Daily Archives: August 5, 2003

Potter News

For all of you who have been asking me (and why me?), the third Potter film is being released next May (yes, a Harry Potter film and the Hellboy film within the same month – it’s too much happiness).

Nifty photos:

Hermione threatening Malfoy

Sirius Black and Remus Lupin

Michael Gambon as the new Dumbledore

I was struck by how much older the kids look (yeah, yeah, I know, a year between films) until it was all put into persective for me. Someone at pointed out that if you calculate by the year in the first book (which is 1991), Harry (and Neville, come to think of it) turned 23 last week. Gulp.

Lost In Files

Digging through my files for driving directions to our campsite in Pennsylvania (give me a break, we only do this once a year, okay?), I found two things that made me smile.

The first:

Scribbled on the manila envelope where I put last year’s info (complete with all the exits leading to Friendly’s restaurants) I found my Highway Haiku:

Ontario First
New York: Three Giant Ravens
Pennsylvania Ho

Bridge May Be Icy
Buckle Up For Safety Please
Right Lane Closed Ahead

(Yeah, that last one is composed entirely of road signs. And I’d completely forgotten about the three humungous raven statues in the field just over the border, on the west side of I-81.)

The second:

A white envelope that only had my name on it. I opened it and pulled out three print-outs of submission requirements to three major publishers. On top was a sheet of paper with huge letters on it:

A,
If you
make it,
they will
come.

The sign was a colleague’s gag at work a couple of years ago, when we were joking about possessed hardware after our network was set up and from the back office he could fool around with printer that sat next to my work station. But it made me smile, because I found it in with those manuscript submission guidelines.

If I make it, they will come, indeed.

Fun With Absinthe

Damn. Had a blog post about amusing misspellings on a website, but I can’t post it because it revolves around a gift for someone.

Drat.

But I did find something else: a new liqueur called Absente. It claims to be “a dazzling emerald green spirit, distilled in the tradition of Absinthe, from a potion of botanicals without the wormwood.” It substitutes Southernwood, or Southern Wormwood (same artemisia family, same absinthol oil which gives it the characteristic bitter taste) instead to make it legal.

For all you bohemians out there, the site also provides recipes and serving instructions. (Dear Gods – the Energizer is just scary.)