Ask JK -Backward Brooms .... say what?

[Mary Ann]

Heidi wrote:

> > <coolbeans3131 at y...> wrote:
> >>  http://www.nwemail.co.uk/viewarticle.asp?id=78054
> >>
> >>  "The question Victoria High pupils will be posing to 
millionaire Ms
> >>  Rowling is: "Do you realise Harry & co sit on their broomsticks
> >>  backwards and that you can't balance like that?""
> >>
> >>  What a freakin waste of a question!  Is there any hope the 
other 9
> >>  won't suck too?

> It's especially stupid as there's a diagram in qtta showing the 
> cushioning charm on a broom, which I think explains the balance 
issue. 
> And I assume the backwards thing relates to that witch who got 
some 
> publicity a few years back saying they were riding them backwards.
> 
> WhatEVER. Sigh.

Ah, so I *do* remember a witch saying just such a thing. <vbg>  I 
can remember watching a program which mentioned this fact and had an 
interview with probably the same witch Heidi mentioned, and it also 
showed a carving on the side of a very old church pew (of all 
places) of a witch riding her broomstick bristles-forward.

That being said, it's *fantasy*, for crying out loud!  If someone is 
all wound up about the folk in the Wizarding World riding their 
brooms in an unaerodynamical fashion then perhaps it's time for that 
person to have a brandy and a lie-down.

Mary Ann
(who could do with a brandy and a lie-down herself, albeit for 
different reasons)