This morning, on Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil was rudely awoken from his slumber and asked to predict the weather.

Phil saw his shadow — meaning that, according to tradition, there will be six more weeks of winter. Given the mild winter so far, would you mind six weeks of cold, wintry weather before the start of spring?

Of those who live in Arlington, how many are native Arlingtonians? And how many people came here from outside the D.C. area, for work, school or otherwise?

This morning’s poll seeks to find that out.

Please choose the answer that best describes where you grew up, relative to Arlington.

New Year’s Eve is just a day away.

Around the world, revelers will be staying up until the wee hours, boozing and partying. Then again, there are those who aren’t as festive — who might not even bother staying up late enough to see the clock hit midnight and the year change to 2012.

Where do you fall on the revelry spectrum? Which of the following best describes how late you’re planning on staying up?

D.C. has the National Christmas Tree, organized by a national nonprofit group. Loudoun County has an official (albeit controversial) holiday display, open to all religions, outside its courthouse.

While Arlington County has some neighborhood tree lightings and a private, seasonal ice skating rink, there’s no official county-wide holiday display. Should there be?

Forget the weekend after Thanksgiving, this weekend — the last weekend before Christmas — may be one of the busiest shopping times of the year. Last-minute gift buyers are expected to flock to stores on Saturday and Sunday, in advance of two consecutive holiday weekends.

Adding to the shopping crush: Hanukkah starts relatively late this year, on Dec. 20.

Will you be joining the masses at the malls and shopping centers this weekend?

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a nationwide ban on the use of all cell phones and text messaging devices while driving. The proposed ban would even apply to hands-free devices, like talking on a cell phone via a Bluetooth headset.

Using a hand-held cell phone while driving is perfectly legal in Virginia. That’s in contrast with D.C., which requires that drivers use a hands-free device. Virginia does ban texting while driving, but it’s considered a secondary offense, meaning that you must be violating another traffic law in order for the police to pull you over and give you a citation.

The only exception to those rules is for school bus drivers, for whom it is a primary offense to use a cell phone, and for drivers younger than 18, for whom all cell phone use is banned.

Would you support a more comprehensive cell phone ban in Virginia?

(Updated at 9:35 a.m.) During a panel discussion on Wednesday, some local employers expressed concern that Arlington County’s economy might be negatively impacted by the continued rise in rents and housing prices.

“Panelists described a scenario that could leave Arlington with housing options only for those at the top end of the economic spectrum, and those lucky enough to win access to subsidized rental units,” the Sun Gazette reported. That scenario, some say, could make it harder for Arlington employers to fill working class jobs.

One potential solution to spiking housing prices, as proposed by a George Mason University study and reported by the Sun Gazette, is to add “between 9,000 and 34,000 new residential units in coming years.”

Do you support adding housing density in order to improve housing affordability?

Despite the fact that 29 percent of Americans say they’re seriously trying to lose weight, there are few signs that people are actually cutting back on their annual Thanksgiving feasts.

This year, the National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys would be consumed on Thanksgiving — that’s almost 3 pounds of turkey per person, given the average weight of 16 pounds per bird.

Did you indulge in a big Thanksgiving meal, or did you try to cut back this year?

According to AAA and the Associated Press, Thanksgiving airfare and the cost of filling a tank of gas are both up 20 percent this year.

Nonetheless, 42.5 million people nationwide are expected to hit the roads, rails and airways for Thanksgiving — the highest number since the beginning of the recession. Here in the Washington region, more than 1 million people are expected to travel for the holiday, and the vast majority of them will be getting to their destination via highways, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Are you among the intrepid Thanksgiving travelers?

The Sun Gazette reports this morning that the County Board has discussed the idea of training and empowering citizens to enforce sign laws in Arlington by spotting and reporting violations to county staff.

Proponents for citizen sign enforcement have spoken up during past Board meetings, but with little to show for it. Now, however, with the county advertising proposed changes to its sign ordinance, three out of five Board members seem willing to seriously consider the idea.

One argument against the idea is the conflict it could create between business owners and the citizen sign enforcers.

Should citizens be deputized to be the “eyes and ears” of county code enforcement?

Yesterday we were the first to report about the newly-formed Occupy NoVA group’s plan to march from Ballston to the Key Bridge.

It’s not clear how many people will show up for the march. At this point, Occupy NoVA appears to be a loose coalition of, at most, a couple dozen people. And unlike their Occupy D.C. and Occupy Wall Street brethren, Occupy NoVA is not occupying anything at the moment. The group has not yet established any encampments — but they say that future plans are up for discussion.

Though Arlington is generally considered a bastion of progressivism in an otherwise right-leaning state, would county residents and workers support a move by Occupy NoVA to occupy a local park or square?

Groupon built its business on offering hot deals at local shops and restaurants.

Those blockbuster deals would attract thousands of buyers and help spread the word about Groupon. But are the deals cooling off?

Groupon held its initial public stock offering on Friday, and since then the stock price has steadily fallen from a high of $31 to $23.50, as of this morning. Analysts have questioned whether Groupon can live up to its multi-billion dollar valuation with reports that local merchants — especially restaurants — are souring on the big daily deal model, which is often a money-loser thanks to Groupon taking up to half of the proceeds from already-discounted sales.

Consumers, too, may be getting turned off, especially in Groupon’s better-established markets. Data suggests that a “significant portion” of people who once subscribed to daily deal emails are now unsubscribing. Indeed, one firm that tracks data from Groupon has reported that its core local deal business is starting to decline.

Some anecdotal evidence points to an erosion in the quality of deals offered as the more popular local businesses become less likely to do steeply-discounted deals and as an explosion in the number of daily deal companies spreads the better deals across a wider swath of websites.

Recent offerings from the Groupon Northern Virginia Twitter feed include 63 percent off weight-loss hot pants, 53 percent off a haircut at a Dulles, Va. salon, and 58 percent off an eco-friendly waterless car wash.

Do you think the quality of Groupon deals has gone down over the past year or so?