Food for thought: Let us have blogs, and blackberries too

WILSON QUARTERLY Autumn 2009
Page 82
EXCERPT:

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Let me paint today's English-speaking world by the lights of the current Oxford Junior Dictionary (OJD)....
It is a world without violets. Spring comes unannounced by catkins and proceeds without benefit of crocuses, cowslips, or tulips. Summer brings no lavender, melons, or nectarines, and autumn is absent of acorns, almonds, and hazelnuts. Winter must be endured without the holly and the ivy, the wren, or the mistletoe....
On the other hand, in the OJD-world you'll have no trouble locating blogs or chatrooms. Celebrities are there, spending euros. You can check your voicemail on your broadband MP3 player and send attachments with bullet points, all while bungee jumping if you so desire, without fear of blackberries below - not that kind, anyway.

---ROBERT MICHAEL PYLE, a lepidopterist and author, most recently, of Sky Time in Gray's River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place (2007), in Orion (July-Aug. 2009)