Punxsutawney, nestled in the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, is the kind of town where you half expect to see Jimmy Stewart running down the main street shouting about how wonderful life is.

At one point I was slurping down some soda and a joke hit so hard I laughed, choked, and all this coke came spraying out of my nose and into the bucket of popcorn in my lap. My friends were so mad! I ...