Old Topics and Cabbage Smelling Brits

[talisman22457]

No: HPFGUIDX 42940

In Old Topics (42912) Eloise clarified (in pertinent part):
I was actually replying to [other member's posts] together with a 
ruthless snip of your post (which snip agreed with [them]). 
I admit to being slightly taken aback by your taking my post as a 
specific objection to *your* original one ***edit***If new threads do 
start to replicate old ones, old-timers have three options: to ignore 
them altogether, silently to read all the posts in the hope of 
something new coming up, or to point newcomers to previous 
discussions in the hope that they may build on them.
What would you do?

Talisman responds: 
I certainly agree that knowledgeable Listies should guide those--
regardless of their tenure--who begin to trot `round well-worn 
paths.  However, I advocate that this be done in the gentle shimmer 
of a Flitwickian Charm, with all advice from Prof. Snape being 
soundly ignored, unless the little darlings prove incorrigible.

Nonetheless, any ruffled feathers were nicely smoothed by your proper 
application of the heel to the notion that to be an old English 
person is to smell of cabbages. (It Smells Like Cabbage ... eeuuuwww) 
wherein bboy__mn opined that the cabbage smell in Mrs. Figg's home 
was not due to polyjuice potion, but to her age, saying:

Have you ever been in an old person home that didn't smell,
especially, if they were not psycho cleaning fanatics like Aunt 
Petunia? ***edit***I think the key here is 'old English person', not 
polyjuice or some other grand conspiracy theory.

Eloise rejoined in post 42892:
I rigorousy deny that when I get old (or even older!) that my house 
will inevitably smell of cabbage because of my nationality!
...edit... Or is your point that cabbage is particularly English? Do 
you think an old Welsh person's house smell of leeks or an old 
Scottish person's of neeps?What do elderly Americans' houses smell of?

(Kudos as well to Ali who entered the fray in post 42893 saying: I 
hope he was merely trying to provoke a reaction, and wasn't being 
deliberately offensive. . . . why would JKR (an English 
person) want to comment on the smell of cabbage, which is obviously 
fairly unpleasant if it was to deride older members of her 
nationality?)

Talisman agrees, and adds:
My dear bboy, would you please step into Dumbledore's office and 
repeat that codswallop to him?  I'm quite sure nothing about Albus 
smells of cabbages, though he is getting on in years.  However, he's 
such a tolerant fellow you probably won't even get detention. Perhaps 
we should march you off to see Mad-Eye-Moody, instead. Tell him he's 
old and cabbagey and you might well end up a bouncing bowl of Cole 
Slaw. 

Talisman
Who, at age 150, smells of milk thistle and aloe, and is rather giddy 
about being called *new.*