But, as you already know, that's how it goes. At first, this year everything was as usual: Phil was asked to wake up, forced to come out of his hole, and then he predicted an early spring for Americans. And he disappointed their expectations. Spring in some American states (including Ohio, but more on that later) was delayed. The snow not only didn't melt, but continued to fall from the sky. The temperature rarely rose even to zero degrees Celsius. In short, no spring was in sight. Everyone was fed up with it. Some were indescribably fed up.
In particular, the prolonged winter got to Michael Gmozer, a powerful resident of Ohio. As a district attorney, tormented by the cold, Gmozer signed a death sentence for the groundhog Phil in the second half of March. For the animal's failure to perform its annual function and making an incorrect prediction about the arrival of spring. In the document signed by Gmozer, the rodent is accused of distorting information about the change of seasons, misleading the state's residents, and disturbing the peace in Ohio.
As Gmozer said, he decided to sign the sentence on the groundhog when he woke up and looked out the window. "The wind was blowing, snow was swirling, the temperature was dropping before my eyes. And then I thought: 'Phil, you let us down,'" the prosecutor said.
But, as it turned out, Phil had ruined life not only for residents of Ohio. On March 21, the police of Montgomery County, Maryland, put the groundhog meteorologist on the wanted list, posting a corresponding notice on their Twitter. "Wanted for fraud," the law enforcement message to vigilant citizens said. By the 25th, the search for Phil had yielded no results, and the police, just in case, disseminated additional information about the suspect: "He may be hiding in a hole."
However, the arm of justice never reached the rodent who made a blunder with the weather forecast on Groundhog Day (Phil did not see his shadow when coming out of the hole, which, according to a tradition over a century old, means that spring will be early; if the animal had seen its shadow and, frightened, darted back into its house, that would have predicted another six weeks of winter).
First, one of Phil's mentors, John Griffiths, a member of the so-called Inner Circle – a closed club, a society of men in suits that is responsible for celebrating Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney and looking after the animal – intervened. Commenting on the sentence handed down by Gmozer, Griffiths asked the prosecutor to thoroughly examine the facts, compare them, and only then act rashly, or whatever groundhogs have instead of that.
The member of the Inner Circle reminded the lawyer from Ohio that shortly after Phil's forecast, spring-like weather set in over several states, the sun came out and it was warm. Yes, then the weather turned bad, but the groundhog is supposedly not to blame. "Perhaps a dark cloud of bad weather just hung over Ohio," Griffiths suggested.
After this speech by the club representative, Phil's fans had hope that everything would work out and the stern Gmozer would withdraw his sentence. But that was not the case: the prosecutor said he would be ready to drop the charges against the animal only if by April 15 the temperature in Ohio reached at least 25 degrees Celsius.
And then the president of the groundhog club, Bill Deeley, came to Phil's aid. Worried about the fate of his charge, he contacted prosecutor Gmozer and gave a confession. Deeley took responsibility for the prolonged winter upon himself. In a conversation with the Ohio prosecutor, the president stated that he was the guilty party because he failed to understand Phil, who whispered the prediction into his ear.
The thing is, during the annual ritual on Groundhog Day, the chairman of the Inner Circle must take Phil in his arms, bring his snout to his ear, and listen to what the groundhog "says." Phil "speaks" – his life has been sustained for 123 years by a special elixir invented in the club – in his own language, of course. Only someone holding a special cane can understand him, and that person is the club's leader. Without the cane, he is unable to listen to the groundhog.
In short, Deeley stated that this year on February 2 he misunderstood Phil's message, meaning that he deceived Americans by telling them the groundhog had predicted an early spring. Moreover, the chairman of the Inner Circle admitted that he had also messed up the interpretation of Phil's "words" in 2012. Now, after the scandal surrounding the groundhog's death sentence, both Deeley and his charge will be more careful.
In response, Michael Gmozer graciously agreed to drop the charges against Phil and revoke the death sentence. He told reporters that he did so when he realized that the groundhog had such a courageous and reliable defender. "I'm always glad when there are people willing to admit their guilt in a particular case," said the prosecutor, who had called Phil not only a terrible criminal and a shameless fraudster, but also a fluffy cutie.
Gmozer admitted that he was surprised by the fuss around the whole story of the execution. Now that the sentence was overturned, he asked journalists to switch to some other hot topic, while he intended to return to his regular work. "I think I've had enough of these animal cases. Maybe other prosecutors will have time to take on, say, the Easter Bunny," Gmozer joked (once again).
As for Phil, he seems to be the only one who remained indifferent to the case of his own execution. According to Bill Deeley, the animal feels great and spends a lot of time resting in his house. "No, he didn't look worried at all. As before, he has three hearty meals a day and then sleeps," described the head of the Inner Circle about a typical groundhog day.
Lena AVERYANOVA,
Lenta.ru