he's already in there

-

”When you find yourself needing the phrase This is like ‘Groundhog Day’ to explain how you feel, a movie has accomplished something.” So says Roger Ebert in his revisited review of Groundhog Day.

Australian CPA, March 2004, provides this definition for the use of the phrase “Groundhog Day”:

Ever feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again with little profit or gain? If that’s the case you are having a Groundhog moment/day/week/life. So coined after the 1993 film starring Bill Murray as the obnoxious weatherman destined to relive the same day over and over and over—until he smartens up and plays right. A saluatory [sic] lesson to us all. (p. 13)

And, “Groundhog Day” has been applied to a lot of different things.

For example (and this list is far from exhaustive) it has been applied…

to an amnesty bill in Thailand, The Economist, 9 November 2013.

to long-term, unsuccessful mental health therapy, Psychotherapy Networker, May/Jun 2013), and to a specific type of therapy, Journal of Family Therapy, 2007.

to our inability to stop human trafficking, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, September 2012.

to new rules for mortgage disclosures, Mortgage Banking, September 2011.

to red tape out of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Farmers Weekly July 2013.

to the cotton market, Southeast Farm Press, 18 March 2009.

to customer service complaints, Computer Weekly News, 31 October 2013.

to the war in Afghanistan (as on display in two documentary films, Restrepo and Armadillo), Foreign Affairs, September/October 2011.

to avoiding global warming, Financial Times, 27 November 2007, and changing climate policy, Public Policy Research, December 2008-February 2009..

to the economy, Real Estate Taxation, Fourth Quarter 2009.

to labor management in the paper industry, Pulp & Paper, February 2005.

to selling cars, Motor Age, November 2011. (which included this great drawing)

to “managing critical information” in banking, Bank Systems & Technology, June 2005.

to the healthcare debate, Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 2009.

to Japanese reluctance to raise taxes, Far Eastern Economic Review, 12 February 1998.

to the real estate business, Forbes, 24 March 2008, and Real Estate Forum, February/March 2013.

to debate about a pay raise for nurses, Nursing Standard, 23 May 2007.

to teaching, Negotiation Journal, January 1998.

to microorganisms learning, Nature, 9 July 2009.

to biopharmaceutical research, Journal of Biopharmaceutical Statistics, 2002.

to the streamlined sales tax, ELA, May 2006.

to off-year elections in Washington, Upside, November 1998.

to the “liberal tradition” in politics, The Good Society, 2007.

to politics in general, The Washington Monthly, October 2007.

to Major League Baseball playoffs and audit inspection reports, Accounting Today, 7-27 November 2005.

and to modern life generally, The Groundhog Day Project, quite often.

Oddly, I didn’t see an article applying “Groundhog Day” to selling insurance. Probably some special Ryerson Rule excludes it.

Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to catalog every reference to Groundhog Day ever published or made in public.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

la fille que j'aimera sera comme bon vin

-
Image
Phil Connors doesn’t speak French. While it might be reasonable to assume Phil does learn to play piano beyond the two songs we hear him play since this is at the point he is actually trying to better himself and affect the world around him in a positive way, the French bit is much earlier. It also comes from a bit in Rubin’s original screenplay, not with Rita but with “Tess Harper—Jefferson County Poetry Society.” Basically, it’s a clear example of Phil doing the same thing he does with Nancy in the movie; he makes stuff up to get what he wants. This is only Day 10 . He hasn’t gotten to the depression that arguably makes him realize he’s an actual human being like everyone else around him… I just realized, this also means he’s probably lying when he says, “Small town people are more real, more down-to-earth.” Later, he might actually believe it. But, at this point, each line is just a move to win over Rita. Anyway, in the original screenplay, Phil meets Tess like he meets Mary in ...
Read more

i've seen it over a hundred times

-
Image
As I write this, it’s Day 2 for Phil Connors on the DVD and my daughters are in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate Day 100 for me... photo should be below. The movie Phil had seen over 100 times (or so he tells Laraine) was Heidi II . It’s a “family classic” according to the Alpine Theater’s marquee. But, as I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t exist. Originally, the movie that Phil could see every day if he wanted to do so was It’s a Wonderful Life . Danny Rubin’s ego—and this is his suggestion, not mine—made him believe Groundhog Day “a timeless quality and had the potential to become a film that could work for audiences for a very long time.” So, he put another such film on the marquee. But, “even believing that Groundhog Day was a potential classic, [Rubin] never was thinking of comparing it to It’s a Wonderful Life “— (I’d say putting that title on the marquee was Rubin deliberately comparing the two, but maybe that’s just me.) . Rubin continues: “But the similarities bet...
Read more

the wretch, concentred all in self

-
So, Rita thinks Phil’s defining characteristic is his egocentrism. At the point in the story that she quotes Sir Walter Scott, it’s Day 4 for Phil (See the previous entry for a list of Phil’s days) and I wouldn’t argue that he isn’t egocentric. He’s still a jerk, taking advantage of his situation for fun. He’s manipulated Nancy for sex, has gone out on his costumed date to see Heidi II with the woman in the French maid costume. He’s just figured out the whole lack-of-consequences side of things with the help of Ralph and Gus. And, he’s sitting around loading up on, well, probably every dessert the Tip Top Café offers. His focus at this point is very much himself. But, a closer look at the lines Rita quotes got me to thinking, is Phil the man unsung by minstrels because he’s too self-centered? What Rita quotes is some lines from Canto VI of Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.” The larger poem involves some clans at war with one another, but this particular section invol...
Read more