Spring

Spring fever, that reputed and seemingly infectious malady that strikes when the days lengthen and temperatures begin to climb, has been blamed for feverish bouts of house-cleaning, restless behavior in the classroom, distraction in meetings and love struck dazes. Some scientists think spring fever is more than just a colloquialism -- they think it's a constellation of symptoms brought about by hormonal changes in the body.

For weeks now, the men in black turbans have been coming. They travel in pairs or small groups, on battered motorbikes or in dusty pickups, materializing out of the desert with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers slung from their shoulders. With the advent of warmer weather, villagers say, Taliban fighters are filtering back from their winter shelters in Pakistan, ensconcing themselves across Afghanistan's wind-swept south.

Shorebirds are laying their eggs 10 days early. Heather is flowering three weeks sooner. And the emergence of gnats has advanced by a month in the Arctic -- all in response to warmer climate, Danish researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology. A study of three bird species, six plants and 12 varieties of invertebrates such as flies and spiders shows that from 1996 to 2005 they adopted springtime behavior 14 1/2 days earlier on average, and some did so by as much as 30 days.

This wasn't the season for reinvention in the American fashion industry. A full, billowy dress is still a must-have item for spring, along with miniskirts, short shorts and new, longer jackets. Layering is still in, with dresses worn under dresses and leggings under skirts. Yellow, blue, white and black are the hot colors. The world of dance was a common point of inspiration along with flowers, which influenced silhouettes as well as turning up as trim.

It was a Boudoir Bazaar at Marc Jacobs on Monday night, an explosion of underwear as outerwear, ruffles and pearls that was a bid to move on from the aggressive clothes currently in stores and return to femininity. Jacobs was at the height of his powers. It was as if he took a bunch of cultural touchstones and global references -- Pierrot the clown, Japanese geishas, the gender-bending Commes des Garçons fashion house and Madonna, who was sitting front row at the show -- and put them in a blender, which is his genius.

Regarding "Maker of 'Girls Gone Wild' is sentenced," Dec. 14: Was this an opinion piece or a straight news story? So Joe Francis "made a fortune persuading drunken women on spring break to bare their bodies." Really? None of the hundreds, if not thousands, of these women over the years volunteered for or initiated their involvement in these videos by seeking out his crews the minute they found out the "Girls Gone Wild" production was in town? You obviously haven't been to a youth-oriented spring break or Mardi Gras-type event if you think most of the youngsters at these things have to be persuaded to do any partying.