I’ve been reading on for years, and I have stopped reading many of the “Gannett 34”, all of which are old and many are in re-runs. I still read “Phoebe”, and if I also read reruns of “Ozy & Millie”, & “Calvin & Hobbs”. My Local paper is Times syndicate, not Gannett, so I guess that won’t be directly affected.
I had to look it up: It is named “Manneken *” and is quite old and surrounded in tradition and folklore You can read more on the introducingbrussles website: https://www.introducingbrussels.com/manneken-pis
When they say an early spring or six more weeks of winter, they are discussing whether the rest of February and the beginning of March will feel like winter or spring. Basically early spring means that in the next few days after the main part of winter in that region, it will quickly feel like spring (start sometime in February) as opposed to six more weeks which means wintry feeling through months until around the equinox. What I mean about regions is in some areas the main part of winter is over in early February to early March and the “six more weeks of winter” extends that into mid-March to early April.
Note that each IP in the comic has exactly one invalid octet. It is on purpose.