February 2
...serving up your daily dish.
It’s Groundhog Day today, here’s Punxsutawney Phil’s official forecast read today at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob:
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Around the country there are many imitators of me.
In Harrisburg there is Gus who appears on TV working for the lottery.
Then all around town, Cute groundhog statues abound.
They all look like me, I found.
Today on the Knob as I'm doing my job, I don't like this likeness of me.
It's my shadow I see.
Six more weeks of mild winter there will be.
Apparently, the over sized rodent’s handler Bill Deeley has had enough.
Today is also Candlemas. And tomorrow is Saint Blaise's Day, when a priest is supposed to hold crossed candles over one's throat and pronounce a blessing, that one will avoid throat and larynx afflictions in the coming 12 months. Would that this ritual could be performed en masse where it'd really do some good, such as at the next BlueWaveNJ sabbat.
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 11:54:48 AM
LOL!
I never saw the point of Groundhog Day. Whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow, we WILL have 6 more weeks of winter! Spring technically begins on March 20, regardless of weather conditions.
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 11:59:51 AM
Well, since we've just had six weeks of spring, so we're due for winter again, aren't we?
Posted by: walleroo | Feb 2, 2006 12:03:57 PM
I just saw my 5:00 shadow...I need a shave. The light isn't so good under the bridge.
Posted by: The Iceman (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 12:22:36 PM
Catch Phil Read's article about affordable housing in Montclair (no, it is more than one word in length), and then check out the Comics pages. There is a ditty in there that probably can be used to describe housing development in Baristaville: "How much ground could a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog land?" Most of it, would be my guess...
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 2, 2006 1:13:52 PM
Sorry - incomplete attribution: both the article and the comic strip are in today's Star-Ledger, which I have already recycled or I would tell you the name of the strip. I trust our stalwart bloggers will discover it. Not thinking too well today -- in the grips of a nasty stomach virus which everyone tells me "is going around." Well, if it is going around, will someone please tell it get moving again because I think it's stuck.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 2, 2006 1:19:14 PM
It sounds, Conan, as if you too could use the intercession of Saint Blaise, especially if what you've got is "moving."
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 1:25:18 PM
Tell me though, Cathar: are those candles lighted? (I have a wonderful, Dali-like Fu Manchu I would hate to see singed.)
And one more thing before I head back to the marble mausoleum to pray over the reflected image of St. Blaise in the porcelain font. Attention, ROC, Miss Martta, Cathar, Iceman, and others of the (gasp, choke) Republican persuasion: folk singer, raconteur, and radio host Oscar Brand (whom I thought had died years ago but who once again surprises me by seeming immortal) is soliciting folky-type songs and ditties from conservatives that poke gentle fun at the liberal side of government. Brand, who not so notoriously but quite adamantly championed liberal causes and artists back in the HUAC days (don't you think Roy Cohn was just so cuddly?) is, in his own words, seeking some balance in his weekly program on WNYC AM. I guess he has about 10,000 tunes satirizing la Rive Droit, but none that poke fun at liberals. That shouldn't be too difficult to do, eh?
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 2, 2006 1:36:27 PM
Conan, I do recall an old Phil Ochs song, "Love me, I'm a Liberal." (And if you recall his sad story, hoo boy but does he recall Frank Rizzo's observation that a conservative is a liberal who was mugged the night before.)
I don't think Roy Cohn ever qualified as cuddly, but more than once I saw him cuddling with others at Studio 54.
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 1:43:50 PM
Ah, the old 54. "If all the Snow Queens who haunted Studio 54 were laid end-to-end, I wouldn't be surprised," to misquote Miss Parker. Is Rubell dead? I know Shrager is minting millions with his chain of "trendy" (can you say "rip-off") hotels. Don't wake up the IRS giant again, Ian. I think the location is now a CBS studio. Don't get into Gotham that much anymore.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 2, 2006 1:54:44 PM
And yet another, Conan, though it's not at all gentle on liberals: "Is That What You Fought the War For?," by the UK's punk-rocking Stiff Little Fingers at their angriest. To hear 3000 voices in the audience sing along with the last line, "I don't care," was truly to be terrified.
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 1:56:19 PM
Ah, Mr. Brand will find that a hard task.
In the immortal words of Tom Lehrer--WE have all the good songs--
"Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs.
So join in the folk song army,
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice.
Ready! aim! sing!"
Posted by: l | Feb 2, 2006 1:57:45 PM
Stiff Little Fingers? I love them! I have a couple of their tunes on my iPod..."Listen" is just amazing.
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 2:03:10 PM
john boehner:
what Mr. anonymous takes into the bathroom when he's too jumpy to sleep & Mrs. anonymous won't wake up & do her wifely duty.
Posted by: anonymous | Feb 2, 2006 2:15:33 PM
The GOP oughtta be better at vote-rigging than this, given their vast experience:
Vote-rigging GOP-style:
Ooops . . . .
http://www.rollcall.com
Election Update: Do-Over on First Ballot
Thursday, Feb. 2; 01:13 pm
By Ben Pershing
Roll Call Staff
House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. [ed: how could that ever happen?] Stay with RollCall.com for updates.
Posted by: anonymous | Feb 2, 2006 2:21:58 PM
In Canada (Nova Scotia) their groundhog indicated the opposite, that spring is around the corner. I always liked Canadians!
Anyway with GLOBAL WARMING already here - it's safe to say that soon it will be Eternal Spring. Or to quote Georgie Porgie Bush, there is no Global Warming, so all is well. Heck, what am I worried about?
Posted by: quaker-oats | Feb 2, 2006 2:29:58 PM
If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.~~~~
old English song
Posted by: quaker-oats | Feb 2, 2006 2:33:39 PM
Candlemas marks the day that Jesus was first brought into the Temple, correct?
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 2:38:22 PM
Candlemas marks the day that Jesus was first brought into the Temple, correct?
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 2:39:02 PM
I believe it marks the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary 40 days after the birth of the baby Jesus.
Posted by: The Iceman (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 2:57:50 PM
So perhaps the Candlemas rhyme was the inspiration for the Chamber of Commerce in beautiful downtown Punxsatawney to bestow the same predictive powers upon a groundhog. At least Hallmark didn't invent this one.
And in Arkansas, the groundhogs are displayed with recipes...
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Feb 2, 2006 3:26:04 PM
The groundhog bit, Conan, apparently comes from a medieval legend that if any animal saw his shadow on Candlemas....The Punxatawney CofC simply took it from there. Doesn't NJ do the same with "Woodrow J. Chuck" or whatever they call him at the West Orange zoo?
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Feb 2, 2006 3:33:07 PM
Ok, so I searched the lyrics of Is That What You Fought the War For by Stiff Little Fingers.
Why's it so terrifying?
Posted by: jk | Feb 2, 2006 3:42:00 PM
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the pony-tailed Bluewave,
their conspiracy minded theories they will hold until their grave,
they have loosed their paranoia and to it become a slave,
their "truth" is rel-a-tive
Mazie! Mazie! are you skewing?
Mazie! Mazie! I'm sure you're stewing!
Mazie! Mazie! even more you're bluing!
their "truth" is rel-a-tive
Bluewave wants our defeat in the land of Iraq
they think we should not have toppled Saddam with a big attack
"He's not so bad and has nice sons" so said their french Chirac,
Bush is the terr-or-ist!
Mazie! Mazie! please keep perspective!
Mazie! Mazie! why such invective?
Mazie! Mazie! the logic's defective!
that, Bush is the terr-or-ist!
So next up in the region is Iran with its nukes,
And Bluewave I'm sure is making a committee for rebukes,
How shall we stop Iran when they're even opposed to spooks?
Iran will have the bomb!
Mazie! Mazie! shall we send inspectors?
Mazie! Mazie! Ahmadinejad's Hannibal Lector!
Mazie! Mazie! will Bluewave be our protector?
'cause Hamas will have the bomb!
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Feb 2, 2006 3:43:57 PM
