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.