800 miles in the car yesterday so I’m whupped! I hope to comment on some length about Accio Quote Lisa’s thoughts on Harry and Aeneas when I’m human again, but, until then, here are some questions sent by a newspaper reporter today (obviously from the religious beat; he doesn’t ask about Deathly Hallows until the very end).

Please send in your answers to whichever question or questions that you want. Thanks in advance for starting your post with the question or at least the number of the question you are answering.

Your incentive? The “HogPro All-Pro” who sends in the most interesting answers will (1) have their name engraved on the HogPro All-Pro trophy here in my office (The Mundungus Cup, which serves as both a Big Gulp drinking cup and, in a pinch, as ash-tray; you’ll just get a silly certificate) and (2) receive one free copy of Richard Abanes’ new book, Homeland Insecurity. It’s a novel and enjoyable like nothing else of his that I have ever read. Steve Vander Ark, to whom I gave a copy at Sonorus 2007, was ecstatic; like me, Steve owns a copy of everything Mr. Abanes has written and he agrees that Homeland Insecurity is a “must-have” for all Potter bibliophiles.

So, have at it! May the wildest HogPro win! Decisions of the judges in this contest will be arbitrary and final. Immediate family members of Osama bin Laden are prohibited from entering; let them buy their copy of Homeland Insecurity. Management is not responsible for accidents consequent to loss of sleep involving readers who begin this novel late at night. [Read more…]

Eric Randall, an editor and journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, USA Today, and the like, has written a fun book that I know my family will be using on car trips for a long time. It’s called The Pottersaurus: 1,500 Words Harry Potter Readers Need to Know and what it is is a delightful collection of the “big words” in Joanne Rowling’s oversized books. Arranged alphabetically, each word has a definition and at least one citation from a Harry Potter novel. Here’s one example, chosen randomly:

Pirouette — A spin in place. Crabbe did a pirouette in midair at the Shrieking Shack after Harry, hidden by his Invisibility Cloak, threw a stick at his back. (PA, Ch. 14) Hermione did a graceful pirouette while practicing to apparate. (HBP, Ch. 22)

My children love this stuff. They’ve been immunized sufficiently that they flee from school work dressed up as a game but they love explaining words that their parents don’t think they’ll be able to define. Best is catching dad with a britishism, though… Who knew a “pouf” was a “footstool or couch with no back”? I thought they were throw cushions.

Even better, Mr. Randall has a Pottersaurus website where you can play Word Quidditch. Forgive me for confessing that I played it between classes one day, just to hear the cheering sound effect for a few minutes (I’m not getting much of that from my cadets at the end of the year).

Highly recommended for families and for parents needing a good cheer!

The most frequently requested article from the old Hogwarts Professor site after “Obviously Dumbledore is not Jesus” has been this piece on the scandalous use of the Pope by Canadian Harry Haters and Culture Warriors the day before Half-Blood Prince was released. I re-print it now in anticipation of similar shameful efforts in the third week of July this year. Harry Potter is a phenomenon those who style themselves latter-day Savonarolas almost certainly will not let pass without a volley and flourish.

“Pope Opposes Harry Potter”? Hardly.
Michael O’Brien and the Kuby Letters: Rita Skeeter covers the Vatican

A Time Line and Commentary on the Kuby Letters, supposedly written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), on the subject of the Harry Potter novels written by Joanne Rowling.

February, 2003:

The story begins at the press conference releasing the Pontifical Council on Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue’s of “Vatican statement on New Age Religions’ Jesus Christ: The Bearer of the Water of Life (A Christian Reflection on the “New Age”). [Read more…]