The Lehman bankruptcy could be a spring rain compared to this hurricane.

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These places, which sprung up on the edges of campuses like dandelions after a spring rain, were the meeting places where students, professors, townspeople, out-of-town academics and other terribly interesting folk would meet, by intention or chance, and talk and learn from one another.

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If I'm being honest, I've never found persimmons, or lemongrass, or a gentle spring rain, in a glass of liquor.

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Ideally, bats need a warm spring followed by a summer without heavy rain and high winds and a steady cold winter so they remain in hibernation.

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There was no moon, and under the low cloud cover a brisk unseasonable wind ruffled the old Norwegian maples that lined the street and dropped a fine rain of spring buds on my shoulders and in my hair.

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The valley seemed barren now, he said, but in the spring, after a dusting of rain, it would be bright with cactus blossoms and yellow creosote.

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Convertible pieces have been a trademark of sorts for the designer: In the past, he's devised a reversible satin-lapelled tuxedo that's also a navy suit, and among next spring's offerings is a linen blazer whose other side is a nylon rain slicker.

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Ideally each vineyard would gather the ingredients for its Steiner preparations from its own soil. (Though it's probably rare that they can manage this 100 percent in practice--most wineries, for one thing, don't have their own cow herds.) There is, for example, the "501, " which specifies ground quartz mixed with rain water, packed into a cow's horn buried in spring and dug up in autumn.

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