Monday, February 02, 2009

Groundhog day? Bah Humbug


The fat old marmot got pulled from is hidey hole and perched upon a podium yet again. And with this tradition we are told 6 more weeks of winter.

I hate to be a grump but is this really necessary? I mean I understand the need for culture and tradition and as we all know this is a huge part of American and Canadian culture. Really?? Is it really?

To be honest I have never really understood the importance of such a tradition. Important enough to have a feature film titled after it. So because I hate to hate without knowing what to hate, I did a little reading and I stumbled upon this (source Wikipedia)
Famous predictions and groundhogs
Groundhog Day proponents state that
the rodents' forecasts are accurate 75% to 90%. A Canadian study for 13 cities
in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37%. Also, the National
Climatic Data Center
reportedly has stated that the overall predictions
accuracy rate is around 39%.

Thirty Eight percent? Now I know in the 21 century we take this kind of thing with a grain of salt. But come on, this guy is no weatherman; even they can do better than that. Let the poor beast do what he wants to and that is sleep, eat and shit. Realistically, the times he predicted an early spring he likely only stayed out to take aforementioned shit and then headed back into the hole.

I understand getting out to have a good time, have a little ceremony, and get drunk before noon. But the ground hog doesn’t want to do that. As I said Eat, sleep , and shit. I do not see anything about wearing a stupid hat and marching around being douche bags.

I understand years and years ago there was a need to figure out the length of the winter it meant survival, but I am sure even they just looked outside on or around now and saw if they saw their own shadow.

Then they went and ate a groundhog.

3 comments:

Barbara Doduk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Barbara Doduk said...

Groundhog Day was a brilliant movie. If you have never seen it, which I am assuming you haven't, it actually makes fun of the idea just as you do. The movie actually is called Groundhog Day because Bill Murray's character has to relive that one day ad infinitum until he discovers himself. It is a great existential movie.

PS, since when do the general population not need an excuse to drink and party?

how to ollie said...

I'm always looking out for great blogs. Seems like you have a good one here. Diamond in the rough.

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