# Is this cool or am I a fool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004 "2010-10-13T15:11:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/1 "2010-10-13T15:11:57Z")
I was just sorting out some travel dates for this month. This October has 5 fridays 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. I don’t think I have seen that before. Is it a unique year or have I just been focusing too much on salary days which don’t come round half as often as I would like? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/2 "2010-10-13T15:23:00Z")
It’s cool, but it’s not nearly as cool as some people would have you believe. This is the 7th occurrence of it in my lifetime, for instance. > **['Money Bags' Calendar](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/money-bags/)** > > August 2015 includes five Saturdays, five Sundays, and five Mondays, a phenomenon that supposedly occurs only once every 800+ years. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/3 "2010-10-13T15:23:46Z")
I look at this kind of thing all the time because I work on a magazine which publishes five spreads of TV programming grids and information each month, one for each “week.” We usually run the tail-end of the last month on the first spread, and the last spread often just has a day or two, or runs extra-long. For October, the last spread, instead of featuring seven days’ worth of program schedules, it had eight. We ended up with extra pages to re-allocated one February a couple years back. It was 28 days, began on a Sunday and ended on a Saturday. There was no way to get to five weeks! It was interesting, in a calendar-geek sort of way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/4 "2010-10-13T15:36:45Z")
Once you consider that there are only 14 calendars (for a year) – 7 common year and 7 leap year, each starting on a different day of the week – it should be no big surprise that with the exception of Feb/29 falling on the same day of the week (which takes 28 years – as a rule) the same calendar layout will recur every 5, 6, or 11 years. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/5 "2010-10-13T15:41:39Z")
7 months a year have 31 days in them. Whenever one of these months happens to start on a Friday this happens. I wouldn’t think it’s that rare. January of this year was the same way. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/6 "2010-10-13T16:44:04Z")
Interesting. But not as unique as I first thought. Ignorance fought! thank you ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/7 "2010-10-13T16:48:32Z")
I won’t call you a fool, but it _did_ happen in 2004… And will happen again in 2021, which is kind of a long stretch. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/8 "2010-10-13T16:50:03Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Once you consider that there are only 14 calendars (for a year) – 7 common year and 7 leap year, each starting on a different day of the week – it should be no big surprise that with the exception of Feb/29 falling on the same day of the week (which takes 28 years – as a rule) Interesting factoid: if your job pays bi-weekly, payday will be on Feb. 29 only once every 56 years. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/9 "2010-10-13T16:50:34Z")
August,( this very year), had 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays, 5 Tuesdays. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/10 "2010-10-13T16:55:00Z")
It’s cool, because I get paid 3 times this month! 😃 (And you’re not a fool.) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/11 "2010-10-13T16:55:35Z")
It may prove instructional to look at [http://www.rappahannocklibrary.org/georgewashington/george\_perpetual.html](http://www.rappahannocklibrary.org/georgewashington/george_perpetual.html) ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/12 "2010-10-13T20:15:54Z")
T-Rex thinks you’re cool. > **[Dinosaur Comics!](https://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1813)** > > man, forget BOSSES ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/13 "2010-10-13T21:10:01Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I won’t call you a fool, but it _did_ happen in 2004… > > And will happen again in 2021, which is kind of a long stretch. Unless I’m reading my calendar wrong (and it’s been known to happen), it also happened back in January of this year. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/14 "2010-10-13T21:24:23Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > I won’t call you a fool, but it _did_ happen in 2004… > > > > And will happen again in 2021, which is kind of a long stretch. > > Unless I’m reading my calendar wrong (and it’s been known to happen), it also happened back in January of this year. Yeah, it seems to happen in various months once or twice a year but I think they were referring to how often it happens in October. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/15 "2010-10-13T22:49:10Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > [@Zeldar](#): > > > > Once you consider that there are only 14 calendars (for a year) – 7 common year and 7 leap year, each starting on a different day of the week – it should be no big surprise that with the exception of Feb/29 falling on the same day of the week (which takes 28 years – as a rule) > > Interesting factoid: if your job pays bi-weekly, payday will be on Feb. 29 only once every 56 years. My father was _born_ on February 29th! I’ve had almost 3 times as many birthdays as he has had. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cool-or-am-i-a-fool/557004/16 "2010-10-13T23:17:04Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > > [@Shoeless](#): > > > > Unless I’m reading my calendar wrong (and it’s been known to happen), it also happened back in January of this year. > > Yeah, it seems to happen in various months once or twice a year but I think they were referring to how often it happens in October. OK - I wasn’t sure if the OP was talking about October specifically, or any month with five full Fri-Sat-Sun weekends.