Re HP: It sucks that Hermione wasn't as strong as she's been, but I am very glad they cut the SPEW stuff.

Re: above: The house-elf subplot of books 4-6 are entirely removable with no ill effect. Any plot devlopment that comes about as a result of the house elf thing is either a) superfluous or b) easily accomplished by other means. A judicious editor would've insisted they be trimmed from the books to improve their flow, but it's clear Rowling's editors are anything but judicious.

She has editors?

I tried to see HP this afternoon but there was a fuse blown in the projector and the movie started without a dialogue track. There was also a birthday party of about 20+ kids who were talking during the beginning of the movie, but when they had to stop it, they were absolutely running amok and the parents were doing little to stop it, so I got my money back and bailed.

I saw Rent. I enjoyed it, their voices were good, the cast being too old didn't bug me. But all the IMPOSSIBLE New York did, ugh.

Fake New York is fine. Impossible New York is crazy making. Avenue A doesn't DO that, feh.

I would have done the same thing, Sue. A woman brought her 3-year-old to see it last night when we were there. OF COURSE the poor kid lost interest (after asking loud questions during the first 45 minutes) and cried and she had to leave. I was with friends who are the parents of a 3 and 8 year old, who were checking out the film to see if it was appropriate for their older kid to see. They were as aghast as I was.

If it was just a few kids, I would have stayed and moved, because they told us they were comping the film anyway, but there were so many that I figured they were going to drive me crazy no matter where I sat.

I had also taken cold meds before I left the house, and I was afraid I was going to fall asleep during the movie. I should have licked the noisy kids armrests and gotten them all sick.

My Aunt had an interesting kids at the movies tale this weekend. Last month there was a creature feature...not at a theater but somewhere else...she went and the whole time there were kids behind her not being really horrible but moving about and whispering. My aunt said she kept thinking "What kind of idiot parents would bring their kids to this!" After the end of the movie as she's leaving the aisle she turns around and the idiot parents are my uncle and his wife, they'd brought their three children.

"Oh! I had no idea you were coming!" she said, thankful she didn't turn around and shush them or say anything during the movie. "I think I was sitting in front of y'all."

My cousin replied "You must have been cussing us out the whole time."

My worst kid-at-movie story was a young, maybe 18-month-old, baby at Starship Troopers. The kid was moderately fussy but not a problem until the good guys started setting the bugs on fire, when the kid lost his mind. And the parents didn't take him out of the theater.

I was surfing political links, and ended up on stormfront.com where white nationalists review the new Harry Potter film. Short version: They like the skinhead looking clan and think the death eaters are cool because they look like klansmen, but hate the "subtle race mixing".

I didn't think the race mixing was all that subtle, but I can't imagin agreeing with even the tiniest thing from that site, so I'm okay.

Jessica -- what you said about P&P - also there was a scene, near the end where one of my friends started laughing. And then all three of us were laughing. (It was the Heathcliff. . . er Darcy striding through the mist scene.)