I just read an article that has me scratching my head in amazement. Can you believe there is actually a scientist - a Johns Hopkins astrophysicist to be precise - who is advocating we dump our current "365 days in a year except for leap year" Gregorian calendar system?

In place of that, he's advocating a permanent calendar in which your birthday, Christmas, July 4th, etc. would always occur on the same day? Oh, and under his plan, there are 4 Friday the 13th's in each year...

What's more, under his system, there are only 364 days in each year -- but we catch up with a "leap week" every five or six years!

The Johns Hopkins professor is Professor Richard Henry, and the new calendar is referred to as the "Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar."

I'm not kidding, I read this in my newspaper this morning, and I've done Google research for more information.

This article I initially read was published in the Contra Costa Times.

But I've found several other references to this. Here's one from a science site.

And here's a link to Professor Henry's own website at Johns Hopkins.

Guess this is not a joke. So what say you about the concept that we could toss that old rhyme," Thirty days hath September..."