As many of you know, I am an Orthodox Christian which means today is not what it is for most; Nativity for traditional Christians is still two weeks away. I live in a different world than most people in America in choosing to observe the liturgical calendar of the Church but I am not so far removed from reality not to note the Western Christmas season and all it means to my many friends here who worship on the Gregorian calendar. Joyous Noel to you all!

This year I received a Christmas poem from Beth Priest in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which annual event, because she has sent them since I first ‘met’ her online years ago and because they are so good, has become a marker of the Philippian Fast for me. I share ‘Standing Still’  below with her permission in the hope that you find it as edifying as I did — and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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I saw the Hobbit trailer today on the big screen at a TinTin matinee showing. The eight people in the theater watching — me and a few of my children with two dads and their sons (Christmas Day custody rights? alas, so it seemed) — all but stood and cheered.

Dan Radcliffe will be accepting the award for obvious reasons.

I confess to being surprised by this choice, which speaks to just how far outside the loop I’m living nowadays. Last summer’s blockbuster cinema hit, the finale of the greatest film franchise in history, seems like aeons ago. But who else could have been chosen as The Face of 2011?

I expect this is just the beginning of awards for the Warner Brothers series and cash cow. Anyone care to predict how many Oscar nominations the Hogwarts Saga conclusion will win? Is it possible Deathly Hallows B could top Return of the King for most gold statuettes?

If you’re asking, “Why should I care?,” the best answer I can think of is that this would be some measure of Harry’s ascent to the Shared Text summit, that is, acknowledgement by the Shadow Casters in the Capitol’s Cave. I welcome alternative ideas!

Did I mention Harry is hosting Saturday Night Live next month? Hat Tip, Arabella!

Hey, folks, didn’t I write a book about the literary influences shaping the Hogwarts Saga? Yes, I did. It’s titled Harry Potter’s Bookshelf and, forgive me for saying so myself, for a short, little tome with a great big subject — you try to introduce English Literature genres and authors, Chaucer to Tolkien, detective mystery to schoolboy novels, through Harry Potter in less than 60,000 words (really) — it’s not bad. Not comprehensive or even definitive, but a healthy start to the subject of Rowling’s literary influences and how to use her books to enter the worlds of books that shaped her imagination.

Imagine my surprise, though, when watching the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, DVD extras the other night when I heard Ms. Rowling say in ‘The Women of Harry Potter‘ segment that she had “met herself” in a book the first time in Jo March of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott’s classic coming of age story on post bellum America. I didn’t mention Alcott or Jo March once in Bookshelf, and, forgive me, I thought I’d researched her favorites pretty closely.

I was embarrassed and surprised only because I was already working on a post about Little Women and Harry Potter consequent to reading Alcott’s morality tale with my students in Oklahoma City. I was going to assert that it seemed improbable that Rowling hadn’t read the book because of the many parallels and plot point ringers. And then I get to see the woman herself say those words before I finish the argument.

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