Photo of Punxsutawney Phil courtesy groundhog.org Groundhogs
popped their heads up in a number of places across America
today. The verdict: six more weeks of winter. Or maybe not. The
tradition of Groundhog Day has its roots in an old Scottish
saying, “If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there’ll be two
winters in the year,” National Geographic News reported three
years ago. And so on February 2, midway between the winter
solstice and the spring equinox, the world waits for the news:
Did the groundhog see its shadow? If so, then we may expect
winter temperatures to last another six weeks. I did a check of
Google News to see how widely the groundhog forecast is
reported. There were more than 1,200 articles about it published
on the Web today. “Punxsutawney Phil sees shadow; winter to
continue,” was the headline over the Associated Press report.
“The world’s most famous groundhog saw his shadow Monday
morning, predicting that this already long winter will last for
six more weeks,” the wire service declared. A