I am a huge fan of Groundhog Day – and I’m not even sure why – I never even know that the day is the day until well into the thick of the day . . . maybe it is the silliness of the whole thing – or the fact that it involves this big rodent – who in my mind is wearing a top hat and a stop watch – that comes out of a stump to tell us the weather. My mind almost breaks (in a good way) at how ridiculously good it all is . . .
Here is what the Punxsutawney Phil wiki has to say:
Punxsutawney Phil fans say that there is only one Phil (all the other groundhog weathermen are impostors), and that he has made weather prognostications for 121 years as of 2007. They say that every summer, Phil is fed a sip of the mysterious Groundhog Punch, which magically lengthens his life for seven years. This is done by Inner Circle members. According to the Groundhog Club, Phil, after making the prediction, speaks to the Club President in “Groundhogese”, which only the Inner Circle appear to understand, and then his prediction is translated for the entire world.
He drinks Groundhog Punch?!? Jeez – what rock do I live under? Where can I get a sip of that stuff – and what effect will it have on me??
And I will admit that I did check to see if Phil had a myspace account where he could hold court with his weather predictions to the unwashed internet masses – but all I was able to find was able to come up with was his personal website (punxsutawneyphil.com) – which is either shockingly bad – or just good on some other level that I can’t even figure it out.
Here is what the Groundhog day wiki has to say:
Groundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States and Canada on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.
In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks.
The result today was that Phil did not see his shadow – which means that we get an early spring. And for the record – Phil was wearing a little black arm-band that had a simple capital “B” on it in memory of his recently departed “super-horse” friend Barbaro . . .
Today On The Train . . .
The four guys sitting on the train next to me today were all kinds of joshing around – acting wacky and just a little plain silly. I tried my darndest to maintain train rule of not giving them the “Hey you rapscallions . . . ixnay on all of that jazz and tom foolery . . . can’t you see that some of us are trying to get some shut-eye around here!†look – which is usually saved for babies that are screaming/crying into one of those “bleeck-bleeck†walkie-talkie cell phone thing situations that sometimes arise.
When all of a sudden . . . I noticed that the biggest one (who also happened to be sitting the closest – proximity wise – to me) was actually giving me – what I interpreted to be – a “Hey buddy . . . I know what you are thinking/writing over there – and it is becoming tremendously more possible the more that you think/write that me and my gaggle of miscreants are going to come over there and clean your coo-coo clock!â€
The thing is – though – people can sometimes be really tough to read – so I guess it is possible that he was just looking at my “fabulously trans-fat-free-except-for-the-biscuit†3 (three) strip meal from that Kentucky chicken place . . . and by “meal†I mean that it totally came with 2 (two) sides (potato wedges and backed beans) and a biscuit (which was depressingly unedible).
Or it is also possible that he just wasn’t into the “Sweetness and Tenderness†that was floating from “The Return Of The Rentals†in my computer machine to the stereo-phonic head-a-ma-phones that were resting ever so gingerly on my head . . . I didn’t want to muss up my coif – you know?!
Which brings me to the point of this whole thing . . . a few months ago – I got the chance to go and see “The Rentals†– it was the first time that I had seen a show in quite some time – and everything about it was such a good time (and no I am not counting the opening bands in this assessment – they just happened to be there – kind of like the 4 (four) moops that happen to be sitting really really close to me now – uhm . . .)
Shoot – I gotta go . . .
