Sinistra - siblings - babes - cats - transsexual

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 8647

Steve Vander Ark wrote:
> I wonder if the name wasn't chosen simply for the sound. It does
> have sort of an astronomical flavor to it...

With that association to 'sinister' (and the 'left-hand path'), I keep
wondering if she is going to turn evil, or at least be a graduate of
Slytherin.

I searched electronically for references to Sinistra, and found:

1) In SS, I didn't find her name at all, but I did find references to
'the astronomy tower' and 'the tallest tower'. The one I clipped
combined the two phrases: "let alone being up the tallest astronomy
tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes".  I had remembered
the following as 'on top of the tallest tower' rather than 'through
their telescopes", which shows what MY memory is worth: "They had to
study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at
midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the
planets."

2) Only the following in CoS: "Justin was carried up to the hospital
wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy
department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless
Nick."

3) Nothing in PoA.

4) I don't have an electronic GoF.

Heather Edmonds wrote:
> However I can still remember when I was 16 my parents
> praising my brother for getting 40% when yet again I had brought
> home an average of 85% and it was ignored.

There are two more reasons for that besides your brother having had to
struggle with a learning disability. 1) You were the oldest. Parents
expect the Infinite from the first child, and lower their expectations
with each child, until along around the fourth child, they expect only
what is humanly possible, altho' still unlikely. 2) You were a girl.
Lots of people still think that girls should pretend to be stupid, in
order to be attractive to boys.

Kimberly replied:
> I just have one older sister. (snip) My good grades got the
> same 'as long as you do your best', as my sister's poor grades,
> but somehow my efforts into my sister's area of expertise were
> never important.

Okay. I can't blame your trouble on being the oldest, or a girl, but I
can blame it on the general hostility to book-learning and intelligence
which is part of USAmerican culture.

Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
> Is the lack of sexy teachers at Hogwarts (male or female) part
> of JKR's stereotyping of school employees?

Why do you believe that Rowena Ravenclaw (who is dead) and Celestina
Warbeck (who is singing to an elderly audience: Molly Weasley) are
babes, but Professors Vector and Sinistra aren't?

Btw, I've been wondering about Celestina Warbeck.  That show intro 'The
Witches' Hour, with Celestina Warbeck, the Singing Sorceress" sounds
like she's one of those old-time singers, of whom I can't remember any
females .. I remember men such as Frank Sinatra (hmmmm? related to
Sinistra?), Tony Bennett, and Mel Torme. The name 'Celestina' means
'heavenly' and IIRC there was a medieval musical instrument called a
celestina, and I suppose the name 'Warbeck' is supposed to sound like
'warbler', the name of several species of songbirds. But the 'beck' at
the end sounds harsh to me, and makes me think of war-beak (that
underwater iron prong that Carthaginian and Roman warships used to ram
their enemies) rather than warble.

Susan McGee wrote:
> I'm offended (deeply) that my cats were not asked to audition, and
> intend to go right out and get them fur lined baskets so their
feelings
> will not be hurt.

I bought myself a nice striped fur tail at Ren Faire, so that people
would be able to tell by looking that I am a cat, and silly Tim left it
out on the kitchen table over night. In the morning, there was no fur
tail at all, only tiny clumps of hair all over the floor of every room.
My cats thought it was a fun toy. (I bought another one and did not
trust Tim to put it away for me.) This caused me to respond to the
statement that the celebrity cats had fur-lined baskets by thinking that
they would tear up the fur, thus having non-lined baskets to sleep in.
My Elway would rather sleep on (there is no room for in) the box from a
take-out pizza than in a basket.

Kelley asked:

> Transgendered--same as transsexual, only done already?  Only one
> bit to challenge here (only one? <g>), most transvestites fancy girls.

> (A transvestite told me that.)

IIRC 'transgendered' means 'transsexual', both pre-op and post-op.
Transsexual is different than transvestite: transsexuals have a gender,
but their body is the other gender. Transvestites are a cross between
liking to wear costumes (of the other gender) and having multiple
personalities (one of their physical gender and at least one of the
other gender). (My ex, the one who was in the habit of slapping me
around, was a transvestite, but so were other friends who were much
nicer people than him. He was Pete and Penny.) Most male transvestites
are heterosexual, but IIRC male-to-female transsexuals have the same
ratio of likes-boys and likes-girls as natural born women have. As you
like interesting twists: there is loud name-calling debate over whether
womyn-only events should mean natural-born womyn only, or is that mean
bad descrimination..
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