The Feb. 29, 1996, cover of Panache, which was The Astorian’s arts and culture weekly at the time.

Some form of Coast Weekend has appeared in The Astorian for decades, but this week’s issue has a rare distinction.

Its publication date is on the calendar just about every four years, but the last time Feb. 29 fell on a Thursday was in 1996. So, in search of that last Feb. 29 edition ahead of this one, I spent some time rolling through a microfilm reel in the newspaper archives of the Astoria Library.

What I found after adjusting the focus a few times was a previous version of Coast Weekend in grayscale called Panache (a definition for the title, described as “dashing elegance of manner,” ran on page 3.)

In some ways, despite a different look, the issue was similar. It was published on Thursday after the news and feature pages. It featured listings of art gallery exhibits with familiar names like Trail’s End Art Association in Gearhart and White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach. It announced auditions for the North Coast Symphonic Band and had The New York Times crossword.

The cover story was even about arts programming at Clatsop Community College, as is this one. So read on, and look for the next Feb. 29 issue 28 years from now.