So Punxsutawney Phil, the illustrious groundhog, has predicted that winter will last for another six weeks. Every year this is, apparently, news. But he lives northeast of Pittsburgh, where winter lasts well into March. Of course he's going to continue hibernating. Not to mention the fact that he probably wants to avoid the hundreds of gawkers who hang around waiting to see him emerge from his burrow. Wouldn't you trundle back in to your burrow? It's an inoffensive groundhog's nightmare. Hope he's got his lawyer on speed dial. ("Intrusion into seclusion...mumble....mumble...right of publicity...mumble...mumble....flash going off in my eyes....mumble....no health insurance....can't afford the price of sleeping pills...mumble...snore....").
[Here's more on Phil and his fellow Weather Woodchuck predictors and here's a link to an NPR story, which includes a bit about the local (Staten Island) prognosticator that bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Guess that rodent's a Democrat.].
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