Presidents' Day

 February 17---

Sun and subzero here in Chicagoland---yes, Chiberia is back. and there are floods in Appalachia, tornadoes in Tennessee.  Meteorological Spring begins on March 1, but extreme wintery weather is not going away. not this week anyway.

Today is Presidents' Day. It's a federal holiday--no mail delivery today.

But the current administration is not taking a day off. DOGE team is hard at work at USAID, the National Weather Service, National Park Service,  and Social Security Administration, and  more.  According to Business Insider, at least 15 federal agencies have been targeted by DOGE.

They were not elected or approved by Congress. What authority do they have?  Some people are calling this a coup, or a constitutional crisis. 

No, we the people are not powerless. The resistance is growing.

I am thinking of President Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, maybe one of the greatest speeches ever. 

It was a time of Civil War---

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

—Abraham Lincoln

It's Groundhog Day!

 

 

 

 

 

It's February 2  and almost feels like spring here, today.  Today is Groundhog Day, when the groundhogs in Punxutawney, Pennsylvania and Woodstock, Illinois, and all over Canada, are called upon to predict whether there will be an early spring.

 

This day is also known as Candelmas, A Catholic celebration of Christ as the light of the world, marking the lengthening days in the Northern Hemisphere.  

Imbolc is a pagan or Gaelic holiday marking this time  halfway between the winter solstice on December 21 and the spring equinox on March 20. The old calendar calls this a cross-quarter day.  It is the triumph of light over the dark part of the year. 

Groundhog Day is a festival, too, more folklore in a way. People may dress in old-fashioned costumes. There is food and dancing. too.  Some may watch the movie Groundhog Day,  set in Woodstock, Illinois

The star of the day is the groundhog, who is coaxed out of his burrow, and if he doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring.  If he does see his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. 

According to NOAA,  these prognostications have been right about 30% of the time.  But there is some science to this too. Long ago, people observed that animals became more active around this time.  A cloudy, overcast day without shadows would be warmer than a bright and sunny day. 

Warmer days means  warmer ground, and a longer growing season, which farmers would be hoping for. 

Have you noticed more activity among the squirrels and other animals? The other day, just before sunrise, I saw a possum in the alley.  Yes, spring is coming!

 In Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow.  It's breezy and cloudy tin Woodstock, Illinois.  The temperature feels like 41.  Woodstock Willie did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring. 

There are also Groundhog Day celebrations in Canada. According to the Globe and Mail---

Living on the East Coast, Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first groundhog in North America to issue a long-term forecast. She is followed by Quebec's Fred la Marmotte, who made the same prediction of a longer winter, and Ontario's Wiarton Wllie, who predicted an early spring.