Affronted groundhog bites mayor for forcing him to make rodential weather prediction

February 3, 2015 • 4:30 pm

It’s about damn time! Groundhogs are regularly abused and mishandled all over the U.S. on February 2 in the annual ritual of Groundhog Day. But Jimmy the Groundhog in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, got his revenge on behalf of all rodentdom. As WISC.tv reports:

Just as Sun Prairie Mayor Jonathan Freund, leaned in to hear Jimmy’s prediction, he was bitten in the ear by the groundhog. He then declared Jimmy didn’t see his shadow and there would be an early spring.

One of Jimmy’s caretakers, Jerry Hahn, told News 3 the mayor may have misinterpreted Jimmy, and there would be six more weeks of winter. Hahn added this was Mayor Freund’s first time participating, which could have added to the confusion.

This is like theology: they already had their conclusion, and simply made up stuff to confirm it. It’s rodentsplaining!

46 thoughts on “Affronted groundhog bites mayor for forcing him to make rodential weather prediction

  1. Ha! I mentioned that if I were a groundhog, I’d bite the person you dragged me out from sleeping in the middle of winter & this groundhog did! Good for him!

      1. EXACTLEY!!!!RIGHT ON!your reference is more timely then mine!

        did the mayor need stitches?? or the groundhog need an oral surgeon?

  2. Diana MJcPherson told us yesterday:

    “I’d bite the handler if I were the groundhog – see how what that means for the future!”

    Diana is a wizard !

      1. 😀

        Substitute “chumps” for “mayors,” and you’ve even improved on the original tongue twister.

  3. We deny scientific consensus about climate change but rely on a rodent to predict the weather. Only in America.

  4. A rodent and a politician together in the same picture? Why do I think that there is a joke about two rats in there, just waiting to get out?

      1. OMG is right! I just googled Prince Albert piercing, as I had no inkling. Warning to all — shield your eyes is you’re squeamish!
        en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_%28genital_piercing%29

        1. Luckily years ago, I had a cousin who told me about a guy who proudly showed his off.

          The Wiki article may not be so friendly for work viewing as well.

  5. It occurs to me that “Muskrat Love,” the worst song recorded by America (or Captain & Tennille, for that matter, and that is saying something!), would be much improved rewritten to commemorate this event.

    Now he’s ticklin’ his fancy
    Chewin’ his lobe
    The mayor is screamin’ now
    “What am I, Job?!”

    But then, that’s not a muskrat. “Marmota Love” maybe. I have to go pitch this to Willis Alan Ramsey

  6. This is like theology: they already had their conclusion, and simply made up stuff to confirm it. It’s rodentsplaining!

    Rodentsplaining The Groundhog of Being.

    Someone had to say it.

  7. FYI, same thing happened at the NC Museum of Natural History last year. Probably no the mayor and probably not on camera.

  8. I grew up in Minnesota. We were happy when the groundhog saw its shadow because that meant only six more weeks of winter instead of the usual four months.

    1. Seems like we should have a latitudinal cline of groundhogs such that south Florida ones predict no winter at all, while Barrow, Alaskan ones just stay in their burrows year-round…

      1. I lived in Minnesota for 10 years. It’s the only place I’ve actually seen a groundhog and it was in a tree of all places.

        I remember it was -42F one morning and my old Porsche actually started. Later, when I was a starving grad student and couldn’t afford a car, I rode my Honda 750 motorcycle all winter, even on the freeways, dressed in a snowmobile suit and a rain suit, with gloves covered with cowhide mittens. Those were probably the happiest days of my life.

        1. I wasn’t expecting that ending. 😀

          Michigan’s cold enough for me, thanks. Can’t imagine being on a ‘bike on the freeway in winter! I hate just standing outside when there’s a bad wind chill factor.

          Groundhogs, or as they’re more often called in some places, woodchucks, often climb trees. We have one that scales our mulberry tree as soon as the berries are ripe.

          1. I miss seeing them at my old job. The cute tubby things were all over areas of grass. The one place I saw them also had a couple of Hawks though!

          2. My dog treed one up by Geoegian Bay a few years ago. (I remember wearing shorts so it couldn’t have been GH Day). I had no idea it was a grounhog till I took a photo and did some googling later.

  9. When you see a person who looks like a combination of Scott Walker and Chris Christie, the natural response is to bite.

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