First thing.... I've always thought it'd be groovy for the extra day for a
leap year to be in
March instead of February. There are a few reasons -- firstly, because February is already unique in being the shortest month, and adding a day to it simply makes it slightly less so, closer to being a normal month (just one short of the thirty days which a bunch of months are already at). But to make one month of the year a 32 day month, divisible into four even stretches of eight, now
that would be something else. And, local geographic anomalies aside the borderline between March and April usually heralds a beautiful
Spring month (a beautiful
Autumn month
down under). And, lastly, since March 32 would fall one day before
April 1, amusing confusion would reign o'er those who'd forgotten the extra day; the holiday mentality of April 1 would be pushed backwards to cover the preceding day, and it would simply be twice the laughs.
Second thing.... I had a most interesting experience today. Went on some errands with a friend. One stop my friend made was to go to
confession (as in, in a booth, in a
church, with a
priest). Thing is, my friend is a
very lapsed
Catholic, and indeed is fairly committedly nonreligious. So why go to confession? Her explanation was that it's free and therapeutic. Turns out it feels good to have a complete stranger listen to you recount the things you've done which you feel guilty about, and to then be told you're eligible to be
absolved of them -- even if you don't especially believe in the particular means of absolution offered. I asked another priest about this going on, and he acknowledged that, yes, the church was aware that some proportion of confessions are done by non-Catholics (or non-believing "Catholics"), whether on a lark, or to see what it's like, or for the aforementioned feel-good goal. But, he continued, the church is fine with this, because whatever reason people come in might bring them "back to the Church."
In other news....
My Iron-noder auditing journey "March"-es on:
Tem42 --
on page 22 out of 36 (I've gone through four more pages-- but Tem added a page-- damn, son!!)
The Custodian --
on page 21 out of 39.
I have in some points passed joked that this was a slog; in truth, not so, for it is very much a delight to tour the many thoughts and bits of knowledge on display in these nodes.