Kashrut / Languages / Merchandise / Flavors

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 6689

Meredith Wilson wrote: The only other thing I'd check is what she's
eating. (snip) and if [Hermione}'s eating a bunch of bacon and sausage,
she's not Jewish, or at least not keeping Kosher.

Anyone who is eating any of the meals in the Great Hall is not keeping
kosher, at least not according to the rules. They're not eating any
meat, as no one even claims that it was slaughtered according to kosher
laws. They're not eating any dairy products, as no one even claims that
the utensils etc used with the dairy products were never ever used with
meat. If they're picky, they're not even eating vegetables in case the
vegetable was cooked in a pot that had been used for both meat and dairy
(probably at different times).

Personally, I have never gotten any impression that Hermione is of
Jewish ethnicity (which I am, altho' not of Jewish religion) and I
*have* gotten an impression that her parents the dentists were
Caribbean-born and she probably has some black ancestors.

Joywitch wrote: Why are we Americans so pathetic when it comes to
learning other languages?

I've heard that the British are almost equally pathetic about learning
languages. Perhaps there is something about the English language such
that learning English as a first language does permanent damage to the
language learning areas of the brain?

Heidi Tandy wrote: Also in the store, but not on the website, were the
Big Sticker Book and these 2 very cute little books which are on
keychains  - one was a photo album for wallet sized pictures, and the
other was a tiny diary

When I trudged through a WHOLE SHOPPING MALL, I found the Big Sticker
book and the little keychain books, not at any of the stores advertising
/ licensing HP merchandise, but at Card Fever (kind of like a Hallmark
shop but not Hallmark). They had 3 of the little books (the other was an
address book) and the photo album's title was FAMOUS WITCHES AND WIZARDS
and I am kicking myself because I can't remember the titles of the other
two. As for the book of bumper stickers, I had looked at only the first
three stickers when Tim asked me if if included MY CHILD IS AN HONORS
STUDENT AT HOGWARTS SCHOOL so I handed it to him so he could check. He
told me that it didn't.

I bought a Quidditch board game to send to my goddessdaughter on the
other side of the country for Yule and Tim bought her a Beanie Kid with
an *adorable* witch costume. As the game was destined to be a prezzie, I
didn't open it to see how it works.

Voicelady told us of the flavors of Bertie Botts' Beans: the four icky
flavors in the bag are black pepper, grass (I experienced those two in
an unmarked bag a few months ago), horseradish and, believe it or not,
booger.  And new flavors coming next year are dirt, mustard and
(eeuuuch) vomit.

This reminded me of an ad I once saw for perfumes that are supposed to
be comforting smells for the wearer, which included flavors like Grass,
Dirt, Tomato, Whisky, Pipe Tobacco, Funeral Parlor.... I remembered that
the brand name was Demeter, so while typing this, I web searched and
found:
http://www.fp1.com/shopping/demeter/demeterhome.html   homepage
http://www.fp1.com/shopping/demeter/scents.html  list of flavors
http://www.fp1.com/shopping/demeter/attitude.html  this is weird

--
          /\ /\
           + +     Mews and views
         >> = <<         from Rita Prince Winston

                     ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._
                     `6_ 6  )   `-.  (     ).`-.__.`)
                     (_Y_.)'  ._   )  `._ `. ``-..-'
                    _..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,'
                   ((('   (((-(((''  ((((