?4JKR(robes) * Crookshanks * Galleons2$ * 150 years * Lycanthra

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 3927

*** Please ask JKR if, when she was writing the first book, she 
envisioned the school uniform robes as being worn open over what 
looks like Muggle school uniforms. Some people might want to question 
whether the students really wear their pointed hats in class and at 
meals. 

*** A long time ago, this list discussed what happens if a female 
Animagus is pregnant and doesn't switch back to human form before 
giving birth, and concluded that Crookshanks is McGonagall's love 
child by a Muggle-type Persian tomcat.

*** A long time ago, long and detailed discussion of the value of 
wizarding money left me thinking that a bronze Knut is worth 'around' 
a nickel, times 29, a silver Sickle is worth 'around' a dollar and a 
quarter (ten bits?), times 17, a golden Galleon is worth 'around' 
$25. [Of course, I am over 18 (43 on Election Day) and therefore my 
idea of what a nickel, dollar, quarter, and $25 are worth is somewhat 
exaggerated!] If only there were 13 rather than 17 Sickles to the 
Galleon (which is also prime), then not only would the money model 
the lunar year, but I could have said a Galleon is worth 'around' an 
eagle (the $20 coin)! But I don't know any official name for a $25 
coin. 

*** Despite believing that wizards have longer life expectancy than 
Muggles, I was surprised to hear that Dumbledore is 150 and 
McGonagall is 70 -- I had thought that Dumbledore is going-on-90 and 
McGonagall is 63. Well, 70 isn't *that* far off of 63, but I really 
wonder whether being 150 years old and not even retired is  normal or 
has something to do with Flamel's Elixir of Life or what?  

*** Lupe de los Lobos? Lycia Ulf? I want Lupin's mother to be named 
Ida. It would work for the Marauders' friendship relationship if the 
Lupin character were a female friend with lycanthropy, but it 
wouldn't work for PoA's social agenda, formerly known as the moral 
of the story, which is that the kindest, most gentle, best teacher is 
the one who is hounded out of the school for being a dangerous 
werewolf: an anti-sterotyping, anti-bigotry message. But our cultural 
stereotype that expects women to be kind and gentle (to children, 
anyway) means that the kind, gentle woman teacher, fitting the 
readers' habitual expectation, would not be noticed and therefore the 
moral would not be noticed.

If you want to do some gender-bending, imagine if the Sirius Black 
character were Scylla Black!