Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!  To be honest, I completely forgot about the holiday until I heard them talking about it on the news this morning.  To be fair, I'm not too worried about whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not as spring has a way of springin (pun intended) fairly quickly here either way (please don't hate me because i live in Florida and don't have blistering cold weather - we have to deal with all the elderly drivers...that should soften the blow some!!).

Now that the day is here, it make me think about the furry groundhog.  Aren't they just so cute?  Aren't they?  Anyone?  Hello?  (insert crickets chirping here).  Did you know a groundhog is the same thing as a woodchuck?  I sure didn't.  So, since I know nothing about the animal that has its own holiday, I'm going to assume you don't either.  I know not everyone is as ignorant uninformed as me, but bear with me.  So here's a few trivia facts I found here.

  • All groundhogs have 22 teeth
  • Groundhogs hibernate one to a burrow, with at least two doorways.
  • Males emerge earlier than females each spring (I guess the females like to sleep in...i know i do!
  • Groundhogs can lose 50% fo their body weight in hibernation.  (Hello, hibernation.  Have we met??)
  • They can swim and climp trees and have a top speed of 15km per hour (yeah, I'm too lazy to do the conversion, but I assume that's fast!)
  • Groundhog Day was once celebrated by the ancient Celts.  It's halfway between the winter solstice and sring equinox.
  • Farrah Fawcett, Tom Smothers, James Joyce, Graham Nash, and Christie Brinkley were all born on Groundhog Day.
Hope you feel enlightened!

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