Hey, it’s a Leap Comic! Feb 29… I thought it had been 8 years since the last Leap Day, but I must be regressing to past lives (the sexy explanation) or getting senile (Occam’s Razor). There was a Leap Day in 2000.
I’m a little worried that I am breaking my rule about topical jokes with this one, but since nobody’s really been talking about David Blaine for a few months, I figure this joke is pre-dated…like a pair of pre-washed jeans. I’m sure he’ll resurface again, maybe to be fried in margarine under a giant magnifying glass, or some other trick he stole from the old Batman show.
Seriously, they did that one. They were tied up in a huge skillet, slathered in margarine. Robin said, “Holy oleo, Batman!” And Catwoman said, “I didn’t know you could yodel, Boy Wonder.” They don’t write them like that any more.
You might’ve been confused about the leap year thing because 2000 would normally NOT be a leap year, but it was after all.
That is to say, there’s three rules for when it’s leap year. If the year is divisible by 4, it’s a leap year; but if the year is also divisible by 100, it’s NOT a leap year (1900, 2000, 2100…). But if it’s also divisible by 400, it IS a leap year after all (1600, 2000, 2400…) So 2000 was a leap year, but it’s easy to get confused.
So, what you’re saying, Escher, is that unless there are some really sick advances in medicine in the 21st century, we’re probably like the one generation in 20 that *doesn’t* live to see a leap year get skipped.
Man, I feel so gypped.