Leapin’ Lizards, it’s February 29!

It happens every four years. But I have to confess I didn’t really understand WHY we had a leap year. So I did a lil poking around and found out some cool stuff. Like did you know Julius Caesar introduced Leap Years during the Roman empire over 2000 years ago? Me neither! So here’s the skinny on WHY we still have leap year every four years:

“Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds  – to circle once around the Sun.

However, the Gregorian calendar has only 365 days in a year, so if we didn’t add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!”

source: time and date

ZOINKS! Pretty crazy huh. I think it’s so cool and weird that there are some people who technically only celebrate their birthday every four years! Are you a leap year baby or do you know one??

images: Philippe Halsman (all but last image. source unknown.)

Philippe Halsman was a renowned photographer for LIFE magazine in the 1950s (shooting an unprescedented 101 covers!). He was commissioned to shoot portraits of many famous people, and one day had the unique idea to ask each person to take one final pose and JUMP for the camera! He called the series Jumpology and as you can see, the results of his quirky request were pretty amazing. Everyone from Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Benny Goodman, Richard Nixon to even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor agreed to “jump”. So awesome. And so fitting for today. Oh, and that very top photo is of Mr. Halsman and Marilyn Monroe.

4 thoughts on “Leapin’ Lizards, it’s February 29!

  1. super adorable!

    i’ve loved these jumping photos and i’m TOTALLY kicking myself for not grabbing that life mag from the shop a few weeks ago… remember those photos i posted on FW of marylin, bardot + hepburn? they were in that magazine, but i was all… oh jeez, i don’t need it and it was 20 bucks and yadda yadda… and it had been there forever, so i thought, no big rush… and then i went back after i’d decided i really DID need to have it, and… GONE.

    what’s that little saying about buying an antique when you see it? 😉

    1. Yes!!!! They were this same photog! I didn’t realize the LIFE mag photos were all the same guy (I thought they were just a cool collection of jumping lovelies) but while searching for Leap Year vintage cards (which, by the way DONT EXIST! I only found them from the early 1900s! And as an aside, apparently this is the day where women were supposed to/”allowed to” propose to men! So weird.) but I stumbled upon this guy. I love that he did this! Hey if you have the linkie put it in here/email me so I can add it. I loved the Audrey photo especially!

      1. omg! soooooo interesting!!!!!!!!!

        I’m completely obsessed with this photog now. these black and white images are TO DIE! I’m so stabby that I didn’t nab that damn mag, ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        I keep thinking… maybe just maybe it’s tucked behind another magazine on that shelf and I’m not seeing it??? Yes, I am in total denial.

        here’s my post with those three beauties: http://www.frecklewonder.com/2012/1/9/letting-go-and-kicking-up

        😉

Leave a Reply to jenny Cancel reply