Pennsylvania's own Punxsutawney Phil will be dragged from his warm hibernation den (see photo above) tomorrow morning. He will then proceed to put all those tv hairdos who call themselves weathermen to shame.
German immigrants brought this tradition to the New World, so blame them. (I once spent an amusing couple of letters trying to explain this holiday to a Japanese pen pal who found Phil irresistably cute. Akiko, are you still out there?) Of course, in Germany they used hedgehogs. Finding no hedgehogs here, the ever resourceful Germans adopted the groundhog.
Of course, Phil is only the most famous marmot. Here are some more. There is even a llama in Michigan named Mr. Prozac who learned how to predict future weather patterns from a dearly departed groundhog buddy of his, the one-eyed Noah John.
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