The Bite of the Groundhog

Every weekday morning at 6:08 a.m. I brace myself as WCBS 880 leads in to the weather forecast.
What will it be today? Fourteen degrees and the wind chill makes it minus two? Snow mixed with icy rain? I knew what I was headed for with winter in New York, but that doesn't make it any easier when you have to get out of bed and face it.

But this morning, Craig Allen of CBS had happy tidings. All this week, temperatures will be well above freezing. There will be a few rain showers, but nothing to speak of. On Wednesday, the high is expected to be 61 degrees. What happened? I have a theory.

You may have heard that, on Groundhog Day, New York's Mayor Bloomberg took a photo opportunity at the Staten Island Zoo with Charles G. Hogg, the zoo's resident groundhog. Mr. Hogg is known to his friends as Staten Island Chuck, but apparently, Mayor Bloomberg may not count himself among them. His Honor was playing a game with the groundhog, letting him nibble on a corncob and then jerking it out of Chuck's reach. Not finding this at all funny, Chuck gave up on the corncob and instead took a chunk out of the Mayor's finger, right through its glove. [The Family Dog applauded when he heard the story; he himself can't stand that kind of game.] Although the official U.S. groundhog, Punxatawny Phil, did see his shadow, dooming the nation to six more weeks of winter, Staten Island Chuck was too busy getting revenge upon his tormentor to even look, and so I think we in New York are in for an early spring. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.