Question about Merlin's pants.

[Carol]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "P. Alexis Nguyen" <alexisnguyen at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> > It might have
> > been something blander such as "buttock"....
> 
> I've actually only ever heard the phrase in terms of "Merlin's saggy
> left bottom" when said completely, so maybe that's what Ron (thereby
> JKR) was going for.
> 
> ~Ali
>
Carol responds:
Our only clues as readers (unless we're familiar with a similar expression; I'm not) are Mrs. Weasley's reaction (she obviously knows what he's going to say and disapproves) and Ron's behavior elsewhere in the later books (for example, exchanging obscene gestures with Draco Malfoy). "Testicle" seems like the obvious word to fill the blank, especially since "buttock" is innocuous enough to spell out, and about the only other body part that might be saggy (aside from flesh on the arms, which certainly isn't what Ron had in mind) is what a fifteen-year-old boy of my acquaintance calls a "man boob."

We can clearly rule out arm, armpit, elbow, hand, leg, knee, ankle, and foot. That leaves eyebrow, earlobe, nostril, and the body parts already named.

I wouldn't put it past JKR to have intended "testicle," given all the double entendres in the last book (and maybe in HBP though I don't recall them). It's not clear whether Ron intended a double meaning for "wand work," but JKR certainly did.

Carol, who supposes that such references make the book (and Ron) more realistic but could easily live without them