Springiness

I have just discovered truthiness. The word, not the concept. I gather most of you have known about it since, oh, 2005 or so, but I heard the word for the first time on the radio yesterday. The concept, if not the word, has been part of my analysis of Unfortunate Contemporary Discourse for a long time.  I discovered that responsible journalists use it–the word, not the concept–to good effect.  In Postcard from Washington: Truthiness on trial – Supreme Court considers ‘right to lie’ (Ottawa Citizen, April 26 2014) Allen Abel wrote:

One case is about political campaigning and the other is about pomegranate juice, but both of them are about diluting a fact with so much fiction that you can’t taste it anymore.

I thought that was a very good description of how “truthiness” works, but just to make sure I understood the subtleties of popular usage I looked it up on Wikipedia, which I suppose introduces a whole new layer of irony. The Truthiness entry was very entertaining. As a bonus, I found this:

In 2012, a study examining truthiness was carried out by PhD student Eryn Newman of Victoria University of Wellington. The experiments showed that people are more likely to believe that a claim is true regardless of evidence when a decorative photograph appears alongside it.

Excellent. I happen to have some decorative photographs in support of my contention that we have achieved springiness.

The pond at the horse barn is overflowing, creating the perfect mirror for a spring sky.

Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I have been down on the beach documenting the arrival of springiness based on the departure of iciness. The ice mountains, broken loose from the shore ice, have begun to float away. The open water is encouraging birds. I am pretty sure these are migrating Tundra Swans, headed north up the Bay. (I got a better look at them than the camera did, on account of my grip is wobbly and my reaction time is pathetic. Anyway, all white except for black legs and black bills (no yellow/orange – not mute swans) at the end of long straight necks–and really big. Enormous.)

Then I saw movement w-a-a-a-y out there on one of the receding ice mountains and thought Oh look, someone’s playing King of the Mountain! Wait, wait, maybe they’re marooned!

Fortunately I realized that I was looking at one of the resident eagles, having a little rest during the evening hunt. Sorry for the blurry image, but trust me, it’s an eagle, and that’s a fact, Jack. One of these days I will get a good picture.

The wild leeks are coming up in the woods.

Late afternoons have been nice and warm, with sunsets that set our windows on fire. Warms us right up it does.

Which isn’t to say that we’re out of the woods yet. Whatever the Weather this time of year, there’s always more where that came from.