382 BC (Ollivander's) / Yule Ball and other dances

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 46709

Jim:

> But perhaps the original Ollivander was a Roman wand maker (maybe just an 
> apprentice).  After the (nearly complete, saved only by sacred geese) sack 
> of Rome in 382 B.C., he decides Rome is not for him and sets off for the 
> Antipodes, which would then have been Britain.  He founds his wand shop in 
> what will one day become London (there is now evidence that there was a 
> pre-existing settlement there when the Romans founded Londinium).
> 

Very good! As I said, not a Briton, then.
I suppose if the descendents knew that their family had come over at the time 
of the Sack of Rome, then they could retrospectively have dated it to 382 BC. 
Well, it would have to have been dated retrospectively anyway, wouldn't it? 

I think it would have been a bit more than the equivalent of going to the 
Antipodes, though, given that the Romans didn't even know of Britain at the 
time. And one wonders *why* he might venture from Rome precisely through the 
Gaulish territories inhabited by the 'Celts' who had just sacked his home 
city.

...............................

Ani, deprived of a spell-checker at work, comments on the Yule ball question:

>I'm curiouse if this very common (and in my opnion silly, as GoF seems 
perfectly >celar to me that there aren't annual Yule Balls) mistake shouldn't 
be considered an >Americanism? 
>I see lots of complaints about common americanisms brought up, but I've 
never >seen something mentioned about the frequency of dances. 
>School dances are ridiculously common over here. We have a homecoming dance, 
>and winter dance, the prom, the random dance that I don't remember dance, 
the >one where the girl asks the guy dance (can't remeber what it's called) 
basically a >whole slew of dances. In my middle school they had a monthly 
school dance thing >0.o

Ani, I think your'e quite right and I had been about to say the same thing 
myself.
School dances are far from unknown here, but they're not the regular part of 
school life that they appear to be in the States according to the TV 
programmes that my children watch.

I've noticed an increasing habit for schools to start holding what I hesitate 
to call 'Graduation' balls (as you should all know by now we *don't graduate 
from school*, only from university), but this is a terribly new and, dare I 
say it, American idea which has crept in very recently. That's not to say 
that there is no tradition of school dances, particularly, I think in the 
case of single sex private schools which have links with other (opposite!) 
single sex schools, but I've suddenly noticed pictures in the local press of 
state school leavers' balls more recently and have not really witnessed this 
in the past. It certainly didn't happen in my school, though, granted, that 
was a fair time ago.

Eloise

~~~~~~~~~~~~
You think that just because it's already happened, the past is finished and 
unchangeable? Oh no, the past is cloaked in multi-coloured taffeta and every 
time we look at it we see a different hue.

(Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere)


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