"For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no desire to be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February,
Twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty,
One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty.
Through some singular coincidence –
I shouldn't be surprised if it were owing to the
Agency of an ill-natured fairy –
You are the victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap-year,
On the twenty-ninth of February;
And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you'll easily discover,
That though you've lived twenty-one years, yet, if we go by birthdays,
You're only five and a little bit over!
Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
Ho! ho! ho! ho!"
Gilbert and Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance
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