Old nasty joke (was Stan Shunpike & Tom the Innkeeper)

[prefectmarcus at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24232

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kelly Hurt <klhurt at y...> wrote:
> > --- Steve Vander Ark <vderark at b...> wrote:
> > 
> > >These folks do not attend Hogwarts,
> > >they move directly from basic
> > >schooling in the home or in small
> > >communal school settings into trades.
> > >Examples include Stan Shunpike and Tom
> > >the Innkeeper.
> > 
> > How did you reach the conclusion that they never attended 
Hogwarts?
> 
> Sorry, I wasn't clear. We don't know that they didn't, I was using 
> them as examples if my premise was correct. In other words, given 
> what I was suggesting up to that point, two people who might fit 
that 
> description are Tom and Stan. There is nothing in the canon to prove 
> that, although I would argue that there has to be a lot of people 
who 
> never qualified for Hogwarts for that small a student population to 
> make sense. 
> 
> I know some would argue that if Goyle can make it at Hogwarts, Stan 
> should be able too, but that's not necessarily the case. Stan was 
> exceptonally dim ("See you, Neville!" to someone whose identity has 
> just been revealed to him as NOT Neville but instead a famous 
> celebrity). Goyle is dim too, but his father was a Death Eater and I 
> suspect has some connections. His father is dim too, from the sound 
> of him, but might very well have skills that can come in useful, 
> especially when combined with a lack of mental prowess.
> 
> The point is that Stan and Tom are in the kinds of jobs that one 
> would imagine non-educated folk to hold in a medieval-style society.
> 
> Steve Vander Ark
> The Harry Potter Lexicon
> http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon

A group of people are discussing a new gizmo on the market.

The engineering grad said, "How did they do that?"

The accounting grad said, "How much did it cost them?"

The law grad said, "Do they have a patent on it?"

The business grad said, "How are they distributing it?"

The liberal arts grad said, "Do you want fries with that?"

Now I am not saying that L.A. grads are destined for menial tasks, but 
you really can't assume that good ol' Tom and Stan didn't go to 
Hogwarts merely because of their jobs.  Granted, they seem a bit dim, 
but then so do some of the Hogwarts students we've met.  They likely 
got their share of O.W.Ls but were a little short on N.E.W.Ts.

Marcus