Predict the weather: At NYC’s Groundhog Day Ceremony this Saturday in McCarren Park. A real groundhog will be present, while former mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa will be officiating the ceremony. We will find out whether we are in for an early spring or are cursed with six more weeks of winter. – Riley
Watch: Tottenham v. Manchester City, this Sunday. I wouldn’t ordinarily recommend that anyone watch my beloved Spurs, especially the way they are playing right now, but this game has become something of a curiosity. City are in the midst of another title race with Tottenham’s arch-rival Arsenal, meaning some Spurs fans may actually want their team to lose. A similar thing happened two years ago, when Man City defeated Tottenham – to the delight of many Spurs fans – and won the title. Could history repeat itself? – Zac
Listen: the timeless Tom Lehrer. In the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Lehrer was virtually a household name in the US. The Harvard-trained mathematician who moonlighted as a pianist made it big on the airwaves and on the road with withering musical satire about race/class tensions (“the poor folks hate the rich folks, and the rich folks hate the poor folks, all my folks hate all your folks, it’s American as apple pie”), US coups and militarism (“might makes right, till they've seen the light, they've got to be protected . . . till somebody we like can be elected”) and fears of World War 3 (“We Will All Go Together When We Go!”) Then one day in the late 60s, Lehrer – who died last year at 97 – simply stopped performing and recording new music. Despite that half century of silence, his satire is as sharp and relevant as ever. – Alex K.
