Friday, February 03, 2006

С Днём Ёжика!

Happy Groundhog Day to you all. Unfortunately for those of you who live in the not so semi-tropical zone, our friend Phil saw his shadow this morning so we're in for six more weeks of winter...hooray. Upon further research (because of course what else would I be doing after midnight? Certainly not sleeping) I found a very interesting tid-bit of information about our Day of the Groundhog:

Groundhog Day started in Europe, but it wasn't called Groundhog Day then. The holiday was Candlemas, a Christian holiday. The legend about the animal and its shadow was part of Candlemas, but the animal in question was the hedgehog (or as I and many others of you like to call the yozhek.) The Pilgrims brought the tradition to America but couldn't find a hedgehog here, so they seized upon the next best thing.

I really don't think a groundhog can compare to a yozhek, but we have to give the Pilgrims credit for trying. One can only conclue that "Groundhog Day" is only an appropriate greeting if one is in America and to those on the other side of the world "Hedgehog Day" would be far more acceptable. So, "S Dnyom Yozheka" to my friends in my favorite place in the Eastern Hemisphere.


VS.



Ooops, wrong one.



On an entirely different note, a deluge swept through Tallahassee today and nearly swept me into oncoming traffic on Tennessee Street. I survived, though and made it safely to Taco Bell, my refuge of safety. Campus was a swamp and at one point I thought for sure I saw a catfish swimming down Copeland. He was fleeing the Union where students were, I kid you not, kayaking. Yes, students had brought their kayaks and were rowing around in the Student Union. I would have joined them, but I was missing one important thing- a kayak. However, when I buy my first kayak I will be sure to lug it around with me on campus in case the opportunity ever arises to use it to get to my classes. I can only imagine the fun of rowing from Diffenbaugh to Bellamy. It will be awesome.

I'm off to the Wesley conference in Leesburg tomorrow (I get to see Carli two weeks in a row! Ofeegyet'!) so I won't be around this weekend. That is, until the Steelers take on the Seahawks. I will most certainly be around then. Arrivederci.

3 comments:

Todd G Sapp said...

It all went wrong when the malls forbid their employees from saying, "Merry Candlemas". Now were left with some vague groundhog day that nobody really knows the deeper meaning of.

Jim said...

Rain? What's that? Still no rain in El Paso since September 21st.

James Morrow, Secretary General of United Nations said...

AHHH!! that would be horrible Mr Jim!! Dang, you can have som eof ours! its been POURING for like over a week!!!! ya htis kinda of weather always brings me down and makes me sad... not sure why... but i just hate it when it is so wet and overcast and cold and windy and rainy, and, and, and...AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! ok I'm done...

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