The article you quote wrote "Coos County" with a diaresis (a double dot, like an umlaut) over the second "o". Normally this means that a pair of vowels that might otherwise be a dipthong is split. You sometimes see a diaresis over the second "o" in "cooperate", and I remember from school Latin that there was one over the "e" in the Greek name "Danae", because "ae" is normally a dipthong in Latin but it isn't in that word.

The county's name rhymes with "goose", doesn't it? They've spelled it as if it were pronounced "coe-oss". But maybe it is? I'm in the next state over but I don't recall ever hearing the name.

Meantime, if you are related to the gentleman, or know someone who is, the hospital would like to hear from you.

And if you know who was driving that car, or where the car might be, the police would like to hear from you.

The gentleman had absolutely frightening injuries.

German does not indicate diphthong oe with 'ö'. 'Ö' is used to indicate a round mid front vowel (whereas 'o' indicates a round mid back vowel). A diphthong is, as the name implies, two vowels; /ö/ is a single vowel, albeit one that does not exist in English, and one that is frequently taught in American classes by instructing pupils to say /o/ and /e/ (as in bet) simultaneously.

I have discussed before how a similar phenomenon led me to misanalyze 'helicopter' for years. It's from 'helico-' "spiral" and 'pter' "wing."

Because no offense meant to the _News and Sentinel_, but it is somewhat more... local than those other two.

I have no idea where the state police have put notices. Perhaps in the Union Leader, perhaps in the Concord Monitor, perhaps in The Boston Globe. Perhaps not.

diff-thong
diff-theria
off-tha-mologist (oddly, the f-th sound is easy for me, but the "al-mol" sound is hard)

But fthay-late is harder, since the "f" can't naturally be moved to an earlier syllable.

Whichever of you is saying "apo-tosis" also has to say "helico-ter" from now on.

I do hope they catch that driver soon. And not just for revenge; also to minimize future damage. I don't want someone who drives like that, driving around the same planet as I do.

A number of years ago in Oregon, a friend of a coworker was hit and seriously injured by a black SUV while riding her bike, and I don't know that the driver or the SUV was ever tracked down. I was struck by the vehicle similarities between that case and this one.

These are usually from the Greek phi-theta, which often mutated into pi-tau over time. This mutation is common to all human languages. phi-theta is very fragile.

When I was younger, I used to wonder how it was that people found out about the deaths of their friends. I had thought that there needed to be some formal process. Friendship doesn't work like that, thank goodness; we need each other too badly. The most frightening thing about Mr. Corriveau's story is that it doesn't seem as if anyone is looking for him.

He was badly injured.

Jim, any thoughts?

One of the many times I lost my PalmPilot (don't ask), the kind guy at the lost and found at the bus company called the person identified as "Mom" in the phone list, who called me, and I was able get it back only five days after I'd lost it. Somedays the universe is too kind.

Somedays, I think of getting my SSN tatooed on my butt.

An attending nurse duly telephoned; the elderly woman who answered sighed heavily and said, "Sounds like you've got my son on your hands. I told him to put my number on his arm somewhere so they'd be able to let me know when someone finally killed him."

Not sure if the man survived or not...

Fortunately, I got over it fast.

I have heard of people tucking emergency contact cards inside their helmets. Is this a reasonable idea/will anybody in authority look there?

For non-bike related issues, I rely on the assumption that my wallet is unlikely to get separated from my (injured) person.

Maybe I need to give this a little bit of thought.

Oh, and in re: tattooing such things - IMO almost as bad an idea as tattooing someone else's name on your body. That's just asking for it.

As a single woman living alone, it is huge relief to know that, if I go missing, someone will come looking for me.

The trouble is that as far as I know there's no easily available exemplar for my DNA. I guess they could find epithelials and an occasional hair (not a head hair though) in my apartment.

The ICE thing on your cell phone is a good idea -- can't hurt, might help. (I have it on mine.)

Tattoos on body parts: I'm told that civillians in Baghdad are having their names and phone numbers tattooed on their thighs.

FWIW, motorcycle and snowmobile helmets are always transported to the hospital in the same ambulance with the patient, and taken into the ED, at least around here.

Some people talk about having their DNR status tattooed on their chests.

Please, folks, consider putting a Vial of Life in your refrigerator. You're far more likely to be home when bad things happen than anywhere else.

I write my mobile phone number on the arm of each of my children before we go out into crowded situations. I've instructed them to show the arm to persons in authority (described on a case by case basis) if they get lost.

Like you, I've never had to discover whether this trick would work.

(Also, my younger son is afraid of anyone in uniform and would probably hide in a corner rather than approach a police officer.)

That is an excellent idea, actually, if they're in a country where the local mothers are likely to speak English. (So the UK, the US, and the Netherlands, but not France, where we often holiday).

When we go to a new country, I try to find a police officer (airports are good for this) and explain the local markers to the kids. So here in the UK they know to look for black and white checkerboard; in the US they look for the badge and shoulder patch, etc. Every police officer I have asked to model for this discussion has been polite and helpful.

When Worldcon came to Glasgow, I instructed then then 4 year old to find the person with the most ribbons on their badge and turn himself over to them. (The then 18 month old wasn't going anywhere on her own.)

Thank you for the Vial of Life recommendation. My only gripe, and I'm going to email them about it, is that there's only space to list 10 medications.

*wanders off to get a copy of my living will, a baggie, and some packaging tape*

Same thing recently happened to me. It's surprisingly, and kind of dirtily, reassuring.

Googling for this, I found that a remarkable number of requests for the identity of incapacitated bicycles exist online. That strongly suggests doing something about it.

Oddly enough, that's where I first learned about it, as well, in an undergraduate Frost seminar. Little did I know at the time that eventually I would be living up here in North of Boston country.