Which of these paragraphs might be considered to be "common knowledge," and which should have the source(s) cited, or documented via an author note? What words or other factors in some paragraphs "tip off" the reader that the material had been taken from an uncited source?

About 20 million Americans were absent from work or school on May 21, 1999. A contagion of the flu? No. It was the release day of Phantom Menace, the first Star Wars movie in 16 years. It was a day which had been awaited by millions.

Long before the release, there had been heated discussions on web sites about the forthcoming film. What would the plot be like? Who would portray Obi-Wan Kenobi? . . . . When the trailer appeared in movie theaters, many die-hard fans were reported to have gone to the movies just to see the trailer — and then had left, without seeing the main feature that was to be shown.

The first Star Wars trilogy had consisted of Star Wars: New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). According to box office statistics of The Internet Movie Database, all three are among the ten most successful films ever.

The Star Wars story was influenced by the Flash Gordon comic series of the 1930s, earlier science fiction movies, and the Mars stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story of the first film was also influenced to a great extent by the films of Akira Kurosawa. In fact, the story of the first film was partially a remake of Kurosawa’s samurai adventure The Hidden Fortress (1960).

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The slang words or expressions used in connection with throwing up fit their purpose well: some are ruthlessly descriptive, such as blowing one’s chunks, tossing cookies, and Technicolor yawning. The shorter terms aren’t very pleasant either: ralphing, spewing, folded (over the toilet), and heaving would seem to be interchangeable with four-letter words, carrying an unfortunate stigma simply due to their connotations.

There are thousands of slang words for liquor in general. Following are some of the more widely-used, as well as several oddities that have rightly become obsolete. . . .

• booze, King Colt (Eb., compared to Colt 45 malt liquor [beer]), sauce, hooch, juice

The picture slang expessions give of alcoholics is mainly negative: barfly and booze are two common examples, and the connection between heavy alcohol use and poor financial status is illustrated by entries such as bum, rumbum, barrel house bum and stewbum. The Ebonic slang word for a drunk, jickhead, is but one letter away from being really nasty.