What a wonderful week of Daily Prophet watching we have had courtesy of the nomination by Sen. McCain of Gov. Palin as the Republican Party candidate for Vice President! Because of the compression of time post-Olympics and pre-election for the party conventions to play out the last two weeks, it has been a veritable feeding ground for Rita Skeeters, Cornelius Fudges, and Dolores Umbridges on both sides of the aisle to attack and smear political candidates, especially Gov. Palin and her family, and, in this madness, to bring the American political process out into the open for what it is. I waver between seeing it as “hilarious,” “glorious,” “shameful,” and Jefferson’s figurative fertilizer, the “blood of liberty,” but it never comes quite into focus so I keep looking.

If nothing else, the white heat of Presidential politics in Denver and St. Paul has filled my inbox with e-owl inquiries about what I’m up to these days and if I knew that Gov. Palin had tried to have Harry Potter banned from the Wasilla library when she was mayor of this small town in Alaska — and that she fired the librarian when her request was refused. [Read more…]

Thee best part of a Harry Potter movie release is the run-up to the event and the anticipation everyone feels as the day approaches. Warner Brothers announced today that they are moving the Half-Blood Prince movie premiere from 21 November 2008 to 17 July 2009 (the day before the HPEF Conference Azkatraz 2009 opens in San Francisco). Their reasoning? They can make more money. Nice of them to be upfront like that.

Rejoice! We get more than six extra months to think about this… (HT to David!)

UPDATE: And Harry/Daniel to appear in the buff in Half-Blood Prince! Who knew Equus was a warm-up?

The Bulwer-Lytton Prizes for 2008 have been announced (HT to Perelandra!) and the Children’s Literature Prize Winner is a wow. Who would believe that Ms. Rowling’s literary alchemy has become such a commonplace? [Read more…]