When we here at Olivia Waite hear that Leap Day is coming up,
surely we’re not alone in thinking, “Frederic finally gets a
birthday!” Because if anything is always culturally relevant,
it’s the nonstop patter-filled story of an uptight young British
man finding true love after being mistakenly apprenticed to
pirates in his youth. Poor Frederic won’t be free of the
indenture until he turns 21—since he was born on February 29, it
will take him about six decades. Pity the poor soul with a Leap
Day Birthday! A recent episode of Parks and Recreation (Knope
2012!) titled “Jerry’s Sweet Sixteen” was based on the same
premise: perennial joke-butt Jerry Gurgitch was born on February
29, so from a very technical standpoint he’s only had sixteen
birthdays. Of course, the Leap Day Birthday does not mean Jerry
has not spent sixty-four years on this planet as it revolves
around the sun. The Leap Day Birthday is an aberration that
reveals the way we culturally build the idea birthdays: you can
live however long you want, bu