by Stone Marshall | Jan 13, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
It’s been more than five years since J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book was released. But it doesn’t mean the wizarding world has come to a halt. 2014 brought columns from Rita Skeeter, social media riddles from Rowling and revelations that Hogwarts was as warm and welcoming a place to diversity as Potter fans would have wanted. Though some critics argue Rowling needs to cool it with the new content, Potter fanatics feel otherwise. Here’s everything we learned about the wizarding world in 2014.
Rowling hit the heart of nostalgia in July when she published a gossip column from Rita Skeeter about Harry and Company’s reunion at the Quidditch World Cup. The infamous wizards, “no longer the fresh-faced teenagers they were in their heyday,” are now in their thirties. Harry, a 34-year-old with “threads of silver” in his hair, was sporting a new scar, a “nasty cut over his right cheekbone,” which Skeeter speculated was from an argument with his wife Ginny Potter, now a reporter for the Daily Prophet.
Hermione Granger, the feminist fatale, naturally did not change her last name as Ginny did. Granger unsurprisingly rose to be Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Ron Weasley, however, is beginning to bald and left the Ministry of Magic after only two years to co-manage Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes with his brother George. Percy Weasley, meanwhile, is Head of the Department of Magical Transportation.
PHOTOS: See the Harry Potter Theme Park Gringotts-Themed Ride Dolores Umbridge was inspired by one of Rowling’s own teachers
Rowling released a 1,700-word story on Halloween, noting that Umbridge was based on a former teacher who she despised. “Umbridge is not only one of the most malicious Potter characters—she is the only person other than Lord Voldemort to leave a permanent physical scar on Harry,” Rowling wrote and “one of the characters for whom [she felt] the purest dislike.” Her affinity for kittens was also inspired by a woman Rowling once shared an office with, who “had covered the wall space behind her desk with pictures of fluffy kitties.” Umbridge’s backstory was revealed in the piece, including the fact that her mother was a Muggle, her father a wizard and her brother a Squib. “Nasty things tended to happen” to those who inquired about her family. And even to those who didn’t, we always knew.
Gilderoy Lockhart tried to make a line of hair products
The famous wizard was always looking for new ways to stay famous. Lockhart discovered Occamy eggs—Occamys are serpentine-like creatures with wings who are very protective of their silver eggs. The creatures’ aggressiveness made the shampoos too expensive and too dangerous to produce.
Celestina Warbeck was quite the dramatic rockstar
“An early marriage to a backing dancer lasted only a year; Celestina then married her manager, with whom she had a son, only to leave him for the composer Irving Warble ten years later,” Rowling wrote. Rowling posted the story about one of Molly Weasley’s favorites on Pottermore in August, along with a jazz-like song called “You Stole My Cauldron But You Can’t Have My Heart.”
Rowling is very excited about the Harry Potter spinoff
Fans thought Rowling was hinting at a new Potter book when she posted an anagram to Twitter asking fans to solve it. But a winner revealed it was simply a hint at Rowling’s latest project: The screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a Potter movie spinoff. The screenplay is based on a book that once only existed in the wizarding world and served as a textbook at Hogwarts.
There is room for everyone at Hogwarts (almost)
Rowling responded to a fan who tweeted that his wife had teasingly told him there were no Jews at Hogwarts, meaning that she was the only one qualified to be “magical” in the family.
She confirmed in a later Tweet that the only people she never imagined at Hogwarts are Wiccans. All sexual orientations are welcome as well, she confirmed when a fan asked about an LGBT club at Hogwarts.
There’s a reason Draco Malfoy is so mean
“Draco was raised in an atmosphere of regret that the Dark Lord had not succeeded in taking command of the wizarding community,” Rowling wrote, revealing that before meeting Harry on the Hogwarts Express, Draco, his family and other ex-Death Eaters thought Harry could be “another, and better, Voldemort.” Draco married Astoria Greengrass, who may have helped shape the bitter Slytherin into a better man. “As Astoria refused to raise their grandson Scorpius in the belief that Muggles were scum, family gatherings were fraught with tension,” Rowling wrote.
Snape is not a vampire, but there was almost a vampire in the series
Rowling toyed with the idea of a vampire professor at Hogwarts called Trocar, named for a “sharply pointed shaft inserted into arteries or cavities to extract bodily fluids.” Though Trocar was edited out early on in the Potter process, fans speculated that Snape was a vampire. “While it is true that he has an unhealthy pallor, and is sometimes described as looking like a large bat in his long black coat, he never actually turns into a bat,” Rowling wrote. “We meet him outside in the castle by daylight, and no corpses with puncture marks in their necks ever turn up at Hogwarts.”
The Inferi were not zombies
Inferi were somewhat inspired by zombies, but Rowling purposely didn’t call them that because of Michael Jackson. “I’m part of the ‘Thriller’ generation,” she wrote. “To me, a zombie will always mean Michael Jackson in a bright red bomber jacket.”
The Hufflepuff Horcrux was almost a cauldron
“But there was something slightly comical and incongruous about having such a large and heavy horcrux,” Rowling wrote.
The Leaky Cauldron was almost ruined by muggles
The oldest pub in London survived when Muggles built Charing Cross Road that “ought to have flattened it completely.” The bar also serves a beer that a former landlord created to honor a former Minister of Magic, but it’s “so disgusting that nobody has ever been known to finish a pint.”
Rowling has some regrets
The author regretted killing off Florean Fortescue, the owner of the Diagon Alley ice cream parlor. “I seemed to have him kidnapped and killed for no good reason,” she wrote. “He is not the first wizard whom Voldemort murdered because he knew too much (or too little), but he is the only one I feel guilty about, because it was all my fault.”
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by Stone Marshall | Jan 12, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
FLINT, MI — Movie star Daniel Radcliffe was spotted in Flint just before New Years Eve.
Radcliffe, known as the star of the hit “Harry Potter” film franchise based on the series of novels by author J.K. Rowling, was in Flint on a visit with his reported girlfriend, actress and University of Michigan-Flint alum Erin Darke, for the holidays.
The two were spotted at several area businesses: Flint City T-Shirts downtown, Bob Evans restaurant on Hill Road in Grand Blanc, and Don Pablo’s restaurant on Miller Road. An employee of Bob Evans took a photo with Radcliffe that has been making its rounds online.
People immediately began taking to social media to share enthusiasm about his visit. Here’s a look at some of the conversations happening online.
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by Stone Marshall | Jan 12, 2015 | parent-news |
Like many musicians, Josh Rifkind spent much of last year on tour.
He logged 32,000 miles in a used minivan crisscrossing the country doing concerts. “I was on the road the whole year,” he says. “It was pretty epic.”
But the 41-year-old-guitar player’s gigs are a little different from those of most rockers.
Rifkind, who lives in Atlanta, has performed his music – which ranges from covers of Taylor Swift songs to “Old MacDonald” – for free for thousands of sick kids at more than 250 children’s hospitals across the country since 2007. Often, he and his fellow musicians set up shop in the lobby or at the bedside of a child.
It didn’t start out that way. Right out of college as a struggling musician, Rifkind formed a band but switched to managing other bands when he realized he had a lisp and wasn’t the best singer. “I figured out that my best stuff was the talking parts in between the singing,” he jokes.
Still, he loved music and he wanted to make a difference. His father was his inspiration.
Early Inspiration
After he was born, doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Rifkind when he wasn’t breathing properly. His dad, Ken, then a recent medical school graduate, diagnosed his newborn son with a collapsed lung, saving his son’s life.
“I wanted to do something that combined those two worlds, my appreciation for [my father] and my love for music. And so, in 2007, Rifkind launched Songs for Kids.
Rifkind and a rotating cast of fellow musicians develop sets, rehearse, then play for children in the hospitals. They sometimes even help kids record their own songs.
“To be able to make a connection with kids in need, and kids you don’t know, it’s just very exciting, very rewarding,” says Rifkind, a free spirit with a self-deprecating wit who draws a small salary from his nonprofit. To fund his concerts, he holds a big annual fundraiser that has featured artists including Pete Yorn and Arrested Development.
An Hour of Normalcy
Hospitals appreciate Rifkind’s music. “The talented musicians with Songs for Kids provide a shining moment in the day of our children and families,” says Michael Vaccaro, chief nursing officer at Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Songs for Kids serves as a very therapeutic activity for children facing really scary diagnoses,” Vaccaro says.
Families say Rifkind’s music and friendly manner lifts their children’s spirits in the toughest times.
Rifkind first met Brody Cole when the 5-year-old, battling mitochondrial disease, was in and out of the hospital.
Brody never missed a Songs For Kids performance. “He would rock out to ‘Old McDonald’ and ‘Wheels on the Bus,’ grabbing a microphone and sharing the stage with Josh and his band mates,” recalls his mother, Kristi Cole Griggs of Columbus, Georgia.
“It was amazing. It was an hour of normalcy for us,” Griggs adds.
Tragically, Brody passed away five years ago, but his mom still attends fundraisers for Songs For Kids. “Josh was amazing with Brody. He’s found his purpose and I want to continue to support him,” Griggs says.
Eighteen-year-old Micah Arnholt is battling celiac disease and Gardner syndrome and has been in and out of the hospital for the past year and a half. Rifkind and Songs for Kids have been there every time.
“To see my kid smile and have such a good time was amazing,” says Micah’s mom, Lisa Arnholt. “Micah has a really good attitude but its draining to never know what’s going on with his illness and then Josh comes in and everything gets better. Josh just comes in and makes his day brighter.”
Rifkind, who held his first kids’ concert at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta says that’s what it’s all about. He remembers a young boy who had been badly burned on his face. During six painful months in the hospital he’d hardly spoken to anyone.
But, Rifkind recalls, he made it to the Songs For Kids group performance and then trailed Rifkind for hours as he sang bedside for other kids.
“He looked at me and he said, ‘I will remember you’,” Rifkind recalls. “It was so profound. We don’t do this to make money or be famous. You hope you can have an impact. You think about your life and how you want to live it and in that one moment there was complete clarity.”
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by Stone Marshall | Jan 11, 2015 | parent-news |
The highlight of Carnegie Science Center’s annual MessFest for 8-year-old Perry Riggle was his reigning title as “Chief Geometrist” after winning the pudding “pi”-eating contest in his age division for the second year in a row Thursday.
The MessFest, held on the first day of the year at the North Shore science center, had all-day activities ranging from finger-painting to kids making their own sidewalk chalk. The two most popular attractions are usually tubs filled with ooblek, a gooey substance made of corn starch and water, and the egg drop, where kids can build a case for raw eggs that will protect their “egg-stronauts” from the pavement, spokeswoman Susan Zimecki said.
For the pudding “pi”-eating contest, contestants are broken up into three age groups — children 7 and under, kids 8-12, and teenagers and adults. Mounds of pudding are piled onto a small saucer, and contestants race to see who can finish it first using only their mouths to eat.
The New Year’s Day crowd was its largest to date in the eight years the center has sponsored the activities — more than 3,500 people showed up to the sloppy fun day for kids, Ms. Zimecki said. A long line of visitors had already formed when the center doors opened at 10 a.m.
“Us
ually we don’t see that many people that early in the morning, because it’s the morning after New Year’s Eve and many are off work,” she said. “We were surprised by how many people already were waiting to come inside.”
Monroeville resident Lynn Greenway arrived at the center as the doors opened at 10 a.m., and said there was a line of more than 50 people in front of her waiting to buy tickets. Her two daughters Anna, 2, and Kathryn, 4, went straight to the oobleck pools when they got inside, she said.
“My 4-year-old is into anything messy,” she said. “She’ll just dive right in. We usually try to avoid it when it’s crowded, but this is just so much fun and totally worth it.”
Participating in the MessFest has become a tradition for some families. Kelly Riggle, Perry’s mother, has attended MessFest with her family for the past five years, and participated in the race with her son for the second year in a row. Last year, her family recorded a video of her winning in the adult pudding “pi”-eating contest and uploaded it to YouTube.
“This is just one of our traditions we like to do every year,” she said. “It’s a fun thing for the entire family to do together. I made sure to tell him not to eat in advance so he’ll be nice and hungry.”
The number of games and activities and the amount of people participating have significantly grown over the years, she said.
“It just seems like there’s more of everything,” she said. “I think they must really have people spreading it through word of mouth about how much fun it is for the kids … and the adults, too.”
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by Stone Marshall | Jan 11, 2015 | parent-news |
Children invited to January reading program
GALESBURG — Area children are invited to join the January reading program, “Read with Pete the Cat!” today through Jan. 31 at the Galesburg Public Library, 40 E. Simmons St., Galesburg.
Reading logs will be given when participants, ages 0-12, sign up in the Children’s Room of the library. Each of the four levels of the program will require one hour of reading. Readers will receive a “shoe,” sticker and after completing the fourth level, a free book! A raffle ticket given at each level completed will be used in a drawing for a stuffed Pete the Cat.
After each level of reading, participants may also bring an item to be donated to the Prairieland Animal Welfare Center, if they choose, such as copy paper, paper towels, gently used blankets, towels and rugs.
The month will culminate with a Pete the Cat Fun Day at the library from 11 a.m. to noon Jan. 31 in the Sanderson Room. All area children are invited, whether or not they participated in the January reading program. Those planning to attend the Pete the Cat Fun Day must register in the Children’s Room by Jan. 29.
Other events in the Children’s Room of the Galesburg Public Library this month:
• Anyone interested in knitting or crocheting, regardless of proficiency level, is invited to attend knitting and crocheting classes every Tuesday in January from 6-8 p.m. in the Hiler Room, next to the Children’s Room. Beginners should bring size 10 knitting needles or a size G crochet hook and a skein of 4-ply yarn. All ages are welcome and no registration is required.
• A recent large donation of character cake pans expanded the library’s collection to 90 cake pans which are now available for check-out for three weeks. Instructions are included with each cake pan. A Cake Pan Kick-off for ages 10 years and up on Jan. 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Sanderson Room of the library will provide extra advice on how to make a cake look just like the pictures. Check out a cake pan, bake the cake, make icing and bring it to the kick-off where icing bags with decorative tips and colors for the icing will be provided. Registration is required in the Children’s Room of the library when the cake pan is checked out.
For more information about these free programs, contact the Children’s Room at 343-6118, ext. 113.
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