Of human errors

[justcarol67]

Ali wrote:
<snip>
> Therefore, Carol, your blunder may have been excusable, but using
that as a benchmark to excuse JKR's much larger ones is much like
comparing apples to pineapples - the names are similar, but they
aren't too much alike. <snip>

Carol responds:
"May have been excusable"? That's very generous of you! Maybe you've
never misread a post or misremembered canon, but I think most of us
have done something similar and realize that we and our fellow posters
are all fallible. And I had hoped that my public apology for a blunder
would be accepted as well-intentioned rather than greeted by flames.
(I do know that Sandy was angry with JKR and misdirected her anger at
me. I forgive you, Sandy, and understand that you're human, too. And
you, too, Ali, even though I still find the assertion that my blunder
"*may* have been excusable" a bit much.)

As for authors and editors, I've already talked about where an
editor's responsibility begins and ends, so I won't repeat my points.
I was *trying* to bring a cheerful, magnanimous, and forgiving tone to
my post, pointing out that human beings, whether authors or editors or
readers, are fallible. To err is human; to forgive divine. Let him (or
her) who has never made an error cast the first stone. Forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, even those who
think our onlist blunders *may* be excusable. I realize that you
didn't mean to be supercilious, only to disagree with me regarding JKR
(whom *I* was trying to forgive for her human errors and to empathize
with because of my own). I forgive the unintended insult and respect
your right to disagree with me. 

However, I think we're all making too much of the continuity errors
and forgetting to look at the series as a whole. It's time, IMO, for
posters on the main list to stop complaining and examine the themes
and character development and so forth calmly and objectively. I'm
trying, not very successfully, it appears, to get past the bickering
and bring back the enjoyment we used to feel in discussing the books.
As for this list, I think a cool butterbeer is in order, perhaps
accompanied with one of Professor McGonagall's ginger newts. 

Carol, thinking that we should all forgive each other's blunders and
extend the same courtesy to JKR, who is, after all, the creator of the
books we're discussing and the reason that these groups exist