🌸 It’s officially spring | Morning Newsletter
And Craig LaBan does Wilmington.
The Morning Newsletter
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Today it feels a bit nippy outside with a chilly breeze, and the high temperature is not expected to get out of the 50s. But we’re going with a spring theme.
In today’s newsletter:
🌸 Charming: We’re talking about why spring is such a meteorological marvel.
🥘 Appetizing: 4 restaurants that our food critic Craig LaBan says are energizing the Delaware dining scene landscape.
🧩 Fun: Our regular games including a spring puzzle.
If you see this 🔒 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories. Please send me feedback about this by writing back.
— Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
🎤 And now I’m passing the mic to the one and only Anthony R. Wood, who wrote today’s top story on, what else? The wonders of the weather:
As a winter lover, whatever sadness I feel with the passing of the shortest season of the year usually vanishes about the first time I catch sight of a sunset electrifying the bud-swollen trees. I know what’s coming.
At the moment of the vernal equinox at 11:33 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, the sun will beam directly over the equator and, for my money, our most fascinating season will begin. Spring’s idyllic image belies its beautifully complex and sometimes tempestuous personality with all its radical mood swings, tracking uncannily with what we know as “spring fever.” It’s real, the experts tell us, and it seems that the atmosphere comes down with the most severe case of it. What other season has hosted a 19.4-inch blizzard in Philly and a high temperature of 100? The elements conspire to create harvests of the subtle and brilliant images that “flash upon the inward eye,” to invoke Wordsworth — and the most destructive storms on Earth, tornadoes.
To celebrate the arrival of spring, we offer our own modest bouquet of observations on this astronomical and meteorological marvel that will last 92 days, 17 hours, and 55 minutes. Feel free to turn off the TV and close the laptop.
Well, not before you read this potpourri of fascinating spring tidbits!
What you should know today
Authorities in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol say Russia has bombed an art school where about 400 people had taken refuge.
A nearly 20-year-old missing person’s case seems to have been solved with a discovery Saturday in the depths of the Darby Creek.
The region’s largest health systems and their largest insurer are partnering to try to improve racial equity in Philly’s health care.
Abnormal dryness is parching much of the Philly region.
Big Pharma raked it in during the risk-free vaccine development environment of the pandemic.
Our columnist Helen Ubiñas writes that it’s absurd no women made the cut to be considered as the next schools superintendent. 🔒
Craig LaBan says he’s crazy for waiting to check Wilmington’s restaurant gems. 🔒
Got the winning NCAA tournament ticket? Here’s how to bet to win. 🔒
And while we’re celebrating the vernal equinox, get your guide to watching Phillies spring training.
📉 Local Coronavirus Numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
❓Pop Quiz ❓
What’s “shrinkflation” again?
A) The funhouse mirror at Seaside Boardwalk that makes you look teeny tiny
B) That ‘80s movie about the inventor who shrinks his kids and throws them in the garbage
C) The rising demand for therapists in the pandemic
D) How businesses disguise inflation by charging the same for less value
Find out if you remember the answer.
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
The show that’s been blooming and blossoming all over the place here for 200 years.
ALFI HALLOW HORSEWHIPPED
Hint: 🔔 + 🌸 + 🎭
Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shout-out to a reader at random who answers correctly.
Photo of the Day
And for today’s Sunday track, we’re listening to: 🎶 When your dream dies and your heart cries, Shahadaroba, fate knows what’s best for you. 🎶
👋🏽 Go into the dream of spring, and treat it like a holiday.