The Journal News February 29, 2004

Those born on Feb. 29 can whoop it up today

By JOSEPH AX
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: February 29, 2004)

Linda Spedaliere, nearly nine months pregnant, woke up on Feb. 28, 2000, her 41st birthday, and decided
she needed to visit the doctor.

"I thought it would be nice to have my baby on my birthday," she said.

But as the day progressed, Spedaliere, a homemaker who turned 45 yesterday and lives in Pleasantville,
began to realize that her son, Thomas, was planning to wait one more day. By the time she entered the
hospital for good about 4 a.m. on Leap Day, she knew Thomas had chosen a special day.

"I wasn't really upset, because I thought it would be a neat birthday," she said. Today, Thomas will
celebrate his first official birthday with a lively party, plenty of friends and two cakes — one with a "1" and
another with a "4."

Across the region, "Leap Day babies" today are celebrating the arrival of the rarest of days — their actual
birthday — for the first time since 2000. Despite the inevitable taunts in school, most said they had grown
to enjoy the uniqueness of their day. After all, simple math tells us that only one out of every 1,461 babies
is born on Leap Day — 0.07 percent of the world population.

The explanation for Leap Day derives from the vagaries of the Earth's orbit around the sun. One cycle takes
a year, which is actually slightly more than 365 days. Every four years, with a few exceptions, the calendar
adds an extra day to correct the variation.

For some Leap Day babies, having one quarter as many birthdays on the calendar as everyone else was
an unpleasant experience at first.

"I used to not be happy that I didn't have a birthday every year," said Briarcliff Manor resident John Miller,
a vice president at a consulting firm who turns 64 today, but said he prefers to consider it his 16th birthday.

When Hawthorne resident Melissa Murphy, 41, gave birth to her daughter, Katelyn, four years ago, she had
mixed emotions.

"Everybody thought it was kind of a neat idea to have a Leap Day baby," said Murphy, a benefits manager
for Verizon. "In some ways I thought yes, and in some ways I thought no."

She's warmed to the concept, though, and Katelyn will have a "little more" of a celebration today than in
normal years, Murphy said.

Most Leap Day babies said they hadn't met many others who shared their birthday. Joseph DeCrenza, a
retired truck driver, and Barbara Mattson, a retired school secretary, however, have been close friends ever
since they were born within hours of each other on Feb. 29, 1940, in Ossining, where they still live.
DeCrenza, who was born first, received gifts from local merchants in honor of being the first Leap Day baby
that year.

"She always held a grudge against me," he joked.

Despite what the calendar says, many Leap Day babies said they often have a birthday party every year —
and then a particularly large party every four years.

"I like it, because when I do have a birthday, it's kind of special," said Chappaqua resident Rebecca Linde,
who turns 16 today. "And when I don't, I celebrate it twice, on Friday and Saturday."

The proper date to celebrate a Leap Day birthday in non-leap years is a matter of preference.

Mahopac resident Barbara Hagerty, whose daughter, Kelly, celebrates her second "leap birthday" today,
insisted that the celebration in normal years had to happen on Feb. 28.

"It can't be March, because March is another month," she said.

But West Harrison resident Angie Fallanca Magnotta, who is 80 years old today, said her family chose March 1
because she had been born one day after Feb. 28.

Miller said he uses the day that is most astronomically accurate: March 1 for the first two years after a leap year,
and Feb. 28 for the third year.

Mount Kisco resident and writer Julietta Appleton, frustrated by the calendar's lack of recognition, once adopted
Sept. 19 as her birthday.

"It was Sept. 19 and I was sitting in a restaurant that offered free dinners on birthdays," Appleton wrote in a
collection of humor essays, "Clothing Optional." "So I presented my driver's license to the waitress, who
showed it to the manager, who felt bad for me and gave me a free meal. All right, I admit, it was a Denny's,
but still, it was a thrill to get something in a birthday-deprived year."

There are other advantages to having a Feb. 29 birthday besides larger parties. For one thing, friends and
family — even absent-minded husbands — never forget when it is, said Peggy Goldberg, an office manager
from Yorktown who turns 52 today.

"He is so bad with dates, but I figured he would never forget Feb. 29," she said.

Laura Muller, a receptionist at a Scarsdale animal hospital, said her mother has added Feb. 29 to every calendar
in the house for two decades. Muller, a New Rochelle resident, turns 20 today.

Leap Day babies can join an honor roll in order to meet others at leapdaybabies.com, a Web site devoted to all
things Leap. Enthusiastic leapers can gather party ideas, read articles and purchase merchandise, such as
-shirts with the motto "Leap Happens."

There have been dozens of notable Leap Day babies, including Pope Paul III (1468), "The Barber of Seville"
composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792), bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904) and rap artist Ja Rule (1976), according
to the site.

Today's Leap Day birthday celebrations in the region will range from the subdued to the silly. Derek Wise, a
Yonkers resident who works for the city's parks department, said he'll have dinner with his father to celebrate
turning 24. Steven Hornick, 36, will have a "9th" birthday party along with his daughter, who is 7, at Sportime
USA in Elmsford.

"My daughter makes me feel young," he said, although he joked that his friends "think I'm nuts."

DeCrenza and Mattson have planned a dinner party for their friends.

"It's just such a special day to be born on," DeCrenza said.

Reach Joseph Ax at jax@thejournalnews.com or 914-694-5064