I studied French in college. I never became fluent in the language and my accent is not very good, but I can read a fair amount of the language. I read several books in French. I also studied philosophy in college and was proud to have read Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus in French. Sartre’s play, Huis clos, three people are ushered into a drawing room and through their conversation, the audience encounter’s Sartre’s idea that hell is other people. The first principle of René Descartes’ philosophy published in the Discours is “Je sense, done je suis.” I thought for some time that I was quite sophisticated being able to quote Descartes in French until I learned that although he spoke French, he wrote in Latin. The famous phrase in Latin is cogito, ergo sum, usually translated into English as “I think, therefore I am.”

So I read enough French that I am sure that were I in France, I would be heading to the newsstand today to purchase a copy of the satirical newspaper, La Bougie du Sapeur. It is a 20-page tabloid with sections on politics, sport, international affairs, arts, puzzles, celebrity gossip, and the latest installment of a serialized story, “The Drowning in the Pool.” It is fairly expensive for a small tabloid, costing priced at €4.90 ($5.31). It is, in my opinion, however, well worth the price and i wish that I could purchase a copy here in the states, though there won’t be any available here.

Here is the rub about the paper. It is the world’s only quadrennial, a paper that is published once every four years. Founded in 1980, the paper has published an issue each February 29. This year’s edition is issue 12. The lead article in this year’s issue, under the headline, “We all will be intelligent,” is about how everyone could get perfect scores on exams and intelligence tests by using artificial intelligence. Another article - titled "What men need to know before becoming women" - explains what it describes as "challenges" facing men wanting to transition. That article might be seen as perpetuating an anti-trans message, but I think it needs to be read with a French sense of humor, which doesn’t translate well. The editors say that they are careful to be silly, but not nasty - to poke fun without being cruel. On the international pages of this year’s edition is an article about the most “forgettable” of modern British prime ministers that names Liz Truss with that title.

The paper does not appear online and can only be bought at newspaper kiosks in France. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with reading online articles reporting on the paper instead of having a copy of my own.

Celebrating its 12th edition makes the paper only half as old as a friend of ours. Dr. Reuben Bareis, who lives in a care center in Rapid City, celebrates his 24th birthday today. We had to customize a birthday card for him, as the store where we generally purchase cards had plenty of cards for decade years (20, 30, 40, 50, etc.) but did not have any for the years in-between and we wanted a cart for a 24th birthday. Reuben is 96 years old, but, being born on leap day, has only had 24 birthdays on the same day as he was born.

I didn’t mention it in our greeting, but It seems to me that being a leap year child and making it to your 24th birthday sort of ups the pressure to hang on for your 25th in 4 years.

Whatever his age, Dr. Bareis has lived a life worth celebrating. Born in Kansas and growing up in Missouri and Colorado, Dr. Bareis graduated from medical university the year before I was born and went on to complete training in internal medicine at the University of Michigan. In 1957, he came to Rapid City where he has lived since. His younger brother, Robert, also became a physician. Both doctors became active in serving residents of nursing homes and Reuben was involved in founding seven care facilities serving older citizens. He was a leader in the development of West Hills Village, a continuity of care facility and the first of its type in South Dakota. He was also instrumental in the development of Rapid City’s Hospice House after a Bush Fellowship took him to the British Isles in the late 1980s. He is honored in the South Dakota Hall of Fame for his work as a geriatrician.

One of the deep joys of my life was that I got to spend hours with Reuben. When I was studying at the University of Wyoming, I interviewed him as part of a research project in adult post-secondary education and was fascinated and delighted to hear him speak of the process by which he took what had originally been envisioned as a small church-related nursing home and led the community to develop and fund a much more comprehensive system of care with multiple housing options for residents from townhomes to apartments to assisted living to a full nursing care center - all in the same institution, all in close proximity to encourage family members to visit, and all under an umbrella funding system designed to make sure that residents received the care they need as they journey through several stages in their aging years. He himself is now a resident at Westhills Village, and when I lived in South Dakota he was active in founding a writer’s group there. I also knew that I would see him at many local theater and musical performances. He was a contributor to both a project to replace our sanctuary piano and an expansion of the pipe organ in the church I served there.

Reuben’s 24th birthday is indeed an occasion worth celebrating. Although I don’t know whether or not he can read French, if it were possible, I would take great delight in being able to send him a copy of La Bougie du Sapeur. Perhaps that could be a goal for his 25th.