Groundhog Day falls on February 2. We all know what that means so let’s not rehash it. And if there is someone who doesn’t know what happens on Groundhog Day, that person should rent the movie Groundhog Day.
Virginia used to have an official groundhog. It killed itself on Groundhog Day, 1954. It’s a fact! The rodent died while trying to escape its cage.
It’s also a fact that there are lots of tasty groundhog recipes. There are woodchuck recipes here, but a woodchuck is a groundhog, and vice versa. Groundhog – woodchuck – same critter. Sometimes the animal is called a chuck. And what are baby chucks called? Chucklings, of course. It makes sense; baby ducks are, after all, called ducklings.
In 1942 (during World War 2), reports of what the groundhog did or did not see were not allowed to be published because long-range weather forecasting was forbidden by military censors. But one wonders: couldn’t the enemy just get their own groundhog and observe it? Can all groundhogs predict weather, or do we have to use a particular groundhog?
In 2009, former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin signed a bill making February 2 Marmot Day in that state. All groundhogs are marmots, but not all marmots are groundhogs.
In case you were wondering – and even if you weren’t – the name woodchuck has nothing to do with wood or chucking. The name stems from an Algonquin name for the animal: wuchak.
“Hey, what do you call that animal?”
“Wuchak.”
“What did he say?”
“Sounded like woodchuck.”
“Got it. Woodchuck it is.”
And speaking of woodchucks, how could I end this post without mentioning the children’s famous groundhog/woodchuck tongue-twister?
“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”“A woodchuck would chuck as much as a woodchuck could chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
The question cannot be answered because it is a tautology. But if it could be answered – which it can’t – the answer would be 700 pounds.
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