Fact of the Day - February 2, 2010

100202, originally uploaded by AaronBSam.

You can thank former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for this little tidbit!

The 26th Alaska State Legislature officially passed Senate Bill 58 on April 18, 2009, making Marmot Day a new holiday to occur on February 2, replacing Groundhog Day.

To be fair, there are no groundhogs in Alaska.

Then again, Groundhog Day was just a way to replace Candlemas Day and create a new gimmick about seeing shadows to state the same Candlemas superstition that:

"If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again"

A backup fact for today was going to be something about the famous Punxsutawney Phil's predictions are deemed to have been 37-40% accurate according to National Climatic Data Center. Punxsutawney Phil's handlers, of course, claim that his predictions have been 100% accurate. But then again, these are the same people that claim that every summer, Phil is fed a sip of the mysterious Groundhog Punch, which magically lengthens his life for seven years.

Seriously...