happy groundhog day!

my instinct on this day is always to dive into an excoriating rant about the soul-crushing evil that is the talent vacuum known as andie macdowell, but the sun is shining and my cup of coffee is exactly the way i wanted it to be, and if this winter's temperatures are going to hover around 50º F like they've been doing then i don't care if it goes on forever (i'm no less troubled by the unseasonable warmth than i was a few weeks ago, but if the weather were the same all year long i'd feel that things were balancing out), so instead i've chosen to paste together a collage in tribute to our nation's most fleetingly beloved rodent, the groundhog.

this adorable picture came from spaceship no future, a strange and glorious collection of sociopolitical commentary, qualities that have no name, and cats. clearly the groundhog could conquer domo, if it were not such a gentle creature who disdained the notion of brutish bullying as a status ensurer. and it is that sort of creature, no matter what demian katz tries to tell you. they're also quite clever and enjoy a rousing carol. all of this may make you wonder how poor punxsutawney phil wound up in the sorry, bloated state that he's in; i think the sad truth is that phil was forced to take one for the team, so the rest of the marmots could carry on with their nimh-style scheming and build a better world for the groundhogs of the future. they'll never forget his courageous sacrifice, and for the people of punxsutawney, they have one message: