A few notes on dictionaries, flowers, dogs — and a little about love

When you were in grammar school, did you ever sing-song “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me?” Of course, you had to have your hands on your hips and sway back and forth. This came in handy if you were called a silly childish name.

Well my goodness, that old thing has gone by the waysides. All of the words being bandied about lately have gotten me in a real twit. What in the world are these news pundits talking about? The speech writers and news people must have their noses constantly stuck in a dictionary searching for the “bon mot” of choice.

My mother had my grandfather’s quite large and very heavy dictionary open at all times on our library table for our constant use. There was a beautiful magnifying glass she used as a bookmark. Whenever there was a word we did not know or know how to spell, we were sent to the “book” to look it up. There was always a great sigh of relief if we found the word at first glance on a page, but it sometimes took a bit of time if we did not know how to spell it. We learned a lot that way about words and what fun it was to use them.

Now we all have a window to the world of words thanks to the internet. There is Twitter, Instagram. There are dictionary apps and websites.

There is now a “word of the day” to look up. Many of the words are not in the dictionary in book form as yet so the internet is used constantly and, believe me, there are many words coined each day. To quote lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower: “In times of stress, people will go to things that will provide answers. The Bible, the dictionary or alcohol.”

If my mother and grandmother were still with us, they would certainly agree that all three of these would be necessities at this very moment. I would still advise a dictionary in book form because what is old becomes new again almost daily.

Love these flowers

If spring and flowers are on your mind, there are several lovely ways to see them in a new light.

Kate Cadbury is a pressed-flower artist in England who has two sites you can visit to see and read about her beautiful works. Cadbury loves gardening, and this is her way of preserving the beauty of flowers.

Local dogs make good

Congratulations to Bluffton’s Melanie Steele and Ridgeland’s Janet Rahn and their beautiful dogs.

Both of these ladies and their dogs have won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show’s equivalent of the golden “Oscar.” There is nothing more fun than watching all of the wonderful canine contestants strut their fabulous stuff for all of the audience at the show or on the telly. It is so exciting to see all of everyone’s hard work pay off and fabulous to have a real connection to the show.

What about love?

College students nationwide are urged to get out their laptops and enter an essay about love. What is love like to you? What is on your mind about the subject?

If you have something interesting and fun to say, you might win a prize of $1,000 for your thoughts.

Email your essay to essaycontest@nytimes.com, along with your name, college, graduation year, email address and phone number. The winning essay will be published in late April. Contest details are at nytimes.com/essaycontest. You can also Follow Modern Love on Facebook.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 9:55 AM with the headline "A few notes on dictionaries, flowers, dogs — and a little about love."