This is for all you groundhog paparazzi out there in cyberspaceland, you know who you are -- want to know what the 'hog is wearing this season? what his favourite cooler might be? what he's watching, reading, playing and listening to right now? Your wish has been granted!

"When the screen is dark, I am sleeping... zzzzzzzzzz. Come back in the morning Eastern Standard Time"
[ Wiarton Willie Live ]

Hey, I was just kidding with my comment about carving up the 'hog for the exports market, but it seems someone somewhere wasn't kidding: news this morning on the signing off on a $30,000 plan to turn our iconic sub-$10,000 festive mascot into a $300,000 celebrity packing big-money corporate endorsement deals, maybe even a fire-suit plastered with Rust-Ease stickers, who knows, the sky's the limit, right? And what the hey, we'll still retain our finder-agent's fee 15% of him! which is what, a flank-steak?

You've probably heard the news by now: Winter 2007 is officially on the way out as Willie III has spoken (squoke?) and we're in for an early spring. Just as well I didn't get the cross-country skiis out of the shed-attic ... again.

It was pretty iffy right to the last of it. The CFOS pundit poll was split, the CWF poll was even more neck and neck, and even the Weather Channel, AccuWeather and the Environment Canada reports couldn't really say one way or the other on the Shadow Question.

So ... now, for all the detractors and nay-sayers, I have a fun game for you: If you'd care to wager your buddies on this Spring thing (or any other matter of prognostic opinion), and help along your favourite charity at the same time, check out Steward 'Whole Earth' Brand's latest brain-child, LongBets.org

Will he, or won't he? Hinterland Who's Who wants to know and if you pop over to their website to cast your vote in the Shadow Poll, they will reward you with a view of that vintage Woodchuck tv spot we all knew from back in the days when televisions were deeper than they were wide. And as for the Canadian Wildlife Federation, how could any of us woodland creatures not like folks who think like this:

"By spreading knowledge of human impacts on the environment, sponsoring research, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, recommending legislative changes and co-operating with like-minded partners, CWF encourages a future in which Canadians can live in harmony with nature."
[ via Celebrate Groundhog Day with Hinterland Who's Who ]

Works for me.

Yeah. Get him while he's sleeping ...

A report today out of the CFOS newsroom, apropos since this exact topic came to the fore over at last night's SCC meeting, under the heading of why don't I ply my ideas on the community building magic of public pageantry in the annual Imbolc fest (aka Groundhog Day), and me 'splaining that, once upon a time it were not just me alone, but there were a great many local community-minded people who had precisely that same notion and goal for the annual fest, only it was sidelined, trumped, trounced and trampled, pushed aside by a great greed named Economic Development, and here in the headlines today, one more exemplary example of lost opportunities trickling out as one of the last Acts of our prior council:

South Bruce Peninsula Council have come to an agreement with Ram Trophies to market Wiarton Willie souvenirs ... Mayor Carl Noble says Economic Development Officer Donna Elliot went to town merchant's and helped reach a deal with Ram Trophies.

Noble hopes that Ram Trophies will set up a souvenir shop not just for Wiarton Willie weekend but for all year round. He says there will be royalties on all sales of the merchandise of 15 percent which will be put back into helping the Wiarton Willie festival.
[ via Just in time for Groundhog day ]

Now, what I'd rambled on about there at the SCC, it is already online in great depth on the true meaning and purpose of Groundhog Day, but worth a footnote here on this story is to recall those days of innocent yore of the Givens Era festival where folks at craft-fairs and Wake Willie slumber parties would whitewash peanuts and dab on googly-eyes and jump up into the game of What It's All About Willie, and it was beautiful. It was funny, fun, silly and it was ours.

It's official: At roughly 8am EST this morning, and on the occasion of his 50th prognostication, Wiarton Willie did not see his shadow and has predicted an early spring!

Easily the warmest Groundhog Day festivities in recent years, and while at the time it did seem a foregone conclusion, by the time we could get back to the car, the rising sun was peaking out from beneath the clouds! So it was a close call, all the more suspenseful considering our own Lieutenant Governor for Ontario was on hand to messenger a hog-roast threat on behalf of an unspecified First Nations group should Willie's shadow appear!

The imbolg/candlemas revelries will get underway starting Friday and run right through the weekend.

I was there, I heard it with my own ears, I even have the video to prove it clearly 4 days ahead of the game; maybe the media had moved on and they missed it, but that doesn't mean we can't gloat:

"... and for the Superbowl ... Willie predicts the Patriots"
[ relayed via Bill Walker, Spin Doctor ]

And did he deliver? You bet he did. Willie'd do the same for the Stanley Cup too ... if'n only we had one.

And why, you ask, did Willie pick the Patriots? Expert statistical analysis? Hot tip from an insider? Nope ...

" ... because Eagles eat Groundhogs"

I hope they made good money.

Is anyone else even just a bit concerned about that quarter-of-the-cage broadside advert for the pet-supplies sponsor? From my angle at stage-left it was impossible to get a good photo of the prediction conference as that banner-ad completely blotted out Mayor Carl's face -- I wonder now if maybe that's why in almost all the online press items about Willie they show a photo of Shubenacadie Sam, or worse, of Phil; our saving grace is in the name of a photo journalist angel by the name of Adrian Wyld who's sans banner shot of Willie and Carl has fortunately become the favourite among the Canadian Press subscribers

This fleeting moment is only a few seconds of world attention, and it's our few seconds. Why, how, and who's idea is it that a full quarter share of this magic moment should belong to a commercial interest?

Sometimes small communities need a little bit of a swift kick of a shaking up, and love her or hate her, absolutely everybody around here knows Francesca Dobbyn.

The whole world also knows what she could do with a three year post as the Tourism and Promotion Co-ordinator, a position she transformed out of her HRDC-sponsored work as Festival Co-ordinator for the February Groundhog Festival, and which has just been transformed again:

The creation of the Municipal position was a direct result of being able to prove the tourism value and the additional tourism work that came with the Wiarton Willie icon.

This position has been altered and the municipality has decided to focus on hiring and Economic Development Officer and to take the municipality in a different direction.

As it happens, this new direction doesn't include Francesca. So what are her plans? A bit of writing for the Osprey Cottage Times, a bit of editing and tourism copy, and, well, she's open to offers ...

[ Source: Francesca - Welcome ]
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