romans were the first to designate Feb. 29th as the extra day.

* An exception : Century years are not leap years unless they can be evenly divided by 400. For example, 1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years. This rule helps compensate for some of the time that Leap Day overshoots because a solar year is 11 minutes and 14 seconds shy of being a quarter of a day off from the calendar year. WOW.

* Famous leapers : The membership rolls of the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Birthdays include William A. Wellman, who directed " Wings," the first film to win an Oscar in 1928, actor Dennis Farina of " Law & Order " fame, and rapper Ja Rule, and singer Gretchen Christopher, whose group, The Fleetwoods, had a No. 1 hit in 1959, " Come Softly to Me."
And best of all my son Larry C. Williams celebrated his 20th birthday. He is officially no longer a " Teenager."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARRY.

* Leaping gimmicks : Several companies are offering special deals to those born on Leap Day. For example, Papa Johns is giving away free, one - topping Papa's Perfect Pan Pizzas to all leaplings if they order online at www.papajohns.com

* Take the leap : Historically, when courtship rules were much stricter, Feb. 29th was the one day it was socially acceptable for women to propose marriage to men.

* Don't leap too far. : According to Greek superstition, couples who enter wedlock during a leap year will have bad luck.

* The chances of a leap birthday are 1 in 1,461. Imagine having to wait four years for your real birthday.

* The longest time between two leap years is eight years. The last time this happened was between 1896 and 1904. It won't happen again until 2096 to 2104.

* According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are about 200,000 Americans born on Feb 29th and 4.1 million people worldwide.