Author J.K. Rowling was born on 31 July 1965. In recognition of the several words (e.g. muggle, squib, animagus, parseltongue, and sorting hat) which she has contributed to modern English, perhaps we ought send her a combination birthday/thank-you card.
nice idea, Steve. count me in.
after reading the 6th book, I went back and started with the third and read them again. it was fun to read into things she wrote earlier, knowing where they were going.
oh, and I've watched all three films several times, and eagerly await the fourth!
Can someone please explain to me exactly what a philosopher's stone is? I'd always thought it was pretty much just a good-luck charm of some kind, but my book tells me that it may be much more than that. (No, not a Harry Potter book.) It also has an interesting word: alembic.
That would be great, Padre. While I have not been really "caught" in her Harry Potter story, I do admire her skill in creating expressive, plausible new words for her magical world, and her character names are sometimes brilliant.
For Jackie: J.K. Rowling has her "philosopher's stone" be a stone that gives its possessor immortality, as indeed this was one of its powers according to ancient alchemy, but I don't remember whether she also accounts for its other assumed major power, that of turning any metal into gold...
Now just how does a list like ours go about sending a combination card?
By sending a card in care of:
Christopher Little Literary Agency
Eel Brook Studios
125 Moore Park Road
London
SW6 4PS
United Kingdom
For a single person to have 'turned on' youth to reading, she deserves much more than a card! Oh, yeah...she's received much more... and, from what I've heard, been generous and grateful with her rewards! If elections were held for Queen today, I think she'd run away with the job!
>^--^<
In alchemy, the Philosophers Stone was originally thought to be a chemical which had the power to turn base metals into gold. Over time, it grew to have other powers, as well, such as the cure of illness and the prolongation of life.