Today is the second of February and much of North America observes the day as Groundhog Day. On this day, according to folklore, the groundhog awakes from its long winter sleep and comes out of its den. If it sees its shadow it will go back in, and we will have another six weeks of winter. If it does not see its shadow it will remain awake and active, and we will have an early spring.
This popular old legend apparently came to North America with early settlers from Europe, where it is believed in some parts that bears or badgers behave in the same manner. Although most people recognize that the legend has no basis in fact, it provides a welcome mid-winter diversion, which is usually promoted by the news media. Actually most woodchucks do not come out of hibernation until March, or even later in the north.
Groundhog Day Trivia
- All groundhogs have 22 teeth.
- Groundhogs hibernate one to a burrow, with at least two doorways.
- Males emerge earlier than females each spring.
- Groundhogs can lose 50 per cent of their body weight in hibernation. Their maximum size is 10 kilograms.
- They can both swim and climb trees, and have a top speed of 15 kilometres an hour.
- Groundhog Day was once celebrated by ancient Celts. It’s halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox.
- Farrah Fawcett, Tom Smothers, James Joyce, Graham Nash, Christie Brinkley, and my son were all born on Groundhog Day.
After reading Clay Aiken’s tweets last night and watching the reaction for a few hours Wednesday night, I feel I should say something…but to be honest, this is one day that I am struggling to find what is appropriate to say. Right now, all I can say is that I am a fan of Clay Aiken. I believe that he is intelligent, hard-working and very talented. I hope that Clay continues to follow his heart and can laugh at the career advice he gets on twitter!
I love these two Clay Aiken quotes:
“This is what I love to do, I love to sing and to be able to perform in front of an audience. It does not happen often where someone can do what they truly love for a living, so I feel fortunate to be able to have my dream of singing come true. Music is such an important part of my life. The best thing of course are the fans. Being on stage and seeing their smiles and knowing they are enjoying the music is a great feeling.”
“It is not always about performance art, but about receiving positive energy from people with positive spirits. Sometimes we can see someone’s spirit, and those are the people with great energy. Those are the people that get me through the day, especially on Broadway.”
Wonderful!!! I'm actually standing at my computer giving you a rousing ovation! Excellent, as usual, and I so enjoyed learing about groundhogs and of course Clay's quotes were spot on. 🙂 Happy Birthday to your son too!
Musicfan – Your report on Ground Hog day was very interesting and a very "Happy Birthday" to
your son!!!
Your choice of Clay's quotes were perfect in dealing with this "Steadfast Situation". My hope is that
everyone of the fans would give Clay the love and appreciation he so deserves. He works and cares so much in all that he does for us – I just want him to know that he is really loved back!!<3<3
Hi. I love your newsletter, but once in awhile you throw in something like this — it's not fair to talk about a subject without explaining it. I just went through all your newsletters from Monday up, 3 of them (I forward them to other fans, and was gone Monday and Tuesday; I logged on last night, Wednesday night, checking news and email and your newsletters so didn't have time to read Twitter; and newsletter before this you were talking about his tweets with Kelly C on being friends forever, that's it. Also, not every fan has joined Twitter yet.
So what in the world is all the following about, and why didn't you explain it??? What about his "tweets last night" and "reaction…Wednesday night"???
re: Clay's tweets – they have been commented on in most of the fan boards. He twittered them in response to negative remarks about the Steadfast CD set list.
In my opinion, when we are told one thing, and a change of plan occurs, we have to adjust our expectations and get on with our lives. Discussing the change in a polite and non-judgemental manner is one thing, but criping, complaining and calling the person somehow involved with that decision dumb, etc., is extremely poor form and very disrespectful. Fans who portend to be mature adults should express themselves accordingly, i.e. as mature adults.