Leap Week

If we made a leap week every seven years and an extra leap week every twenty-eight years, we could spend a lot less money on new calendars every year. There would be exactly 52 weeks every year, 53 every seven, and 54 every twenty-eight years, so that the dates of the week will always be on the same day of the week.

Of course, I’m only speaking from a calendar design point of view. I’m sure we would get warmer winters and cooler summers in the years before a two-leap-weeks year and the equinoxes and solstices will be out of alignment every year, and therefore so will Persian New Year’s and Easter and other things like that. But think of how convenient it would be to know which day of the week May 21 or September 3 would be? (Both are Mondays, assuming January 1 always starts on a Sunday.)

And while we’re at it, let’s make all the months 28 days, and then put together all the extra days into a new month, the thirteenth month, which triskaidekaphobes would just love. That way, we only need to remember only one month, and everyone would know which day of the week the 13th is (Friday, another day that triskaidekaphobes would love every month, especially on Triskaidekaphobember.

I’m sure that is not going to happen, since people’s birthdays and anniversaries will be messed up. Maybe we could do that if/when we ever terraform and start living on Mars, just so our lives won’t be any more complicated that it needs to, what with one of Mars's moons eventually colliding with Mars or that Mars being farther from the Sun and therefore colder all the time and everything.

Flush.