To The Groundhog

Happy Groundhog Day.

In honor of the occasion, TigerBlog would like to quote himself:

TigerBlog understands that not every movie made is trying to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In that vein, he's never understood the complete disdain so many people have for the movie "Groundhog Day."

TB saw it in the movies when it came out in 1993, and he's seen it about a thousand times since. It's a perfectly harmless, funny, at times charming, certainly inoffensive movie, and yet there are so many people who flat out hate it.

As an aside, TigerBlog was always confused as a kid by Groundhog Day, as six weeks after Feb. 2 takes you to March 16 (or March 15 in a leap year), which is still winter. He never quite understood the whole "six more weeks of winter" thing. Shouldn't it be more like 10 more weeks of winter if the point is that figuratively speaking spring will be late to arrive?

TB was crushed to learn the whole thing is a sham, at least according to a story he read:The ceremony is largely that: Phil's prediction is determined ahead of time by the Inner Circle, a group who dons top hats and tuxedos and decides in advance what the groundhog will predict.

Still, what could be better than Groundhog Day, a small-town tradition that has such a great little Americana feel to it. Something wholesome, something that hasn't been ruined by commercialism or lack of civility or any of the other ills of contemporary society.

As Phil Connors said: This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.

Before the movie came out, Groundhog Day was all about anticipating spring. Since then, it's become a reference to something that happens over and over and over - you know, like the way Phil kept living the same day over and over. Maybe that's the biggest tribute to the movie, the way it changed an entire meaning of something.

Every year on this day, that whole "six more weeks of winter" vs. "an early spring" really annoys him. 

Anyway, there's the matter of the weekend in Princeton Athletics. 

As TB wrote yesterday, it's a busy day on the Princeton campus today. If you time it right, you can see all or some of:

* women's tennis in Jadwin against Temple at 1
* H-Y-P men's and women's swimming preliminaries at 2
* men's volleyball against Pepperdine at 4 in Dillon
* swimming finals at 6
* women's basketball against Yale at 7
* men's hockey against Dartmouth at 7

Yes, you'd have to hustle to get to at least a part of all of those, but it's certainly doable. 

The men's hockey team will be looking to build on the momentum of a 4-3 overtime win over Army Tuesday night, when Adam Robbins scored the game-winner with 22 seconds to go in the extra period. This came after Army had tied the game with six seconds to go in regulation.

The ECAC standings are still very crowded, with only eight points that separate fourth place (and a first-round bye in the playoffs) and 12th-place RPI. Only five points separate 12th from 8th, and first-round home ice in the playoffs.

As for the women's basketball team, the Tigers are now ranked 25th in both major polls and are unbeaten in the Ivy League at 5-0, with Brown, Harvard and Columbia all at 4-1. Princeton has already beaten Harvard and Columbia, and Brown will come to Jadwin tomorrow at 5.

The men will be at Yale tonight (7) and at Brown tomorrow (6). Coming off its loss last weekend at 4-0 Cornell, the Tigers are taking on the other unbeaten team tonight in the Bulldogs' gym. Cornell takes to the road, taking on a Dartmouth team who took down Brown last week and then Harvard Saturday. 

Princeton is 3-1 in the league. Other than the Tigers and two unbeatens, all five of the other teams check in at 1-3. This will make for a wild ride for the four spots in the Ivy tournament.

For the entire weekend schedule, click HERE.

And Happy Groundhog Day. 

Hopefully there are only six more weeks of winter.