Weird and Wacky News: Punxsutawney Phil

Awesome!

Punxsutawney Phil and his wife (?), Phyllis, have big news: They are parents to two healthy babies, the Associated Press reported. “Phil and Phyllis have started a family,” said Thomas Dunkel, president of The Inner Circle, part of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. “I talked to Phil with my cane, which lets me speak Groundhogese, and Phil could not be more excited.” (OK, Thomas.) Phil and Phyllis live in climate-controlled quarters at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, but plans are in place to move them to larger quarters on the grounds now that their family is growing. Dunkel said the offspring will not become Punxsutawney Phil, because Phil is immortal, having drunk “The Elixir of Life,” which Phyllis is prohibited from imbibing.

Police Report

In 2024, California started prohibiting police departments from sharing photos of suspects in nonviolent crimes, United Press International reported. Accordingly, the Murrieta Police Department started using emojis, characters from movies and, most recently, Lego head images to cover the faces of suspects when they posted on social media. But now, Lt. Jeremy Durrant said, the Lego heads have to go. “The Lego Group reached out to us and respectfully asked us to refrain from using their intellectual property in our social media content, which ... we understand and will comply with.”

It’s Come to This

Remember the life-saving door at the end of “Titanic”? The one that Rose and Jack couldn’t both fit on? At Heritage Auctions in Dallas on March 23, the Balsa wood panel used in the movie sold for $718,750 to an anonymous buyer, The New York Times reported. The auction liquidated a large trove of items from Planet Hollywood, including Indiana Jones’ whip and Jack’s ax from “The Shining.” No word yet on whether the new owner has tested the door’s width to see if Jack might have, after all, survived.