It really is. Everything's blooming like crazy. In the park near me the daffodils are going by already and the tulips are beginning to open -- first the white ones, which were wonderful with the white daffodils, and today some purple ones. Ghostly white anemones have come and gone already. Lavender grape hyacinths are out under the trees, and speaking of trees, the magnolias are spectacular and the cherries' deep magenta is just starting. But it's the star of New York's street trees, the callery pears, that are astounding. They burst out early in bright white blossoms, with nothing green until a week's gone by. They've been planted like crazy these last few years. Late Sunday night, returning from a weekend away, I took the subway from Penn Station and got out at 14th and 8th. Looking west along 14th Street I saw huge white clouds of blooms that hadn't been there when I'd left. They positively glowed.