The Space Bewteen...6 more weeks of winter or just winter

Phil (Bill Murray): This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather. (Groundhog Day, 1993)

yes that's right friends...
today is Groundhog Day. every year on feb 2 a rotund rodent is plucked from his slumber, observed to see if shadow is cast, and then held aloft for thousands of shivering on lookers to applaud. if he "sees" his shadow, 6 more weeks of winter. if not, early spring. oh. my. god.
why? why can't American's (and Canadians for that matter, you don't get off the hook here either) let go of this ridiculous observance? or more accurately, why won't media let this gigantic waste of time and effort go away? Google, Fox, MSN - come on.
A side note: Thank you, former employer CNN for holding out some brief glimmer of hope. As of this writing I didn't see an annoying article on your site.

besides wondering at the relatively free schedule of the 13,000 people one story said were there to observe "Phil's forecast", i have to wonder why a picture caption including "sees shadow, in shock returns to hole" is AP worthy? of course he was in shock. groundhogs hibernate until march or april! that in itself should make this silly day go away.

for those of you prone to enjoy this seemingly ancient and antiquated frivolity, you would enjoy these crazy people. seems there is actually a group of distinguished looking (looking being the operative word here) people who have charmed the media into covering this monstrosity of a holiday.

my final thought on groundhog day is this:
Dear Fox and MSN: Please find something else to talk about on Feb 2, 2010. We need to move beyond Groundhog Day.
Dear Groundhog Club of Punxsutawney: I'm sorry. Being from a small town too, I can sympathize that this is important to you. But really...we as a society, should be over this. And I'm kinda thinkin Phil would agree...