All doctored...

I have been to the doctor, under protest and threat of life and limb. Doctor has given me antibiotics for a chest infection which he aggravatingly informed me he suspected could be pneumonia. Presumably a mild form.

Pneumonia, for crying out loud! It’s such a Victorian disease! It’s like catching cholera! Ok, maybe more a 40s, 50s disease - but it's still like catching rickets. Why couldn’t I have caught mono or another fashionable disease? I refuse to be stricken by less than fashionable ailments, damn it! Personally I have doubts anyway, since when is nausea a pneumonia symptom? Of course coughing and phlegming sudafed everywhere is enough to make anyone nauseous. Or this vile muck that tastes like aniseed, I hate aniseed!

Needless to say, I still feel kind of goopy and horrible which is somewhat exacerbated by the invasion of the Female Collective (the Hive Vagina was not impressed that a member of the family was sick and his only carer was male, and therefore, in their eyes, incompetent and invaded with all the inexorable power of the Borg).

On the plus side this means the fridge, freezers and cupboards are full of extremely wonderful things to eat.

Down side is I don’t feel like eating any of it. Even though they believe that the way to make sick people eat is not to force feed them but to make food look so damn appetising that even the dead will rise to eat it.

Plus side is that after generations of healing the sick and the injured my inestimable female relatives are experts at knowing what food will stay down with a tender stomach (including, oddly, my Great Aunts Extra-Meaty Soap, which is a cross between thick soup, gravy and thin stew, rich and tasty but for some reason is better than tonic water and crackers for the nauseous) and how to flavour food so a stuffed nose can taste it.

Down side: same experience means they have between them an unholy list of concoctions, tinctures, poultices, creams and salves which would have had them all burned as witches in ages past.

Plus side, with their domineering presence, Beloved has been forced to shop sensibly (as opposed to our usual habit - 8 types of soy sauce, 3 kinds of Parma ham, couscous and no bread or milk)

Down side, they’re in mah cupboards, messing with mah food!

Still on the amusing side, Beloved has taken up Yoga. No, I don’t know why either, one of his enthusiasms I think (he’s so bad at this. He’ll see something and suddenly he wants to do it more than ANYTHING in the world and if he doesn’t do it/have it he might as well shrivel up and DIE because his life will have no meaning any more! then 2 weeks later he will be bored and find something else. I assume somewhere he has seen an advert/tc programme/net site about yoga). While it’s amusing to watching him stretch and strain wearing a pair of shorts and little else, I doubt it will last.

Dumbledore kerfluffle

Dumbledore’s gay. It amuses me muchly, especially since I imagine there are many ultra-religious righties who were already burning the books for witchcraft have now just spontaneously combusted with outrage (and that’s always funny, you have to agree).

Is it a big step forward for gays everywhere? Well, millions of people are apparently reading books with a central gay character, but wouldn’t know about it unless the hear of Rowling’s revelation. Still, it’s a lot of exposure there. Personally, I think it can only be a good thing and certainly does no harm :) When it comes down to it, it's a character. he happens to be gay, there's no need to read anything more into it than that

People have bitched about why he didn’t reveal this in the books. Well, let’s take a step back and look at the books shall we. They’re about Harry Potter (hence the titles) a boy from the age of, what, 10-18? And his battle against Voldemort. The books are written nearly entirely from Harry’s point of view to my memory, less than, what, 5% of the book isn’t from his view point and they usually involve death eaters.

Right, now remember when you were between the ages of 11-18 and your relationship with your teachers. At which point did your headmaster avow his love for cock or pussy to you? What? You mean you headmaster didn’t discuss his love life with you? Damn, how heartless!

I didn’t know if any of my teachers were gay, straight, bi, single, coupled or in happy polygamous groups. The only clue I ever had was some of the women had “mrs” in front of the names. I didn’t even know the first names of some of my teachers. They could have been gay. They could have been straight. They could have been bi. They could have been sexing up their neighbour’s Rotweiler. I don’t think I’m unusual on that score, teachers are usually rather reticent in discussing their sex lives with their pupils, well, except for in one or two rather sensational cases.

So at which point in teaching Harry, advising Harry, guiding Harry and otherwise fighting the evil of Voldemort should Dumbledore have turned round and said “Did I ever mention how much I love hawt mansex?” At which exact point in the books would it have been appropriate, believable or realistic for Albus Dumbledore to explain his sexuality to his student?


(And to everyone saying she just added this after the series finished... well, point 1: You did read Deathly Hollows, right? Because, y'know Dumbledore/Grindelwald? Written in pretty LARGE print, really. Point 2: she said she had to tell a screenwriter that when he had dumbledore mention a past female love - don't you think he'd come forwards and sday "bitch please, that never happened?")


ETA:
Oh and can we have a big WTF to all those who are saying this is some kind of political statement? Hello, various studies have concluded that homosexuals make up between 3%-10% of the population (depending on study - the closet makes it hide to track us) yet the mere EXISTANCE of a gay character is a political statement? That's ridiculous! That's like saying the ethnic diversity shown throughout the Harry Potter novels was a political statement. Acknowledging people exist isn't political correctness or agenda driven or any other stupid clap trap they're spouting. It's simpel acknowledgement of the diversity of the human race.