You're kind of a jerk, Spider-Man.

Tool L'il Punk swimming. He's getting better and more adventurous. I couldn't convince him to jump in the pool, even into my arms, but he took a big enough step by just sliding into the water from the side. He kept insisting I back up so he could swim to me, too (although he still won't put his face in the water, even…

What is this feeling… "hope"? It seems so foreign to me. And yet I welcome its arrival.

I once dated a girl who didn't like the word "moist." I didn't get it then and I don't get it now.

No, Peg. <flush>

I'd like to argue with those summaries, but I find that I can't.

Me neither, but I still listen to the show every week.

I know, I was just making a joke. "Phylactery" has the advantage of being an actual word, too.

Are you the same genus unknown from the HP Literary Podcast forums?

It was something about - oh yeah, now I remember! It was the second one, where they had to wait a whole year for the Mandrake plants to mature. And I was like, they seriously don't have a spell to make plants grow faster? Like, they can regrow bones, but speeding up the natural growth of a flippin' plant is beyond…

The third one is the only one that bucks the formula at all. Its still slavishly devoted to dragging the plot out over the entire school year, but at least that plot is not directly about Voldemort.

He was a great writer. His sentences are beautiful to read, his word choice is delightful, and his fascination with language led to a lot of archaic terms creeping into his work (like "meads" for "meadows") that really give his stories a lot of character.

Fuck yeah! Mrs. Garret was even in the tele-movie!

I think the last time we were watching the movies, I started needling the wife about the state of health care in the wizarding world. I can't remember now exactly what bothered me, but I do remember her telling me to shut up.

Resurrection Man. Jeez!

I was reading fat book fantasy in junior high - pretty much the opposite of mature and cool, believe me.

"Where Does He Get Those Marvelous Toys?" WayneTech and the Wayne Foundation's Complicit Endorsement of Vigilante Violence, by W.S. Punk, Ph.D

Yeah. That's the kind of stuff I was reading at 12. Jordan, Eddings, Brooks, and Steven King. Even when I was a kid, I didn't read "kid's books." There's nothing in the Potter books that surprises or delights unless that's where you start with the genre.

Cream soda + butterscotch schnapps also does the trick.

Like a Hobbit would do.