. . . and a day
Notice anything odd about the third word down? The answer to come; the image originally from here.
It's February 29th, a day that literally doesn't come along all that often. Perhaps appropriately, then, I've learned two weird things today that seem worthy of perpetuating:
Via Edge of the American West comes this story of the all-too-brief existence of a word. It's too complicated a tale to condense or excerpt here; just go and read, then tell me if it's not one of the coolest stories of things lexicographical you've ever read.
Via this story on the movement to create a 13-month, 28-day calendar, I learned that Peter Bogdanovich--yep, that one--is a serious student of calendars and an advocate of the 13-month calendar. It was through the interview with him, by the way, that I learned that the phrase ". . . and a day" (as in "a year and a day") comes from the fact that many ancient cultures had 13-month calendars of 28 days, but that meant a year of 364 days, so an extra day had to be added to the calendar, a New Year's Day, so the calendar would be in synch with the Earth's orbit.
Anyway. Class dismissed. I'll see you again in four years.
