{"id":163764,"date":"2019-02-02T08:15:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-02T14:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=163764"},"modified":"2019-02-04T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T21:17:34","slug":"early-spring-so-says-groundhog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=163764","title":{"rendered":"Early Spring?  So says Punxsutawney Phil"},"content":{"rendered":"<ol>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-137790\" src=\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/PunxatonyPhilGroundHog-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/PunxatonyPhilGroundHog-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/PunxatonyPhilGroundHog-260x175.jpg 260w, https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/PunxatonyPhilGroundHog.jpg 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>(AP) It may be hard to believe as a large swath of the U.S. thaws out from a bitter polar vortex, but spring is coming early, according to handlers for some of the country&#8217;s most famous prognosticating groundhogs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Just before 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Punxsutawney (puhnk-suh-TAW&#8217;-nee) Phil emerged from his burrow in Pennsylvania at sunrise and didn&#8217;t see his shadow. Nearly the same series of events unfolded about 300 miles (483 kilometers) to the east, where Staten Island Chuck&#8217;s handlers also revealed the same prediction.<\/p>\n<p>The festivities have their origin in a German legend that says if a furry rodent casts a shadow on Feb. 2, winter continues. If not, spring comes early.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, Phil&#8217;s prediction is decided ahead of time by the group on Gobbler&#8217;s Knob, a tiny hill just outside Punxsutawney. That&#8217;s about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped attending Staten Island&#8217;s Groundhog Day ceremony in 2015, a year after he accidentally dropped the furry critter that died a week later.<\/p>\n<p>And he wasn&#8217;t the only New York City mayor who struggled with the holiday. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was bitten at a Groundhog Day ceremony in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(AP) It may be hard to believe as a large swath of the U.S. thaws out from a bitter polar vortex, but spring is coming early, according to handlers for some of the country&#8217;s most famous prognosticating groundhogs. Just before 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Punxsutawney (puhnk-suh-TAW&#8217;-nee) Phil emerged from his burrow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163764"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163928,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163764\/revisions\/163928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}