LEOMINSTER — With a brain that’s about the size of a cashew, relying on a groundhog to predict the duration of winter is, at best, a 50/50 proposition.
So if a groundhog can “predict” the weather for the next six weeks based on whether or not it sees its shadow on Groundhog Day, why couldn’t a pink, plastic, lifeless flamingo have the same luck?
That’s what Mayor Dean Mazzarella thought, and on Tuesday, he started a new annual tradition using one of the city’s most famous plastic creations — Don Featherstone’s world-famous pink flamingo.
“Everyone makes such a big deal about that rat that just comes out of the ground,” Mazzarella said about Punxsutawney Phil’s annual winter prediction that has become something of a national event each February and was immortalized in the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day.”
“He’s got all these lights around him, he doesn’t even know where he is. And he’s not even right. He’s only right 40 percent of the time,” Mazzarella said.
On Tuesday morning, a small crowd gathered on Monument Square anxiously waiting to see if “Featherstone” created a shadow, but in reverse of the Punxsutawney Phil’s tradition — if there was a shadow, we can expect an early spring.
“It only makes sense that if you see your shadow, that it’s a good thing,” Mazzarella said. :The sun is strong and powerful and warming.”
With clear, sunny skies Tuesday morning, “Featherstone” predicted that spring is just around the corner.
Coincidentally, Punxsutawney Phil also predicted an early spring after not seeing his shadow Tuesday morning.
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