“Okay, campers, rise and shine. Don’t forget your booties because it’s cooooold out there today.”

If you recognize this quote, you are a fan of good movies, and you also know it’s Groundhog’s Day!  But, did you know, it’s also half-way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox?  This is how the idea of an early February celebration got started.  The pagan celebration of Imbolc became the Christian celebration Candlemas, and the Germans were the ones who added small woodland creatures seeing their shadow to the whole “40 more days of cold” part.  Then the Germans brought the tradition to Eastern Pennsylvania with them.  And, that’s (almost) how we got where we are today.

Picture it, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1887!  A local newspaper editor, obviously a most clever gent, convinced a group of local hunters (the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club) to pull off a publicity stunt!  The formality of today’s celebration, the top hats and all, wasn’t a part of the festivities that first year on Gobbler’s Knob, but it still worked to bring tourists and their dollars into an otherwise quiet little town. 

The 1993 movie quoted at the top of this blog is, of course, Groundhog Day, which bears repeated viewings more than once a year. 

Now, for those who’ve always wondered how accurate a bucktoothed hairy marmot can be, you are correct in being skeptical.   According to the National Climatic Data Center, poor Phil is only right about 50% of the time.  Perhaps his handlers, the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, need to bone up on their “Groundhogese” (the language in which they speak to Phil). 

One thing to be sure of, a good publicity stunt can last a lot longer than six-weeks!  Especially if not kept underground! 

Who says there’s not a holiday in between Christmas and Valentine’s Day? 

Girl Scouts have been selling cookies since about 1917 when a troop in Oklahoma baked them in their homes and sold them in schools as a service project.  The idea went national in 1922 with an authorized recipe and suggested selling price of 25 or 30 cents per dozen.  In 1933, the first boxes of Girl Scout Cookies were sold by a troop in Philadelphia, and in 1935 the first commercially baked cookies were sold in New York, and from there bakeries all across the country were licensed and the program grew into what we know it as, today.

The cookies, and the sale of them, have taken on a life of their own, beyond what I’m sure Juliette Gordon Low could have ever imagined.  In 1989, they were immortalized on film in a personally favorite movie: Troop Beverly Hills.  Other movies, such as 1958’s Tunnel of Love with Doris Day, and briefly in 1991’s version of The Addams Family have also referenced the infamous cookies and the girls who hawk them.

Sometimes those girls’ sales techniques go so far they become news themselves.  A few years ago, one enterprising young girl took advantage of recently changed laws in California and set up to clean up outside a dispensary.  Some are even becoming influencers on social media as they do their utmost to earn the rewards selling a certain number of cookies get them. 

The pandemic has forced a change in selling techniques, but having been around for more than 100 years, I’m sure the Girls and their cookies will adapt.  What is your favorite flavor?

Today, as I write this post, we are historically between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Inauguration Day.  We are between a day of peace and a day of transition.  It got me thinking about peaceful transition.

When George Washington decided to not campaign for another term as President, and our fledgling country held its first election, then had its first peaceful transition of power, it was not just a first for the United States, it was a first for the world.

Or was it?  Some historians say that truly the first peaceful transition of power was in 1800 when Thomas Jefferson was elected our third President.  John Adams and George Washington were of the same political party.  So, although the person in the Presidency changed the power didn’t. 

Adams did not attend Jefferson’s Inauguration.  Neither did Adams’ son when he lost the 1828 election to Andrew Jackson.  The last willful non-attendance was in 1869 when Andrew Johnson refused to show up to see Ulysses S. Grant become President.  Woodrow Wilson did not attend Harding’s Inauguration, but that was due to poor health. 

Everyone at PR/PR wishes for a peaceful transition of power, not only tomorrow, but in all elections for the future of our country.  This is what democracy is supposed to be.  One group wins an election and works with the other groups who didn’t win.  That way, when the other groups do win, they will work with the one that won last time. 

There’s the historical farewell saying of “Peace Out!”  Here’s to Peace In (our country, our families, our lives)! 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the First Amendment and what those rights are.  It’s important to go back to the basics, the actual words passed by Congress September 25, 1789 and ratified December 15, 1791, then look at how it’s been interpreted since.

Although the First Amendment says “Congress,” the Supreme Court has held that private individuals are protected against all government agencies. However, the First Amendment does not protect private individuals, from other private individuals or organizations, such as private employers, private colleges, or private landowners.

The title of this post comes from the famous 1919 SCOTUS decision and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr’s opinion.  Paraphrasing, Holmes said that the speech must be false and dangerous to not be protected.  Speech that is true and dangerous is protected.  A 1969 decision of the SCOTUS further defined the earlier ruling to limit the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action (e.g. a riot).

Interestingly, the word “crowded” was not a part of Holmes’ original wording of the decision.  It was added at some point along the way.  So it doesn’t matter if you’re talking to a mob or single person.  If what you say is wrong, unsafe, and could cause a riot, the First Amendment does not have your back.

We’ve all heard the story of the young wife cooking her first holiday meal for her family.  When she’s preparing the ham for the oven, she cuts both ends off.  When her husband asks her, “why?” she replies, “because that’s the way we’ve always done it!”

There’s been a lot of talk lately as to why the inauguration is 11 weeks after the election.  Unfortunately, to get the answer, you have to ask a ham – because that’s the way we’ve always done it.  Or, is it?

The Congress of the Confederation set the first inauguration for March, almost five months after the election.  Remember, this was the 1780’s and counting votes could take a while.  Then, once elected, it could take the newly elected representatives weeks to travel to New York to take office.  It made sense, back then.

By 1933 the powers that be decided that technology had advanced enough to move the inauguration closer, all the way up to January.  It still took a while to count votes, but at least they had airplanes to get to Washington D.C.

So, why is it the greatest country on earth still takes so long to inaugurate a new President?  Some say it’s to give the incoming party time to organize their cabinet and advisors.  Although, in England the new PM takes office the day following their election.

As our young wife finds out after asking her mother, then grandmother, then great-grandmother why they’ve always done it that way, it turns out the great-grandmother’s baking pan was too small so she had to cut the ends of the ham off.

By not keeping up with technology and eliminating a treacherous lame-duck session (look up the election of 1860) aren’t we cutting ourselves short?