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 Mom. Of course! Sunday is Mother's Day, and Mom gets a big double-bouquet. We issue the roses with a gentle reminder that it isn't too late to send Mom something nice for delivery by overnight mail or - better yet - a surprise personal presentation. Whether she was the perfect mom, or an imperfect human like the rest of us, it's a good day to reach out, say thanks, mend fences, or just take her out and show her a good time and share some laughs. To those whose mothers have passed away, condolences. May your memories on her day be happy ones.

• ROSES to Robert Eugene Eisenhauer and his family. The retired bookkeeper kept the faith to his fallen comrades for more than 34 years. Although he spent the Korean War in an Army finance office on the home front, he never forgot those whose service ended in a soldier's grave. Every Memorial Day since 1967 until last year, he decorated those graves in Albany and the rural local cemeteries.

A 37-year member of the American Legion Post 10, Eisenhauer no doubt will receive the same tribute himself now. He died April 25 at the age of 71. This Memorial Day, he will join the ranks of the gratefully remembered.

• RASPBERRIES to the perennial con artist for coming up with an electronic age twist on old-fashioned fraud: spammed scams. Jan Margosian of the state Justice Department Consumer Fraud Division said latest version of the old scam began making the e-mail rounds this spring. It appears as a subject line that's "URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL." A breathlessly earnest message - often in broken English - then follows from someone claiming to be an endangered official trying to flee war-torn Iraq or war-torn Nigeria or some other global calamity. It has the enticing elements of finding a cyber letter in a bottle floating on the Internet. However, it soon gets down to a very skillfully-worded plea that involves an appealing scenario in which you must give money or authorize access to your account - almost incidental to the promise of becoming both heroic and rich.

A local variant is a throbby-voiced plea to help a proud, genteelly impoverished elderly woman stay in her ancestral home by sending a donation.

Action is called for: Forward such e-mail to

consumer.hotline@doj.state.or.us and let the Justice Department dispense its own sort of charity - prosecuting those who try to defraud the people of Oregon.

• ROSES to Colorado iron man Aron Ralston, a mountain climber who fought off death and despair with a small pocketknife and unimaginable courage. Ralston, 27, was climbing in a remote Utah canyon April 26 when a 1,000-pound boulder shifted, trapping his right arm. For five days, he was pinned beneath that rock, growing thirsty, hungry and weak, his thoughts drifting to the edge of death. Then he prepared a "surgery table" using his bicycle shorts, applied and tourniquet and used a small, dull pocketknife to amputate his arm beneath the elbow. Not yet done, he rigged anchors and rappelled 60 feet to the canyon floor, then hiked five miles until tourists found the dazed, blood-covered tough guy.

Ralston, who gave a press conference Thursday to thank the tens of thousands of admiring well-wishers, said simply that the power of prayer gave him strength to feel the pain, "but cope with it, and move on." Once his arm heals enough to be fitted with prosthesis, Ralston will go ahead with his goal of climbing all 55 peaks in Colorado. He has six to go. It doesn't seem like much could stop him.

• RASPBERRIES to the grousing, sour grapes critics who found fault with President Bush's "Top Gun" landing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln last week. OK, so it cost about $800,000 to $1 million to finance Bush landing the S-3B Viking fighter jet. Yes, it was a set-up so that Bush could emerge from the cockpit in a flight suit to announce an end to the main war in Iraq. And yes, we'll be seeing that image again, no doubt as election time nears. But there's no denying that America's president landed a fighter jet on a carrier deck, at sea.

When someone hits the ball out of the public-appeal park, the only thing fair-minded people can do is nod and say yep, that one's outta here.

• ROSES to The Louvre Museum in Paris for finding one of the most awe-inspiring uses yet for the World Wide Web: A virtual tour of the masterpieces and sketchbooks of artist Leonardo da Vinci. Not seen since in a public exhibit since 1952, the work of the 15th-century master comes to life in digital color as ripe cherries, graceful horses, playful dogs and demure, thoughtful schoolgirls. It is a treat free to anyone with a computer and a desire to see timeless genius, all without leaving the house, at louvre.fr/louvrea.htm

• ROSE-BERRIES to the Hotel Council of San Francisco for its $65,000 "We Want Change" campaign to discourage tourists to the city by the bay from giving handouts to panhandlers. Advertisements plastered around The City, feature photos of a gaudily dressed tourist couple at Fisherman's Wharf, captioned: "Today we rode a cable car, visited Alcatraz and supported a drug habit." Another shows a pig-tailed girl and reads "Today I adopted a cat, gave some change and shut down my corner grocer." As with other, similar slogans that link giving handouts to encouraging crime, the ad concludes "Giving to panhandlers doesn't help, it hurts."

Naturally, advocates for the homeless object to the campaign lumping all poor, homeless individuals with drug-ridden criminals. Although a drop in travel has been a national problem since the attack on Sept. 11, the homeless also are blamed for that.

San Francisco visitors who want to help the homeless can hand them vouchers available for a meal or store credit, but that won't do what the campaign hopes: Get the homeless to move along. That is not likely to happen. Panhandlers have been a part of San Francisco's landscape since Barbary Coast days.