Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Monday, February 02, 2009

2009: Phil Sees His Shadow

Six more weeks of winter. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.

Phil also slipped in a slightly clumsy promo for the local football team:

"Hear Ye Hear Ye
On Gobbler's Knob this glorious Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, 2009
Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers...
Proclaimed that his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers were World Champions one more time
And a bright sky above me
Showed my shadow beside me
So six more weeks of winter it will be."

Phil jumped from third person to first person there in the last few lines. He may have been groggy.

A word to the woodchuck: Stay off the NFL if you want to keep the mystery going. Remember when the Poe Toaster ruined his mysterious image with "the big blue hold dominion over all," his sophomoric pitch for the New York Giants in 2001?

It could happen to you, Phil. You don't want to alienate your fan base -- especially with that upstart Georgia groundhog, Gen. Beauregard Lee, using Twitter.

Labels: Edgar Allan Poe, Gen Beauregard Lee, Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil