Happy Groundhog Day, When Americans Worship Marmots!
Every year on February 2 in America, Americans worship marmots. Marmots are called groundhogs or woodchucks here. They are supposedly imbued with the mystical ability to predict an early end to winter. If a groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, winter ends sooner. The news media makes much ado about this bit of folklore, posting film crews outside of various groundhog's lairs, trying to lure them out of hibernation to record whether or not they see their shadows. This act of animal abuse has made several American marmots famous, like Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania. Outside of providing Americans with a bit of fun during the winter, whether or not a groundhog sees its shadow has no effect on the weather whatsoever. Most thinking people don't take it seriously. Some Americans, however, DO believe in the efficacy of the groundhogs' predictions. It's nice to see that those Americans believe in something, especially after the woke prog...