Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone,
Which hath but twenty-eight in fine
Till leap year give it twenty-nine.¹

Congratulations! You've made it to another year divisible by four (but indivisible by 400). Your reward is an extra day. Don't spend it all in one place.

Geek Out

Cross words. I'll spend my weekend assembling wall-to-wall exclusive in-depth on-the-scene breaking coverage of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn. There's still time to register as a competitor or a spectator. Tournament organizers tell me that cruciverbal phenom Tyler Hinman remains a force to be reckoned with as he goes for his fourth consecutive championship, but 2007 runner-up Al Sanders remains a sentimental pick since his appearance in the 2006 film Wordplay. Hope to see you there, but if geography makes attendance impractical, you can play along online.

Engage in hyperbola. The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is coming to NYU in April, an announcement that probably warrants further explanation. The HCCR is a project that invites crafters worldwide to contribute crocheted representations of hyperbolic space, which also double as organisms on an ever-growing network of reefs and sub-reefs. Christine Wertheim, a leader of the project, will be at NYU this weekend, lecturing and offering workshops to teach you how to make a hyperbolic reef of your own. There's one workshop Saturday and another on Sunday. If you're a closet crafting geek, don't worry, you can tell people you're there for the math. Or vice versa.

Space out, again. I want to offer a quick reminder that previously noted dance-party series One Step Beyond returns to the Rose Center for Earth and Space—i.e., the planetarium—this Friday night. In my amateur opinion, the DJ lineup is even better than last month.

Geek In

Break your toys. For many of us, our first gadget came from the likes of Fisher-Price. We all had some "cow says MOO!"-type thing that lit up and belched sound effects when you pushed a button. Well-meaning parents buy millions of these things every year, only to stuff them in the back of a closet because they're so obnoxious. Well, dig your electronic memories out of the closet because there's a way to make those toys even more annoying. An Instructable on toy circuit-bending shows how you can turn that plastic noisemaker into an otherworldly musical instrument guaranteed to make any toddler cry. Also worthwhile on Instructables: the winners of the "Get the LED Out!" Contest.

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1. According to the worst mnemonic ever. Seriously, "Twenty-eight in fine"? ↑