Names of St Mungo's wards/SILK GOWNS clue ?

[a_reader2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 82289

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, RSFJenny19 at a... wrote:
> Carolynwhite2 wrote:
> 
> <However, on the 4th floor, reserved for Spell Damage patients, we 
> find that the Longbottoms, Lockhart, Bode and Agnes are all in 
> the `Janus Thickey' ward. Why has this ward been named after Janus 
> Thickey ? FB tells that Janus was a wizard who left a note that he 
> had been attacked by a lethifold in 1973, when in fact he was 
> discovered 5 years later living with the landlady of the Green 
Dragon 
> a few miles away... 
> <snip>
> However, because of these traits, they have been known to be 
> used as excuses by wizards who want to disappear, leaving just a 
> last, scribbled desperate note.>
> 
> 
> Now RSFJenny here:
> 
> Ohhhh!  Good reading! I hadn't noticed that. 
> 
> In the harmless sense, I can see how the name could be used because 
all these 
> people have "disappeared" from the world, yet they are still alive 
and could 
> potentially recover and "return".
> 
> But I much prefer how you pointed out that lethifolds leave no 
trace of their 
> attack and that is so far definitely the case in the Longbottom's 
> imprisonment. I need to think more on this...
> :::rushes off to her books:::
> 
> 
> ~RSFJenny~

Carolyn:

Glad it helps ! A further thought, an extension of my reply to Steve. 
If the meaning is meant to be a play on the sound of 'Thickey' - that 
its a ward for people who have been stupid, would that also fit with 
the gum idea ?

I still think adults chewing that much gum makes them seem moronic. 
Gum-chewing is (IMO) associated with people who don't have much to 
say, who are parking their brains and marking time. 

The question of course, is whether gum is part of the treatment at St 
Mungo's for this reason (maybe its soothing for people with major 
spell damage to their minds), or, as you assert, they are being force-
fed it for more sinister reasons.