Little Details

Okay, so I've got some angel characters whose story may or may not get written (as with most of my ideas, I have a beginning, an end, some pretty scenes for the middle and no decent plot to string them together on) but either way they need names, and I have no idea about constructing Biblical/angelic-type names.

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Thanks in advance for your help! ^_^

The post about a female gamer's accomplishments the other day inspired an idea for one of my projects, so now I'm looking for a general opinion on something. I have a comic where a woman is trying to establish her credibility as a serious gamer. The person to whom she is talking has previously shot down claims involving Battletoads and Mega Man 2, so I'm looking for another NES game to continue the theme. In particular, I'm looking for something to fill in the following blank.

"I've actually played __________."
"Really? Wow, you are hardcore."

Basically, something relatively obscure that only serious gamers might have played. What, in the collective opinion, might be a good NES game to fill in that blank?

I honestly have no idea how I'd even attempt searching for this on Google or anywhere else, but it's a nagging little thing that may prove to be a big factor in my novel. Any answers or suggestions for search terms would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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My friend has a character from Iran who he wants to call Naji Arvin Tehrani. I assume that the 'Arvin' part is the surname and the 'Tehrani' part is to do with Tehran the city.

Three questions:

1) Is this an accurate name for a modern-day Iranian married woman? Is this the order in which would be written?

2) How should she be addressed? Naji? Mrs Arvin? Mrs Tehrani?

2) Based on this, what aspects would her husband's name share? IE. What parts of her husband's name would she have taken?


Cross-posted to multilingual.

I'm working on my NaNoWriMo novel and I've come upon a little snag. The main character, Rachel, went to a bar at 2AM looking for someplace vampires, werewolves, etc. might be. She called the cops after seeing what it was like inside but ended the call when someone tried to talk to her. So, the cops came and found her there, one of them pulling her aside and talking to her. He found out that she's fifteen years old and something scratched her hand. He says that Rachel should have the cut checked out at a hospital. Another cop calls for ambulances and a few come ten minutes later.

My question is, how would Rachel get to the hospital, would they put her in an ambulance with a more seriously injured person or would a cop drive her there in his car? And if a cop drove her, would she sit in the front or back of the car?

Thanks in advance!

My character is an extremely talented soccer player and wants to be recruited for one of the top soccer teams in the US.

So far, I know next to nothing about the recruiting process. Do coaches call universities to let them know there's talent on the team? Do the players do it themselves? When do they apply? What else should I know? All I've found is the initial signing date for soccer is February 7, 2007, and that the final signing date is August 1, 2007 (from here) but, truthfully, I have no idea what that means.

Also, from research, I found that the top teams in 2006 are Notre Dame, North Carolina, UCLA, Santa Clara, and Portland. My character is intelligent, but a lazy student. She would often be happy coasting through, but sometimes still hope for a challenge. She's considering a psych major. Can anyone tell me which of those schools would be the best fit for her, academically?

EDIT: When I sent this through, LJ was having problems. It looks like it ate half the post, including the articles I'd already looked at. The questions are in reference to fresh, unprocessed chicory for use as a coffee substitute and/or medicinal. I'm aware it grows in North America and that the roasted root is used to make coffee substitute but I'm needing to know if it would be found growing wild in the southwest in February. These are the articles I checked:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory
http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/coffeesubstitutes/a/chicory.htm

http://healing.about.com/od/flowerprofiles/p/chicory.htm (New Age properties but no hard medicinal data)

http://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa091698.htm (talks only about use in salads; I don't think in February that would be pertinent, even if that type did chance to grow there)

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wildseed/23/23.1.html (cultivation crop information, very brief, and does not tell what areas of North America the wild plant is found in. I would presume, since it's a Texas site that it might be found in similar terrain in New Mexico, which is where the story takes place, but it still doesn't tell me what type of terrain)

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/chicor61.html (this came closest to answering my questions but the article pertains to Europe only and there is but one sentence about the fresh root and it's not very helpful)

http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.other.chicory.html (New Orleans coffee blends, not what I needed at all)

No references to the southwest or whether or not it would grow in the winter or whether the fresh root can be used in that area.

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/chicory.html(vegetable information, domestic cultivation only)

http://www.aces.edu/dept/forages/forchic.html (use in Alabama as forage for cattle)

The remaining hits, which decrease in relevance as I go through them were about a Java application and a feminist press.

I added the keyword "southwest" to "chicory" and the articles which came up were about the wildflowers and its presence as a noxious weed:

http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/Blue%20Purple%20Enlarged%20Photo%20Pages/cichorium%20intybus.htm (This may not even be the same plant, as no mention is made of using the root for beverages; it suggests that it grows in low foothill elevations but doesn't define the terrain. "Low" is relative; here in Florida that's only a few feet above sea level. Out there it can mean anything from 4000-8000 feet).

I'm worried about the alkalai content of the root because the southwestern herbal I have cautions that even plants which may not typically contain alkalais can poison someone if the roots are used and grow in soil which is alkaline in nature. The area in which the story takes place borders on some alkalai flats (and this is a common problem throughout the Southwest).

Google failed me on this.

I know chicory was and is used as a coffee substitute but I haven't been able to find out the following information:

- what part is used?
- how is it processed?
- would it grow wild?
- when is it harvested?
- would it be found in the southwest growing wild, either through introduction or as a native plant?
- would the part that makes the beverage be usable even if it were harvested in the winter?
- just how DO you make a coffee-like beverage with it anyhow?

They're out of supplies and I was about to posit that one of the characters had found the chicory and made a beverage with it using water from the stream and the plant heated over a fire...then I realized that I didn't even know if the scenario was possible.

ETA: Thanks, whoever gave me that link to the USDA plant database. I never would have found it because I'm not a botanist or biologist. According to the distribution maps, the plant IS NOT found in northeast New Mexico. In fact, there's a nice wide corridor of chicory-free counties all around the area in which my story is set.