# What happens on May 33rd but only on leap year? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2000, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637 "2000-11-04T01:33:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/61 "2000-11-22T01:02:44Z")
This is driving me insane. ---
**Author:** ![diamud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@diamud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diamud)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/62 "2000-11-22T21:24:44Z")
Some one please answer this one. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/63 "2000-11-22T21:44:25Z")
Well, I think Sofa King’s probably got it pegged. Free beer. ---
**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2000, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/64 "2000-11-26T18:38:21Z")
From “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens “No more it has,” said Charley. “Why don’t you put yourself under Fagin, Oliver?” “And make a fortun’ out of hand?” added the Dodger, with a grin. “And so be able to retire on your property, and do the genteel, as I mean to, in the very next leap-year but four that ever comes, and the fourty-second Tuesday in Trinity-week,” said Charley Bates. Could this be it? I have no idea what he’s saying, but it sounds like he means that Oliver will never retire (like if he retied on May 33rd), and it also involves leap years. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/65 "2000-12-18T04:26:20Z")
(Yet another bump) Hey **Cecil** , get yer ass in here! ---
**Author:** ![NothingMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b77776/32.png) [@NothingMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NothingMan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/66 "2000-12-18T05:40:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pkbites \* > This is a goofy trivia question that was asked on the **radio** this morning, but I didn’t get the answer. Do any of you know it?😕 Bolding above is mine. I work at a radio station myself. I know this much: there is an industry saying “smoke and mirrors”, that is what radio is. It is really what media in general is. I digress. Perhaps this station is pulling a trick ? Has anyone answered “thats a trick question, there is no March 33rd” ? It might just work. ---
**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/67 "2000-12-18T12:05:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yabob \* > \*\*I suppose we can keep checking on that link I provided - it has been updated with more wrong answers since this thread started. Again: > > [http://www.execpc.com/~rwerning/](http://www.execpc.com/~rwerning/) > \*\* Check this link again. They say that the answer is not nothing. ---
**Author:** ![muttrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@muttrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muttrox)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/68 "2000-12-18T17:00:11Z")
I thought of Dragon Poker, from Robert Asprin’s “Myth” series. It features a set of rules that are overwhelmingly arbitrary and ridiculous. Seemed ripe to have the answer there, where the answer would be “The player facing south wins the hand, unless the moon is waning” or something along those lines. Sadly though, I can’t find my copy of the book (Little Myth Marker), and couldn’t find the set of rules online (but I feel sure it must exist somewhere). ---
**Author:** ![Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Morrison\_s\_Lament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrison_s_Lament)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/69 "2000-12-18T19:06:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by muttrox \* > \*\*I thought of Dragon Poker, from Robert Asprin’s “Myth” series. It features a set of rules that are overwhelmingly arbitrary and ridiculous. Seemed ripe to have the answer there, where the answer would be “The player facing south wins the hand, unless the moon is waning” or something along those lines. > > Sadly though, I can’t find my copy of the book (Little Myth Marker), and couldn’t find the set of rules online (but I feel sure it must exist somewhere). \*\* “The player facing south wins the hand, unless the moon is waning” sounds just about right you know… I was thinking the exact same thing this morning. Before I took my medicine that is 😃 I think this is like trying to answer “What does 42 mean?” or what does “666 mean”; you can find it everywhere if you look! Then again, a free for all scavengerhunt of obscure information is probably (sadly) the only way we’ll ever get to the bottom of this withot actually WAITING for the answer! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/70 "2000-12-19T00:31:33Z")
I agree with many here that the answer could be a reference to some script or text in the fantasy \ nonsense genre, which refers to May 33rd. However, I’m reasonably familiar with Lewis Carroll, the Alice books, Snark etc. and I don’t think May 33 comes into it. However, if anyone here can refer to Martin Gardner’s ‘The Annotated Alice’, or an annotated copy of ‘Sylvie and Bruno’ that might clear it up. Just before we all devote too much curiosity energy to this, can **pkbites** tell us if the radio station does eventually give out the answers? If no-one ever gets it, will we all be left in Curiosity Hell forever? ---
**Author:** ![galyean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f9ae1b/32.png) [@galyean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galyean)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/71 "2000-12-19T04:44:39Z")
At least two of the contests went on for five months…the current length of this one. The question that took the longest to answer prior to our current stumper was “in what one place can you find these license plates - Texas KOBA, Rhode Island TF-208, North Dakota AUR-643.” ---
**Author:** ![galyean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f9ae1b/32.png) [@galyean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galyean)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/72 "2000-12-19T05:17:04Z")
From [Calendar History](http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html) Three distinct types of calendars have resulted from this situation. A solar calendar, of which the Gregorian calendar in its civil usage is an example, is designed to maintain synchrony with the tropical year. To do so, days are intercalated (forming leap years) to increase the average length of the calendar year. A lunar calendar, such as the Islamic calendar, follows the lunar phase cycle without regard for the tropical year. Thus the months of the Islamic calendar systematically shift with respect to the months of the Gregorian calendar. The third type of calendar, the lunisolar calendar, has a sequence of months based on the lunar phase cycle; but every few years a whole month is intercalated to bring the calendar back in phase with the tropical year. The Hebrew and Chinese calendars are examples of this type of calendar. If it’s not nonsensical fiction, the answer must be contained in some type of calendar correction. I wonder if an email to the author of the page will settle this thing? ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/73 "2000-12-19T05:38:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by galyean \* > \*\*The question that took the longest to answer prior to our current stumper was “in what one place can you find these license plates - Texas KOBA, Rhode Island TF-208, North Dakota AUR-643.” \*\* “Applebee’s Restaurant at 2053 S. Alma School Road - Mesa, AZ” – Who researched that one??? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/74 "2000-12-19T08:06:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sue Duhnym \* > \*\*Just a search on Google turned up a few interesting things: > > 1. > > > [@](#): > > > > In B.E. 2125, Pope Gregory **33rd** of Rome improved upon the Julian calendar the rule to provide for leap year every four years except at the of the century A.D. that is not divisible by 400. This means that A.D. such as 1600, and 2000 are leap years where 1700 and 2100 is not. > > Bolding mine. Maybe just a coincedence? > \*\* I don’t have an answer to the OP either, but I do know the Pope Gregory to whom Pseu … ah, Sue, alludes is the 13th, not the 33rd. (I make a rather close study of famous Gregorys.) Unfortunately, we’ve only had a grand total of sixteen Popes Gregory, but we could always use a few more. They do great things like reforming the calendar, creating really cool chants, and oppressing reform-minded protestants. Everyone write your local clergy and I’m sure in just a thousand years or so we can bring the tally up to 33. ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2000, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/75 "2000-12-23T17:24:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pkbites \* > \*\*This is a goofy trivia question that was asked on the radio this morning, but I didn’t get the answer. Do any of you know it?😕 \*\* Try this. It may not be what they’re looking for, but who knows… [http://www.maryhinge.cwc.net/gigs.html](http://www.maryhinge.cwc.net/gigs.html) ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/76 "2000-12-24T04:21:09Z")
If may 33rd doesn’t work, then let’s try to figure out what happens on June 2. Probably some report is given out very 4 years, I am not sure. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/77 "2000-12-24T12:29:18Z")
This is the closest thing I’ve found, from this site. [http://www.piney.com/Edersheim10.html](http://www.piney.com/Edersheim10.html) 2–Iyar Day 1. New Moon. Day 15. ‘Second,’ or ‘little’ Passover. Day 18. Lag-le-Omer, or the 33rd day in Omer, i.e. from the presentation of the first ripe sheaf offered on the 2nd day of the Passover, or the 15th of Nisan. Omer could be pronounced to sound like May, and the leap year might affect when ‘Omer’ starts (the new moon?) ---
**Author:** ![midnite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@midnite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midnite)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/78 "2000-12-25T12:27:09Z")
Well this is just driving me nuts! I would have thought it was the equinox…but the site says that’s not right. So…I am going to risk sounding stupid and post my second thought. Would it be Memorial Day? I know, I know…sounds silly. But so have some of the other guesses. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![midnite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@midnite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midnite)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/79 "2000-12-25T13:56:37Z")
Oh man…i feel like such an idiot! Please ignore my post above. That is already listed as a wrong answer. Somehow I missed it during my read thru of the page. Ok, if everyone would just pretend that I didn’t really post that, please. LOL \ I am new here so please be nice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637/80 "2000-12-25T16:14:03Z")
I believe what **23skidoo** posted could be correct. It sounds like an answer they would have and it is one of the first that actually shows a May 33rd instead of implying that one might be there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-on-may-33rd-but-only-on-leap-year/39637.md?page=5)