"Six more weeks of sun and warm weather," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said as he hoisted the rodent prognosticator. "And a Giants win. Go Giants!"
Chuck tumbled out of his impressive wood cabin — complete with solar panels — at 7:30 a.m. to trumpet calls and chants of his name from a crowd of about 100. This was not the Chuck of 2009, who refused to come out of his house as the mayor offered him some corn for breakfast. When the mayor finally reached inside Chuck’s house and tried to pull him out, he was rewarded with a bite to the index finger.
Having learned his lesson, Bloomberg now wears heavy gloves when handling the critter.
"If I get bit again, I have actually promised my girlfriend I would bite back," Bloomberg warned before the big moment.
But Chuck — or Charles G. Hogg, as he is known in more formal company — was eager to please today. When the door to his cabin opened, Chuck plopped right out and onto the ground. Despite their rocky past, he barely struggled when the mayor picked him up and showed him to the crowd. He didn’t even seem to mind when Bloomberg waved his finger (safely ensconced in the thick glove, of course) in front of Chuck’s little mouth.
And his prediction that an already mild winter would come to an end soon was certainly a crowd-pleaser.
"We thought perhaps we should have Chuck predict when the winter’s going to begin this year," Advance editor Brian Laline, the event’s master of ceremonies, joked.
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