Word, JZ. Word word word.

JZ, I especially agree with this bit:

for once in a berjillion years there's a decently written m/f friendship that's deep and true and yet remains purely friendship.

That is something that is so rare and many of the younger readers desperately need to see, I think.

I'm also delighted that the Xanderish character is the one who gets the girl.

Gotta love shipper wars.

Now I'm picturing some movie set in the post-Shipper Wars future... society has crumbled, much like in the Mad Max movies....

Narrator, a friend of mine has a different theory about the Gryffindor artifact. He thinks it's the Sorting Hat, through which Voldemort has been manipulating Hogwarts for years.

Nice theory, but if you look at that interview with JKR, she states that the Sorting Hat is never wrong, meaning (IMO) that it can't be manipulated, either.

I've been hanging out in one of the HP forums over at World Crossing, but I'm thinking about bailing because there are some craxy theories floating around there, including that Dumbledore might have made a Horcrux for himself! I posted that that would go against everything that DD taught and lived his life for. I think that people aren't thinking about what they saying, they just want canon to not be what JKR made it. The very sweet girl who posted that just wants Dumbledore alive again.

yes, JKR has confirmed that the barman is Dumbledore's brother. I believe there was some hint earlier on in one of the books when Harry noticed he smelled of goats, and Dumbledore had made some rather disconcerting comment regarding his brother and goats at some point.

In Chapter 16 of OoTP, I just read the narrator describe the barman at the Hog's Head thusly:

He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long gray hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.

Whereupon I promptly had a retroactive continuitygasm.

Also, how on earth did I miss on my first reading that when Ron got all snarly about his baby sister starting to date, he didn't walk up and down the streets of Hogsmeade muttering or snarling or sulking -- no, he was chuntering under his breath. I'm so in love with that verb and can't think how I didn't notice it before. (Also worth noting, in the same scene Hermione is cheerfully teasey toward Harry about Cho giving him the eye. Not jealous, not pining, just quietly pleased and amused. Again, what books have these other people been reading? Certainly not the ones JKR actually wrote.)

Oh. Oh, yeah. I nearly forgot there's a whole other book since this one. Which I shall probably re-read as soon as I'm finished with this, 'cause now I'm all curious, and also worked up and eager for more continuitygasms.

A good continuitygasm that someone over at the Sugar Quill pointed out--OotP is not the first time we see the Vanishing Cabinet--we see it actually getting broken back in Chamber of Secrets, when Peeves busts it! Between that and the locket in OotP, I'm loving the continuity.

I was trying to remember where the Vanishing Cabinet had shown up before.

I love when reading the most recent book in a series makes me think about rereading the others.

I just finished rereading Blue is for Nightmares a YA book about a girl who has dreams that predict the future. Lots of Wiccan-looking practices ( I am not a wiccan - so I won't disscuss how real they are ) that could be used by someone interested in wicca and spells. I read thru all the reviews of it on Amazon- and no one talked about how evil it was for promoting witchcraft. It is very interesting to see HP being villinized for promoting wichcraft - yet a book that might stir some real curiosity is ignored. ( BTW, it was an ok book. Interesting , but not as suspenseful as I had hoped. how ever all the kids ( that misspell worse than I do ) seem to love it.)

Hi a quick vignette on HP helping to produce the next generation of readers. Just met a seven year old who is three quarters of the way through The Half-Blood Prince.

Good Christ.

That is going to be one traumatized seven-year-old.