DST / Shaun's shields of arms / talking dirty with Geoff

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/31835>:

<< BTW, I wonder how parents who live in more northern latitudes where
the sun doesn't go down till, say, 9 p.m. during DST manage to get
their young children to go to bed, much less to sleep, in summertime! >>

A nursery rhyme that I learned by heart as a child (because I love the
sound) but didn't understand until I was in my mid-20s:

"In winter I arise by night
and dress by yellow candlelight.
In summer it's the other way:
I have to go to bed by day
and hear the grown-up people's feet
tip-tap tip-tap on the street".

I returned to my native Los Angeles and only go to bed before sundown
if I'm exhausted -- if I had to go to bed in daylight, I'd need to buy
blackout curtains!

But I arise at 5am (I want to catch the 5:52 bus, expect to catch the
5:58 bus, and often am left to wait for 6:12 bus that makes me late).

I hate getting up in the dark (altho', when in a good mood with a
clear sky, I appreciate the star-gazing on the bus stop -- a few years
ago I was so into it that I could recognize Scorpius).

The year had just turned to where I had pre-dawn light for my walk to
the bus stop when we had to turn back the damn clocks.

Shaun wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/31817>:

<< The teaser page for my Harry Potter game to be run at Conquest 2007
in Melbourne, Australia, can now be seen at:
<http://home.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/HarryPotterAndTheDescentOfTheDarklord.html>
Just in case anybody finds such things interesting. >>

Cornelius Fudge a Ravenclaw! Hugin and Munin will peck your eyes out!
If he's not a Slytherin, he's a Hufflepuff -- go along to get along.
Myrtle is the Slytherin.

It looks like the plot line is interesting.

I personally prefer the other shields of arms, but I wish I could opt
to remove the scrolls with the names, to see just the shields. The
version you prefer do have helms, crests, and mantling, giving me to
wonder whether wizards would have helms or pointy hats for their
crests to balance on.

Geoff wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/31812>:

<< In terms of questionable language, what I do strongly object to is
the use of the f-word and the c-word because their use often extends
beyond their Anglo-Saxon meaning with reference to sexual activity and
they are often used as pejorative terms in order to insult or express
anger >> 

I object to that usage as being anti-sex. I especially disapprove of
using 'the c-word' to refer to any male person one dislikes, as being
anti-female. One time I had a fight with my ex about it. He always
called all the other drivers on the road 'you cunt', and finally I
said: "You could call the bad drivers idiots or assholes, but it
doesn't make sense to call them after something you like so much and
are always chasing after." 

In a related usage, one time there was a feud on a forum and this guy
commented: "Everybody knows that Neil and Brian have had a hard-on for
each other for twenty years." I asked him what he meant -- I knew WHAT
he meant, but not why that phrase had been invented -- "I'd say Neil
has a hard-on for Adrienne (his fiancee) considering that they're
always leaving early to go to bed" -- and he never answered.

Finally another friend explained to me that the phrase X 'has a
hard-on for' Y means X wants to hurt Y for the same reason that
alternate phrases for the same meaning include 'X wants to screw Y'
and 'X wants to fuck Y' -- the assumption that the sexual act is
highly unpleasant for the recipient.

<< and they therefore carry much more in the way of undertones than
the word we mentioned above. >>

"Cock" is a word for an anatomical organ and "prick" is an insult and
"putz" is a different insult. (One time my bus passed a construction
site and one of the big machines had a brand label on it "PUTZMASTER").

<< Please note that this post was written after the 9.00 pm
British watershed. :-) >>

What is '9:00 pm British watershed'?