Some People Born on "Leap Day"

Ok, enough is enough. Time to get back to some posting.

Today is of course February 29th, referred to by many these days (especially those at LeapZine.com) as "Leap Day". When this changed from "Leap Year's Day" I'm not sure, but the new version seems more fun to say for some reason.

Just a few days ago TLM and I were talking about the family with something like 4 children born on a leap day. Well, it turns out it was only 3 siblings from Norway, Heidi, Olav, and Lief-Martin Henriksen (only 3...come on!) born in 1960, 1964, and 1968 respectively. Is this a freak example of probabilities gone haywire (I mean, the day only comes by every four years or so, depending on the century), or is it instead a masterful example of premeditated and well-timed reproduction? You tell me.


Whatever the case, there are lots of other interesting and/or famous people whose birthday falls or fell on February 29th. For example, as if being a leap year baby wasn't enough, one set of parents in Germany decided to take baby naming to another level in 1904 by naming their son:

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr.

See the pattern? He had a name that began with every letter of the alphabet, in order, up to his last name (which wasn't exactly that short either, btw.). He could have used a different name almost every day of each month, or maybe based on how he was feeling that day. He apparently did have a shorthand version: Mr. Wolfe Plus 585 Sr., though I haven't figured out where the 585 comes in.

Oh...and is that a Sr. I see at the end? Does that mean there was a Jr. running around at some point with the same name? Had he been born somewhere like 60-68 years later, he may have opted to go with the classic Big Bird word that wasn't (see below in case you have no idea what that means).



Some other Leap Day babies include rapper Ja Rule, Pedro Zamora from Real World San Francisco, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and Lyndon Byers, the infamous Bruins enforcer who can still be seen now and then in and around Boston bars and nightclubs. Below is an example of LB's handiwork, and one of the few times you'll see a hockey fight broken up before someone hits the ice.



Happy Leap Day!
 

Pats are 18-1, and done

I'm trying to remind myself it's only a game, but this one hurts. It would be different if the Patriots hadn't gone undefeated all year, I imagine. I'm still trying to put together thoughts about this, so here:

Joe Kittinger - Skydiving from Space

Taking a brief reprieve from all the Super Bowl hype (my last chance to do so), I came across this History Channel vid that describes an interesting, and I think little known, even that occurred on August 16, 1960. As part of the US's evolving space program, Joseph Kittinger strapped into a helium balloon craft named the Excelsior III with a very unusual mission. Following orders, Kittinger waited until he was 102,800 feet above the Earth (that's pretty much in space, folks), then jumped out.

Yup, he jumped. And he made it back ok.

Now though the act was really part of an experiment trying to determine the effects of high altitudes on human beings, Kittinger managed to also set a few world records. Firstly, it's safe to say that he has the distance record for skydiving (spacediving?). Secondly, because of the constant acceleration of gravity increasing his velocity all the way down, he ended up traveling over 700 mph at one point, setting the record for fastest human not in a vehicle of some sort, not that many vehicles can get to that speed. The man actually broke mach 1 about 3/4 of his way down.

I deem this worth watching at least once. At least.