food and drink + sport + Hagrid

[Balfour, Julie [HES]]

No: HPFGUIDX 28077



	< snip pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it>     
> the only possible conclusion is that Wizards don't have problems with cholesterol 
> 
	Personally, I concluded that they live longer as they are magic.  Call me old-fashioned...sometimes I think that comments like this take a little bit of the 'magic' away - one *can* over-analyze, y'know...!

> QUESTION 1: Why do neither teachers nor students ever eat: Rice, 
> pasta, fish, salad, fresh fruit (with the exception of strawberries)? 
> They live on a diet of the most heavy and unhealthy food imaginable- 
> just think what teaching or being taught three hours in the afternoon 
> with your stomach full of Steak and Kidney pie and Trifle must be 
> like!
> 
	Because that's what we eat in Britain - honest, guv'nor. In fact I've never heard of this "fresh fruit" of which you speak.

> QUESTION 2: What do you think of the attitude towards the "popular 
> drugs" coffee, nicotine and alcohol JKR confers to us by means of her 
> books (cigarettes are never mentioned, alcohol mostly has unpleasant 
> consequences and nobody ever drinks coffee in the wizarding world)? A 
> clear message for Muggles like us or a sign that wizards are simply 
> different and don't need certain things?
> 
	Shoot me down in flames if you like, but given that the books *were* originally published and marketed towards children (I know we don't like to admit to that as we are all adults who recognize that they have many more levels etc etc etc,) but it would not necessarily have been appropriate to start going on about how great fags and booze are.

> QUESTION 4: Where do you think the Fat Lady got her chocolate liquors 
> from?  
> 
	By Magic.  Just leave it Be.


	Vanessa wrote:
> At British Universities, most leave Wednesday afternoons free from 
> lectures for undergraduates, for the purposes of inter-university 
	> sporting events  


      frantyck at yahoo.com replied:
> Do other students all play Quidditch, when the teams are not 
> monopolising the pitch? 
> 
	I would imagine so - in most British schools that take sport seriously *all* children have to take part in some sort of physical activity.  I know myself from years of forging notes from my Mum and claiming that it was my "time of the month" (every week? ha!) that it is very difficult to avoid having to wear those nasty Aertex tops at some point.  Even those who aren't picked for the team are likely to play Quidditch recreationally - if this the wizarding obsession it is made out to be then it would be a bit weird for nobody except 7 per house to play the game...we also do see an impromptu game at the Burrow before the World Cup, which reminded me of family football and cricket games in the local park.


	Sara wrote:

> "Issues" sounds like a very American thing to say (to me anyway). It's just 
> not the done thing in the UK to sound like a counsellor. 
> 
	Agreed!  The fact of the matter is that Harry is 11 years old.  How daunting is everything to him when he first finds out that he is a wizard?  To also find out that an intimidating adult who you've never clapped eyes on before hates your guts would be horrible, and not the sort of thing that it is appropriate for an adult to tell a child.  Children need protection from adults and to say that "Snape has issues" (however tongue in cheek!) to a child would be putting them on the same level, which they are not - they are children.
	 
> And Hagrid sounds 
> about as English as they come, he's got a very northern accent 
> (Yorkshire/lancashire perhaps...)
> 
	I think JKR said in a webchat that he is West Country (think Bristol, farmers, tractors etc!)  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she grew up round there, so I would imagine that Hagrid having that accent would have nice connotations with childhood and therefore be a 'security blanket'-type of voice.