I just had a very nice chat with my brother-in-law about a mutual friend who is in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Otfrid got a Writ that he would be receiving a Pelican (Peerage award for service) at Ice Dragon (a very large event in Buffalo NY, also called Barony of the Rhydderich Hael.) This event will be 2 weeks after his 12th birthday, and is being given for 24 years of service.
How is that possible, you ask? Otfrid is a leap year baby, so he is actually going to be 48 years old. My brother and I joked about the character of Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, who was also born on February 29, which was a plot point. I mentioned about something that Isaac Azimov had written that the play would have been set in 1873 or 1877. Frederic sings about how he will celebrate his 21st birthday in 1940, which means that he would have been born 88 years before (if Gilbert and Sullivan correctly realized that 1900 would NOT be a leap year) or 84 years before (if they didn't.)
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