Bright & Early: Groundhog Day Edition

Good morning, Nashville. Looks like we’re in for six more weeks of winter (though you wouldn’t know it if you went outside yesterday) according to Punxsutawney Phil who saw his shadow this morning. We’d like to take a moment to pause and observe the above photograph of poor Punxsutawney Phil that accompanied the Tennessean’s Ground Hog Day article this morning. We came dangerously close to having a case of the Mondays until we realized that no matter how much we hate today, Punxsutawney Phil is probably up in Pennsylvania hating it more.

• It just gets better and better. Nothing seems to be going right for Metro Schools these days. This time around, they’ve discovered that someone botched the school calendar and accidentally didn’t schedule enough days in the school year to comply with federal regulations. No more snow days for you, kids! New director Jesse Register will be holding a series of community meetings to talk about what can be done to set things straight.
• New and improved downtown Y. After months (years?) of remodeling, the downtown YMCA opened its doors to reveal a host of improvements including a new cafe, an elevated track, and a “cardio-cinema” room (we don’t know what that is, but we want one!) that has four times as much space as the old one.
• Bits & pieces. Kroger is now recalling a few possibly-salmonella-tainted baked goods that don’t even contain peanut butter … A 5-year old found her uncle’s stash of Oxycontin pills hidden in her pants pockets … Dolly is playing at the Wildhorse Saloon tonight and we wish it wasn’t 45 bucks!

Photo by Carolyn Kaster / AP.