little_details

Illinois has a law that prohibits sex between teachers (and others of authority, I believe) and high school students, even if the student is otherwise of age. I think it falls under statutory rape, although I could be wrong there. The law existed at least as late as the very late '90s, and I can't imagine that it would've been repealed.

What I'm trying to figure out is if California has such a law (and if it was around in 1999, if they do). From what I can tell, there isn't one, but I also haven't been able to prove that the Illinois law does exist when I know it does/did, so I am not confident in my searching.

I've tried googling with various combinations of California(/Illinois), teacher, student, sex, statutory rape, law. Mostly I'm getting news articles and websites expressing outrage about teachers sleeping with underage students, which isn't what I'm looking for.

Location: Somewhere in the Midlands, UK, 2007.

I'm not sure how to Google this since it concerns actual usage of rude hand gestures in a region of the UK in 2007. It's for a scene of road rage taking place between a London driver and someone from the Midlands.

Basically, if the London driver made a W gesture with his hands would the other driver take it to mean 'wanker' or 'whatever'.

Also is the 'dickhead' (right hand indicating a penis growing from the forehead) still used in the Midlands? It seems to have died out in the South.

Thanks in advance.

I have a story in progress with prescription painkiller mix-ups, and I've found a lot of general information on the Google, but I need a few specifics filled in.

The character -- male, early forties, generally healthy, not on any other controlled substances -- accidentally takes someone else's Vicodin. I've found lists of overdose side effects online, but in no particular order. Which ones happen first?

How short a recovery time can I get away with? One page said 1 to 4 days. Could I have him in the hospital one evening and out the next morning? How low a dosage would it have to be?

It can be a dosage that he would have recovered from on his own without going to the hospital at all, so long as the symptoms are noticeable. (If that's possible with Vicodin. Every site says you should get medical attention immediately, but I want to know if unaided recovery despite symptoms is possible as a writer with a character, not a person with a real OD case. Either way, he's not going to stop and try to judge whether the symptoms warrant hospitalization or not.)

Finally, are there any things I should be especially certain to keep in mind regarding Vicodin addiction, overdose, or withdrawal, or details so small that sites like these don't cover them?

(ETA: These aren't all for the same character. There's an actual addict in the story too.)

Even though I've researched this, I figure it can't hurt to leave the door open, in case there are holes in my knowledge that I simply don't know about.

Thank you!

( Read more...Collapse )

ETA: I want to thank everyone for their input. ^^