accents / Andromeda T. / Safe rooms

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Bohcoo wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37118>:

<< Here in Florida we have "Crackers" whose most distinctive way of
speaking is pure poetry of expression. I could listen all day. >>

I know someone originally from rural north Florida. It has been said
of him that in his accent, there is nothing that rhymes with "thing"
(thaang), not even "anything" (annythaang) rhymes with "thing"
(thaang). It's a gorgeous accent.

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37123>:

<< how would Andromeda feel about Slytherin house now? Would she still
like the color green? >>

Others have already mentioned that the adults don't seem obsessed with
their old House colors (with the possible of exception of Phineas
Nigellus's portrait in green and silver dress robes).

It seems to me that the canonical Hogwarts students care less about
House colors than we do, and only for sporting events do they make a
point of wearing their House Colors. At the Yule Ball in GoF, Pansy
wrote a pink dress robe and Hermione wore blue (not lavender as in the
movie).

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37139>:

<< I know that the government has told home-builder that they should
put a 'safe room' in the basement of every new home they build. I
expect that this has not been well publicized so as not to alarm the
public. As I understand it is is for a "high wind event". But it
sounds like a fall-out shelter to me. >>

A 'safe room' for a 'high wind event' sounds like a storm cellar to
me. A concept I first encountered as a child watching The Wizard of Oz
movie. It's not the same kind of 'safe room' as for floods.

While I currently live in a 'tsunami danger zone', it's much more
important to prepare for earthquakes. I dunno if underground is the
best place to put a 'safe room' for earthquakes ... people are killed
when they're working underground (e.g. on the electric grid) and the
earth moves and buries them.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/37145>:

<< One that I found particularly amusing involved lining a room with
plastic and sealing it with duct tape. >>

While I never had any intention of following that advice, it may not
be as silly as everyone thought, because I recall that in Bush I's
Gulf War, the Israelis all used plastic and duct tape to prepare
air-tight rooms in their homes in case of chemical weapon attack, and
it seems to me that the Israelis are usually pretty realistic about
those things.