Happy Groundhog Day

It's that time of year again. The time when an over fed furry animal is pulled out of a tree stump in an otherwise unknown town in Pennsylvania to whisper in the ears of men in top hats and predict our meteorological future while national media catches it all on film. While I've never been to Gobblers Knob, I have watched the proceedings on TV, and I'll admit I was curious as to where this tradition started. For any of you likewise curious people, here is some information http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/punxsutawney/a/groundhog_day.htm

In my search of the history of Groundhog Day I found some little known facts abuot the event. Here are just a few I thought were interesting:

1. Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow 97 times, has not seen it 15 times, and nine years are unaccounted for.

2. The National Climate Data Center reportedly stated that Phil's prediction's have been correct 39 percent of the time. This number is in conflict with Phil's club, which states he's been right 100 percent of the time.

3. In the years following the release of Groundhog Day, a 1993 film starring Bill Murray, crowds numbering as high as 30,000 have visited Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in Punxsutawney where the ceremony takes place.

4. Though groundhogs typically live only six to eight years, Phil is reputed by townspeople to be more than 100 years old, surviving beyond a marmot's normal life span thanks to the strong constitution of his wife, Phyllis, and a steady diet of Groundhog Punch.

5. States without groundhogs are taking matters into their own hands by choosing their own weather predictor. Texas, for example, chose its state mammal, an armadillo, to predict the weather for their first "Armadillo Day."

6. The groundhog's full name is actually "Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary." It was so proclaimed by the "Punxsutawney Groundhog Club" in 1887, the same year they declared Punxsutawney to be the weather capital of the world.

So happy Groundhog Day everyone! Punxsutawney Phil comes out at 7:25 this morning, and although the odds are stacked against me, I'm hoping for an early spring.