The Chris Moeller Archives

Did he just call himself "the talent?"

It's been a banner week for this blog. I'm just busting my buttons. Last week, we called for the firing of FCC chairman Michael Powell, and thanks to your cards and letters, he resigned just 36 hours later. Thursday night, we predicted the Cubs would trade Sammy Sosa based on cryptic comments from his agent, despite the fact that no news sources had indicated that a deal was imminent. And then on Sunday, film critic Roger Ebert posted a review of "Groundhog Day" under his "Great Movies" heading. He wrote that he "certainly... underrated it in (his) original review." His 'retraction' appeared less than two weeks after the film was posted as part of the Chris Moeller Top 50 Films list.

The Groundhog celebration is upon us again, and Monday, Bill Cooper, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, was interviewed on our radio show, "Drive-Time Des Moines." Cooper has what he calls "the task of interpreting" what Punxsutawney Phil has to say after he emerges from his little groundhog house. Cooper was portrayed by Brian Doyle-Murray in the movie. If I'm not mistaken, he even looks quite a bit like Doyle-Murray. I made a point of looking for him last year, or the year before, on the news video of the event.
Cooper told us that the film crew spent a week in Punxsutawney in 1991 observing the town celebration. Cooper and other community leaders told them they could have free reign over the proceedings as long as-- in the end-- the town didn't come off looking "too dumb or too stupid."
The only major change director Harold Ramis made, he said, was to move the location of the ceremony into the town. In reality, it takes place outside of Punxsutawney on a large hill, the actual Gobbler's Knob. (Of course, it's doubtful that Bill Murray's character would have run into his old high school classmate, Ned Ryerson, if he had traveled by car from his hotel to the ceremony.)
Cooper says there will be 6,000 to 8,000 people at the ceremony on Wednesday for the 119th edition of Groundhog's Day. That's a low figure, he says, because it's on a Wednesday, the worst day of the week for tourism. Like any good funeral, he added, weather will make the biggest difference.
The one bizarre claim he made is that there has been only one Punxsutawney Phil throughout the festival's history. Evidently, the rodent consumes some kind of "groundhog juice" that adds seven years to his life with every sip. Phil has survived 118 weather prognostications and a car trip over a steep cliff on Bill Murray's lap.

posted by CM @ 6:59 PM