A young journalist is inspired by fickle spring weather (and an old newspaper story)

I loved Emily Miles' essay. Here, I thought, is someone who cares about being read. Writers are often told to use details, the telling details, in their work. But the best stories are not just a collection of details. The writer thinks about they mean. Look at the way Emily uses those details to show the transition from winter to spring. Hot oatmeal (gray, a winter staple). Women with “billowing grey hair,” but also wearing decorative scarves, another winter-to-spring transition. I loved the use of repetition about the bird on the sidewalk (the gray sidewalk, which she doesn't have to point out.) We're sad to hear that the robin, a sign of spring, didn't make it. Winter is not going to loosen its grip so easily. But the campus doesn't give up. A student wears shorts and flip flops. Children point at a tree's first buds. Scooters have returned. Music pours out of car windows that were shut tight when it was colder. Again, Emily returns to the pavement and the smell it gives off. Again, she returns to her theme: Spring is coming, but not yet. Not yet. The final graf brings it all home. A police officer and his dog play fetch. But then the chill returns with the winter's unappealing leftover soup. I imagine it's gray. Well done, Emily. More, please. ~ Ken Fuson