Writer's resource

[Guest]

70's

 

[Goldie Munro]

Hey I used to be a nurse - ask me anything!! lol

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Hey I used to be a nurse - ask me anything!! lol

Cool, I used to be a patient.

 

[impressive]

Hi, all.

I need the name of a drug that would have been available in the U.S. 150 years ago that would make someone incredibly confused and have trouble focusing.

Thanks!

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Hi, all.

I need the name of a drug that would have been available in the U.S. 150 years ago that would make someone incredibly confused and have trouble focusing.

Thanks!

Opium comes to mind. I was commonly used as a pain killer in the mid to late 1800's. But I'm not sure it goes back as far as 150 years.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Hi, all.

I need the name of a drug that would have been available in the U.S. 150 years ago that would make someone incredibly confused and have trouble focusing.

Thanks!

Laudnum. It was commonly avialable over the counter and was a "cure all" patent medicine. It's base ingredient is opium I think.

-Colly

 

[impressive]

Thanks, CD & Colly

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Thanks, CD & Colly

Don't thank me, I owe you several, thanks so much fo rlooking over my haloween story

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Following up on Colly's post:

Laudanum was a wildly popular drug during the Victorian era. It was an opium-based painkiller prescribed for everything from headaches to tuberculosis. Victorian nursemaids even spoon fed the drug to cranky infants, often leading to the untimely deaths of their charges.

Originally, Laudanum was thought of as a drug of the working class. As it was cheaper than gin it was not uncommon for blue-collar men and woman to binge on laudanum after a hard week's work. Use of the drug spread rapidly. Doctors of the time prescribed it for almost every aliment. Many upper-class women developed habits.



I ripped this of an unverified web page so it's unverified but it all seems to jive.

 

[Guest]

From Wikipedia:

Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture of opium, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium.

In the 16th century, a Swiss physician name Paracelsus (1493-1541) experimented with the medical value of opium. He decided that its medical (analgesic) value was of such magnitude, that he called it Laudanum, from the Latin "laudare" - "to praise". He did not know of its addictive properties.

In the 19th century, laudanum was used in many patent medicines to "relieve pain... to produce sleep... to allay irritation... to check excessive secretions... to support the system... [and] as a sudorific". The lack of any genuine treatments meant that opium derivatives were one of the few substances that had any effect, and so laudanum was prescibed for ailments from colds to meningitis to cardiac diseases in both adults and children.

The Victorian era was marked by the widespread use and abuse of laudanum in England, Europe and the United States. Initially a working class drug (it was cheaper than a bottle of gin or wine, because it was treated as a medication for legal purposes, not taxed as an alcoholic beverage); it gained wider popularity, including among literary figures (de Quincey, Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, Dickens, and Baudelaire) and politicians (Wilberforce).

 

[impressive]

Thanks, 'Dita!

 

[impressive]

Obscure question:

What type of ship featured a maiden with big tits on the prow?

 

[rgraham666]

I don't think that was limited to any one type of ship impressive.

It was, as far as I know, limited in time to the square rigged sailing ships from approximately Renaissance time to the mid 19th Century.

That decoration is called a bowspirit. It is, as I recall, supposed to protect the ship.

Dredging deep into my memory here, so I could be wrong.

If you need the name of a particular type of ship, describe it a bit more and I'll see if I can name it for you.

 

[impressive]

That decoration is called a bowspirit. It is, as I recall, supposed to protect the ship.

Thanks, RG! Googling on "bowspirit" now

 

[impressive]

FYI

See:

http://seagifts.com/seagifts/shipfig.html

"Figurehead" was the term I was seeking.

"Bowsprit" (not "-spirit") is the spar that extends at bows of a ship.

See also (glossary):

http://phrontistery.50megs.com/nautical.html

 

[rgraham666]

Oops.

Thanks impressive. Now I know.

 

[impressive]

Thanks impressive. Now I know.

Now WE know. I'd have been searching for a lot longer without your lead!

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Re: FYI

"Figurehead" was the term I was seeking.

Many sailing ships, actually most ships, dating back hundreds maybe thousands of years had decorative figureheads on their bows. THe first, dating back thoushands of years, were fairly simple, mainly a set of eyes and maybe a face. This, it was believed by the sailors, would enable their ship to 'see' since they actually belived the ship was alive in a sence.

In the centuries that followed would evolve what is considered the classic figurhead, many were of beautiful women or mermaids and such but not all. Some were of amimals, mythical beasts of even something as mundane a a tree.

Sailors were, and to some degree still are, a very supersticoius lot. They saw the figurehead more than just a good luck symbol. To the sailors it actually represented the spirit of the ship. This belief was so strong that if the figurehead was damaged somehow the men felt sure that the ship was headed for certian disaster.

THe high point or golden age of Figurheads was the late 18th to mid 19th century on the Clipper Ships. By the mid to late 19th century the figurheads were on their way out due to the cost of carving and maintaining them. By the advent of steamships they were all but gone.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Obscure question:

What type of ship featured a maiden with big tits on the prow?

Any ship during the age of sail could have boasted a figurehead of a maiden. Other popular designs were a dolphin or lion or ram's head.

Always remember with wooden ships you are talking about a work of art as well as a functional vessel. They were all made by hand, by crastsmen. For the purpose of a story, everyship had at least a couple of carpenters in the crew. If you would like the busty girl on the prow, you have only to have one of these carpenters have some skill at carving and Viola, you could have a figurehead, it's not like they had shuffle board and voyages could take many months to complete.

-Colly

 

[impressive]

Thanks, CD & Colly.

Not writing a sailing story. My lead character is just using it as an analogy to how reverse cowgirl makes her feel.

 

[tolyk]

Okay, this is a weird one.. But I need to know a bit about Soap Operas.. What kind of plots they have (if any), how many characters are active at any given time (on average..)

Stuff like that.. I tried doing some research on soap sites, but I just couldn't.. any info soap watchers can give me would be helpful

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

There are usually three or four storylines going on at once. Generally, one of them is the main one and the others are subplots. Lots of characters... I'd say about 5 key figures and then 10-15 supporting characters.

As far as kind of plots go, there's always the good twin/evil twin, amnesia, mulitple personalities, kidnapping and brainwashing, mafia, and the normal bed hopping. Hope that helps!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Okay, this is a weird one.. But I need to know a bit about Soap Operas.. What kind of plots they have (if any), how many characters are active at any given time (on average..)

Stuff like that.. I tried doing some research on soap sites, but I just couldn't.. any info soap watchers can give me would be helpful

The key to them all is that the plots are simple and have no relation to reality. In one episode a man is framed, tired, convicted of murder and saved from the chair by a last minute reprieve.

You are basically going to see simple, tried and true plots with pretty well used twists. It isn't that the writing is bad, it's intentioanlly simplified. The idea seems to be something you can watch while cleaning house, taking care of the kids, etc. and not get lost if you miss an episode or three.

-Colly

 

[Guest]

 

[cheerful_deviant]

The idea seems to be something you can watch while cleaning house, taking care of the kids, etc. and not get lost if you miss an episode or three.

... or thirty.

And keep in mind that most everyone in them is a doctor, lawyer, drug smuggler or independantly wealthy.

However there are a few commonfolk who are struggling artists, own trendy coffee houses or are the disillusioned offspring of the independantly wealthy.