Languages Spoken by Jewish People in Renaissance Rome and the 12th Century Levant

[pixie_rings]

I am writing something set in Renaissance Rome (specifically the 1570s) and a large chunk is set in the Jewish Quarter, so I wanted to know whether the majority of the inhabitants would be speaking Hebrew in a daily setting amongst themselves or whether it would be a purely liturgical language and they would be speaking Romanesco. I know the ghetto itself was only about 20 years old during the 1570s, and I was also wondering whether that would affect the language spoken.

The same applies to the 12th Century Holy Land: which language would the Jewish inhabitants have been speaking amongst themselves (I know the broader lingua francas such as Syriac/Aramaic, Levantine Arabic and Old French)? And how would Hebrew have differed (if spoken conversationally and not used as a static scholarly/liturgical language) between the time periods? A lot? A little?

The context is two immortals (one is Muslim and one is Christian) from the 12th century in Renaissance Rome. My thinking was they learnt Hebrew in the Holy Land and are now applying it to the Jewish Quarter. I want to know whether that makes any sense or not.

I can usually find most things I need by myself but for some reason the answers to these questions are just completely eluding me.

smoking & nicotine patches

[nerakrose]

hello!

I have a character (scandi noir detective) who's a heavy smoker considering maybe quitting smoking because he's discovered the person he's into is using nicotine patches and he's like, wait, should I...stop smoking?? he is aware that he smokes too much but he's also a Mess with Issues so he's never thought about quitting smoking before.

he's some flavour of neurodivergent and has sensory issues with clothes, so he wears the same type of clothes every day (a suit and tie). he is also potentially allergic to the adhesive in generic plasters - I've not decided on this yet - could this be an issue with nicotine patches?

he smokes primarily when he's frustrated (which is often) and when he needs to think (ditto) or as an excuse to get away from an uncomfortable social situation. I don't know how nicotine patches work aside from the fact I think you're supposed to wear 1 patch for several hours? and this guy probably would not bother reading what the box says, he'd just buy a box and slap on a patch and go on about his day, so I'm also envisioning him slapping on a new patch anytime he wants to light a cigarette, potentially ending up with like 6+ patches on his forearm over the course of a day.

what would be the potential consequences of this? is that even realistic? is there anything I haven't thought of?

eta to clarify: I'm looking for pointers on how to torture this already tortured blorbo rather than a feasible way to give up smoking :D

thanks!!

Discernability of old fractures on x-ray film

[twgt]

My question is mostly regarding how realistic it would be to identify old rib fractures on x-ray. Research has yielded some promising results, but I couldn't quite get answers that fully address this specific scenario.

Putting my question and the context under a cut because it involves discussion of child physical abuse. (It's also a little on the long side.)

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