It is now the 29th of the beastly month of February, thus the apprentice pirate Frederic is now one year older. According to the play, his 21st birthday was in 1940 - how old would be be this leap year?
I think the G&S operetta got it wrong, since it didn’t allow for 1900 not being a leap year. Young Frederic would now be 34, and today no one has their 112th birthday. (or 28th birthday, being born in 1900)
I think he’s 39 today.
I don’t think the G&S operetta got it wrong as it doesn’t state when Frederic was born, only that he reaches his 21st birthday in 1940.
So if he was 21 in 1940 then (2012-1940)/4 = 18 (as 2000 was a leap year).
18 + 21 = 39.
I’m sure Mabel has stuck by him all these years. And can that girl sing…!
Yeah, but has her father gotten a promotion yet?
When was Frederic born?
He’d have been born in 1856, right? He has a “birthday” every four years (by coincidence, in U.S. presidential election years). So:
Born Feb. 29, 1856
1 - 1860
2 - 1864
3 - 1868
4 - 1872
5 - 1876
6 - 1880
7 - 1884
8 - 1888
9 - 1892
10 - 1896
11 - 1900
12 - 1904
13 - 1908
14 - 1912
15 - 1916
16 - 1920
17 - 1924
18 - 1928
19 - 1932
20 - 1936
21 - 1940!
According to Wiki, the NYT wished Frederic a happy 21st birthday on Feb. 29, 1940, and congratulated him on completing his pirate indenture.
Nah, he was born on 29 February 1852. 1900 wasn’t a leap year.
Cool!
He was born in either 1856 or 1860. It depends on whether the Pirate King knows enough to skip 1900 or not.
In the production I was in he was a pretty smart cookie, so yes.
He was also an orphan.
I read this, and I still don’t understand how 1900 wasn’t a leap year.
If every fourth year was a leap year, over great lengths of time the calendar would get a little out of wack again.
To keep it closer to the actual seasons, the years divisible by 100 are not designated leap years.
UNLESS it’s also evenly divisible by 400. So 1700, 1800, and 1900, would not have been leap years. But 2000 was, as it’s evenly divisible by 400.
I suppose he could have been born in 1860, based purely on the Major General’s claim to be able to whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
Pinafore opened in 1878, and the first leap year after that was 1880. As Frederic is now ‘5 and a little bit over’, the show must take place in 1881. Twenty-one years before that is 1860.
However, this puts the 1940 calculation out by quite a bit, even allowing for 1900 not being a leap year. A paradox?
I renewed my membership at Sam’s Club yesterday and the woman told me it would be good until next February 28. I feel dumb. If I had waited until today to renew it, it would have lasted me until 2016.