Young Writers Society

I've been in an editing frenzy, lately, trying to pump out a second draft of my NaNo. However, I've found that there are quite a few questions in this world that Wikipedia can't answer. If you can answer a previously unanswered one, I owe you eternal friendship and a critique on the work of your choice (I'm not great with poetry, but I can tell you whether or not it is awful. Fiction's more my thing.)

- When two people--usually female--are angry and confront each other about it and snap four times "in Z formation", what is this called? I have been calling them "bitch snaps" but I am not certain if this is the proper term.

- What is the name of a popular supermarket in the Chicago area?

- [If you have ever been in 4-H] How are cattle judged? I'm mainly looking at pigs and steers, but you have any other 4-H experiences, I would love to hear them. ^_^ You never know what could end up in The Angsty Behemoth.

- What are the little flaps adhered to the ceiling above the front seats of cars called? You know, the things with mirrors, that shield your eyes from the sun...?

- What's the sticky uppy thing in between the two front seats in a car called if it is not a stickshift?

- [If you have ever lived in a small, remote town] Do small, local clinics have emergency teams, and if so, what vehicle do they drive?

- What are the different pieces in "Risk" called?

- For the love of God, can someone properly explain [American] football to me? I am merely a spectator, but this doesn't help when trying to write a good sports announcer rant.

- Ditto baseball.

- Have you ever worked at a Dairy Queen/ice cream place? If so, when did shipments come in, what were your health standards, and how do you turn on a Blizzard machine?

- Are plotlines with fortune tellers, if executed properly, passè?

- Are fines charged for walking on railroad tracks?

- [If you have ever worked at a golf course] Are stray balls ever retrieved, or do you simply leave them rot? [Balls "in the thick", off of the fairway, blah blah].

- How fast do trains travelling across countryside go? Freight trains- coal trains, you know the drill. How far out of town do they begin to slow? How slow?

- [If you have a cell phone] Where do you not "have bars"? Do they break if you throw one against the wall?

- How do you work an old-fashioned film reel?

- Are you lawfully allowed to teach creationism in US public schools?

- When is frostbite determined bad enough to amputate?

- How do snowplow drivers determine where to plow?

- What happens if you break your leg but cannot seek medical attention for three or more days?

- Is it bad form to ask your date to pitch in a few dollars for a tip?

- Does your death have to be traumatic if you die with your eyes open?

Danke, in advance. ^_^

My god, what is this about?

What's the sticky uppy thing in between the two front seats in a car called if it is not a stickshift?

Gearshift, perhaps? (I, too, call it the sticky uppy thing. Sheesh, I have a permit now, I should learn this stuff.)

Are fines charged for walking on railroad tracks?

I'm not sure...perhaps only if you get caught, eh? It might depend on the location and the number of times trains pass over said tracks...I'm sure there are some places that see so many trains you're absolutely forbidden to go near them. I've walked on railroad tracks before but I can't give a good answer.

[If you have ever worked at a golf course] Are stray balls ever retrieved, or do you simply leave them rot? [Balls "in the thick", off of the fairway, blah blah].

Yeah, the golf course people collect them. My grandfather works at a golf course. He paid my cousin one summer to dive in all the water-places, the little ponds and rivers, and get balls out of them. They sell recovered balls in big bins in the shop, or whatever it's called.

[If you have a cell phone] Where do you not "have bars"? Do they break if you throw one against the wall?

The bars indicate the strength of your signal. If your service sucks, like mine, you don't have any bars when your phone can't find a signal. It depends on your service provider. Where I live, a lot of people have Verizon because you can get a signal pretty much anywhere. I have T-Mobile and I hardly ever have bars. In general, it's easier to get a signal outside, in a populated area, or by a window, as opposed to in the middle of nowhere or in an underground torture chamber.

Are you lawfully allowed to teach creationism in US public schools?

It depends on what you mean by "teach" and what school district you're in. I live in New York, and in my biology class when we studied evolution, our teacher did a presentation on different theories at the beginning of the unit. That's all we really did in terms of creationism, so I wouldn't say he was "teaching" it, just "presenting" it, sort of like, "Here's this theory. This is what it says. Got it? Cool."
But in some school districts, usually in rural areas where there are lots of Christian conservatives, I believe creationism is a larger part of the curriculum.

Good luck with all that!

Sam wrote:- When two people--usually female--are angry and confront each other about it and snap four times "in Z formation", what is this called? I have been calling them "bitch snaps" but I am not certain if this is the proper term.

I've heard "bitch snaps" and I've heard "Z snaps". I think either one is fine.

- What are the little flaps adhered to the ceiling above the front seats of cars called? You know, the things with mirrors, that shield your eyes from the sun...?

visors

- For the love of God, can someone properly explain [American] football to me? I am merely a spectator, but this doesn't help when trying to write a good sports announcer rant.

The whole point of the game is to score more points that the other team (duh). There are two teams. on offense, you have the line, which has the center (who snaps the ball to the quarterback), there are two guards on either side of the center, and two tackles on either side of them. there is also a tight end, full back, half back, and two wide recievers way off from the tackle and tight end. if they're set in the "I formation", they look like this:

Code: Select all

                                         [fullback]

                                         [halfback]

                                       [quarterback]

          [tight end]  [tackle]  [guard]  [center]  [guard]  [tackle]

The defense, with a noseguard, two tackles, two ends, three linebackers, a safety, and two guys covering the wide recievers (not sure what they're called, probably recieving guards), looks like this, usually:

Code: Select all

                                            [safety]

                      [linebacker]          [linebacker]          [linebacker]

                      [end]     [tackle]     [noseguard]     [tackle]    [end]

The offense tries to score, by either touchdown (worth six points, with an additional point, if they kick the ball through the goal posts, or two points, if they run it into the endzone again), field goal (worth three points when kicked through the goal posts without scoring a touchdown immediately beforehand), or a safety (worth two points, where an offenseive player fumbles the ball, and a defensive player jumps on top of it. i think it's in the defensive endzone, but i'm not totally sure.)

You can look up the different penalties, i think. Most common ones are holding (move the offense back five yards), false start (move the offense/defense back five yards), and pass interference (move defense back five yards).

PM me for a possible sportscaster rant, or just watch football and copy down whatever the guys on TV are saying.

- Ditto baseball.

two teams, one has to outscore the other. the defensive team is out in the field. there are three out fielders, a first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop (between second and third base), pitcher, and catcher. the offensive team has a batter. the strike zone is commonly the width of the plate, and the height from the batter's shoulders to his knees.

the pitcher pitches the ball, hoping to get the ball in the strike zone and/or get the batter to swing and miss the ball. Both are strikes. if the ball is outside of the strike zone, it's called a ball. three strikes, the batter's out. four balls, the batter moves to first. the batter also moves to first when they are hit by a pitched ball (commonly called a "bean ball" if done on purpose, which happens more often than you'd think). there are six outs in an inning (three for one team, and three for the other). the game lasts nine innings (for time, a quick game is usually two hours. a long game can last for four or more hours).

when a batter rounds all three bases and comes back to home plate, that's one run. a hit ball with the batter stopping at first is a single, stopping at second is a double, stopping at third is a triple, and going all the way around is a home run. when a batter is on second or third, they're in "scoring position". when there are batters on all three bases, the bases are loaded (sometimes "juiced").

PM me (or listen/watch a baseball game) for a sportscaster rant, or if you want any information that i missed on either baseball or football.

- Are plotlines with fortune tellers, if executed properly, passè?

I like 'em, if they're done well.

- Are fines charged for walking on railroad tracks?

No. If the cops see you, they tell you to move.

- [If you have ever worked at a golf course] Are stray balls ever retrieved, or do you simply leave them rot? [Balls "in the thick", off of the fairway, blah blah].

lost balls are picked up by whomever finds them. sometimes it's a greenskeeper, sometimes it's another golfer. depends on who gets to them first.

- [If you have a cell phone] Where do you not "have bars"? Do they break if you throw one against the wall?

I usually don't have bars around towers that send off radio signals (which makes my job at the radio station wreak havoc on my phone calls), or down in some basements. Some buildings will have signal blocking towers (my school recently put one up). it prevents people from making or recieving calls, texts, or other multimedia messaging.

cheap phones will break when thrown against the wall. however, they do make "indestructable phones" for farmers who drop their phones from the tops of silos and stuff.

- Are you lawfully allowed to teach creationism in US public schools?

I have no idea. A few of my teachers touched on it, but I would ask a US teacher about that.

- When is frostbite determined bad enough to amputate?

Usually when the body part in question is black and has lost feeling, though not all of the time.

- What happens if you break your leg but cannot seek medical attention for three or more days?

This happened to an old lady my mom works with. She broke her leg three times in three different places within a month, and sought no medical treatment for either of them (they rushed her to the hospital after she broke her leg a fourth time). There's a lot of pain, a lot of limping, but eventually, one just gets used to it.

- Is it bad form to ask your date to pitch in a few dollars for a tip?

It might be. I do, which probably explains why i haven't been on a date in a long time

- Does your death have to be traumatic if you die with your eyes open?

I would think not. but probably. "Sudden" would probably be the better term.

Sam wrote:- What are the different pieces in "Risk" called?

This answer is actually more complicated than one might assume.

As you may already know, the most basic piece in Risk is an "army." Depending on how old the Risk game is, the armies are shaped differently. I've seen two variations: the older version uses plastic roman numerals (with I, III, V and X) while the newer uses plastic figures (an infantry soldier, caverly, and a canon).

So.

And while this is by no means an "official" answer, when playing the older version, since the pieces are just numbers, they're normally refered to as just "one's," "three's," "five's," etc. If you're playing the newer version, you might call them "soldiers" or "infantry" or "cavelry" or whatever depending on the piece in question. But you may still call them "one's" or "three's," even if they're shaped like the other things.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. >>

“What are the little flaps adhered to the ceiling above the front seats of cars called? You know, the things with mirrors, that shield your eyes from the sun...?”
Sun Visors

“- What are the different pieces in "Risk" called?”
Phindin’s got it right in every respect, kudos to him.

“- Are plotlines with fortune tellers, if executed properly, passè?”
Yes, but my standards for that kind of thing would be very high. If you do it like Paolini – the “I’m so good I already *know* what’s going to happen” then no. The trick is to actually make the fortune teller affect the actions of the protagonist, make it a plot element rather than a frivolity.

“- Are you lawfully allowed to teach creationism in US public schools?”
Depends on the state/time. I’m an Aussie but I try to keep up with this stuff (though I’ve kinda failed). Politicians often flip-flop on this, so if you’re setting a story with this involved, work out when/where you’re setting it, and look it up.

“- Is it bad form to ask your date to pitch in a few dollars for a tip?”
Obviously an opinion one, in my view, yes. It puts them in a position where they feel set upon to offer money.

“- Does your death have to be traumatic if you die with your eyes open?”
No, but obviously not dying in your sleep.

Lo, Sam.

About teaching creationism. I think the rule these days, though I am not sure exactly, is that if you teach creationism you have to teach evolution, as well.

For baseball if you can get a hold of any Vin Scully broadcasts they are amazing. To me, he is the most informative, interesting man to listen to when it comes to baseball. He did play-by-play for the Dodgers, first Bronx Dodgers then the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dodger's Announcer Page -- There is a clip there where Vin Scully talks about his style of broadcasting.

Vin Scully Quotes -- There is a word-for-word transcript of a game in September 1965

NPR: Recorded History: Vin Scully Calls a Koufax Milestone -- There is another sound clip of a play-by-play.

Vin Scully Audio Clips

I think Flemzo covered most the baseball things, but I noticed one that I didn't see. So, when they call the count for the batter in baseball, they call balls first then strikes -- for example: 3-0 is three balls, zero strikes, and 0-3 is zero balls and three strikes.

If you have any specific questions on baseball feel free to give me a holler.

Frostbite -- According to my nephew who is a firefighter/paramedic, amputation is a last resort after they have tried to restore the frostbitten part of the body.

How early are you talking about for an old-fashioned film reel? Silents? Black and Whites? The advent of technicolor? I'm thinking that the film is 16mm. I am not exactly an expert on the working the reel part, but I am sure it would be easier if you narrowed it down a bit.

Sam wrote:- When two people--usually female--are angry and confront each other about it and snap four times "in Z formation", what is this called? I have been calling them "bitch snaps" but I am not certain if this is the proper term.

I've been calling them bitch snaps, according to www.urbandictionary.com they are a z circle snap or z snap: z circle snap.

Sam wrote:What's the sticky uppy thing in between the two front seats in a car called if it is not a stickshift?

Actually, it is called a gear stick, though it is part of the gearshift which is the mechanism that actually changes the gears in the gear box. Though, the gear stick is often labeled as the gear shift.

Stickshift is actually the layman's term for a manual transmission.

Hope this helps.

Ta,
Cal.

I was in 4-H, but sadly I can't answer your question. See, I never actually got to see the judging.

Having said that, I can tell you that I had some good experiences in the club. We learned how to to pickle vegetables, and did essays, and stuff like that. I think we were supposed to do model rockets, but that never got off the ground.

Caligula's Launderette wrote:Actually, it is called a gear stick, though it is part of the gearshift which is the mechanism that actually changes the gears in the gear box. Though, the gear stick is often labeled as the gear shift.

Stickshift is actually the layman's term for a manual transmission.

I think it's might be called the clutch, too... >.> Then again, I haven't done much driving, so...

No, the clutch is what allows the gears to move, I think. That's used by using one of the pedals (being only 16, I have no idea which).

The clutch is the pedal you push down while shifting. It might have some inner workings, but that's what I know about it.

I've always called the "sticky uppy thing" the stick shift.

- Are you lawfully allowed to teach creationism in US public schools?

Yes. My biology teacher gave us a whole big lecture on this point last year. You're allowed to teach both creationism and evolution, but you're not allowed to say, "This is what's right. This is what you have to believe."

There are also some public schools that have classes that study the Bible. I read about this in Time a while ago. They're elective classes, and it's just studying the Bible, not the actual religion. They don't go in and say, "here's the Bible, believe it." They look at it as a literary work and teach it as such.

- How do snowplow drivers determine where to plow?

I assume they start with major roads and freeways and work their way down from there. But as I live in a place that hasn't seen snow in decades, my input here doesn't count for much.

- [If you have a cell phone] Where do you not "have bars"? Do they break if you throw one against the wall?

Mountains and power lines suck. There's a section near my house where a road winds through the mountains and it's completely dead. No signal at all there (coincidentally, there's hiking trails all through those mountains). But other than that, it really depends on your service provider. I have Verizon, which is one of the better ones. My brother used to have Cingular, which is horrible, and couldn't even call 911 when he got into a car accident ten feet from my house.

And I think it depends on how hard you throw the phone. xD
Although hitting it with a baseball bat is preferred by one of the teachers at my school. xD

Saint Razorblade wrote:Mountains and power lines suck.

Dips in roads. Those always get our phones. >.<

Sam wrote:- [If you have a cell phone]...Do they break if you throw one against the wall?

Saint Razorblade wrote:And I think it depends on how hard you throw the phone.

Well, my brother had a Razor (or maybe he's had two, I don't remember) which was just not durable (not the right word, but whatever). It broke when he just simply dropped it. >_> I know mine does fine if it accidently falls from its holster, but it does get a mite scratched. ^^;

Flemzo wrote:however, they do make "indestructable phones" for farmers who drop their phones from the tops of silos and stuff

lol I know those! My brother knew a guy who had one. he threw it against a concrete wall and made a call with it right after! XD

Baseball! No offense, Kelle, but the dodgers? Ew :p Sambo, what do you mean, exactly, by "sport announcer rant"? First off, they're called broadcasters. Second off, most teams (at least baseball, not so sure about football) have their "trademark" guys, if you will. And yes, they usually are male. Let's take the Giants and (pardon my language) the dodgers, as an example. First off, you want good tension for the game, start with two long-time rivals. Giants/dodgers is a good one to use (since you have me, and possibly CL to help with it). With broadcasters, the dodgers have Scully, the Giants have Kruk and Ki



For cell phones, actually phones in general, the mountains to suck. Badly. And, at least where I go,

Here we call "stickshifts" "gearsticks"

And for the amputation, my drama teacher was talking to me and Samuel about it. He said that when the nerves in the limb die, and the circulation stops to that limb, they amputate, and I think it's when it becomes discoloured (black I think he said)