Thank You
Punxsutawney Phil
Tuesday morning, I awoke to bright sunshine streaming through my window and as I was listening to the morning radio announcer speak about world news, the latest on the stock market volatility and other mundane news, I was happy to hear that the groundhog did not see his shadow. Amazing, I thought, that this little piece of unscientific news should make my heart leap for joy. After all, having a groundhog predict the seasons is similar to your arthritis telling you it is going to rain. Tried and true. The groundhog who resides in Gobbler’s Knob, PA named Punxsutawney Phil, was awakened by a tap of a cane on his tree-trunk cage. After the door to the cage was opened, the groundhog emerged and was raised to the air and placed on top of the trunk for all to see. After inspecting Phil’s behavior, the Groundhog Club emcee proclaimed “There is no shadow to be cast! An early spring is my forecast!” Of course, for the doubting Thomases out there, corroboration from a New York groundhog was essential. So I continued to listen about our Staten Island groundhog prognostication. Enter Staten Island Chuck or Charles G. Hogg as he is known to his friends at the Staten Island Zoo. His forecast accuracy is 80 percent and after all, if you can’t trust a New Yorker who can you trust? Chuck confirmed Phil’s prediction of an early spring at 7:30 a.m. making the prediction unanimous.
For further amusement, I looked to our Canadian friends and found that Balzac Billy from Alberta, Canada and Shubenacadie Sam of Nova Scotia all were in agreement of this fine prediction of an early spring. Whoohoo, I say. We had our snow, we are good to go. Think Spring!
Elizabeth Johnson
