Ezzie's Blog Roundup, 2/2: Groundhog Edition

Happy Groundhog Day! I have never understood Groundhog Day, which is possibly the most noted stupid holiday of the year. To this day, I picture Al Roker bent over, scrutinizing a weird-looking hole in the ground, waiting for the groundhog to come out... holding an umbrella*. Now, let's think about this: If it's raining, what are the odds the groundhog will see its shadow!?!

* Okay, so I'm not sure if this is a real memory - but I distinctly remember thinking, "Um, how is it supposed to see its shadow if there's not a bit of sun in the sky?!"

Anyway, according to Wiki, we should all laugh at the whole idea, which is just a big joke:

In western countries in the Northern Hemisphere the official first day of Spring is about six weeks after Groundhog Day, on March 20 or 21. About 1,000 years ago, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar when the date of the equinox drifted in the Julian calendar, the spring equinox fell on March 16 instead. This was exactly six weeks after February 2. Assuming that the equinox marked the first day of spring in certain medieval cultures, as it does now in western countries, Groundhog Day occurred exactly six weeks before spring. Therefore, if the groundhog saw his shadow on Groundhog Day there would be six more weeks of winter. If he didn't, there would be 42 more days of winter. In other words, the Groundhog Day/Hedgehog Day tradition may have begun as a bit of folk humor.

For the math-deficient, 6 * 7 = 42. Throw in that the most well-known groundhog is from some unpronounceable random PA city, and I'm sorry, I just really don't care if it sees its shadow or not. It's about as accurate as the local news forecasts, which are really atrocious - I stopped listening years ago, and I'm dressed properly more often than the people I know who listen to the weather. Ha.

And now, on to the roundup:

*Post of the Day*

Jameel, on Amona. So sad.

Amona:

This picture from Batya sums it up well, too. ZionReport asks when enough is enough already.

Politics, Hamas:

KesherTalk doesn't listen to the State of the Union, but instead gives her own SOTU points. One of my favorite lines (there were a bunch):

Economy: I have a good job. Every capable and ambitious person I know has a good job. Most of the incapable, unambitious ones have jobs, including the two who work for political machines (on opposite sides). [sic] Our transit worker's union thinks the economy is so strong that we can support a retirement age of 50. Must be good.

She also links to a funny joke about the wiretapping: Liberals will appreciate this more, but I thought it was hilarious.

EditCopy's Morning Copy was excellent.

AbbaGav & LGF point to an important quote from President Bush given today:

“I am concerned about a person that, one, tries to rewrite the history of the Holocaust, and two, has made it clear that his intentions are to destroy Israel,” Bush said in the interview aboard Air Force One en route to Nashville, Tennessee, from Washington.

“Israel is a solid ally of the United States, we will rise to Israel’s defense if need be. So this kind of menacing talk is disturbing,” he added.

Asked if he meant the United States would rise to Israel’s defense militarily, Bush said: “You bet, we’ll defend Israel.”

Irina's frustrated. Go read what she has to say: It's something we've all gone through.

But she cheered up and pointed out this hilarious post from SimplyJews.

Dave has started another series of awards, the FIBs.

Ayelet links to an incredibly talented - and different - artist. Wow.

Gil links to an old friend, R' Dr. Aryeh Frimer.

MCAryeh has a touching post about The Things You Carry.

JBM wonders... is Senator Brownback learning with R' Nosson Scherman?!

Jack's obsessed with his blogroll... and is suffering from blog disappointment.

Check it out!

Technorati tags: Blog, Roundup, Ezzie.