PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — It may be hard to believe as a large swath of the U.S. thaws out from a bitter polar vortex, but spring is coming early, according to handlers for some of the country’s most famous prognosticating groundhogs.
Just before 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Punxsutawney (puhnk-suh-TAW’-nee) Phil emerged from his burrow in Pennsylvania at sunrise and didn’t see his shadow. Nearly the same series of events unfolded about 300 miles (483 kilometers) to the east, where Staten Island Chuck’s handlers also revealed the same prediction.
The festivities have their origin in a German legend that says if a furry rodent casts a shadow on Feb. 2, winter continues. If not, spring comes early.
In reality, Phil’s prediction is decided ahead of time by the group on Gobbler’s Knob, a tiny hill just outside Punxsutawney. That’s about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped attending Staten Island’s Groundhog Day ceremony in 2015, a year after he accidentally dropped the furry critter that died a week later.
And he wasn’t the only New York City mayor who struggled with the holiday. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was bitten at a Groundhog Day ceremony in 2009.
“New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped attending Staten Island’s Groundhog Day ceremony in 2015, a year after he accidentally dropped the furry critter that died a week later. And he wasn’t the only New York City mayor who struggled with the holiday. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was bitten at a Groundhog Day ceremony in 2009.”
And we are still doing this crazy, superstitious s**t because…???
Many people in the Ozarks claim groundhog is the best meat on the planet. Just sayin’.
@rucleare I thought the reason they still do it is to give people a reason to mispronounce/misspell Punxsutawney.
Old-timey farmers and kids. Probably the original Old Farmer’s Almanac popularized this shit way back when science in the American heartland was at a lull.
Personally, I hate the bucktooth fuckers. They ruin a section of my garden every year. Where I’m from, we just call them woodchucks. These sly marmots are better at tunneling than El Chapo.
Don’t drive angry!
I have it on good authority that the New York City’s most Outre Outer Borough’s entry into the Groundhog business bit Mayor Bloomberg after listening, earlier in the year, to Bloomberg’s Spanish Language rendering of Hurricane precautions for the City’s Latino residents.