Leap Year

Table games revenue at Pennsylvania's 11 gambling halls last month totaled $55.3 million, a 2.1 decrease from a year ago, when the same revenue from blackjack, poker and other games was $56.6 million. February's tables revenue translated to nearly $8 million in state tax revenue, according to figures posted Monday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state's top four table game revenue generators last month were Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem at $12.1 million from 183 tables; Parx in Bensalem at $8.2 million from 163 tables; SugarHouse at $7.3 million from 58 tables; and Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack at $6.9 million with 121 tables.

So, ladies, will you, or won't you? There's not much time to decide. Because Thursday is the big day, your quadrennial chance to take matters into your own hands and pop the Big Question: "Will you marry me?" By hallowed tradition and time-honored custom, Leap Year Day - the extra day added to February every four years to put the calendar in tune with the music of the spheres - is the occasion when women are granted permission to take charge of their matrimonial destiny by collaring their dawdling intendeds, confronting them with an explicit proposition, and taking nothing less than yes for an answer.

Think of this day as gravy - a freebie, an extra, a kind of do-over day. Thanks to Roman Emperors Julius and later Augustus Caesar, and to Pope Gregory XIII, Feb. 29 - Leap Year Day - is our quadrennial bonus day. Sure, it's not an uppercase holiday with time off and bank closings. But these are 24 hours we didn't have last year and that we won't experience again until 2012. Through the years, people born Feb. 29 were alternately teased as "babies" and celebrated as oddities.

The dozen Atlantic City casinos reported $212.3 million in total gaming revenue last month, down 12.5 percent from February 2012. The latest month was a day shorter than the previous, leap year February, accounting for some of the decline, while any lingering effects of Hurricane Sandy were less clear-cut, according to figures from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. The storm hit hard in North Jersey and New York - key markets for Atlantic City. The financially troubled Revel, which announced Feb. 19 that it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month, ranked 10th among the 12 gaming halls, with $9 million.

WHEN WILL THESE TWO ADMIT NEW MEXICO'S IN THE UNION? Ted Turner owns 1,000 square miles of New Mexico. It's where America built the first atomic bomb. Movie stars Gene Hackman and Shirley MacLaine have built homes in the state. Yet, ticket agents for the Olympic Games apparently consider it foreign territory. Wade Miller, a Santa Fe resident and volleyball fan, ran into evidence of the geography goof when he called the Summer Olympics ticket office in Turner's hometown of Atlanta.

She's just entering her teen years. He's turning 1. Maryann Kramer was born Feb. 29, 1948. Raymond Rocks-Crawley came into this world Feb. 29, 1996. They're leap day babies, who get to celebrate their "real" birthdays only once every four years. Raymond is "just too young" to know that this birthday is "special," said his mother, Christine Rocks, 26, of Northeast Philadelphia. "This year he's having his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's on the first weekend in March - just because it's a good time to have the party.

Mardi Gras is one of the best excuses in the world to celebrate, even if you can't make it to New Orleans. Leap Year is probably even better, since it shows up but once every four years. Whatever, both events will be merrily observed locally, starting this weekend. The big event of the weekend - and, take note, the most expensive - is the Sixth Grand Brazilian Carnaval '92 Ball. There's Brazilian music, dancing, food and drinks. And the Brazilian ensemble Minas heads the show with 12 players, bedecked in lots of color, pumping out samba.

Whether or not the new aquarium triggers a revitalization of Camden (a consummation devoutly to be wished), it's something the entire region should welcome. Wherever aquariums exist, they're well attended. It should attract people from all over the area - and tourists too. It's easy to get to (especially when the riverbus starts operating), it's not too expensive, it's educational and it should be fun. The fish are jumpin'. FISHY (II) It would be tragically ironic if, while the new aquarium becomes the big hit it's sure to be, one of the area's premier tourist attractions (and an incomparable treasure)

Bill Smith, out for his birthday dinner last year, ordered a drink when his son piped up: "You can't order a drink for another 44 years. You're not 21 yet. " Such is what happens when your birthday is Feb. 29. On Tuesday, people like Smith will gleefully divide by four when people ask their age. "I'll be 11," said Smith, who lives in Roxborough and is an airport operations officer at Philadelphia International Airport. Smith is one of the untold millions who have come into this world on Feb. 29, the day added every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the sun. Every four years, news accounts tout the births of relatives who share the birthday.

The weekday ski trip was supposed to be a special treat, an extension of 12-year-old Brett Battuello's leap-year birthday celebration. The Battuello family was no stranger to the slopes - the three children liked skiing so much they received skis for Christmas - so Marilyn Battuello never expected her son's Pocono mountain outing to end in tragedy. Yet sometime near 4 p.m. Wednesday, Brett missed an elbow turn near the bottom of the "Marc Antony" ski trail, a mile-long stretch at the Camelback Ski Area designated for intermediate skiers.