I read the books and even bought the whole paperback set, and we bought and watched all the movies. I had kept the books as I had thought my husband might want to read them since he enjoyed the movies.
We watched the first movie at the beginning of the pandemic ans then started the second one. Couldn’t finish it, as it wasn’t worth a second viewing.
I just got rid of the paperbacks and I might also get rid of the movies, but that’s another project (going though all of the discs on the shelves). We tried watching one of the Fantastic Beasts movies and didn’t like it. I won’t be buying any more HP merchandise as I prefer to support my friends and not Rowling’s misguided views.
For my favorite Well(es), right up there with Orson and H.G., I would put Gideon Welles (an ancestor of Orson’s, I believe), who was Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy - a former newspaperman with a bad wig, an ardent abolitionist and a tough old coot who did his job very well.
We read each of the Harry Potter books aloud with our three sons growing up, and have seen all the movies (we were underwhelmed by the first Fantastic Beasts movie, though, and haven’t seen any of the others in the series). But I’m definitely an HP fan.
I understand why people are upset with Rowling but, as I’ve posted before on the Dope, I’ve never had much difficulty separating an artist’s shortcomings, even very grave ones, from the value of her work.
I read the first Harry Potter to see what the fuss was about, and disliked it because many of the characters seemed to me to be caricatures, and because fat people seemed to be categorized as evil.
I eventually read the rest of them, starting in again to try to see what the fuss was about, and thought them some improvement on the first (also a thin negative character and a fat positive character turned up, which helped some.) Overall I’d say I liked the books OK, but didn’t and don’t think they were anywhere near up there with, say, LeGuin or Pratchett; but they seemed to be getting a lot of kids to read books and I’m in favor of that.
I don’t see a lot of movies. I did see a couple of Harry Potter movies with my family; I thought the ones I saw were fun but that at least one of them made next to no sense if you hadn’t read the book first.
All of this was before the commotion over Rowling and trans issues. I’ve already read the books and don’t particularly care about owning them, I don’t get the impression that anything she did later was even as good as the books, and I see even fewer movies than I used to and I think the family has already seen as many of those as they were going to; so the issue doesn’t seem to come up in my life. If I did want to re-read any of the books, I’d get them from the library (which bought them before Rowling started making anti-trans noises) or from a yard sale; I wouldn’t buy them new. That would probably be true in any case; but it’s definitely true now. If I were going to give becoming-a-wizard books to a teenager, I’d pick something else in any case. If they specifically asked for Harry Potter, I’d find a used copy.
It appears that there’s still one traditional drive-in theater in the Chicago area, in far northwest suburban McHenry. It’s driveable for me, though it’d be over an hour’s drive each way. There’s also apparently one in Earlville, which is far enough west of Chicago that it’s not even a suburb; that one would be about a 90-minute drive for me.
There used to be one a little closer, in West Chicago (a far western suburb), but it closed a few years back. It also appears that there are several newer outdoor theaters in the area that have popped up in recent years, but it’s not clear to me if any of those are traditional drive-ins.
Possibly. I didn’t like the grainy crust (it had cornmeal or something in it?), and the soupy overly chopped veggies and meat. It didn’t taste especially great to overcome those issues. I think if you don’t grow up on Chicago style pizza, it seems weird. To me, it was like what’s the point? I’d rather eat something closer to New York style.
I had to google for drive-ins and could only find (on quick search) that there are 18 in California, but the “best drive ins in the L.A. area” had six, I’m assuming there are a few more.
You’ve still forgotten “I think I was at a drive-in movie once, but I’m not sure I’m not just remembering somebody else’s description. I am quite sure I’ve never had sex at one, though.”
Although, to be fair, that does presumably come under “other”.
I enjoyed the first few Harry Potter books. I, too, enjoyed them less as they grew longer and less-well edited. But i still finished the series and followed the hype.
But now that she’s actively campaigning against trans people, I’m not willing to do anything that gives her more money. I’d reread a book i already own if a child asked me to or something.
It’s not that her trans stance had much (any?) impact on the original books, and if she were long dead, i probably wouldn’t care but she’s alive and kicking and actively campaigning against my friends. So I’m not going to support her.
I answered that I’d been to a Michelin one star and a Michelin “runner up” restaurant. But last night (after voting in the poll) i went to a wedding at a two star restaurant. So i might revote.
details of the wedding dinner served at Blue Hill at Stone Barns
The food was very good, but I’ve had better. (Admittedly, mostly in cities where Michelin doesn’t rate anything, so maybe they’d have earned stars if it did. But i think i preferred the food at the runner up place, honestly.) What really impressed me at the wedding, though, was the service.
As we sat down, someone discretely asked each diner if they had any food allergies or foods they preferred to avoid. They offered an alternative to anything you didn’t want, and a second and third alternative if you didn’t like those. (My husband swung out on the fish course. He doesn’t eat fish, nor eggs nor cheese). We had water and three wine glasses, one for each course (removed for those who don’t imbibe.) The servers discreetly kept the water glass full, and the active wine glass at ~⅓. As each dish arrived, the servers lined up behind the diners, and on a signal, they placed half the dishes simultaneously, followed immediately by the other half. (So five servers for a table of 10, each with two plates.) Then they explained any substitutions they’d given you, and then discreetly disappeared. We also got fresh flatware with every course.
It was a very pleasant experience.
The apps that were carried about were very good and quite varied. Dessert was also served by wandering waiters after we rose from the tables and moved to dancing and open socializing (in adjacent spaces, so you could hear people if you weren’t dancing) and both the chocolate bon-bon and the “s’more ice cream bite” were excellent. Oh, the mocktails were also excellent. I didn’t try the alcoholic drinks other than the wine.
Why yes, the bride is a foodie, and several of the parties who might have paid are quite wealthy. I don’t know who paid, except my brother, father of the groom, mentioned it wasn’t him.
Sounds like a lovely experience. Service doesn’t outweigh the food, but bad service can ruin good food.
One of the two-star restaurants I went to had service like this. We were there 3 hours and were shocked when we checked the time as we left. It flew by. Plus the good service put us in a very good mood.
It was a lovely experience, and the service certainly enhanced it. I mean, it was also a joyous wedding between a cousin I’m fond of and the woman he’s been in love with for 9 years, and it was a nice chance to catch up with family, so even if it had been byo pizza in the park i would have enjoyed it. But the restaurant part of the experience was very nice.
Yeah. I understood that, in the poll, “consume” was being used as a general term covering both “watch (movies)” and “read (books),” but whether you’re talking about the character or the books or the movies, it sounds weird to talk about “consuming” Harry Potter. To me, the primary meaning of “consume” is to eat or to use up.