Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow

42 thoughts on “Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow”

1. I just went there to find out, and got deeply offended. “Gobbler’s Knob”. Really? I thought this was a family-friendly site.

   1. I assume ‘Gobbler’s Knob’ is a raises land-feature that was formerly a display ground for Turkeys during the breeding season.
      If that offends, well get a life!

      1. Oh. I see. Now I’m embarrassed.

         1. Perhaps your assailant’s ‘nym is a clue as to how much internet sarcasm he or she has encountered.

            Or…was that am attempt to outsnark the snarker???

            (Insert dramatic chipmunk (recte: prairie dog) GIF here.)

            1. Oh, I just can’t think that far ahead… I’m not THAT clever. Seems like every time I open my gobbler, I end up putting my knob in it.

            2. Funny.

            3. You’ve had that rib-reduction surgery?

            4. With vertebrae-augmentation, yes.

2. I feel bad for the poor groundhogs yanked from their sleep with people looking at them. I’d bite the handler if I were the groundhog – see how what that means for the future!

3. We have a saying in NZ in response to stuff like Groundhog Day, and we’re not the only country that has it: “Only in America”. It’s not flattering.

   I liked the movie though. Groundhog Day I mean. America is good at movies, and one or two other things. 🙂

   1. You don’t have any silly traditions in your country?

      1. They’re not silly because they’re our traditions. 🙂

         1. lol

   2. Do you really believe that superstitions and rituals involving weather prediction only exist in America?

      1. Of course not. It’s just that we particularly enjoy finding something to knock about the biggest, handsomest guy in the room. 🙂

         1. Ooh, nice recovery. 😀

   3. ““Only in America”. It’s not flattering.”

      Oddly enough, we use it the same way here in America, too.

      😀

4. I had assumed that this was a fictitious story for a movie. I am horrified that it’s a real event.

   1. Oh yes, if you were an American (which I presume you’re not), you’d know about this. It’s a tradition, though one in which people’s interest is dying off (like the Miss America pageant). But it happens very year.

   2. It gets worse. There are a bunch of similar festivals in other places in the US, and in one or more past cases, human mishandling has lead to the poor animal’s death.

      I’m okay with groundhog day as a silly end-of-winter tradition, but there’s no reason to actually pick up the critter and wave him around. If you must show a groundhog, why not just have a plexiglass cage? Or better yet, install a groundhog cam in some natural burrow and just use appropriate footage for the event.

      1. A chance to partay in February. And tourism.

         1. Yes. We don’t need a dour war on silliness do we?

      2. Oh, that’s so sad! It would be de Blasio–where Fiorello LaGuardia when you need him?

   3. If you’re horrified than you’ve completely misread the seriousness and/or importance of this event.

5. Oh, I love that shot!

   I think it’s high time to create a national petition demanding that the Punxsutawney Groundhog Goons stop acting like imbeciles already and leave hapless Phil alone.

   1. Great. That’ll start a “War on Groundhog Day.”

6. Haven’t I seen this before?

   1. What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.

7. One of the very few actual good movies in existence.

   1. I’d agree that poor movies outnumber the good ones (also true of novels, paintings, and many other things) but are you not being a bit too harsh on movie makers here?

8. Just to add to the bad idea this is, I understand way back when they first started this, they also ate the ground hog.

   Predicting 6 more weeks of winter on Feb. 2 is a pretty safe bet in northern states. Other than a zoo I don’t think you will find ground hogs above ground to do this in the middle of winter.

9. I’d go with Buckeye Chuck. He had the opposite result and besides, Ohio is closer to Chicago.

10. I grew up about 20 miles from Punxy, as the locals call it. It’s such an odd thing that this became a national bit of nonsense.

    1. Not really; as the meme points out, this *is* America…

11. Today is my birthday, and all I got was this groundhog. Same as every year.

    1. With a name like scruffy doodle, what do you expect? LOL. Happy Birthday🐯

    2. I guess it beats being born on April 1st.

       😀

       happy birthday!

12. We used to drive through Punxy on our way to visit my parents and my kids loved the statue of Phil. I think there’s also a statue of Willie in Wiarton(??). I know they had a funeral for one of the live Willies a few years ago, but they replaced him PDQ.

13. In Alaska it is officially Marmot Day today. Our state legislature passed a bill a few years ago.

    To be fair, the hoary marmot is fun to see in the alpine where I live. They are locally called whistle pigs because of their high pitched alarms and portly stature.

    I can mimic their sound. Drives my dog nuts. :-j

    Mike

    1. Your poor dog;-) I have heard that marmot whistle in Colorado, and it is crazy!

14. The thing is he nearly always sees his shadow so that suggests that that town has cold clear weather & high pressure as a norm at this time of year….

15. Looking at the picture’s caption, I see two possibilities : training rodents as climate scientists, or some major dental surgery on existing climate scientists.
    Actually, having seen some of the “body modification” people, the dental surgery wouldn’t be too drastic. Fitting a tail though, would be more experimental. I bet it’s been done already though.

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