The Morning: Spring begins

Plus, a change in Georgia's Trump trial and Elon Musk's spat with Don Lemon.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story March 16, 2024 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. Spring officially begins this week. For those of us who've been white-knuckling our way through winter, it can't arrive soon enough. María Jesús Contreras Season opener When does spring begin? For some, it's the second Sunday in March, when we turn our clocks forward by an hour in the United States. For others, it's when they first realize they've finished dinner and it's still light out, or when the first crocuses poke up through the snow. Is it when you can go outside without a jacket and not feel a chill? When you pack away the down bedding and down jackets for another year? In the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox will officially take place this Tuesday, March 19, at 11:06 p.m. Eastern. This year, impatient as ever for winter to end, I decided to skip my usual routine of fidgety calendar watching and see if I couldn't do something to hasten spring's arrival. It's only a three-hour flight from La Guardia (rainy, cold) to West Palm Beach (sunny, 81 degrees, slight breeze), and from there an hour's drive to Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, the spring training home of the New York Mets. Even with the traffic of more than 7,000 fans descending on the ballpark (a subway series matchup with the Yankees, a hot ticket) and the few extra minutes you'll need to make a quick change from jeans to sundress in a CVS parking lot, if you leave New York before dawn you can easily make the trip from winter to spring with enough time to grab a Nathan's hot dog before the first pitch. Sitting in the stands, watching baseball on a day so balmy as to have been cooked up in a lab to make a visiting New Yorker question all her life choices, it felt laughable that one might sit at home and wait for spring to arrive. Here in Port St. Lucie on a Tuesday afternoon, weeks before the season's official start, cheery fans were decked out in team merch, drinking Modelo Especial tallboys and snacking on peanuts, reeling off stats, heckling the players. Here, spring was already happening. Baseball devotees are known to anticipate the onset of spring with a special fervor. In February 1971, John Hutchens wrote in The Times, "He is beginning to emerge from his cotton‐wool haze, the hopelessly addicted baseball fan for whom life — if that's the word for it — has amounted to nothing much since the last play of the 1970 World Series." This is the kind of hyperbolic perspective on the seasons I identify with. I'm not a die-hard baseball fan, but I know the agony of which Hutchens writes, the way life seems to be on hold during the winter months. Jerry Kraus, a snowbird from Utica, N.Y., who works at Clover Park during spring training, seemed to have the right idea, leaving the Northeast for Florida when the weather gets dicey. He was so in sync with the springtime vibe that he caught a foul ball right in his hand. (Baseball's not Jerry's only sport; he runs a Wordle league in which participants are given rules for letters they're not allowed to use for their first word. On the day I met him, the rule was "No worries," so your first guess couldn't contain the letters W, O, R, I, E or S.) In his 1990 book "Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball," George Will tsk-tsked descriptions of the game as "unhurried" or "leisurely," calling such observations "nonsense on stilts." For the players, he writes, "there is barely enough time between pitches for all the thinking that is required." But for this casual spectator, "no worries" could be baseball's official motto. Being outdoors in the sunshine and fresh air, things do feel slower and easier. The fretting slows down. I love that baseball has long been considered America's national pastime. A pastime is something that makes the passing of time pleasant. Isn't that what we're longing for in the winter months? Something that makes time not just tolerable but enjoyable? By the time I left Florida, it was pouring rain and even a little chilly. How was I supposed to take springtime home with me, I wondered petulantly. It was still raining in New York when I landed. Spring isn't just weather, of course, and it certainly makes no promises about rain. I'm trying to resist cliché, to keep from saying something akin to "spring is a state of mind," even though I wish it were. I went looking for spring and I found it where spring breakers find it every year, already in full, exuberant swing in the Sunshine State. My own official shedding of woolen garments and denunciation of seasonal funk will occur on Tuesday, when spring finally arrives. But having experienced 24 hours of spring's full pageant, my own little preseason, I feel slightly pacified. Perhaps I can be patient as spring establishes itself, offer the season a little grace as it clicks into place. (N.Y.C. temperature as I write this: 36 degrees, but there's definite blue among the clouds.) For more "It's been a dark winter of worries, but the wildflowers are blooming and the birds are singing again." Margaret Renkl welcomes spring. Major League Soccer is trying to organize large-scale training camps marketed to fans. The Athletic's spring training coverage. The M.L.B.'s new pants are see-through. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE WEEK IN CULTURE Music South by Southwest 2024 Adam Davis/EPA, via Shutterstock Dozens of musicians and panelists withdrew from this year's South by Southwest festival, which ends today, to protest the involvement of the U.S. military and defense contractors. Kacey Musgrave's new album, "Deeper Well," is about gratitude. "Musgraves may be contented, but she's not complacent," Jon Pareles writes in his review. Olivia Rodrigo invited a reproductive care organization to distribute free emergency contraception and abortion information at her "Guts" world tour, Variety reports. Film and TV Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy: Irish hunks are having a moment in Hollywood. "High & Low: John Galliano" captures the fashion designer's prodigious talent while raising industry wide issues that go beyond just Galliano's story, Rhonda Garelick writes. A24 announced it will rerelease the movies Ex Machina, Hereditary and Uncut Gems in IMAX, Vulture reports. Gerald Levin, a former Time Warner chief executive, died at 84. He was an architect of the company's failed merger with AOL, considered the worst corporate marriage in U.S. history. The Royal Family Jack Plunkett/Invision, via Associated Press A federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, brought by her half sister, who had accused Meghan of falsely disparaging her. The extended absence of Kate, Princess of Wales, and King Charles' cancer diagnosis: See a timeline of the family's tumultuous past few months. Other Big Stories Elon Musk called off Don Lemon's partnership with X, a day after the two conducted an interview. Lemon said he had asked Musk about his business ventures and reported drug use. James Conlon, the musical director of the Los Angeles Opera, will step down in 2026, his 20th year in the role. The athletic apparel company Outdoor Voice is closing all its stores on Sunday. The brand became popular for its Instagram-friendly aesthetic. The actress Olivia Munn said she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer last year and undergone a double mastectomy. A colorful unionizing effort at the Medieval Times has come to an end, The Huffington Post reports. The small online literary magazine Guernica retracted an Israeli writer's essay about finding common ground with Palestinians, after it led to staff resignations. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times A judge delayed Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial, which had been scheduled to begin this month, until at least mid-April. Nathan Wade resigned as a prosecutor on the Georgia criminal case against Trump. A judge had ruled that Fani Willis, who had a relationship with and hired Wade, could continue to lead the case if Wade quit. Mike Pence, Trump's former vice president, said he would not endorse Trump for president, citing "profound differences." International An attack near aid trucks in Gaza killed or wounded dozens of Palestinian civilians. Gazan officials blamed Israeli forces, while Israel blamed Palestinian gunmen. Separately, an aid ship carrying food reached the Gaza coast. Jared Kushner said he was close to finalizing real estate deals in Albania and Serbia, pursuing business abroad even as Trump, his father-in-law, seeks the presidency. Militants with the terrorist group Al Shabab stormed a hotel close to Somalia's presidential palace this week, leaving three people dead and injuring 27. Other Big Stories Federal prosecutors asked that Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency mogul convicted of fraud, receive up to 50 years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for this month. Most adult migrants will now have to leave New York City homeless shelters after 30 days. Migrant families with children can still stay for 60 days or more. The man who shot another rider in the head on the New York City subway, causing mass panic, appears to have acted in self-defense and is not likely to be charged, the authorities said. For readers of The Morning, enjoy exceptional savings for a limited time. Take advantage of the complete Times experience with our sale. Save on your first year of unlimited access to news, Games, Cooking and more. Subscribe now. CULTURE CALENDAR By Alexis Soloski 📚 "James" (Tuesday): Last year, Percival Everett's "Erasure," a milestone in the author's varied, brainy, slippery career, became the basis for the lacerating publishing satire "American Fiction." Now Everett returns with a new novel, a reconsideration of an American fiction staple, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." This version puts Jim, not Huck, at the center of the raft. Can you step into the same Mississippi twice? 📺 "3 Body Problem" (Thursday): An epic spanning more than 400 years and a couple of solar systems, Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy was never an easy prospect for adaptation. But D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, the producers behind "Game of Thrones," know something about unwieldy source material. Joined by Alexander Woo, they've transformed the first book into a thrilling, hurtling series for Netflix. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT RECIPE OF THE WEEK Sang An for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Chocolate Guinness Cake You don't need an excuse to bake Nigella Lawson's deeply fudgy chocolate Guinness cake. But St. Patrick's Day is as fine an excuse as any. The stout gives the cake a pleasing burnt-sugar bitterness that's echoed by the bittersweet cocoa powder, and enriched with sour cream. The top is crowned by a softened, fluffy cream cheese frosting, which you might — as Maria, a reader, suggests in the recipe notes — spike with a little Irish cream liqueur. Bake it today to serve tomorrow; this moist, rich cake gets even better as it sits. REAL ESTATE Jeanine Molock moved to the Philadelphia area. Michael Persico for The New York Times The hunt: A New York academic decamped to the Philadelphia area with $500,000, and a townhouse in mind. Which home did she choose? Play our game. What you get for $550,000: An A-frame cabin in Grand Gorge, N.Y.; a recently renovated 1915 bungalow in Columbus, Ohio; or a 1911 house in Wenonah, N.J. Lower fees: A powerful real estate trade group, the National Association of Realtors, agreed to eliminate its commission rules as part of a legal settlement. The change will likely reduce the cost of selling a home. LIVING Designing bags for Hermès. Maxime La for The New York Times In pursuit of the Birkin: A bag designer at Hermès has the fun and formidable challenge of creating a new masterpiece. Fitness fads: Viral online exercise challenges like the 75 Hard might get you in shape in the short run, but may not help you build sustainable and healthy habits. Cultural fit: The private members' club Soho House is opening a new outpost in Portland. Some residents are confused. Traditions: Mariachi, a Mexican wedding standard, is evolving for a new age. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Replace your household essentials Spring-cleaning season is a good time to check in on some essentials around your home that may be past their prime. Your toilet brush, for instance, should be replaced every few months, or when you see the bristles start to bend. Your toothbrush? Every three months. And your smoke alarm should be replaced 10 years from the date it was manufactured. Here's our full guide to when and why you should make some swaps. — Elissa Sanci GAME OF THE WEEK N.C. State's DJ Burns Jr., in his team's upset win over Duke. Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports Men's college basketball: The N.C.A.A. tournament brackets will be revealed tomorrow night. Before then, you can check out some of the top teams in their conference tournaments. Here are a few to watch today (all times Eastern). ACC: N.C. State wasn't on the March Madness bubble before this tournament started. Now, after a string of upsets, they're one win away from a bid. It won't be easy, though, as they face likely No. 1 seed North Carolina. 8:30 p.m., ESPN Big 12: This was the country's best conference this season, and Houston was its best team. They play Iowa State today; after seeing both teams' intense defenses, you may be tempted to pencil them in for a deep run in your bracket. 6 p.m., ESPN Big East: UConn won a national championship last year, but they haven't won this tournament since 2011. They'll try to get it done tonight at Madison Square Garden against likely No. 2 seed Marquette. 6:30 p.m., Fox NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was victimize. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week's headlines. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018