Friday, February 2
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It's Groundhog Day. Hide!
Phil the woodchuck put Punxsutawney on the map. But some here wish it weren't.
By Sean D. Hamill
Special to the Tribune
Published February 2, 2007
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. -- On Friday, just after sunrise on Groundhog Day, the 15
top-hat- and tuxedo-clad members of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney
Groundhog Club will do as they and their predecessors have done for more than
100 years: Pull Punxsutawney Phil from his burrow to check on his shadow.
If, as he usually does, the globe's most famous marmot sees his furry shadow,
meaning winter should last six weeks longer, a mighty "Boo!" will rise up from
the 20,000 freezing people expected to be present--a crowd more than three
times larger than this Pennsylvania town's population.
Leslie Larnino won't be one of them. Though she lives in the borough and could
attend, the 49-year-old teacher, has never been to the ceremony on a hilltop on
the town's edge known as Gobbler's Knob, and she has no plans to go this year.
"It's crazy when they're here," she said, referring to tourists who flood the
town to take part in groundhog mania. "Locals like me tend to lay low and let
them have their day. And in a couple of days, it's back to normal and we have
our burg back."
Since the movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray opened in 1993, what was
once an admittedly silly but quaint holiday gathering for a couple of thousand
people has turned into a stadium-size spectacle that strains the patience of
some Punxsutawnians, even as town leaders continue to promote its most famous
resident.
"People always say, `When is this going to go away and return to the way it
was?"' said Tom Chapin, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit daily newspaper. "But
it doesn't. It just gets bigger every year."
How famous has Phil become? Last year the Department of Homeland Security
included Phil's permanent homestead, the Groundhog Zoo, located in a nook in
the town's library, as one of 77,069 sites in the National Asset Database of
potential terror targets.
Before the movie, you rarely saw groundhog displays downtown except for the
week of Groundhog Day. Now, permanent murals featuring a smiling, cartoonlike
Punxsutawney Phil stare from several buildings in town; plush toys and posters
are hung in nearly every storefront; and scattered around town are 32
6-foot-high, painted, fiberglass Phils on display year-round.
It's all part of the "groundhogizing" of the town, said Marlene Lellock,
director of the chamber of commerce, which draws about half of its revenue from
the sale of Phil-related memorabilia.
It's a long way from the town's first Groundhog Day in 1887, when groundhogs
were hunted and hung out for barbecue.
To be sure, most Punxsutawnians appreciate the attention--and increased
revenue--that the movie has brought to their otherwise struggling, former coal,
timber and railroad town.
"I guess it's our one day of fame a year," said Barbara Poulin, 69, a retired
grocery clerk.
For some, though, the onslaught is so intolerable that they leave for a few
days.
But there is a tie that binds both sides: angst that the movie responsible for
this fame wasn't even shot here but was made in Woodstock, Ill.
"Bill Murray was in my restaurant" when he visited to research the movie in
1992, said Dean Helal, 75, owner of Punxy Phil's Cakes & Steaks restaurant.
"They came in, shook up the whole town, and then they filmed it somewhere else.
Well, we were all ticked off."
Harold Ramis, who directed the movie, said the decision to use Woodstock was
simple. "There's no architectural or visual center, no town square in
Punxsutawney," he said, and it was decided early on not to film in Pennsylvania.
Still, given its history and its quirky name--a Delaware Indian name that means
"town of sand flies"--there was never any question of not using the name
Punxsutawney.
"Comedy writers spend hours around a table trying to come up with names like
that," said Ramis.
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IN THE WEB EDITION
For more photos from Punxsutawney, go to www.chicagotribune.com/groundhog
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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ARIN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Astazi, in afara de sarbatoarea
crestina pe care o stiti cu totii, se zice printre padureni ca este "Ziua
Ursului".
Se zice ca ursul iese azi din barlog sa vada cum e pe afara - si daca este
Soare (si isi vede umbra), intra repede la loc ca stie ca vor urma inca 40 zile
de iarna grea...
Ma rog! cu schimbarile astea climatice, habar nu mai am daca bietul urs o mai
fi mers anul asta la hibernare... :(
Ursul... ursul al carui habitat in tara noastra se restrange mereu, pentru ca
niste nesimtiti cu banis a se uite de sus la noi si la voi...
Ursul caruia altii la fel precum cei de mai sus ii avnd repede blana, ca cica
"nu-l suporta ecosistemul", ca sunt "prea multi pe mp de padure"!!!
Deocamdata ma mai gandesc ce am putea face pentru bietul urs (poate veniti si
voi cu idei si solutii) - dar nu uitati, pana una-alta, sa semnati petitia
referitoare la masacrul de la Balc:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/800795825
Sa ne facem vocea auzita si sa punem stop acestor masacre!
Si sa ne gandim si ce "seaca" ar fi Padurea noastra, fara ursi... !
Codruta
--
"Let me know, that at least, she will try
Then she'll be a true love of mine"
www.arin.ro
