Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 02, 2019

I still get stuck with ‘denier’ being a measure of weave quality.

I just don’t pay attention. If people want to have fun with an animal and think they’re manipulating the seasons via shadow voodoo, let ‘em. To me, Spring is when my allergies hit and Summer is when they stop. I’ll take science over shadow any day, even if it stops my breathing.

A clue for ya kid, they’re ALL made up holidays!

Science has become so maligned these days, that I paused to think about what the kid said in the last panel!

Actually, Frazz/Mallett blew a golden opportunity to play the pedant here. (So I’m gonna do it.) Ground Hog Day as a holiday has a provenance reaching back millennia: it’s what’s called a “cross-quarter day”, one of the days that split the difference between the solstices and the equinoxes. You may recognize some of the others as well. (Look ’em up!)

Research has shown no connection between the weather and the groundhog seeing it’s shadow.

I’ve got you, babe. I’ve got you, babe.

[Her:]They say we’re young and we don’t knowWe won’t find out until we grow[Him:]Well I don’t know if all that’s true’Cause you got me, and baby I got you

[Him:]Babe[Both:]I got you babe I got you babe

Groundhog Day is BS

Alas, my fellow Frazzians, Ground Hog Day is the beginning of a 45 day sentence to a wintery cold cell, with the possibility of time off for good behavior.

Feb. 2 is half way between winter solstice and spring equinox. One of the few non made up holidays.

but a great movie

https://medium.com/@docmarionum1/how-accurate-are-groundhog-day-predictions-577141dbe961

Not a holiday, an observed day…unless you’re a ground hog, then it’s a holiday.

It’s NOT a holiday if you don’t get it off from school or work!

Actually Feb 2 is the “cross-quarter” between the winter Solstice and the spring Equinox.

It’s a holiday?? (Why didn’t someone tell me?)

Made-up it may be, but it is our anniversary, and the entire family always remembers it, so it is indeed our holiday.

Who cares 80 degrees on Saturday in Georgia

If it’s bright and clear (high pressure system, nice weather), and he sees his shadow, there will probably be a low pressure system with worse weather coming in soon. If it’s cloudy and rainy/snowy out (low pressure system), there will soon be a high pressure system bringing nicer weather!

Same concept as “Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” Prevailing weather mostly goes west to east. So, red sunset = high pressure system in the west, generally bringing good weather. Red sunrise = that high pressure is already many hundreds of miles to the east, and it’s likely a low pressure system will follow from the west.

Phil never showed today, he was vacationing in Florida. Even he had enough of the cold.

Well, not quite made up. It was my grandfather’s birthday.

“In Wisconsin on Groundhog Day, if the groundhog sees his shadow there will be 6 more weeks of winter; if he does not, there will be 8 more weeks. If he sees Dick Cheney’s shadow, there may never be spring again.” —Jerome Van Epps

Frazz14 hrs ·

For starters, where I live the sun doesn’t rise until 7:47AM this particular Groundhog Day, let alone reach a height where it can cast a rodent’s shadow. And HOW I live, 7:47 is sleeping in big time.

Also where I live, any groundhog with the brain of a vole is not going to want to miss his moment in the sun this year, literally or figuratively. Like most of the Midwest, we spent the past week in a record deep freeze. But the weekend is supposed to turn practically springlike, and abruptly. Put another way, if the forecast holds true, we’ll see a 3-day temperature gain of better than 60 degrees. Whether or not the groundhog can take credit for it, he’s going to want to stay above ground so he can enjoy whatever credit superstitious humans want to give him. Also so he can not drown when his burrow floods with a tsunami of tsnowmelt.

Funny, I’ve always seen Groundhog day as an excuse to pig out on pork sausage.

ALL holidays are made up. What do we want to celebrate, and when do we want to celebrate it?

Everybody knows that February’s made up holiday is Valentine’s Day.

Didn’t get around to watching Groundhog Day this year. Maybe tonight.

Heard of a great joke to pull. Groundhog Day 2 is announced. Posters are created, shots from the sets are presented, Bill Murray has a cameo role, etc. Big deal made out of it, ready to release on February 2nd. People pile into the theaters…

and it’s the exact same Groundhog Day movie we’ve had for (almost) 26 years.

“…made-up holiday.”

You can put lipstick on a groundhog, but that doesn’t make its predictions valid.