Beware the Groundhog!

Today being Groundhog Day, large sections of news media folks, national and local, will pay far too much attention to how a rodent responds to the presence or absence of sunlight upon his actions (If you have liberal political persuasions, press "1" to make that sentence a Newt Gingrich joke. If you have conservative political persuasions, press "2" to make it an Eric Holder joke).

Actually, we will note whether or not the groundhogs see their shadows, which is supposed to indicate how much longer we will have to put up with winter. A nice lady at Mental Floss wrote up a fun history of Groundhog Day, including the possible religious origins and the connection to other holidays and observances marked at this time of the year.

The most interesting thing to me was that we rely on the groundhog for his weather forecasting skills -- ill-advisedly, it seems, as premier groundhog Punxsatawney Phil has only a 39% accuracy rating -- because Dutch immigrants to Pennsylvania brought with them the German tradition of basing weather predictions on an animal response to sunlight on Candlemas. But the German tradition focused on a badger. The eastern United States being badger-bereft at that time, the groundhog was brought in off the bench.

Animal scientists have not commented on whether or not the substitution and subsequent loss of fame and positive regard could be at the root of the generally surly badger disposition we see today.