After twelve years, it's allowed.

On any given date something interesting has happened. Because of that I don't find myself in any imminent danger of running out of date tie-ins for these columns, even if, basically for practical reasons, they're consistently posted during the last third of each month, thus significantly limiting the number of events that I might tie into. I primarily try to find tie-in items that relate to a very broadly defined realm of communications, but if I stumble onto something of general interest (and can't find anything else worth noting) that can suffice. And although a number of dates are repeats, I seem to have succeeded in finding something distinct (if not "new") for each repeated date.

But some items merit being repeated, perhaps precisely because they're a bit out of the ordinary. I've had a number of opportunities to acknowledge February 29, but didn't "choose" it for 2000, nor for 2008, and throughout 2012 no Boidem columns were posted. So it was only twelve years ago that I tied-in to this particular, and special, date. Interestingly, when I did that I made a rather unoptimistic semi-prediction concerning a future February 29 date tie-in:

four more years into the future is too far for me to guess as to the possible longevity of the Boidem, this well may be the last

I was wrong, though of course not for the first time. And now I'm taking advantage of the February 29 opportunity. It's a special date which almost by definition means that various out of the ordinary events or issues connect to it. Siblings born on three consecutive leap-days, for instance, is far from earth shattering, but definitely worth noting. Which I suppose is why, for that 2004 column, I took note of the Norwegian siblings who "accomplished" that feat. Back then they were the only known family with three consecutive leap-day births, but in 2012 the third leap-day sibling was born to a Utah family, which gives me an opportunity to do some updating here.

One historic leap-day event that definitely seems to merit mention here is, interestingly enough, connected to a different celestial phenomenon. On his fourth sailing to the "new world" things didn't go exactly as planned, and Christopher Columbus found himself, and his crew, stranded on Jamaica. At first their relations with the indigenous population were amenable, but after six months things became strained. Consulting his almanac Columbus devised a plan to get the Jamaicans to do his bidding. As space.com tells it:

Columbus, of course, had a copy of the almanac with him when he was stranded on Jamaica. And he soon discovered from studying its tables that on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 29, 1504, a total lunar eclipse would occur, beginning around the time of moonrise.
Armed with this knowledge, three days before the eclipse, Columbus requested a meeting with the Arawak chief and informed him that his Christian god was very angry with his people for no longer supplying him and his men with food. Therefore, he was about to provide a clear sign of his displeasure: Three nights hence, he would all but obliterate the rising full moon, making it appear "inflamed with wrath," which would signify the evils that would soon be inflicted upon all of them.

A similar situation shows up in a classic American novel, and in both cases in the end the protagonist has the upper hand.

I have to admit, however, that though I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of this Columbus story (and yes, there really was a total lunar eclipse on that day) I find it strange that the Jamaicans were as spooked as it seems they were by Columbus's "magic". The Maya were apparently capable of predicting eclipses, and though the Inca and the Aztec probably didn't predict these, they were well-enough versed in astronomy to know what was happening. It would seem to me that the Jamaicans wouldn't have been quite as disturbed by Columbus's "prediction" than the story makes them out to be.

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