Saturday, March 28, 2009

Spring in the Air!

It is the custom of many blogs to include occasional or topical images not necessarily related to the main concerns of the site, and when not abused, it's a nice custom.

Spring is here, and so, the first crocuses in the yard, which appeared in full but minuscule splendor already a day before St. Patrick's Day, need no special excuse.

Nonetheless, there's a roundabout way to connect the seasonal sign to history.


An old joke, told during the era of Emigration:

Nazi era: On a lovely spring day, an American cheerfully greets a newly arrived German-Jewish émigré, whose English is still less than fluent: "Spring in the air!"

The émigré--who interprets spring in the German sense of the verb, to jump--melancholically: "Why should I?"

Variation:

The émigré, bitterly: "Spring yourself!"

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