A billboard advertising Anthony, N.M./Texas as the Leap Year Capital of the World is pictured around the time of the first leap year event in 1992. Although the billboard is no longer there, the cities still celebrate those born on Feb. 29.

The border-straddling towns of Anthony, Texas, and Anthony, N.M., are once again inviting international notoriety and welcoming leaplings — people born on Feb. 29 — to celebrate at the Leap Year Capital of the World.

Week-long events began Saturday and included a car show, a golf tournament and an ice hockey game.

The fanfare is a giant leap from the humble origins in 1988 when Mary Ann Brown, born Feb. 29, 1932, read a news story stating that her neighbor, Birdie Lewis, was also a leap year baby.

“I went across the street and said to Birdie, ‘You know, I’m a leap year baby, too. Let’s go to the chamber of commerce and see if we can make this a promotional thing for the town.’ That’s just what we did,” she said, and founded the Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club.

Subsequently, the chamber, along with the governors of New Mexico and Texas and the  mayor of Anthony, Texas, proclaimed Anthony, N.M./Texas the Leap Year Capital of the World, and in October 1988, former Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) read the proclamation into the Congressional Record.

With no budget, that first birthday club in 1992 was held at Anthony Auto Parts, the family store run by Mary Ann's late husband, Joe Bob Brown, and attracted nine people who gathered for punch and cake. The festival has been growing in leaps and bounds ever since. This year, Brown is hoping for more than 100 leaplings to partake.

Anthony isn’t the only place where leap year is something special. The Z NYC Hotel in Long Island City, for example, is offering a “Leap Over To The Z” package offering free accommodations for anyone born on Feb. 29. A second night is just $229 and has $29 dinner for two at its Diner 247.

But you’ll have to be in Anthony to enjoy the cosmic quirkiness of leap year.

Entertainment will be provided by BarTab. Singer-songwriter Derek Apodaca, on vocals, was born Feb. 29, 1988. “We’re really excited,” Apodaca told msnbc.com. “My family’s griping that I won’t be spending my leap year birthday with them, but this is going to be a lot of fun.”

BarTab is following in some big musical shoes. Graham Nash of the iconic group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young headlined the festival in 2000.

Turns out Nash is married to leapling Susan Nash, who contacted Mary Ann Brown and asked if her husband could perform at the festival as a birthday present.

"My mom had no idea who he was," said Jerry Garland Brown, Mary Ann's son, "but she said, 'Sure, tell him he and his friends are welcome to come on down.'"

“He played ‘Our House,’ ‘Teach Your Children,’ and so many great hits,” he said. “He told stories about all the songs and some of them were so beautiful they brought tears to our eyes."

Wednesday's festivities will start off with a one-mile parade "starting in New Mexico and ending in Texas," Mary Ann Brown said, and will end with a birthday party — which unlike some of us, is something leaplings do not take for granted.

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Want to bask in Oscar buzz? Consider a stay at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, site of the first Academy Awards and just steps from Kodak Theatre.

On a weekend when Hollywood comes together to celebrate the 84th Academy Awards, some fans go on location to celebrate the festivities.

Call it Oscar tourism.

Guests book rooms at posh Hollywood hotels with the hopes of rubbing shoulders with the stars in hotel elevators, halls or lobbies. Most probably won’t get past security at the private after-Oscar parties, but who knows?

Sometimes it's enough just to be in a star's orbit, something many fans from around the world enjoy.

“As soon as the dates for the Academy Awards are announced, we start getting calls from long-time guests who love nothing more than to be here on Oscar night,” says Bob Gregson, sales and marketing director for the Hollywood Roosevelt. 

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the hotel’s Blossom Ballroom on May 16, 1929. 

“There were 200 people there and the whole ceremony was over in 15 minutes,” Gregson says. “I don’t think anyone then ever imagined how big it was destined to become.”

In 1942, growing attendance prompted a move to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, directly across Hollywood Boulevard from the 300-room, 84-year-old landmark hotel. Since 2001, the Academy Awards ceremony has been held at the Hollywood & Highland Center's Kodak Theatre, just steps from the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Those same ballrooms used on the first Oscar night this year will serve purposes more utilitarian than celebratory: The Roosevelt is headquarters for E! Entertainment Television, and the network uses the ballroom to stage its coverage.

Slideshow: City of Angels

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Visitors to La-La Land will find beaches, culture, history and much more.

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Guests over the years — during Oscar week and year-round — have included Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Baldwin and Marilyn Monroe.

When Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stayed at the penthouse suite, it cost $5 a night. Today, it’s $5,000. Basic rooms there this weekend start at $366.

A newer cluster of stars are shining in the two-year-old Redbury Hotel at the iconic address of Hollywood and Vine. Recent guests at chef Daniel Elmaleh’s Cleo restaurant include Jeremy Piven, Elizabeth Banks and Joe Jonas.

“Any night of the week at the Redbury, you’re likely to see the stars,” says hotel general manager David Lang. “But on Oscar night, you might find yourself walking down the hall where A-list stars are hosting their private Oscar parties.

“We’re getting guests from around the world who are eager to immerse themselves in the buzz that comes from staying at a luxury hotel right in the center of all Hollywood has to offer. They’re booking rooms as much as a year in advance.”

Those rooms this weekend start at $339 a night.

Other Hollywood hotspots:

• The W Hollywood boasts that it allows guests to "watch the stars under the stars." Another Hollywood and Vine address, this one includes a massive outdoor movie screen. Rooms this weekend start at $459, with a minimum 2-night stay.

• Looking to make a splash during your Oscar week stay? Check out the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa. Its proximity to Kodak Theatre make it the headquarters for the world media due to descend on Hollywood for the Oscars. Renaissance rooms start at $419.

“The logistics of the Oscars tend to surprise guests as much as the glamor,” said Gregson. “There’s security, staff and media, and they’re all crowded around this one little neighborhood.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., freelance writer who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.

"From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen" will be on display Feb. 17-Sept. 3 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

A museum devoted to the bedrock of American democracy will from Feb. 17 through Sept. 3 celebrate a more visceral sort of rock: The music of Bruce Springsteen.

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is presenting, “From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.”

Originating at the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, where the exhibition was featured next to the likes of Elvis and Elton, The Boss will now be rubbing monumental shoulders with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

“No other artist is as steeped in Americana or has better told the story of the American dream than Bruce Springsteen,” said David Eisner, the center’s CEO. “He’s the perfect artist for a center devoted to the robust discussion of American values to feature.”

America has one national anthem, but Americans have dozens, many of them — “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Promised Land,” “Born to Run,” and “The Rising” — composed and performed by Springsteen and the E Street Band. Over the past 40 years, Springsteen has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide and helped define American character as surely as Uncle Sam.

“The only other artists so connected to America are Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but even compared to them he’s fairly unique,” said Jim Henke, curator of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. “His songs deal with the struggles as much as the dreams.”

National Constitution Center

The jeans Bruce Springsteen wore on the cover of "Born in the U.S.A."

Springsteen also differs from other artists, Henke said,  in that he had an innate recognition that he was doing something that was transcending the music.

“He saved everything,” Henke said. “So we have the Fender guitar featured on the cover of ‘Born to Run.’ We have the jeans he wore on the cover of ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ The exhibit is a very comprehensive look at his life and his career going clear back to his childhood.”

Eisner, whose favorite album is the stark “Nebraska” from 1982, said he’s been particularly pleased to thumb through the lyric notebooks.

“His penmanship on things like set lists is very hurried, but with the lyrics you can tell he was almost reverential with the words he was composing to songs like ‘Jungleland,’ ” Eisner said.  “It’s also fun to see some of the changes he made from before recording the songs."

With Springsteen playing shows in Philadelphia on March 28 and 29, Eisner is besieged by friends who are begging for any hint that The Boss will come to the exhibit.

Henke said it happened in Cleveland.

“I called up his assistant and said the show was closing and we’d be happy to give him a private tour,” he said. “He said that wasn’t necessary. So on the very last day of the Springsteen exhibit, on a packed weekend, many fans were treated to seeing the Bruce Springsteen exhibit with Bruce Springsteen himself. And he couldn’t have been nicer.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., freelance writer who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com. Read his 2009 Springsteen album-by-album blog retrospective here.

The 650-square-foot VIP Spa Suite at Mandarin Oriental in New York City serves up views, a fireplace, deep soaking tub and dual massage beds.

A visit to a lavish spa suite can be an ideal gift for a holiday that celebrates love — especially if you bring along your significant other.

“Spa services are a very intimate and private experience,” says Lori Shubert, spa director at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pa. “When a couple comes in and shares these intimate moments together in a treatment, it brings them closer together and allows them to share a unique experience with each other that they cannot find elsewhere.  Afterwards, they have a fun and romantic memory to cherish.”

A trio of Nemacolin couples spa rooms feature an elegant waiting area with a copper-topped fireplace. Basic spa day packages start at $320 and go up to $540 for specialized services.

Today, high-end spas like Nemacolin consider it a must to offer a couple’s suite to accommodate lovers who enjoy an atmosphere that’s conducive to romance.

As high-end spas go, few are higher than the 35th floor of the Mandarin-Oriental in Manhattan. The VIP Spa Suite includes a private steam room, hot tub, fireplace and side-by-side massage beds. From  Feb. 11-14, the hotel is offering a $1,750 “Valentine’s Day Midnight Magic Over Manhattan” package from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Packages include lobster, champagne and caviar.

Spa director Heather Hannig says the elements combine to make the luxurious spa the place of frequent proposals.

“It’s very sweet,” she said. “We’re all in on it and do everything we can from sprinkling rose petals to preparing special dishes and surprises to make sure everything goes perfectly.”

A typical three-hour booking of the 650-square-foot VIP Spa Suite -- without the dining extras -- costs $1,500; a four-hour stay, $2,000.

“Some couples will book it for up to eight hours,” Hannig says. “We have lots of anniversaries with guest couples who just want to spend the whole time luxuriating in the romantic privacy.”

In Kohler, Wis., a luxurious couples spa at The American Club Resort is sure to make a splash. The spa features the Riverbath treatment followed by its signature 80-minute massage for two; $225 per person.

The Venetian’s Canyon Ranch Spa in Las Vegas gives guests more than romance. In a town famous for quickie weddings, the spa lets couples get hitched, Rasul-style. Rasul refers to an ancient Oriental pre-wedding night cleansing/purification ceremony complete with candles and rose-petal spreads.

Couples fingerpaint each another with purifying mud before ascending heated spa thrones to bask in the mud’s therapeutic effervescence. The Rasul treatment is $200 per couple.

Oh, and don't forget the chocolates.

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PUBLIC Chicago opened for business in October. Hotelier Ian Schrager is hoping its $35 million renovation and focus on "cheap chic" will make the hotel a hit.

Ian Schrager wants PUBLIC, his "new" Chicago hotel, to entice locals to check out the place travelers check in.

"About 150 years ago, the grand hotel lobbies were manifestations of these great cities," Schrager told msnbc.com. "It’s something hotels have gotten away from. We intend to bring it back. We want the lobby at PUBLIC Chicago to be a 24-hour beehive of city activity."

That means mingle nooks, poetry readings, a library, video installations, performances and ambitions to be the in-demand home to Chicago’s best restaurant and liveliest bar.

PUBLIC Chicago is a 285-room, history-drenched hotel located in the Gold Coast neighborhood — about one mile north of the Loop central business district. It reopened to the public in October, though it originally started as the Ambassador East Hotel in 1926.

Sound familiar? It was to an eclectic mix of celebrities ranging from a sex symbol to a Sex Pistol: both Elizabeth Taylor and Sid Vicious were fond of the old hotel. Other famous guests included David Bowie, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Redford, Robert Plant and Frank Sinatra.

And now it's popular with a new crowd.

"The hotel has opened to great fanfare during what traditionally is a slow time of year," said Peter Walterspiel, the hotel's general manager. "Ian's recent hotels have served more niche-type clientele. The name here says it all. It's public."

Moreover, Schrager intends to turn his private venture into a brand. He has plans to open PUBLIC hotels in New York and Miami, and wants to seize on a consumer thirst for what he’s called "cheap chic" with rooms starting at $135 and coffee, an in-room staple that can cost $15 in some luxury hotels, for $5 a pot.

He wants everyone in the city, both the rowdy and the rich, to feel they have a stake in the hotel's success.

"We want the lobby to have a feel of a 1950s coffee house or, really, a Starbucks," he said. "There needs to be an electricity in the air. A great hotel today has to be about more than just a place to get good night’s sleep. The best restaurant and the best bar needs to be right under your roof."

Famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is overseeing what was and by local edict will remain the Pump Room restaurant.

Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel wrote: "The Pump Room ... has recaptured its mojo as a celebrity-spotting, see-and-be-seen destination. The dining room and its attendant lounges are packed every night, and 8 p.m. reservations are the stuff of legend, in the sense that they may not really exist." Vettel went on to say that the food was "solid," and that "Pump Room is a very good restaurant with the potential to be a great one."

Nilou Motamed, features editor for Travel + Leisure, recently cited Pump Room as a must-stop spot for travelers visiting Chicago.

Schrager says he was urged to change the name of the fabled restaurant so he put it to a vote. "We had more than 28,000 votes and keeping it the Pump Room won in a landslide."

So far, PUBLIC is getting public approval.

"For me, the best part is to see couples 60 to 70 years old sitting right next to 20-something couples and both of them enjoying themselves," said GM Walterspiel. "The neighborhood seems to really have embraced the hotel. It's becoming a gathering place."

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at EightDaysToAmish.com

The lost and found at the fabled Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., is the size of a two-car garage and contains contents worthy of Fort Knox.

“There are expensive bracelets, Rolex watches and diamond earrings worth more than $10,000,” says Arthur Birmelin, director of security.

Mere baubles compared to some of the items distracted well-to-do guests have left behind at the oceanfront resort.

“We had one guest forget a satchel with more than $200,000 in jewelry,” he says. “Housekeeping found it. The watch alone was worth $100,000.”

The owner said it was a gift inscribed by Johnny Cash.

“She asked we mail it back to her in Nashville,” Birmelin says. “We told her insurance considerations prevented us from doing that so she hired an armored car to pick it up and drive it back to Tennessee.”

The richest people in America are just like the rest of us. They forget stuff, too. But it's what they forget that fascinates us.

Diana Bulger is the spokesperson for the posh Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. She canvassed her associates and found a laundry list of sundry items in the lost and founds of the rich and famous.

“A diamond encrusted Cartier watch, an entire set of golf clubs, a pair of Rolex watches, a brand new Louis Vuitton wallet, divorce papers, bags of marijuana, a professional flute — and somebody at the Fairmont Banff Springs forgot a car they’d left with the valet,” she said.

Bulger added that cash also is commonly left behind. Birmelin’s team has dealt with their share of that, too. And he’s talking about the currency, not the Man in Black.

“One guest checked out and left $5,000 in cash in one hundred dollar bills in the safe,” he says. The guest ignored daily phone calls informing him something of value was left behind.

“After about 10 days, he finally called back and said the only thing of value he could have possibly left behind was cash,” he says. “He said he always took a lot of cash to gamble and it was always in hundreds. But he couldn’t say how much.”

Unable to land a guess even in the ballpark, the guest amicably agreed to donate the loot to a worthy charity, a welcome destination for most of the unclaimed items.

The Breakers and the Breezewood Motel in Breezewood, Pa., may seem to have little in common. Rooms at The Breakers range from $400 to $2,400 per night; at The Breezewood, $32 to $37.80.

But they share an admirable quality that goes unmentioned in the guidebooks: integrity.

Breezewood's owner Tim McCauley recently found a wallet with $4,000 in it.

“When he came to get the wallet, he couldn’t believe none of it was missing,” McCauley says. “I told him we’d be nothing without our honesty.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.