"I Got You, Babe"

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, one of those “holidays” that gets a special red square on the calendar but isn’t celebrated much—at least, outside of Puxatawny, PA, where it’s a nice boost for the local economy. Still, it comes at a time when people who live in wintry states are ready to grasp at any flimsy straw that has the word “spring” somehow attached to it.

Of course, here in Michigan, an “early spring” would mean no snow on the ground when Easter arrives in mid-April. We would do cartwheels of joy if the groundhog could promise us spring in only six more weeks. By that point we would eagerly trade a few hundred gallons of our Great Lakes just to see a daffodil poking up through the snow. And this winter has seemed particularly long and harsh, starting before Thanksgiving and keeping us firmly in its icy grip ever since.

But the best thing about Groundhog Day for me is the excuse to watch the movie. You know the one—it stars Bill Murray as a weatherman trapped inside a time loop, waking up to Sonny and Cher on the radio day after day. Although I’m generally neutral on the subject of Bill Murray movies (I think Scrooged is the only other one I would make it a point to watch), I find him completely sympathetic and charming in this movie. The screenplay is very clever, with its repetition of phrases and scenes that are just different enough from each other to make them seem fresh all the way through. There's a lot of comedy but some poignancy, too, as Murray's character struggles to escape his time prison, sinking into depression until he finally hits bottom (literally!). Watching him evolve from shallow, selfish dude to sincere, sensitive guy-who-gets-the-girl is a real February treat.

So here’s what I recommend for what is bound to be a cold, dark, snowy night on Feb. 2: slip into your flannel PJs, heat up some hot chocolate with marshmallows (use real milk and chocolate, not that powdery instant stuff), and curl up to watch Groundhog Day. It will warm your heart to see that even a curmudgeonly weatherman can find true love. It will give you hope that one day, spring will come. It will be a movie you can watch (here comes the inevitable Groundhog Day joke…ready?) over and over and over again…