ithildin | Things I'm Wondering About

Random things I'm wondering about today as my brain leaps from one fic to another.

Would the stays in a corset deflect a knife so that instead of it stabbing where it was intended, it would go in at a different angle, potentially causing a less serious wound?

What was the most popular serious/hardcore recreational drug during the Roaring Twenties? Was opium still being used heavily?

What about the teeth of Immortals anyway? Would they never wear down? Would they grow back if knocked out, or are lots of Immies wearing dentures?

Early nineteenth pistols. Need to know more. Must look through collected websites soonish.

Just what did happen when Charlotte went to Bali with Tony? Will they ever tell me? Do I really want to know?

If Ezra Standish had to choose another name for a new persona, what would it be?

Later: Wow! I wasn't expecting so much random pondering help [g] And some of these aren't even for any specific purpose, just idle curiosity. Like the immie teeth one. Why am I wondering about it? Not a klew! I just am.

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I must assume that the teeth of immortals would regenerate if damaged and grow back is lost entirely. (But then, I categorically reject the stupid canon idea that they can't regrow lost limbs. There's no way--no way!--an immortal can be a swordsman for centuries and not lose a few fingers or a hand or an arm. Plus, if you can shoot an immortal in the head and he can recover with no brain damage or lost memories, growing back limbs is child's play.)

Here's another question: do immortal women continue to menstruate for eternity? They remain physically young, after all. Or do they go through menopause despite remaining youthful otherwise? After all, women have a finite number of egss. When they're all gone--then what?

>What about the teeth of Immortals anyway? Would they never wear down? Would they grow back if knocked out, or are lots of Immies wearing dentures?
probably a combination - they continually get replaced every time they're knocked out, but when they aren't knocked out, regular use keeps them fit and sharp (like rat teeth)

about 19th Century pistols and corsets, I suggestion http://www.onelist.com/groups/TheQueenOfSwords

>Just what did happen when Charlotte went to Bali with Tony? Will they ever tell me? Do I really want to know?
they'll tell you. (if they don't, threaten to make Charlotte date Kronos, and Tony date Sarah Connor)

my hunch: nothing happened, but neither sees any point in explaining that to the gossipmongers in the news rags.

Yeah, I've always thought the not growing back limbs things was pretty silly. If internal organs grow back, limbs should too. Maybe not quickly, but eventually.

I vote for some sort of immortal menopause.

biologically speaking, if all Immortals are sterile, does that extend to their eggs?

Something happened. After all, Tony almost got Charlotte killed. But they're being cagey about the details.

I don't think so. Corsets covered the chest and back areas, and getting a wound in the chest was pretty much fatal. If someone got a glancing skin wound, maybe, but there's too many vital organs in that area for a complete miss. The nurses' opinions may vary.

Alcohol. Followed by marijuana, heroine, opium and cocaine.

I think they would grow back. Dental enamel would be replaced by the tooth fairy each night.

Which ones? The early pepperpots or the Colt 45s? Lots of info on the web for this.

Sun, fun, alcohol consumption, a few native dances and scuba diving.

Who is Ezra Standish? Umm I choose "Bruce Wayne" as a new name.

Depends on the type of stays, and where they're placed. If they're rope, then no. Whalebone, maybe. steel, absolutely. Accounts of the massacre of the Romanov family mention that the women survived the initial execution because they were wearing corsetry, and they had so many jewels hidden in their clothing, that the combined effect of the stiffening agents and the jewels deflected the bullets.

I think Gin and cigarettes were popular in the 20's. It was during prohibition, so technically, consuming any alcohol was an illicit thrill. But the ones you see most in the movies as being 'chic' are gin and cigarettes that flow out of the speaksies.

I was thinking that if the attacker were behind and the victim turned at the inopportune moment, so the knife would hit somewhere below the shoulder... The knife tip could conceivably be thrown off even more by snagging on a bone. May have to get Nin to be a stand in for victim girl [g]

The pistol ponderings are just that right now -- a mental note to dig through all the websites I've found.

Ezra (in the icon) is one of the characters in Magnificent Seven, my newest old fandom :)

From my comment reply above [g] ...

I was thinking that if the attacker were behind and the victim turned at the inopportune moment, so the knife would hit somewhere below the shoulder... The knife tip could conceivably be thrown off even more by snagging on a bone.

Yeah, though I'm more wondering about hardcore drugs (I reworded my post to make that clear. Didn't think so many people would be helping me randomly ponder!) I'd love to be able to set a scene in an opium den, just because! [g]

hm, maybe fruit out of season? (some tropical fruits are poisonous when they aren't ripe)

I heard from an Indonesian friend that "There was a horizontal conflict in Kalimantan between the native Dayaks and the Madurans transmigrant. It was.... magnificently horrible, that's all I can say."
so, maybe that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium

Scroll down to "Prohibition outside China." Interesting that the 1875 ban appears to have been as much racially motivated as anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine

Scroll down to "Prohibition." Definitely still easily available in the 20s (why Cole Porter could write a line about getting "no kick" from it with nary an eyebrow raised in the 30s). A 1914 ban -- also racially motivated! -- sounds like it didn't slow things down for most consumers at all.

I'd look at corset patterns for the time period in which you are setting your story. That would probably give you the best idea.

As far as hardcore drugs, Most of my research seems to indicate that opium in china experienced a renassance after a nationwide chineese crackdown. So if you set the opium den in a chinatown setting, that might possibly work. But those crazy americans were bobbing their hair, smoking (sometimes mj), listening to Jazz and hanging out in the speaks.

It doesn't have to be opium, just would be cool! [g] The person in question would be a 200 year old immortal, so might be less inclined to go with what's trendy. Heh.

The drug trade rarely seem to be slowed down by much.

Me too. That's how I write it in my fic (when it comes up).

I assume it would have to. Even if we assume all the immortal men are shooting blanks, the women could still possibly get pregnant by mortal men.

And as far as we know, they're all incapable of fathering or bearing children even before they die the first time.

somebody with much more knowledge answered the first one, I have none, but I like to look things up on the web where I was able to find materials used for the stays and then I would have made guesses as to how those would alter a blow.

No idea about the second one

Well, nobody's teeth just repair themselves/regrow so I doubt it. They just all take REALLY good care of them I suppose. Sort of like how hair growth is natural, I assume that immortals have that as well since they are all sporting different hairstyles from when they were first born.

Can't help with anything else though, sorry.

Well, nobody's teeth just repair themselves/regrow so I doubt it.

Well no one's really immortal either, so I'm not sure that matters! [bg] It's just one of those many things about Highlander it's just best not to think about. But i do anyways.

Well no one's really immortal either, sure, that you KNOW :P Yeah, I know what you mean-like I mentioned the hair and it's same to assume that they can still feel shitty because when Duncan was taking care of that new immortal and she wanted to do all that drinking her told her she wouldn't die but wish she had or something...so gotta wonder

my personal canon is that Immortals are marsupials taken to the extreme: the body doesn't recognize the embryo as part of it, so it tries to reabsorb it. (this is why marsupials expell the infants so early into the pouch, and why other mammals have placentas)

...while with male Immortals, their germ cells get killed by the woman's body before they can do anything.

Having worn a corset myself on more than a few occasions, the boning could indeed deflect a knife, especially "back when" because they were whalebone and therefor far more rigid than the plastic boning of today...

*grin*

I knew there were some corset wearers on my list! Thanks :) I've tried corsets on before, but never worn one.

Remember that they can get colds too, so I always assumed they could get infectious diseases (have read some great fic on that subject). Which leads to the question of whether the immunity would stick, or if it would disappear every time the died and came back.

My personal theory, which has no grounding in anything at all: every couple hundred years, immortals grow a new set of teeth. They push the previous set out, just like in humans. It's painful and unpleasant.

Can you imagine how whiny a teething Methos would be? [shudders]

You should ask

surgicalsteel. She's really happy to answer medical questions, because she says it may lower the number of bad medical situations she has to read in fanfics. ;p How much she knows about corsets, though, I am not sure.

*hee* I know what this is about.

The only time in canon we hear another name for Ezra is in "One Day Out West" The judge calls him Ezra Simpson.

In fanon it is accepted that for the most part he keeps his same initials for his aliases. I like Edward and have sort of used that one.

Also this sight http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poindexterfamily/MagSevenTrivia.htm may help answer some mag 7 questions

I thought you might :)

Edward works for me. Edward Steele/Stewart/Sanborne/Smithson

I like Sanborne. I imagine him getting very peeved when Tony insists on calling him Eddie

[snorfle] Since Tony seems incapable of not handing out nicknames! Maybe 'Borney' LOL!

You know it or something equally annoying to Ezra. And CHarlkotte loves it and starts using it so Ezra starts calling her Auntie which she hates.

LOL! I can so see that :)

I believe that the stays would, in fact, deflect a knife, especially the late Victorian ones with steel instead of whalebone.

Believe it or not, the most popular drug of choice during the '20s and '30s was cocaine.

I figure teeth are one of those things Immies don't have to worry about. Like menstruation. Otherwise, what would be the point of being Immortal?

I've worn them. They're actually quite comfortable, if they're fitted properly. It makes you stand up straight -- or sit up straight -- and helps back pain.

I've always figured that if you have an injury before death, you're stuck with it, i.e. Kronos' scar. From there, I postulate that it depends on the injury in inverse order -- for death, the quickening or whatever it is works faster than if it's a limb or sensory injury.

Well, I'm rather well-endowed and there's no strapless bras available in my size, so it was either those horrid see-through strap affairs, or a corset. I have three now and love them!!!

The real fun of a knife in a corset would be with an Edwardian one, and having the tip get caught in the spiral steel boning.

Check out http://www.farthingalesla.com/spiral_bones.php to see what I'm talking about.

I can just picture some idiot with a fine tipped stiletto trying to stab a woman in the kidneys and getting the blade stuck in the boning. The assailant would be disarmed very quickly!

That would a nifty scene. Will have to keep it in mind if I ever write anything in that time period. I'm afraid this is 1817 though. But thanks to all of you, I feel much more confident about my initial idea!

Oh, and I know I've told you before, but I really do love your shop! One of these days.... :) I have two Edwardian style coats that I would love to have a corset to wear with.

1817 is late Regency/Empire (depending on whether you're counting in England or France) and the corsets of the period don't have a lot of bones, mostly they are stiffened with cording. There does tend to be a couple of pieces of whalebone where the lacing is at the center back, but not much more than that. The main stiffener is a massive busk at front that was made of wood, whalebone or ivory sometimes carved with decorations. The piece was an inch or more wide and was part of the reason that the Regency corset was nicknamed the 'divorce' corset -- because it divorced the breasts from each other.
For a good resource on Corsets from different periods check out http://laracorsets.com

Thanks! We're currently working on producing corsets ourselves, in hopes of being able to offer good quality at a better price. As soon as we have them on the website I'll let you know.

I'm pretty sure when I get one I want to do it 'live'. I have an oddly proportioned body. The one time I tried to buy a pre made period dress, the top portion was like a halter top on me [g] Hopefully we can make a trip down to SoCal at some point next year. But yes, I'd love to see the stuff on the website!

Knowing Methos, he probably had a timetable set up so he knows when to expect it.
Then proceeds to liquor himself up.

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The Elves have left us, and we have not mourned to see them go.

Things I'm Wondering About

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