Trivia questions - the Dummies thread

Dammit! I'm the first one to view it, and it has to be a car question! I can't even drive!

Jack, under the hood.
Tire on the flat bed.

The jack in the narrow space behind the front seat, tire underneath the bed of the truck in the rear; although both of these things vary. For example, some trucks have a little storage box mounted to the side where a jack could be kept.

ac

Maryn said:

I need a descriptive term and/or name for an antique desk which would cost at least $10,000 (US). I'll plug it into sentences like His best client’s worst boots litter his _______ ______ desk with pellets of dried mud.

Any information on whether the desk would have one or more locking drawers would be a bonus.

Maryn, once again disappointed in Google's inability to weed out superfluous hits

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His best client’s worst boots litter his antique Boston desk with pellets of dried mud.

His best client’s worst boots litter the desk once belonging to Ethan Allen with pellets of dried mud.

His best client’s worst boots litter his early American walnut desk with pellets of dried mud.

Antique roll top desk.

Her is a link to a dozen photos of these desks

http://images.google.com/images?q=roll+top+desk&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

My parents have an old one made of curley maple, so you could also mention the wood (oak roll top desk, curley maple roll top desk)

Louis XIV escritoire?

Maryn said:

Are these desks expensive enough? Ten thousand dollars? I need something that only a person of wealth would have in his office.

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Any well-made American furniture from earlier than the early 1800s by any one of the famous makers is worth a small fortune (you couldn't touch a desk for $10,000). If the piece was once owned by someone of historical important, the price goes up from there.

If you don't like that idea, you could use a custom made desk; the price is anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000+, according to how fancy the thing is, and what kind of wood, etc.

You can go into any high-end furniture store today and easily pay $10,000 for a solid wood desk.

ac

They did, they do.

I'm not sure about 1978. I would guess that was during the time that most death sentences were on hold in all states due to a Supreme Court ruling.

Maybe a Californian will come along who knows for sure.

Ok, I have a quick question:

If I were to go north on the Mississippi River, would I be going upriver or downriver? What about the Missouri River (northeast on the Missouri)?

You'd be going up-river in both instances, I believe. Old man river dumps in the Gulf.

Tri

You'd be going upriver on both, but I assume you actually meant going northwest on the Missouri. The Missouri generally flows eastward, or southeastward until it converges into the Mississippi near St. Louis.

ac

British hospitals?

Has anyone here ever visited, worked in, or been a patient in a British hospital? A character in my book is severely injured and taken to the trauma unit... I need to know what it's like (does he get assigned his own nurse or is he served by whoever happens to be there, does he see a doctor often or not, what are visiting hours like...). Any experience with British hospitals is welcome, whether or not it was on the trauma unit--any little tidbit of info could come in handy for enhancing the realism of these scenes.

ideagirl said:

Has anyone here ever visited, worked in, or been a patient in a British hospital? A character in my book is severely injured and taken to the trauma unit... I need to know what it's like (does he get assigned his own nurse or is he served by whoever happens to be there, does he see a doctor often or not, what are visiting hours like...). Any experience with British hospitals is welcome, whether or not it was on the trauma unit--any little tidbit of info could come in handy for enhancing the realism of these scenes.

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You could do this via Google; hospitals have pages of this kind of data for patients and their families.

PastMidnight said:

Ok, I have a quick question:

If I were to go north on the Mississippi River, would I be going upriver or downriver? What about the Missouri River (northeast on the Missouri)?

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Upriver on both counts.

As for the Missouri River, it depends on what portion of the river you mean. Near my hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri, the Missouri River runs north/south. It doesn't turn eastward until Kansas City where it does take an rather easterly trek toward St. Louis where the confluence with the mighty Mississippi occurs upstream of downtown St. Louis.

In parts of Montana, it would be possible to travel northeast on the Missouri River but that's getting close to the river's source and it's not as big there as later in its' route.

ideagirl said:

Has anyone here ever visited, worked in, or been a patient in a British hospital? A character in my book is severely injured and taken to the trauma unit... I need to know what it's like (does he get assigned his own nurse or is he served by whoever happens to be there, does he see a doctor often or not, what are visiting hours like...). Any experience with British hospitals is welcome, whether or not it was on the trauma unit--any little tidbit of info could come in handy for enhancing the realism of these scenes.

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A severely injured patient would most likely arrive by ambulance (summoned by dialing 999). The paramedic crew in the ambulance would call ahead with details of the injuries so that the patient could be met by a team in the A+E dept and, if necessary, go straight into theatre. Anyone accompanying them gets to do a lot of waiting around and drinking of vending machine coffee/tea (there are visitors cafes in many of the larger hospitals). Anyone who followed the ambulance in their own car might very well find they spend a lot of money in car-parking charges in the hospital car park.

My wife is a nurse in a NHS hospital. PM me if you need more detail

alleycat said:

You'd be going upriver on both, but I assume you actually meant going northwest on the Missouri. The Missouri generally flows eastward, or southeastward until it converges into the Mississippi near St. Louis.

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You're right, I did mean to type northwest.

Thanks to everyone who responded! I thought that both flowed southerly (the Missouri into the Mississippi, the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico), but wasn't positive and wasn't sure how to find the answer to this.