yeppers
Was Gerald’s birthday on 29th February?
My guess is that the ship crossed the international dateline so he missed his birthday meaning he will have an eight year wait between birthdays.
Does he cross the international date line twice, and miss his birthday altogether?
KKKKKK
Was there some sort of concession/allowance/benefit afforded to men on their birthday that Gerald missed?
NO
Did poorly coded computer software (in the sense that it didn’t properly account for Feb. 29) cause a problem?
Did Gerald miss an appointment or some other commitment?
NO to both
Is the draft relevant?
Did missing his birthday cause him to miss an opportunity to do something?
Does the bad luck have to do with Gerald’s
military career?
finances?
love life?
family life?
health?
reputation?
You appear to have missed answering this question.
NO
I actually thought it was just once and yes, he missed his birthday altogether.
So this may seem like a full solution, but even this rare type of event would not make him so astoundingly unlucky when it comes to this type of thing. What might?
His unluckiness is not catastrophic, folks. It’s a very specific unluckiness that makes him noteworthy
Was the square piece of paper some sort of official military communication?
Was it an invitation?
If he had received the paper under other, less unusual circumstances, would he have been pleased to receive it? Displeased? Indifferent?
Was there a war going on?
NO to everything.
Except:
Typically he’d be indifferent .
To be clear, it’s something similar to:
His birthday is Jan 10
At 23:59 on Jan 9, he crosses the date line.
It becomes 23:59 on Jan 10.
He enjoys his birthday for 1 minute, then the clock chimes, and it’s 00:00 on Jan 11.
Is that correct? Maybe a different date, or maybe it’s just after midnight, rather than just before.
Is leap year involved?
Is the lack of a leap year in 1800/ 1900 involved? Maybe he missed two consecutive birthdays that way.
Did this happen shortly after the date line was established? Making him the first ever person to lose a birthday this way?
Was the little square piece of paper a page from a page-a-day-type desk calendar?
Was Gerald routinely accustomed to celebrating his birthday in some unusual way?
Is The Pirates of Penzance relevant here? Or possibly a situation similar to that in the operetta?
(for reference, the main character was apprenticed to pirates “until his twenty-first birthday”, but since he was born on Leap Day, that would actually be an apprenticeship of 84 years)
Well, we know his depression wasn’t because the note told him he would need to stay on the ship longer than expected, so I don’t think it’s anything like that.
If his birthday had been some other day than Leap Day, but he had missed it in a similar fashion, would he have been:
– About as unhappy as he was?
– Still unhappy, but to a lesser degree?
– Not unhappy at all?
Did missing his birthday cause him to miss out on a chance to acquire some sort of distinction or status?
Did he also cross the equator? At the same time?