While that east-coast groundhog named Phil gets all the attention, we do things a little different on the west coast. It turns out, HEDGEHOGS were the original weather-men (er . . . weather-animals) in old Europe. However, somewhere along the way, Groundhogs muscled their way into the spotlight (perhaps they had better management or a slicker-marketing campaign). Some speculate it’s because Hedgehogs are not native species to the Americas and aren’t that interested in traveling due to chronic sea and air sickness.
In any event, Chriki the Hedgehog (of the African pygmy variety) tested the environment this week and declared six-more weeks of winter (moments later, every local news affiliate in town was on-site at the top of Sylvan Hill reporting on “Unending Winter 2009″).
