. . . some kind of musical groundhog day, condemned to go around in circles . . .
Of late we have been seeing this expression more and more frequently but have come no closer to an understanding of its signification. According to the great
Oxford English Dictionary it signifies in northern America what we call the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary, or Candlemas, held as Members will be aware on the second of February, and one of the quarter-days in Scotland.
The ground-hog itself we gather is a northern American marmot, and it is wont to emerge from hibernation on that same day (although we very much doubt that it can be exactly on the second of February every year).
Thus far we think we comprehend, although we see no necessity for the use of the expression in educated European discourse. However we have seen it used in all kinds of contexts wherein - as in the one quoted above - it conveys to us
no meaning of any kind. Is there perhaps a Member able to enlighten us as to its true signification? Not that we intend ever to use it of course, but we do like to understand the varieties of English spoken by common people in the different parts of the world.
Here is another example - quite different from the first!
I have whole days when I scan the threads there in something akin to sorrow. It's a very strange environment now: abject serial spamming is ignored by the mods, and even without that much of it seems like Groundhog Day: not nice at all.
So it is something futile (those circles) and something unpleasant. We already have an ample sufficiency of words in English to convey each of those qualities. And Mr. Martle has
HERE been kind enough to provide an illustration of the beast, which looks much as we had imagined it, but we remain unenlightened. We hope it is nothing cruel.
