La Nina: Brrr. It’s so cold. Nino, what do you say we go and buy a heater?
El Nino: Nope. It’s going to be hot again very soon. I am not wasting my money on a heater that I can only use for a few days.
La Nina: Trust me, it’s gonna be winter for at least another month.
El Nino: Come on, the weather forecast guy on TV says that the temperature is 17 to 20 degree today. It must be that the spring is approaching.
La Nina: He is wrong. I am positive that there will be at least six more weeks of winter.
El Nino: How do you know? Do you work at a Doppler radar station? Are you equipped with a barometer? I don’t see why you can be more right than Mr. Weather Man on TV.
La Nina: Because it is still freezing cold today, it’s nothing like 17 to 20 degree!! Plus, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on the Groundhog Day.
El Nino: Er… " Punch-me-on-the-knee Feel"? Groundhog and shadow? Huh? Hmm…do you mean that groundhogs have very sore knees? Or there is a shadow in the shape of a groundhog on your knee??
La Nina: What are you talking about? It’s not Punch-me-on-the-knee Feel. God. It is "Punxsutawney Phil". Punxsutawney (/ˌpʌnksəˈtɔni/) is a small town in Philadelphia and Phil is a groundhog that lives in the town.
El Nino: Neat, so it’s not about your knees. But why would a furry little woodchuck have anything to do with our heater?
La Nina: Punxsutawney Phil is the foremost weather predictor in the North America. He is called the “the prognosticator of prognosticators and the seer of seers.” Each year on Groundhog Day, which falls on February the 2nd, Phil predicts how long the winter would last.
El Nino: You mean people depend on a rodent to tell us about the climate change? Come on, it cannot even talk, let alone prophesying about the weather.
La Nina: It speaks goundhogese.
El Nino: Groundhoges… never mind. Tell me how “Phil” reports his forecast. Does he pull out a weather forecast chart or some satellite image?
La Nina: Well. On Groundhog Day, Phil would be hibernating. People waiting to hear his prognostication would wake him up in the morning, and bring him out from his burrow.
El Nino: (sarcastically) So that people can worship the seer of seers, the prognosticator of….
La Nina: Shut up. When Phil is outside, if he sees his shadow, he will retreat back to his burrow to hunker down for another six weeks of winter. But if he does not see his shadow, he will stay out, and that represents an early spring. This year, Phil presaged six more weeks of winter.
El Nino: Are you seriously trying to convince me to buy a heater with folklore like that?
La Nina: Hey, it’s a time honored tradition, and Phil is really cute. They say that he is more than one hundred years old, staying young with the help of some magic elixir.
El Nino: Nina, the more you talk about that groundhog the less I am inclined to buy any heating devices. You better shut up and show me some satellite pictures.
La Nina: Fine, you go on being cheap. I am going to put away all your mittens, muk luks, and sweaters. Freeze for another six weeks, you stingy!
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