2024 is a bissextile year. Now before you get too excited, that means that it is the year (one of every 4) in which an extra day is added to the Julian and Gregorian calendars to correct the aggregating six-hour difference in chronological length between the common 365-day calendar year and the actual length of the solar year. The powers that be added that compensatory day every four years on the end of the shortest existing month, February.
Now this particular Leap Day is extra cool for this guy, because 2024 is the very first time I have blogged on February 29th. It is also the first time I have experienced this day in my latest incarnation as a writer.
But Leap Years and I go way back. I was born on a leap year. This will be my eighteenth Scorpio Leap Year Birthday.
Back when I was young and single, I found this day extra titillating.
Through my voracious childhood perusing of the wonders of Al Capp’s syndicated comic strip, Lil’ Abner – comic strips are the easiest way to develop a love for reading in even the most recalcitrant illiterate brute – I learned that Leap Day – February 29th – was also Sadie Hawkins Day.
You see, one of the things I have loved for most of my existence even more than reading was women. Emotionally, I realized I was attracted to the female form shortly after I understood just how much I loved ice cream, which I developed a taste for before I had teeth. Both have been a lifelong addiction, although 45 years plus of marriage has compelled me, for health purposes, to limit my intake of each. Everything in moderation. Luckily for me, I chose my favorite flavor.
But before the fall, when I was a young man, far less emotionally, socially and culturally evolved than I am today, I often fantasized being pursued by attractive women of any age on Sadie Hawkins Day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Hawkins_Day
And that was all down to Al Capp. I’m sure I was not the only young male whose mind he corrupted.
Who knew just how depraved a man he turned out to be: https://www.printmag.com/design-books/lil-abner-al-capp-monster-cartoonist/
I mean, Claire would have whipped AC’s ass. Rightfully so. He was a total scumbag.
But back in the time of innocence, his cartoons influenced us all.
I even put sharp stones in my shoes on this day just to curtail my Darwinian reflexive and very successful escape impulses developed over a Bronx childhood where the only way you avoided getting caught enjoying yourself by the 50 was by being swift of foot and nimble enough to quickly scale fences and run through woods.
Alas, it was all for naught.
Not once during my single life was I ever pursued by a female on February 29th. I just wasn’t a catch. As Harry Callahan so eloquently put it, “A good man always knows his limitations.”
I may not be a good man, but I am a modern man who remains excited by the idea that today’s woman can be the predator, not the prey. I love strong women. Just read my books. The women – no matter what planet they hail from – rock! The men in my stories – each one awesome in their own right, even the bad ones – are just along for the ride. Women drive the space ship. They are our salvation.
Indeed, Claire herself is the ultimate female, who carries the entire story and her motley crew along through all five of the books. You could say that The Claire Saga is a Sci-Fi Fantasy Feminist Treatise.
So, let today’s message be that women do not need to wait every four years to pursue their men (or other women if that’s their thing). For the record, they also don’t need any man’s permission to do so, I am just acting – as I always do – as a disembodied narrator. A conduit. A faceless voice in the chorus.
But take this as gospel from its ancient source, strong men are not threatened by strong women. Act accordingly.
So, that’s me off my soapbox.
Time to go cuddle the kitties and make my rounds.
Maybe later Lisa will chase me around Casa Claire for old time’s sake.
You know what they say, I may not be as good as I once was, but I’m as good once, as I ever was. That may be worth the chase.
So, you fine, five readers get out there and enjoy this bissextus event. Who knows, no matter what your gender – as fluid as you may find it – maybe you’ll get lucky.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 – “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”
And no matter what we get up to, let us make today a great one.
One Response
Al Capp was one twisted fella (?probably due to his childhood “surprise” leg amputation) but inarguably talented….