February the 29th...

And a very happy ninth birthday to my dear friend Cathy, a mother of two. In fact, if I had been born 13 days early instead of eight days late, I’d be celebrating my twelfth myself.

I noticed that the BBC website was promoting a harmlessly humorous debate of who owns the 29th of Feb. As an entirely gratuitous extra day, should we have the benefit of it or our employers? If the former, shouldn’t we get the day off? After all, we aren’t getting paid any more than last February, which only contained 28 days.
A BBC correspondent called “Claire” took the following view:

“Why is everyone always looking for something free? Those of us who get paid monthly get the same amount each month whether that month contains 30 or 31 days or in February just 28 days - I never hear anyone say oh aren't I lucky that I get extra pay every day in February and just one year in four this is slightly less than the others or one year in four I get slightly less pay for each day but three out of the four I could look at it as getting slightly more. It is about time people counted "their blessings" and stopped this constant moaning and joining the ME ME ME society we are developing into!”

Well, why are employers always looking for something free? And if those of us in work were to “count our blessings” might we not find them rather less than those of the bosses who get their enhanced “blessings” win, lose or draw? And is the so-called ME ME ME society any worse than the THEM THEM THEM society most of us are in fact living in?

I understand why people have to work, but why they have to be so fucking servile I will never grasp.

And, if we start thinking about who owns February 29th, perhaps we should start thinking about who owns the rest of our lives.