L.E. Fidler > Recent Status Updates

Late night chatter: changes to school remote options (it was a heavy night), the heavily Christmas-centered faith of Wizards, the supreme coolness of the Firebolt

Hot topics: we rep Lupin in this house and are proud of that, whether Ron deserved to lose 50 points for the crocodile heart incident, Snape’s blatant favoritism and the inherent unfairness of allowing head teachers to take and give points to houses they are in contest with, the Marauder’s Map, Madam Rosmerta

Hot topics: what “linger” means (Alexa, play Cranberries), practicing our best “twisted” smiles, how we “can’t even with Snape right now!; he’s bein’ so rude!”, a connection between Snape’s bias and segregation, the 37th reminder of what the grim is, everyone has a crush on Cedric Diggory

Chitchatting: practicing our best grimaces and “eyes like daggers”, the presumed guilt of Sirius Black, the complications of how it’s more convenient to be a good liar but less morally good to be good at lying, grindylows

Hot topics: Malfoy as a “dumb chicken” who feigns injury because he enjoys power over others, Snape and professorial favoritism, a spirited debate over ultimately how satisfying punching Malfoy would actually be, boggarts, the idea that “teenagers are kinda dumb a lot, huh?” (Regan observation)

Definitions: palmistry, omen, prefix hippo

Chatter: inner sight and a spirited debate over Trelawney’s merits as a professor, the art of tea reading, artist rendering of characters, Neville as clumsy predictable fool, Buckbeak’s coolness, more drunk Hagrid

Tonight’s chatter: dementors vs ring wraiths and who would win, conflating dementors and centaurs, Mrs. Weasley as being made of love and sandwiches, chocolate as a delicious remedy, how Lupin knows Harry, Percy and his...”hair balls,” drunk Hagrid

Chitchat: the allure of the firebolt, the grim, Argus Filch and Argos from The Odyssey as unlikely namesakes, the power of names, that we are reading the third book in the third month of the year, how tired Mommy is

Chitchat: Greco-Roman architecture and government use, the medieval pronunciation of knight, aliases and disguises, connections to From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the definition of gutter and grim

Tonight’s chat: how dangerously close “held” is to a bad word (“Mom, you can say ‘holded’ - it’s okay”), how hating or fearing someone means the Durseys care...just in terrible ways, how spoiling Dudley is a different form of abuse

The chatter: British terms for things (ie: torch not flashlight), why Mr. Dursley hates Harry, is it better for someone to forget your birthday or choose to ignore it, which child is most like Harry, the pros and cons of a summer holiday

Tonight we chatted about: the biography of EL Konigsburg, the costliness of taxi rides, black marble bathroom decor, Angel’s provenance, secrets, the clever use of “boloney” to set up the resolution of the mystery, Claudia’s poor mother

Book chitchat: quest narratives and structures, why Claudia is so disappointed that she cries, predicting Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler’s ability to help on the quest, saris and cultural appropriation

Vocab: stealthily, for goodness sake, sawhorses, Michelangelo

Book chatter: age-appropriate mild oaths, predictions of their getting caught, the size of Nubian goats and their abilities, the use of nudity in art, the dangers of bathing in a fountain

Tonight’s chat: Michelangelo as painter and sculptor, whether it’s not nice or not to run away and not worry about Claudia and Jamie’s parents

Vocab: Renaissance, newspaper, islamic, sarcophagus

Book chatter: good art is good art - even if there are naked bodies in it, what a paper newspaper looks like, is the Angel naked or not, connections to The Westing Game

New vocabulary: tsunami (not “zoo army”), softened (when speaking of hard feelings), inconspicuous, “sissy” (and why not to use it)

Book chat: the importance of good teams and thorough plans, how smart is it to skip to school, why you should never worry your mother like that

Tonight’s vocabulary: allowance, injustice, monotony
Chatter: Jamie as a great choice, who is richer and can kids be rich, the value of a dollar

Well, shit. We got to the Argus scene and Liam started bawling. We talked about loyalty and empathy and good dogs and bad men. And we cried. A lot. 🤦🏻‍♀️😢💜

Tonight’s chat: nudity and the fundamental difficulty swimming in clothes, Nausicaa and Ino and Arete as being kind of awesome, how terrible the suitors are, Telemachus grew up (and we all agree it will be v. awkward if he’s still naked), toxic masculinity in Ancient Greece

The sirens and their dastardly song, choosing between a rock and a hard place, Hyperion and his sweet armor, why Odysseus’s men are the worst, the pitfalls of goddess love, Barry Trotter (don’t ask)

Disobedience and hubris, Ancient Greek cannibalism, if a mangoat is a satyr and a horseman is a centaur...what is a pigman?, Odds on Circe being evil, poor Elpenor, the geography of Hades, Xenia, and O’s men being kind of the worst all the time

Book chat: why are Odysseus’s men kind of repeatedly stupid?, the ancient practice of xenia vs breaking and entering, the timeline of the epic compared to Iliad, where did Achilles go, is Spongebob and Patrick a modern retelling of Achilles and Patroclus???, odds are there are bad people on the island O lands on

Last chapter: Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night (baked potato and treason!), what “utterly” and “coursed” mean, trying to recall if we ever see Dumbledore hug someone or cry when not under the influence of magic, Slytherin vs Gryffindor, Dobby as the real hero, socks as excellent gifts, Gilderoy Lockhart forgets himself

Tonight’s discussion: the proper spelling of the word eye (not to be confused with the I), the definition of the word “expelled,” the curious lack of academic requirements for a Hogwarts professorship, the little boy’s mind gets blown by an anagram, serpents vs to phoenixes, Fawkes as the real hero of Book 2

Tonight’s book chat: defining occurrence/untidily/muttered/mutinous, alliteration, poor life decisions featuring Gilderoy Lockhart, predicting Percy’s weird behavior, why teachers cry sometimes, snake talk

Tonight’s chat: wizard world racism and the meaning of the word mudblood, defining glance and earshot, following the spiders and mommy’s arachnophobia

Tonight’s chat: the many definitions of the word “balls,” the meaning of the name Cornelius (“horn”) and famous Corneliuses in history, when in doubt go to the library, why the picture on the wall is crooked

Tonight’s chat: parsing the symbolism of the name Gilderoy (and thinking of alternatives), the inherent danger of a book, the perks of being a ghost, Valentine’s Day in the wizarding world