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.

We hereby deliver:

• ROSES to Mark Luscher, a 60-year-old North Albany building contractor who is living a world class dream.

As you sit (we hope, comfortably) reading this, Luscher is moving up, acclimating himself to the cold, thin air at his 19,500-foot base camp on Mount Everest. He hopes to reach the 29,028-foot summit of the world’s tallest mountain in Nepal by May 25. If he makes it on that date, he will realize his lifelong dream just four days shy of the 55th anniversary of the mountain’s first summit by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese/Tibetan guide, Tenzig Norgay.

In doing so, Luscher, a longtime mountaineer, would join the elite 3,000 or so who’ve stood atop Everest.

But it’s not like climbing to the top is anything new to Luscher: He’s climbed the highest peaks of six continents, including North America’s 20,320-foot Mount McKinley in Alaska.

And Luscher isn’t the first local resident to climb Everest: On May 22, 1963, Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein unfurled the Oregon State College climbing club flag at Everest’s summit.

Former OSU student Stacy Allison became the first U.S. woman to reach Everest’s summit in 1988.

We’re proud so many local people have made this climb, and we wish Luscher safe passage to the “rooftop of the world.”

• RASPBERRIES to young people who blew a prime chance to prove adults wrong.

Specifically, this applies to the 948 Oregonians younger than 21 who lost their driving privileges (some without ever having driven at all) because they were convicted of possessing or drinking alcohol.

Passed by the 2007 Legislature, a tough new law is an effort to stem drunkenness among underage people. It went into effect on Jan. 1. And as of March 30, almost twice as many people younger than 21 have seen their driving privileges suspended for underage drinking as in the first three months of 2007.

Most of those affected by the new law are 18 to 20 years old. One 20-year-old had been denied driving privileges seven times for alcohol violations; a 19-year-old was denied five times.

The reasoning behind linking driving privilege suspensions to alcohol violations is that young drivers already have a much higher incidence of fatal crashes for their age group. Alcohol is involved in 70 percent of all fatal crashes across all age groups.

We’ll be watching to see whether the enforcement actually reduces fatal crashes in the under-21 set, which is the intended result.

• ROSES to what proved to be a frozen treat — the opening day of the Saturday Market at the riverfront on April 19.

Sure, we saw on-and-off hail showers and people huddled in parkas in late April. (We even saw a handsome pair of greyhounds wearing matching yellow raincoats — complete with reflective tape!)

But despite the wintry conditions, we were warmed by the large, friendly crowd that put us in mind of a traditional town square, where people meet old friends they haven’t seen in months.

We haven’t even mentioned how great it was to see the return of fresh local produce, huge bouquets of early flowers, crafts and treats — from pastry to specialty cheese and homemade sausage.

And despite our love of the greyhounds and other furry friends, we would rather see them out of the food areas, but it looked to us as though the owners were being responsible (for the most part).

As we move ahead into the truly warm months (fingers crossed), here’s a reminder that it would be better to keep the pooches away from the ground-level veggies, for obvious reasons.

• RASPBERRIES to a truly moronic display in the name of animal protection: The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for releasing minks and destroying breeding records at a fur breeding farm in Jefferson.

We think fur looks best on its natural owner, but this was simply idiotic.

The minks released are not native to this area. Any who weren’t reclaimed will likely starve or become prey for other animals.

Feral cats already do enough damage to the ecosystem. This was of little to benefit to the minks and did nothing to persuade people who don’t already share the vandals’ skewed view.

• ROSES to the young people involved around Corvallis and in Philomath with the various “Mr.” teen contests around our area. Adults who don’t have children enrolled in school sometimes can’t fully appreciate just how much fun — and work — this is for the kids involved.

These programs not only set a good example, they offer a valuable learning experience in raising money, organizing and staging events and making a difference to the community.

The list of participants, students, teachers, administrators, civic leaders and supporters involved is too long to name here, but we salute them all.