It's Albert HaGadol's Birthday Today!

My darling father was born 96 years ago today, as was his beloved brother Charles (also in the pic is their big sister Dorrit and the Friedl hair). My mother used to call him Albertus Magnus, although all he knew of the whereabouts of the Philosopher's Stone was what was written in the Harry Potter books. Since his newborn grandson now shares the name Albert, I thought it fitting to distinguish him thus. Greatly missed and always loved.

Which Hair Cliche to Use?

The woman most famous for playing a wizarding student in the Harry Potter films has marked the completion of the final episode of the saga by having her hair cut short. "'Hair'-mione no more!" screamed the tabloid newspaper. I wonder if it will cause as much of a furore as occurred when young Mia Farrow did something similar in the '60's?


via www.filmreference.com:
"Mia Farrow began her career in the successful television series Peyton Place playing Allison Mackenzie, a type of role that would become standard in her repertoire: the virginal and innocent waif—sensitive, vulnerable, and intelligent. Admired for her long, Alice-in-Wonderland hair, Farrow shocked Hollywood one day by cutting it all off, an independent act which, odd as it may seem now, made headlines across the country, and characterized Farrow as not just another pretty face content to follow the instructions of her male Hollywood bosses."

Meanwhile, cue endless references to urchins and Audrey Hepburn and pixies and other elfin folk.

Harry Potter is the Messiah

But not in the way that you think. Thanks to Daniel Finkelstein at the Times for highlighting this vid from Iranian TV. If it were not so scary, it would be hysterically funny. JK Rowling as the agent of Hollywood Jews, spreading their Kabbalistic and Satanic propaganda via the eyes and ears of innocent Western children? Yeah, right.

Finkelstein headed his post:

"Another installment in my "why not let these people have a nuclear weapon, what can possibly go wrong" series."

Time for the next use of my favourite most expressive word of American vocabulary: DUH!

as any fule kno

nigel molesworth goes to hogwarts? i am confused. my childhood hero who taught me all i knew about boys at prep skool is now in hufflepuff?

"gulp tremble chiz all eyes are upon me as i flounder. hermoine grangers hand shoot up and she cri sir SIR i kno please sir me sir she is a swot and a sneke like all gurls. Do not mind pore nigel she sa he went to a muggle prep skool and kno 0. Gosh chiz that is a bit much.

"Thank you miss Granger when i want yore opinion i shall ask for it," sa snape. Klass titter and hermoine hav the grace to turn red ha ha sucks. Snape then take five house points from huflepuf while slytherin oiks and cads larff.

"One last chance clot. who discovered the mandrake eh?"

"was it osama bin laden?"

"any more of yore cheek molesworth one and you will be cleaning out the manticor's pen for the rest of term. i supose you do not even kno how to produce lite from yore wand by saing lumos."

"But surely sir lumos hav a greek nom. ending whereas the root come from lat. lumen luminis a lite as any fule kno?"

"That will do molesworth. one trillion house points from huflepuf and see me afterwards.""

for the rest of the story, click here. meanwhile, if you kno not of molesworth one, perhaps wiki may help you.

btw, the wiki article suggests that the name 'hogwarts' may have been a shout-out to molesworth by j k rowling.

j.k.rowling outs harry potter character

as i just read here, j k rowling has told us that dumbledore is gay. interesting ...

a little more here from the bbc

or, as the germans said:

"Die Autorin der Bestseller-Romane um den jungen Zauberer Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, hat das Geheimnis eines der größten Helden der sieben Bände über Hexer und Zauberlehrlinge gelüftet. Dumbledore, Schulleiter des Zauberer-Internats Hogwarts und mächtiger Mentor des jungen Harry, war homosexuell. Die überraschende Information lieferte Rowling bei einer Lesung in der New Yorker Carnegie-Hall am Freitagabend. "Um ehrlich zu sein, ich habe ihn mir immer schwul vorgestellt", sagte Rowling."

p.s. the next day - a leader from the telegraph

harry potter overdose?

better late than never - another facebook list that amused me and i shall never admit that any of the selections are relevant to my own life :-)

You're Too Much of a Harry Potter fan when...

You call your least favorite teacher Snape.

Your computer says "You've Got Mail" and you run outside looking for an owl.

You mutter "lumos" under your breath every time you turn on a flashlight.

You sort everyone you meet into the four Hogwarts houses

You had to go to the hospital after you broke your nose running headfirst into the wall between platforms nine and ten.

You point at normal things like parking meters and say "Look at the things these Muggles dream up!"

Before getting up to get something, you always try to summon it first. Accio TV remote!

You refer to your Chemistry class as Potions.

You get thoroughly overexcited every time you see a word somewhere that is distantly linked with HP (ie. Saint Hedwig's).

You were kicked out of the movie theater for standing on your chair, throwing your shoe at the screen and yelling "THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN THE BOOK!"

and i've finished the book

... i've been reading for the last five hours, and have finished the last harry potter. cannot say more for a while just ... just in case any of you are yet to read it. i did have a good cry, though. thank you jkr. now for a nap!

the owl of reading

ravaj has her new harry potter
it's going to be a long night i think ... got my deathly hallows at midnight-oh-five and am now home. just have to get comfy on the bed: point the fan in my direction and remove all constricting items of clothing.

one guy found a couch by the entrance of the campus bookstore and already started reading. another one opened to the back page as he walked past the line where we were waiting. 'don't do it!' came the cry. 'wouldn't it be funny if someone read the end and shouted it out?' was the response. 'if he does that i will kill him,' muttered the guy next to me. cannot type any more. must read! see you later.

separated at birth?

shrek
and
fungus the bogeyman

you be the judge!

presented by the raymond briggs and ursula k leguin 'i thought of it first' society for the preservation of acknowledgements

harry potter auf deutsch!

the day after coming back from a trip always seems rather long and tiring, even though there are still a couple of things left in the suitcase waiting to be put away. england look like they are throwing away the second test in adelaide, and i needed something with which to amuse myself. hence this trailer for next year's 'order of the phoenix' film:



ps sorry about the non-hp stuff at the end - lifted clip from youtube as-is.