The guy took both thumbs along the sides of the nose and pressed hard so that the broken bone aligned with the air passages.

That hurts like hell but it was common practice for sports injuries in the early 20th century and I would imagine it was common in battle as well.

I've seen it done at rugby games in the late '90s, too.

Hm, thinking aloud, since my hero and his sidekick are both soldiers, they probably have some inkling how to treat this thing. So when the sidekick gets there a few hours later (or, maybe, once they're actually out of the building and away from their pursuers), he can do the thumbs-alongside-the-nose thing, which sounds like it could give me my goal of a hero with a visibly crooked but breathable nose.

Sports/Battle Injury story:

When my Uncle Bob was in Jr. High (this would be early 70s) he broke his leg in two places -- femur and tibia.

At the hospital they brought in super bone setter doc who had just gotten back from Viet Nam. SBSD told my Uncle "this is really going to hurt, brace yourself" so my Uncle held his breath and it did hurt like hell when the SBSD grabbed him. Then SBSD said "its all over now" and my Uncle relaxed. THAT is when -- with one mighty yank -- SBSD set both bones.

My Uncle still tells the story with complete awe.

Great column about giftedness that a teacher posted in the main office of one of the schools I work at: [link]

Now that your children are back in school, there's something you should know. I'm afraid your kid isn't a genius. Chances are he or she isn't even gifted. Don't feel bad. By the most generous definition, only about 5 percent of kids can be considered gifted, according to educators. Even fewer rate as actual geniuses;

Bahahahahah... ballsy for a teacher to post it in the office of her school with the gifted/high ability magnet during application season.

Do you find that kids who parents think are "gifted" are actually just kids who are less dumb?

Speaking of short stories, today's Salon has an article up on the new collection of Connie Willis's short stories, which apparently includes both the wheat and the chaff.

Is it even remotely possible, allowing a certain amount of license for the hero of an action story, that my character can get off a Cutting Remark directed at the man who ordered him roughed up before he's overwhelmed by the pain and the extreme nosebleed?

Absolutely and totally. There are gradations of nose breaks. When I broke A's nose, she didn't even realise it. She just thought her nose hurt a lot. But I made her go look in the mirror because it didn't look the same as it had before I punched her. J had his nose broken twice--I was only there for one of them, but he was plenty vocal and sarcastic about it. There was a fair amount of bleeding and disfigurement. The second time was much worse--kinda splayed his nose across his face, and I'm not sure he was chatty then.

At our magnet school (which had it's own aerodynamics lab) we probably had one maybe two truly gifted kids. The rest of us were just really interested in stuff and/or worked hard.

Do you find that kids who parents think are "gifted" are actually just kids who are less dumb?

HA! Yes. And frankly, as a teacher I'll take the hardworking kid over the gifted one every time.

Perfect Xpost with DJ.

Huh. Now he's a surgeon in New Orleans.