Monday, March 01, 2010
See a deer in the headlights? There are procedures
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
Recent columns
What are the responsibilities of someone who hits a deer?
-- Gloria Deeds, Roanoke
Judging by the number of dead deer one sees along the roadsides, there have been a lot of people asking themselves this question.
I asked Virginia State Police spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri to give us the official procedure: "Any crash involving a deer should be reported to law enforcement."
Presumably, from there the dispatcher or responding officer can tell you what else to do.
Of course, not everyone reports these incidents, leaving other drivers to dodge -- or fail to dodge -- the deer remains.
"If a deer is out on the roadway causing a traffic hazard then it should be reported to the police so it doesn't cause a traffic crash," Carpentieri wrote.
To some people, the deceased deer is a sad and disgusting sight. To others it is a freezer full of venison. But this latter group should know that they can't just toss the deer in their truck and head home.
"Law enforcement must be notified and a game ticket must be filled out in order to take possession of the deer carcass."
Deer may be becoming pests, but at least they stay outside. (Except for the occasional headline-making intrusion into a supermarket or some such.)
Stinkbugs, however, just bring their whole herd right on into your house. I've written a couple of gloomy posts recently about how unlikely it appeared that we'll get the upper hand.
But a couple of readers wrote in with bold plans of attack.
Lily Myers of Roanoke suggests spraying ammonia on the bugs and the places they frequent. She even suggested creating your own bug bomb by leaving bowls of ammonia in a room and closing the doors.
Of course with that chemical warfare solution you'll need to avoid breathing in the ammonia fumes and may even need to wear goggles.
A safer thing to try would be original flavor Listerine. Another reader told me it works pretty well -- and may even work on ladybugs, he added. I regret that this reader's name disappeared from both my voice mail and my computer, so I'm unable to give him the proper thanks. But, if this works, he'll be a stinkbug-vanquishing hero.
Grammar Grumblings
In your recent column, CFL was incorrectly described as an acronym. Acronyms must function as pronounceable words like NASCAR, NATO or radar. Groups of letters like NBA, MLB, NFL and CFL are spoken as letters and are called initialisms. Acronyms must function as pronounceable words.
-- Jesse Crawford, Horsepasture
OMG, you're right! Either I never learned this rule or I just plain forgot it. In my defense, I have to point out that the Grammar Guru calls it a "nonissue" and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary equates an acronym and an initialism.
But, there is a difference and perhaps it is worth clearing up here.
The "New York Times Manual of Style and Usage" recognizes an acronym as a certain type of abbreviation -- one that can be "pronounced as a word."
The "Complete Idiot's Guide to a Smart Vocabulary" makes the rules seem pretty simple. If you say it as a word, it's an acronym. If you say the letters, it's an initialism.
Thus when we abbreviate two government agencies -- the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- one becomes an initialism, FBI, and the other becomes an acronym, NASA.
Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to woym@roanoke.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown. Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
