Miscellaneous

[plinsenmayer at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C1543
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Miscellaneous
Date: 5/31/00 9:15 am  (ET)

Hi:

I'm finally back in town and thinking I have time to start posting about
some of the recent discussions.

Welcome to our new members (I really like the flying_ford_anglia yahoo
id -- how clever!)!

Thoughts on the "Inconsistencies" subject line:

1. I'm always interested in picking them out -- delving into the details
is part of debating great literature. I honestly don't know why people
like Cookie feel the need to post their intention to withdraw from the
club (I mean why not just say to yourself, "this isn't for me" and leave
it at that instead of trying to make the rest of us feel guilty for
engaging in a debate that is fun for those of us participating. There
may be lots of members of the club who feel like remaining as members
but don't have a desire to debate logical inconsistencies and that's
perfectly fine.). Anyway . . . I'll leave that point; it's just a sore
point with me.

2. We've debated the number of students at Hogwarts issue before, and it
seems we concluded that there are probably at least 280 students at the
school as a whole (70 per house). But, remember, that it is unlikely that
there are exactly 10 students per year per house. And, I'm honestly not
convinced there are 10 Gryffindors in Harry's class year (I only know
of 3 girls -- Hermione, Lavender & Pavarti).

3. Good catch on the 400 years since last ate and the 500 yr Death Day
anniversary -- I had never picked up on that one. I wonder if that would
change the analysis I did on Harry's birthdate. I came up with 31 July
1980 and gleaned the 1980 from the fact that NH Nick was celebrating
500 yr Death Day and died in 1492 (making the action in CoS in 1992-93).

4. I don't think that JKR checked the calendar when setting dates (such
as Thur June 6, 1994 or Fri Oct 16, 1993). I happen to know that the
16th of Oct in 1993 was a Sat, because that was my wedding day. I'm not
sure we should expect that she checked that closely into things. She
may never have intended that we would figure out what year the action
was taking place in (or she might have checked dates).

BTW, I think I won the last trivia quiz/game and I've fallen down on
the job of getting a new activity posted. I will do that, but it will
be tomorrow at the earliest.

Was my last installment of the Story so terrible that no one could pick
it up? <g>

That's it for now --

Penny