Brian Lairn on WNYC and for our last 15 minutes today.

Okay, 14 minutes.

We're going to open the phones on the question,

how do you beat the midwinter blues?

And we're going to talk to a journalist who actually wrote about this topic. Maybe there are some annual traditions that you follow this

time of year, you know, or in deepest darkest February here. And are there ways in the middle

of winter that you are able to, I don't know, gather with friends and family and participate

in some kind of group activity or something like that, or is it something you do on your own to beat

the midwinter blues if you get them? 212-433 WNYC, 212, 433-9-6-9-2. And the context, of course, is that yesterday morning,

Americans celebrated, if that's the right word, Groundhog Day, waiting for some celebrity

animals to decide whether we will experience another six weeks of freezing winter or spring

would arrive early. And the results, if you haven't heard, were mixed. Punks of Tony Phil, maybe the

most famous ground hog, predicted another grueling six weeks of winter to a crowd of booze.

There's a shadow up here.

Get ready for six more weeks of winter this year.

That was Vice President Dan McGinley of a Groundhog stay organization somewhere in Pennsylvania.

However, hometown hero Staten Island Chuck said spring would come early,

for what it's worth, Chuck has an 85% accuracy rate, the most accurate of all groundhogs,

according to federal statistics. Phil ranks second to last, that is, the Pennsylvania

Puncta Tony Phil, ranked second to last out of 18 ground Pennsylvania Punks of Tony Phil,

ranked second to last out of 18 groundhogs

who make their local media to predict how quick

...