Here is a handy list of the Best HogPro posts of 2007. I put it up today to mark the first anniversary of this weBlog and to say “thank you” to the HogPro All-Pros whose questions and comments spurred this writing. We started out this WordPress format HogPro on Western Christmas Day 2006 and even with a six week blackout due to a crashed server and spectacularly unresponsive host (not to mention full time work and a good sized family) the blog has >300 posts and just short of 3000 comments from y’all. It’s been a very exciting and edifying year! Thank you for making the ride as enjoyable and engaging as it has been.

(1) The Dante Posts
— (A) Florence and Hermetic Artistry
— (B) Lily and Beatrice: Snape’s Green-Eyed Deliverance
— (C) The Epilogue’s White Rose

(2) Gay Dumbledore and an Author’s Control of Canon Post Publication
–(A) “Taking Stories More Seriously than the Author” [Read more…]

Part One and Part Two. There is plenty of material here to comment on; your thoughts, please!

FYI: I will do a separate post on the flood of new names we learned in the preview of the interview being aired 30 December 07. Let’s focus on the TLC interview contents on this thread.

What do I want to talk about? Who cares?

Well, three things:

(1) the quasi-sentience of wands (given what we know about the most powerful cores),
(2) the “fountain or well” in the center of the Department of Mysteries room devoted to the study of love, and
(3) the discussion of how Harry is and is not a Horcrux (because a Horcrux cannot be made accidentally).

Bring that up in your thoughts and I’ll share what I’m thinking and wondering about. I look forward to it!

Before we start, a Christmas story to pull you out of the post-feast ennui: the reason for the season.

Okay, back to the usual stuff.

I think we’ve had enough end-of-year recognition from other sources that Harry Potter was a big part of the cultural landscape this year. How about we end our year here with a list of what we thought the biggest Potter stories of 2007 were?

My nominations, in rough order of media frenzy and with links to our discussions of each, are: [Read more…]

The seventh book and the DVD of the fifth movie.

Was anyone else startled that four of the Amazon top five best selling items were DVDs — and that Order of the Phoenix made it to number two on the list in a little over two weeks of sales time?

It is interesting to see the author talking in what seems to be an almost private conversation (neglecting the camera crew and others that had to have been there).

Your thoughts?