Chekhov's Mistress

The Catapulting Career of Phil the Seer

by Bud Parr


For Groundhog Day, I reprint this interview I conducted with Phil a few years ago.


Phil, officially known as “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary” is having a great year at the head of a family empire that he largely created. In the last two months alone he’s been named one of the world’s most influential groundhogs and for the first time, made the Forbes list of 400 Richest Mammals in America.


INTERVIEWER


Phil, do you mind telling our readers how you rose to such heights?


PHIL


Thanks, I think you know that I come from a long line of prognosticators. My grandfather’s grandfather was a great sage and the first here in Punxsutawney back in 1886. Traditionally, we were mainly weather prophets, but that all changed when I took over the family business. Of course, when I was coming up, I was like any other young fella, taking long hibernations and chasing cute marmots with the rest of my time. But just out of high school, my best friend Dean was hit and killed by a car over on route 43. That event really changed my life, and I grew up pretty quickly. From then on, I really buried myself in my prognostication training. By the time I took over from my father, I was quite good and studying far more than weather patterns. I didn’t take long to attract attention either; I was nailing the start of spring every single year. At the time, most people thought that we groundhogs just popped out once a year to check our shadow, and indeed it was once that way, but I’m a real data junkie, so when I make a call, I’m not just whistlin’ Dixie. So, to make a long story short, some fellas from Wall Street took notice of my talents and before I knew it, I was sitting here in my den with a Bloomberg terminal, running my own mutual fund. It wasn’t long before I published my first book, “The Groundhog’s Guide to Beating the Street,” which led to the TV appearances and all that. Of course, I’m most proud of my long running service as a Kitchen Cabinet Advisor for several presidents.


INTERVIEWER


How was that? Where there any particular Presidents you enjoyed working with?


PHIL


Well, I don’t really know how to answer that question. The first President I met was Ron Reagan. He was a pretty affable chap, eh, eh, and Jimmy Carter is, of course, a great friend of the woodchuck community, but Bill & Hillary used to throw some damn good dinner parties up at the Vineyard.


INTERVIEWER


Let’s move on and talk about your home a bit. It’s really beautiful. Can you tell us about that?


PHIL


Thanks, yes, well, we decided to stay here in Punxsutawney to remain close to our heritage. Philomena loves it here, and the kids like the schools, so we’re quite comfortable. But we do keep a little den in New York City. Philomena loves the theater.


INTERVIEWER


Do you enjoy the theater as well?


PHIL


Sure, but I like the serious stuff. I particularly enjoyed Long Days Journey into Night, you don’t have to be a hibernator to appreciate that one, and we recently saw Death of a Salesman. Now that was powerful! I cried my eyes out at the end.  But the Misses loves her musicals. She’s constantly dancing around the house to the music from Rent and we must have seen Cats a dozen times. Frankly, I’m pleased that one finally closed.


INTERVIEWER


Back to the house.


PHIL


Right, well, as I was saying, since we decided to stay here, we really went whole-hog, eh, eh, so to speak, on building a place that we could call home. We bought this lot because it was within walking distance to Gobbler’s Knob, and completely re-dug. Naturally, I put my office here too – I love not having to commute. And, as you probably can tell, we kept a lot of the original paneling and furniture from my great great grandfather’s home. It’s quite beautiful stuff, and Philomena and I treasure the idea of keeping it all in the family and handing this place down to Young Phil, our oldest son.


INTERVIEWER


It seems as though you’ve done it all. What are your plans for the future?


PHIL


Heck, I still spend a great deal of time with the business, but I’m grooming Phil to take over. I’m quite proud of that boy! Anyway, I’m not even close to slowing down, even though I don’t get the sleep that I used to. I do have my nose in a few projects. You’re probably aware that I did a film with Bill Murray, advised him anyway. He and I go back to the late ‘70s. I have a distant cousin, Chuck, a gopher actually, who was in Caddyshack. That movie still gets me going, eh, eh. Anyway, as it happens, they shot it down in Boca while we there with the family, so I went to visit Chuck, and he introduced me to Bill there on the set. We’ve been friends ever since. I wouldn’t mind working with Bill again, and I even have a few script ideas. Bill, are you listening out there, eh, eh.


I’ve also been pretty close friends with Oprah since I appeared on her show back in ’95. She’s something, isn’t she. She did wonders for that, other, Phil, and there are, lets just say, possibilities for me in that arena.


INTERVIEWER


No specifics for us though?


PHIL


Sorry, but I gotta tell you, I am one happy groundhog, and if I never did one thing again, I would remain quite content knowing that I’ve done well by my father’s legacy and I’ve raised a happy loving, family. That’s why I do what I do.

posted February 01, 2005

comments

No Comments
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

This site employs rank-denial and other anti-spam measures.
Your link here will do nothing for your rankings or traffic. Off-topic comments will be deleted.




Next entry: Why Does Everyone Care Who John Galt is?
Previous entry: Marginalia: Heather McHugh, Emerson String Quartet, Russell Banks

« Back to main

About this Post




Barack Obama Logo