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 the return of a revamped — and renamed — SMART reading program. Now it will be called KSMART and starting in the fall, it will return.

Last summer, officials at Lincoln and Garfield schools announced that there was no room for the program that paired students in grades K-3 with volunteer adults in a supervised classroom setting.

Then when budget cuts at the statewide SMART program in April meant no more paid volunteer coordinators, we thought that was the end of the successful program, which began in 1992 in Portland and had sparked a love of reading in countless youngsters.

But the program has powered its way back into the schools. Interested volunteers who want to help can send e-mail to srichards@getsmartoregon.org to be part of a great comeback.

• RASPBERRIES to circumstances that force longtime friends to be parted.

That’s what’s happening to older dogs that, after many years of loyal companionship, are being brought by their owners to Senior Dog

Rescue of Oregon.

The reason: Most are facing financial ruin,

declining health or a move to a place that won’t allow pets. For whatever reason, an unusually large number of such abandoned dogs are overwhelming Senior Dog Rescue’s resources.

The group is hoping that enough foster families will volunteer to welcome a well-

behaved dog into their households, either for a while, a while longer — or forever.

Some of these companions have gray in their muzzles. Some no doubt are quiet because they are unsure why they have lost their home and beloved human. But contrary to that old saying about old dogs and tricks, many can and do want to learn — especially how to form a bond with someone new.

Those who are interested in adopting a house-broken, well-behaved companion for evening walks and ear-scratches can call 541-929-4100 or visit www.petfinder.com/shelters/sdro.html.

• ROSES to a happier dog story:

Around 8:28 p.m. Tuesday, a caller to the 911 dispatch center reported that a dog was “running at large” in the 200 block of Southwest 53rd Street in Corvallis.

A Benton County deputy set a live trap for the wayward dog, caught it and took it to the Heartland Humane Society.

Luckily for the pooch, its owners had filed a “lost dog” report at the Humane Society. A volunteer called the dog’s owners in Alsea. They’d lost their dog 16 days before.

No word on how a dog from Alsea ended up in a Corvallis mobile home park, but we’re glad that those dog owners wanted their dog back, took the trouble to file a missing dog report — and that this story ended happily.

• RASPBERRIES to Jen Moss, who calls herself “The Naked Lady” and is threatening to sue the city of Ashland if she’s not allowed to parade semi-nude on the Fourth of July.

Moss moved in May to Ashland from Ojai, Calif., reportedly because Ojai police harassed her about her penchant for showing up all over town in various states of undress. Ashland’s city ordinances addressing nudity require only that people cover their genitalia in public.

So Moss announced her plans to bicycle through the city’s community Fourth of July parade wearing only a hemp G-string and blowing on a conch shell.

If city officials try to stop her, she’s vowed to sue them for violating their own ordinance.

We’ll let our readers tee off on that one, but suggest that this wouldn’t be an issue if people simply ignored her pitiful bid for attention and turned away, as in Lady Godiva’s day. But because of modern-day peeping Toms, this probably won’t work.

A long look at Ashland’s nudity ordinance, however, just might.

• ROSES to the people who made a real love story possible. It happened like this:

Bride-to-be Kristina Eli planned to marry her longtime love, Ricky Aldrich, at the end of June.

As much as she wanted to be a June bride, she wanted even more to see her mother Linda Eli in the wedding party. But Linda was diagnosed last winter with cancer, and by May, it was evident that her health was failing.

Kristina realized that her mother probably would not be there for her June wedding, so she arranged with Chaplain Jeff Hale and the nurses and doctors at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center to have the ceremony May 29 at the hospital.

Linda, 46, was wheeled in for the ceremony in a rosey-red dress suitable for the mother of the bride. She saw her daughter take her vows.

Linda died on June 9. Beside her bed was her husband of 27 years, Robert, her four children and their spouses and children.

Roses to Kristina, her family and her mother, the woman they all called the backbone of their family. She taught them well.