We hereby deliver: ROSES to the fast action by officials at Franklin School and Corvallis Police to lock down the K-8 school briefly Tuesday afternoon until police arrested several people in connection with a robbery across the street.

The timing inconvenienced parents, who were ready to pick up their children when the lock down occurred about 2:20 p.m. The parents were greeted by district officials at the 19th Street entrance where they generally come to pick up students. When police gave the “all clear” about 30 minutes later, the rest of the school day concluded as normal for the 350 students who attend school there.

The incident was handled without unduly alarming the students, and it was the prudent thing to do in light of the lessons we learned last month at Virginia Tech.

Administrators there the morning of April 16 falsely assumed that they had a suspect detained after the two initial fatal shootings around 7 a.m. They did not lock down the campus or halt traffic into the “commuter” campus, which might have spared the bloodbath that enabled a deranged gunman to kill 30 more people two hours later before taking his own life.

Let’s hope that by the time they graduate from high school, the detained students will have long forgotten the time when a nearby crime delayed their enjoyment of a sunny afternoon in May.

• RASPBERRIES to a confounding environmental health whammy: Despite being swathed in clouds and mist most of the year, Oregonians suffer from melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, at a

23 percent higher incidence than the national average.

What’s more, we have far too few specialists to handle the demand for skin cancer diagnosis and care.

The skin cancer rate is highest in eastern Oregon, where people work outdoors, and among people who grew up in sunny climates, relocated here to

retire, and often return to the sunbelt for the winter.

At greatest risk are people of Northern European descent who spent a lot of time in the sun in the past and suffered at least one severe sunburn.

To make matters worse, Oregon has a chronic shortage of dermatologists to treat the estimated 1,500 cases of melanoma diagnosed each year, according to the Oregon Health & Science University. What’s more, not enough dermatologists are primarily focused on treating skin cancer.

A 2006 “undercover” survey of 851 dermatologists by University of California at San Francisco researchers posing as patients calling about a “changing mole” found those callers were asked to wait an average of 38 days for an appointment. In a controversial conclusion disputed by many dermatologists, the UCSF researchers contend that too many dermatologists are giving Botox injections to erase wrinkles rather than treating melanoma.

This is significant because a cancerous spot that could have be removed completely if found early can quickly root into deadly melanoma if left untreated. The public can reverse this trend by demanding being screened for skin cancer rather than being injected with a substance derived from just enough botulism to paralyze wrinkles, for that “youthful dead” look. And speaking of health issues:

• ROSES to Betty Johnson and the other Corvallis and other mid-valley volunteers who are heading a sustained charge to reprioritize and inject common sense into how we distribute health care. The local representatives for a reform idea championed by former Gov. John Kitzhaber, the “Archimedes Movement” (also known as “We Can Do Better”), if approved by the Legislature, would again make Oregon a national model for a saner, better national health care distribution system.

Kitzhaber, the architect of the Oregon Health Plan in the early 1990s, has spent a year explaining that the system would basically spend money where it does the most good and extend medical benefits to needy Oregonians. Now we are stuck with an expensive, inefficient and inequitable system that forces the needy and the medically uninsured to crowd hospital emergency rooms for medical treatment.

Senate Bill 27 and Senate Bill 329 are examples of good ideas whose time has come. For more details, see http://wecandobetter.org/node/269.

• ROSE-RASPBERRIES to an Albany boy, who gets roses for his abundant good humor — and raspberries to the two sneaky spiders that had an eerie sense of timing.

Jesse Courtney, 9, made international news after he went to the doctor about two weeks ago for treatment of a persistent earache and ended up writing a new chapter in the medical books — and possibly a new verse for the “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Instead of the rain coming down and “whooshing” a spider out, the doctor’s flushing device brought out two tiny ear-canal-dwelling spiders. One of them was still (shudder) alive.

The spiders may have landed there April 22, when Jesse was weeding in his yard. He complained thereafter of a “Rice Krispies-sounding” popping and some pain that increased until he went to the doctor and the creepy-crawly story broke. That it coincided with the release last weekend of the blockbuster “Spider-Man 3” put Courtney’s “spidey sense” on all the major news channels.

Our reaction? Ever since that story, we can’t help feeling this tiny little soft tingling feeling, all over ...

ROSE (roz) n. One of the most beautiful of all flowers, a symbol of fragrance and loveliness. Often given as a sign of appreciation.

RASPBERRY (raz’ber’e) n. A sharp, scornful comment, criticism or rebuke; a derisive, splatting noise, often called the Bronx cheer.