Here's last year's post marking what ought to be the first major holiday of this much-derided month:
It's not so "cold out there,"* here--47 in middle Tennessee (Alexa says it's 30 in Punxsutawney), but it's wet and fecund. Spring is in the air. Respect must be paid. (U@d)
On this day in 1887, a groundhog named Phil first emerged from his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob — a small hill in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — and the tradition of Groundhog’s Day was born. According to legend, if a groundhog sees his shadow today there will be six more weeks of winter. In Phil’s case, whether or not he will see his shadow is actually decided several days in advance by his top-hat-and-tuxedo-donning handlers, the members of the Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle. Despite their trade secret methods for prediction, Phil’s accuracy rate as of last year was only 39 percent. WA
Phil: "Well maybe the real God uses tricks, you know? Maybe he's not omnipotent. He's just been around so long he knows everything."
Rita: "Sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don't know, Phil. Maybe it's not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it."
* Phil: "OK, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties cause it's cold out there. It's cold out there every day."
On this day in 1887, a groundhog named Phil first emerged from his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob — a small hill in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — and the tradition of Groundhog’s Day was born. According to legend, if a groundhog sees his shadow today there will be six more weeks of winter. In Phil’s case, whether or not he will see his shadow is actually decided several days in advance by his top-hat-and-tuxedo-donning handlers, the members of the Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle. Despite their trade secret methods for prediction, Phil’s accuracy rate as of last year was only 39 percent. WA
Rita: "Sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don't know, Phil. Maybe it's not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it."
* Phil: "OK, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties cause it's cold out there. It's cold out there every day."
[2.2.22]
==
And the year before:
Punxsutawney is a nice little model of democratic mutual support, once Phil learns to stop patronizing his neighbors and learns the real meaning of freedom. Some have seen Harold Ramis's clever film, among other things, a Buddhist allegory... or as a Nietzschean parable about eternal recurrence.
Is Groundhog Day one of the great philosophical movies? Viewed on the most trivial level it’s just another Hollywood rom-com, but on closer inspection it furnishes a dazzling treatment of Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence, even illuminating Deleuze and Irigaray’s conflicting interpretations of this key Nietzschean idea. It also throws light on postmodern thinking regarding simulacra – representations without originals. Finally, it updates the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, casting its protagonist, played by Bill Murray, in the role of Sisyphus, the absurd hero... (Philosophy Now, continues)
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