Punxsutawney Putz

Hey, when you think of Groundhog Day, what comes to mind?

Bill Murray?

Or this little guy?

At this time of year you probably think of the little ball of fur. But any other time, I'm sure it's the movie, starring Bill Murray that comes to mind. And that's fine. I'm with you. After all, the damn little rodent is a poseur. Yep, that's right, everybody thinks he knows what he's doing but it turns out he's wrong more than he's right. Here's what the day is all about...

But a Canadian study (leave it to those Canucks) conducted over 30 to 40 years showed that for nearly two-thirds of those years the groundhogs' forecasts turned out to be wrong. That's right, either they were contrary to what they should have been, or winter dragged on its normal duration. Groundhogs across the nation had a dismal record of being right about 37% of the time. For shame. No wonder they've been the subject of ridicule.

And look at the names they've been given. Ohio's Buckeye Chuck. Georgia's General Beauregard Lee. Alabama's Smith Lake Jake. New York's Staten Island Chuck. North Carolina's Sir Walter Wally. And of course the most well known: Punxsutawney Phil. Silly, Silly. But Canada is not without shame. We have our share of weird wolly woodchucks: Balzac Billy from Alberta. Shubenacadie Sam of Nova Scotia. And, of course, our answer to Phil, Wiarton Willy, just outside our nation's capital, Ottawa.

Given their woeful record of prognostication, being held up to riducule and their alliterated assinine monikers, my money's on another Phil - Phil Connors. Now, that man was accurate!

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! You know what happens on Imagination D

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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