| Don't Drive Angry |
[Feb. 2nd, 2008|08:12 am] |
Every year on the morning of February 2nd I get on the internet and find out if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Every year it's becoming more and more difficult to find the story revealing this tidbit of information. I couldn't find the story on my MySpace page or on the front page of the Google News website. I had to do a Google news search and found the story on the tenth link. What superseded the proper article were stories titled: Groundhog Day Events in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, FACTBOX: Groundhog Day -- popular non-science, All you need to know about Groundhog Day, How animals gauge the weather and so on. Perhaps the above articles had the information I sought but I wasn't willing to read through the articles to find out. I wanted my information NOW (obviously I take news about a large squirrel predicting the weather very seriously)!
This tradition of mine started back in 2003 in the shadow of the Columbia shuttle disaster. I was on pager duty and, thanks to an early morning page, I was awake and online. I turned on the TV and, naturally, the news was all about the disaster. That was understandable in light of the gravity of the news and I wasn't complaining. If they talked about Phil I probably missed it while I was talking to a customer about some IT problem. After the problem was resolved I decided to give the Google News search engine a shot and before long I found out whether Phil saw his shadow (I think he did, I can't remember). It was from that experience that I learned to really appreciate News search engines and I use it all the time now for news topics that interest me.
Getting the Groundhog news last year was easy. Why? Two reasons. Last year they replaced the Grand Marshall (or whatever his title was) of the ceremony with a new guy. Secondly, and more importantly, Phil - for the first time in many years - was unable to see his shadow. Big news in the Groundhog world and I was able to learn of his prediction very quickly. A third reason might be because it was a slow news day but I'm sticking to my first two reasons.
It's not a slow news day this morning. I tuned into the Saturday edition of the Today Show and all they talked about was politics. Super Tuesday this, Clinton vs. Obama that. I understand that politics is important with the election near but I gleaned all the important information on that topic in the first five minutes. I turned away from the Today Show after thirty minutes of not hearing about Phil (I already knew about Phil's prognostication but I wanted to see video on it).
After reading all my bitching and moaning about the lack of proper coverage on the topic, you're probably getting a little impatient. Did Phil see his shadow or not? Let me tell you now without hesitation: he did see his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. Darn. This winter will never end. |
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| Comments: |
I hope I don't burst your bubble, but.. did you know that the first day of spring is like, exactly six weeks after Groundhog's Day?
What? **Gasp!*** Next you'll be telling me that Santa Claus doesn't exist!!!
Actually, it's more like 6 and a half weeks and that's assuming Groundhog Day only lasts 24 hours (believe me, you wouldn't want to be caught in that trap).
Am I right or am I right?
Right?
Right?
Heh, you're right. It's 46 days, with the leap year this year, from February 2nd to March 20th. But it's reassuring, isn't it? I never realized this fact myself until last year, I guess I was the last one to know! :) | |
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