The Lair

Last HP post. I promise. No, I mean it. No matter how amusing subsequent events are; I’ll restrain myself from posting. You know, people look upon my reading of Harry Potter with a mixture of disdain, despair and amusement. At my age? Reading a children’s book? The horror, etc. This is the ideal time for me to play the snooty lit-critic and say that the writing is shoddy, that JKR sucks etc etc. It’s not that. I actually do like the books. But then, I also read Da Vinci Code for the entertainment value; so take this with a pinch of albino monk.

No, the most fun is reading the reactions before, during and after release. I alluded in an earlier post to the wildly overused phrase “internet history”. But it’s really true. Each book release was a larger and larger event, as the hype machine took over. The fan fiction (which I have mostly avoided); the ships - it all contributed to the buildup.

So this is not really anything original, but more a pointer to the hilarious outpouring of emotion (call it wank, everyone else does).

Oh that Epilogue was kind of not that great, but the anger it will engender (and the amusement I will draw from said anger) will probably make up for it.
Probably? Who am I kidding?

(source).
Word. I’ve stopped pretending to work, I’ve found myself some food, and I’m ready to trawl through the anguish. Onward.

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Ok. I get the fact that we need to protect kids from some influences. That’s the whole point of having authority figures. I get that. I really do. But sometimes you have to wonder …

Borders asked to ban “racist” Tintin book. Tintin? Seriously? Apparently so. Yet another facet of my childhood (who didn’t read Tintin when they were growing up?) has now been swamped by the PC brigade. Sickening.

Actually, I have read Tintin in the Congo, the comic in question. Does it have dodgy cultural references? Yep, I’m pretty darn sure it does. It fits perfectly with the other national and racially stereotypical names that Herge adopted for the other characters in the series. Try Chang, the obscurely named Chinese companion of Tintin. Or Rastapopulous, the big nosed arch villian of the piece. Or Abdullah, the mischievous Mid-eastern kid with the megarich father. Or my personal favourites; Generals Alcazar and Tapioca from San Theodoros. Stereotyped? Yup. Funny? Yes, I think so.

That’s actually not all.

The PC brigade have also had a go at Noddy and Tinky Winky of the Teletubbies. Right. So, there’s really no excuse to be watching the Teletubbies at any age. I send the nieces Disney DVDs just to get them to watch something else. I’m doing my bit to rid the world of the menace. I still think I made my point about political correctness gone mad.

Eejits. My lawn. Get off it.

I’ve been lurking around Facebook again. The fancy seems to strike me in fits and starts. I resisted for as long as I could but I am now gripped in the throes of addiction. Well, I still don’t know what people actually do there - but like the cat chasing the feebly squeaking mouse because it can - I too have launched myself head-first into the Facebook era.

Sans a picture, though. There are limits to my online perversions. There have been odd wall posts berating me for not including a photograph. It’s Facebook - because you’re supposed to have photographs. Of your face. Who knew? If my face were akin to an open book of any sort, it would most likely be illegal.

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