This old Leap Year postcard reads: “In 1908 / ‘Be Careful, Clara, that's a fine Specimen!’” A: Keely McKissack

With all the myth and mystery surrounding the year 2012, it only makes sense that we have an extra 24 hours this Leap Year to take it all in. However, instead of looking ahead and trying to tackle the unknown, I want to throw down some historical knowledge about a forgotten legend important to all the ladies of past Leap Years.

According to folk tradition originating from the British Isles, women were allowed to step up to the plate and pop the marriage question to the men they fancied during Leap Years. Other accounts of the legend limited this uproarious behavior to only Feb. 29, Leap Day itself.

Any lady looking to get down on one knee and propose was supposed to wear a red petticoat as fair warning to all the males around her. Men who declined a proposal were said to owe the scorned lady a fine in order to ease the pain of a rejection. These fines, according to various traditions, could be absolved with something as simple as a kiss or with garments such as a silk gown, fabrics for a skirt or 12 pairs of gloves. The mindset being, of course, that 12 pairs of gloves should be enough to make up for an embarrassing rejection by covering up the lady’s engagement ring-less finger.

The emotional stakes in this Leap Year tradition may be higher than that of something like a Sadie Hawkins Dance, where the ladies only worry about picking their dates for one evening, but it still may be worth a try.

So, ladies let’s make this Leap Year unforgettable. And fellas, you may or may not want to use your extra 24 hours this year to safeguard yourself from that special red petticoat-clad lady in your life.

A: Scott Page

What to do on Leap Day? I thought about this question long and hard for about two seconds because there’s no time to waste!

In case you haven’t noticed, Dec. 21, 2012 is only 10 months away, signaling the end of the Mayan Long Calendar, and possibly the world! What could be more useful than an extra 24 hours to get ready for the end of days?

Leap Day 2012 is a universal blessing, an extra day to prepare my Dec. 21, 2012: Survival Pack/Plan. “When the sun rises on that foretold date,” I thought, “I’m going to be ready. Because, frankly, John Cusack is not going to fly a high-jacked aircraft down here to save me.”

So I researched the potential catastrophic scenarios – abrupt polar shifts, extreme solar flares, enormous tsunamis, turbulent winds, widespread nuclear meltdowns and more. I also researched how to survive these calamities.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I have virtually no shot of survival. Here’s why:

1. I live in Florida, which will be destroyed in nearly any of the doomsday scenarios.

2. The only way to survive is in one of the underground survival shelters around the globe, as Steve Carell doesn’t seem to be building a giant ark.

3. Problem is, admission into the shelters is attained only through a pretty steep financial commitment. For example, one year of survival in one of the shelters costs an adult as much as $50,000 (financing is available). It costs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to reserve a spot in other shelters.

Since it seems that if the world goes down I go with it, and considering that Feb. 29 is a Wednesday, I’ll probably just end up coming to work. Ultimately, I should probably use my resources for a more practical purpose… such as the event that Keely inspires some ill-willed woman to propose to me on Leap Day.