OT: Yet Another Intro

[Eustace_Scrubb]

***Name: 
Doug Kendall

***Nicknames/IDs:
Eustace_Scrubb...why? Well, everyone has those days when they wake up
and find they've turned into a dragon, don't they? Well?  don't they?

***Age:
45

***Family:
My wife, Jacquie (professional baker); son Andrew (9-1/2), Potterite
and cryptozoologist; Charm (almost 6), retired racing greyhound and
40mph couch potato.

***Home:
Oneonta, NY, USA

***Birthday, Place of Birth:
June 9, Bath, ME

***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
Far too many degrees, in History, Early American Culture and finally
American Studies.  I've worked in history museums for the past 23
years.  Currently curator of collections at a pair of museums in
Cooperstown, NY, where I also teach in a Museum Studies M.A. program.

***Other things we might want to know about you:
Baseball fan + Grew up in New England=Long-suffering Boston Red Sox
fan.  If the Red Sox can win the World Series, perhaps JKR _can_ write
a conclusion that will please everyone!  Then again, maybe not...  

***First contact with Harry Potter:
Someone gave Andrew a hardcover of SS for his 5th birthday (I think
that when it was), May 2000.  It sat for a year or so; he's always
been a precocious reader, but it wasn't until he was 6 that he started
to try reading it.  Got to Fluffy a couple of times and stopped.  Then
he decided I should read him The Hobbit and LOTR, which took over a
year.  About Jan. 2003, he read all of SS, then moved through the
other 3 quickly.  I followed in his wake, then we had to wait a month
for OoP (I know, I know, only a month!)

***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets
d'Art, general enthusing):
--book: POA
--characters:  Neville, Arthur Weasley
--ships:   happen
--fics:  I've read a few; see below under "obsession."


***Extent of Potter obsession:
Was especially pleased to attend a national conference of living
history museums because the host institution also had an Imax showing
POA.
Am about 14 chapters into a derivative story started to pass the time
between OoP and HBP--not exactly a fanfic. It's set in America
beginning in the summer between GoF and OoP, involves no characters
from JKR's books (except a few as reference points) nor any one
named Mary Jane, and so far has no readership outside our house
(though I'm encouraged by the reaction from my test readers).  JKR
foolishly encouraged me to continue when she stated on her website
that "if anyone wants to write about American wizards they are of
course free to write their own book!"  

***Other interests/activities:
What do you mean, other interests?
Bicycling, helping out with Cub Scouts/Little League baseball/etc.

***Current/recent reading:
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stories and Tales
Washington Irving, Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon
Donald Hall, String Too Short to Be Saved

***Current/recent listening:
OoP on tape (Jim Dale)
Wallflowers (Breach)
Eduard Tubin, Symphony No. 3
Counting Crows
Bruce Cockburn

***Current/recent viewing:
Ray
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Complete 1st and 2nd seasons
on DVD
A Series of Unfortunate Events


Thanks much for the invite!

Cheers,

Doug aka Eustace_Scrubb