Dibs

Beantown isn’t big on pastures, but from June 4 until September 5 the city is home to more than a hundred life-size fiberglass moo-cows, “grazing” on sidewalks and other urban settings as part of CowParade Boston, a public-art extravaganza and fundraiser. To celebrate the launch of Houghton Mifflin’s new American Heritage® Dictionary, Boston Edition, HM editors worked with professional decorative painter Carol Leonesio to create a design for the company’s representative bovine, whose sleek synthetic “hide” is adorned with attractively inscribed Boston-themed terms from the dictionary such as “duckling,” “aquarium,” “Kennedy, John Fitzgerald,” “pilgrim,” “tea party,” “lobster” and “Walden Pond.” It stands in front of HM headquarters at 222 Berkeley Street. With the addition of five hundred more words and more than 4,000 other updates, the dictionary’s latest edition is due out next month. After September 5, all the cows will be auctioned off to benefit the Jimmy Fund, a local cancer charity.