Butterbeer; Hermione's age

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 28321

We have now established that European children are given swimming 
lessons in whisky from a very early age, while American children are 
given their first taste of alcohol in a controlled environment at age 
40.

Drunkenness and and alcoholism are problems in the US and, I am 
prepared to bet, in all European countries.  Certainly they are in 
the UK, and JKR will be well aware of it.

I think Butterbeer is one of those magical what-if things: "wouldn't 
it be wonderful if we had a drink that gave the pleasure of alcohol, 
without any of the problems", like flying unaided, and travelling 
instantly, and cooking with a wave of a wand.

But, being JKR, she can never leave well alone, and must start to 
follow up the implications... so we have Winky, trying to forget her 
sorrows in Butterbeer.  Does this mean that something we can enjoy is 
always dangerous?  What about Cheering Charms - do wizards get 
addicted?  She spoils this line of thought slightly by having Dobby 
say Butterbeer is strong for elves.  Again, if you travel by 
fireplace, what if one has been blocked off?  If you can 'videophone' 
by fireplace, wouldn't it be fun to pass a piece of toast and eat it 
too...?  But then there is a physical transfer, so that would mean 
you have something like apparating in Hogwarts - oops, we have ended 
up somewhere we didn't quite intend to.  It's in the nature of her 
unique combination of fancy, fun, and logic.

I think a lot of the things we see as inconsistencies or Flints are 
like this - she invents the puter outer as a piece of pure fun, and 
then we logically point out that a wand would do just as well.  
Because JKR is herself logical and follows up the implications of her 
ideas we get a lot of this.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------

On Hermione's age, a couple of minor points.

One, my apologies to Ebony, Penny, and Barb for mistakenly referring 
to them as 79ers; they are of course not whiny ninies but weighty 
eighties.

Two, Ebony said, can we agree to differ (to Jonathan).  One of the 
great things about a list like this is meeting people who think so 
differently.  It's just tempting to keep picking at the differences 
until we get to the bottom of them.

David