Andrew > Recent Status Updates

"I think we have to question the intentions of any group that insists on disdain toward other people as a membership requirement."

"No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough."

Odd segue: the last book I read ended with Theodore Roosevelt, and this book begins with him.

So far, my favorite character is Walter Murray Gibson: deadbeat dad who got imprisoned in Sumatra by the Dutch for trying to foment a revolution, and that's just the beginning.

"All you want to do is bob for apples or hang a witch or something." - Vowell, inspired by a "perfect New England October" day.

"Into every generation of Americans is born a new crop of buttinskys sniffing out the latest Macedonia that may or may not want their help." - Vowell, on evangelists' use of Acts 16:9

"It's like voting on whether or not redheads should be allowed to celebrate Christmas." Sedaris on ballot initiatives regarding marriage equality.

I'm not sure what percent done I am, but I am 100% done with everything that's been written so far. A quote from the latest chapter (101): "Oh, for Merlin's sake - yes, he was trying to kill you. Get used to it. Only boring people never have that experience."

Good enough to eat in just one bite.

Devastated

"I do have a copy of you living in my head. It's talking to me right now using your voice, arguing how this is perfectly normal."

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"Professor McGonagall looked like someone had hit her in the face with a cast-iron frying-pan, a few minutes earlier, and now she'd been told that somebody was about to do it again, and not to flinch."

McGonagall: Alastor - but - will you teach the [Defense] classes, if -
Moody: Ha! If I ever say yes to that question, check me for Polyjuice, because it's not me.

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So much good McGonagall stuff in this chapter, I have to share more:

"Don't mind me, please. I'll just sit here quietly going mad."

"Whatever you're thinking right now, which I assure you is also wrong, I don't want to hear about it, ever."

"Minerva firmly believed that you only ought to worry about Time if you were a clock."

This is making me want to watch Emma Thompson's Trelawney recite the prophecy. (Which movie was that?)

"And if I catch anyone bothering her, I shall turn them into glass vases and drop them." - McGonagall

Suggestion: read chapter 78 in one shot. It's long, so I stopped somewhere in the middle, and every time I come back to it I have no idea where I left off.

"When a person gets busy, the first things to go are the extra syllables."

After "Squirrel Meets Chipmunk," it's nice to return to his old style, and a lovely way to begin the year.

Only 34 pages left. I was hoping for more "Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots" by now.

Amusing thought: what if Hogwarts students were resorted at the beginning of every year, like redistricting after the census?

"It turns out that [she] is the Heir of Hufflepuff and she's opened up the long-lost entrance to Helga Hufflepuff's Chamber of Hard Work and Practice." (this is a joke, not a spoiler)

In this version of Harry Potter, I'm imagining Tilda Swinton as McGonagall.

And Iocane powder makes an appearance!

"There is no one else in the world who would accidentally overestimate my wit, and leave me a message I cannot understand at all."

"Have you come to any conclusions? And please don't tell me how you arrived at them." - McGonagall reacts to hearing about time travel the same way I do.

"I do believe that man would kill me for a Sickle and give back five Knuts change."

Riveting

This chapter ends with further OMGing.