11
who needs it?
It's always "open season" for hunting mates, and tomorrow's
no exception, says this miniature model of masculinity
By ARNOLD STANG
So every four years we have a Leap Year, right?
Like tomorrow, a 29th day in a month where
usually there are only 28. So, big deal somebody
needs that extra day?
Cheep, cheep, Leap Year is supposed to be a big
thing for women, but even they don't need it Take
it from me, they don't sit around on their hope
chests from one February 29th to another just so's
every four years they get one day they can legiti
mately propose marriage. -
No doubt some women do take advantage of
it being Leap Year to set their caps on a guy, but
smarten up, friends, the girls are in there grab
bing themselves off a man any time and any way
they can. By them, hooking a husband is a full-.
time, around-the-calendar proposition, and Leap
Year is no exception. '
Personally, I'm not in favor. To me, a woman
should be a woman, you know what I mean? She
should play the desired one" it's a much better role
for her. But females are getting less feminine every
day, and popping the question of marriage is just
another step into what used to be a man's world.
In spite of it all, though, the marriage rate in
this country is just about the same in regular years
as in the ones like 1960 where the ladies get an un
official sanction to land themselves a spouse. This
proves that with women it's always the 29th of
February.
Another thing about Leap Year is that it costs
so much. The stores are open an extra day, every
body has sales, and zingo there goes the family
budget
Besides that, just to run the Federal Govern
ment this one additional day is going to cost tax
payers an extra hundred million dollars! No kid- .
ding; and that's just to pay people for the extra
day on the job. It doesn't figure in things like the
tons of paper that'll be used up in Government of
fices, the coffee breaks, the telephone calls, and
things like that
' Just to pay the mailmen tomorrow will cost ah
extra seven million dollars. And what a mockery
that is! On the last day of the month, who ever
gets anything in the mail but bills?
On top of everything else, Leap Year doesn't
even do what it was planned to do when Julius
Caesar or some other smart aleck like that got the
whole miserable idea started. The extra day every
four years was supposed to fix things so that the
calendar really came out even with sun time and
all that jazz, but don't let anybody kid you: it
doesn't
What I mean is Leap Year is supposed to be, like
clockwork, every fourth year, right? But 1900
which everybody expected to have a 29th of Feb
ruary, didn't Neither did 1800 or 1700 for that mat
ter, but the year 2000 willso who can figureit?
In spite of all these twists with the calendar, sci
entists say that a year is still 26 seconds out of
whack. That may not sound like much, but over
the years it adds up, you know.
So what Leap Year in general amounts to, in
my way of thinking, is a complete bust, a nothing.
When Family Weekly asked me to pose for today's
cover, it sort of nominated me as a man most un
likely to succeed romantically, the kind of neb
bish who really needs the help of Leap Year in his
love life. - -
Well, let's face it Cary Grant or Rock Hudson I
ain't But I've been happily married now since 1949,
which was not a Leap Year, incidentally. And when
Jo-Anne and I decided to become one, it was my
idea, and it was me who did the proposing and the
planning and the arranging at least, I think it was.
fb$F' t
i3
It didn't take a Leap 'fear for Jo-Anne to persuade
Arnold that she should become the future Mrs. Stang.
COVER:
It was an uphill struggle to find a really
unlikely candidate for our Leap Year cover.
End of search: comedian Arnold Stang;
photo by: Richard Heimann; bonus: the
story above, an .odd, view of our odd day.
Fainily
LEONARD $. DAVIDOW President and Publisher
WAITER C. DREYFUS Vice President
PATRICK E. OKOURKE Advertising Director
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Family Weakly, 133 N. Michigan Ave.. Chicago I, III.
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Family Weekly. 60 E. 56m St.. Ntw York 22, N. Y. .
February 2S, I960
Board of Editors I ERNtST V. UEYN Editor-in-Chief .
BEN KARTMAN Executive Editor
ROBERT FirZGIMON Managing Editor
MARGARET BELL Feature Editor
PHILLIP OVKSTRA Art Director
MEIANIE IX PROFT Food Editor
Bab Driscoll, Irma Heldman. John Hochmonn, Jerry Klein,
Harold London. Jack Ryan; feer Oppsnhsimer. Hollywood.
10, FAMILY WEEKLY MAGAZINE. INC. 133 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1. III. All rights immd.