Groundhog Day All Over Again

Feb. 2, 2011 -- Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in the world, did not see his shadow this morning. Ditto for New York's Staten Island Chuck.

Normally, this would forecast an early spring. But the rest of the country is probably feeling a bit more like Sun Prairie's groundhog Jimmy, who didn't come out at all -- his ceremony was canceled because of inclement Wisconsin weather.

Whatever the groundhogs may have proclaimed this morning, one thing is certain: expect more snow. Entire swaths of the country are stuck in a numbingly recursive wintry loop as this Groundhog Day of a season shows no sign of abating.

In the movie "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray plays a weatherman doomed to relive the same Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, Pa., over and over again, until he achieves some sort of spiritual breakthrough.

But increasingly, it seems like perpetual deja vu for the rest of us in real life: we're waking up to another snowy morning, the GOP has control of the House, the Steelers and the Packers are in the Super Bowl and Charlie Sheen is back in rehab. At least in the last instance, spiritual awakening does not seem imminent.

Here, then, is a rundown of all the ways in which this February has us feeling like Bill Murray, stuck in our own private Groundhog Day.

Snow My Gosh. Snomageddon, Snowzilla, Snowpocalypse, Snowtorious B.I.G. … we're all running out of clever things to call the latest monster blizzard. And frankly we're a bit too snowed under even to try that hard any more. And yet, here we go again. A headline on weather.com this week said, "New Month, Same Results: Major Winter Storm on Tap." In other words: deja vu, all snover again.

Charlie Sheen in Rehab. It's well-nigh impossible to remember a news cycle that didn't include tales of Sheen's shenanigans. The film and television star has been tabloid fodder since as far back as 1990, when he accidentally shot his then-fiancee, Kelly Preston, in the arm. (She broke off the relationship.)

Since then, he has been seen carousing with porn stars -- including a long-term relationship with Ginger Lynn in the 1990s -- and was reportedly fingered as one of "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss's clients. He's been married three times, fathered five children, overdosed on cocaine and been charged with domestic violence.

And, most recently, just last week the "Two and a Half Men" star took a hiatus from the show to enter rehab for at least the third time after suffering from "severe abdominal pains." No word yet on what it will mean if Sheen sees his shadow after emerging from treatment.