Some points of note

[snorkackcatcher]

First of all, a happy birthday to superdork37!

Onto a couple of items from the daily papers. Via The Register we have an odd story in the Daily Telegraph entitled Fancy dress parties drive women to drink:

... Previous research into alcohol consumption in social gatherings has almost universally found men drink more than women.

However researchers who attended 66 American student parties found this to be true, except when they involved guests wearing fancy dress - especially with a sexual theme.

Lead author Dr John Clapp, director of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies at San Diego State University, said that as his team was unable to explain the surprise finding it would be necessary to carry out further field work ...

Field work? So, basically being given a grant to attend orgies then? Well yes, with this sort of finding I guess you'd want to make absolutely sure of your data, and triple ... no, quadruple-check it. Just to make sure. :)

In the Daily Mirror there was a gossip column piece entitled Harry Potter Dan's spell:

...The geeky Harry Potter star, 18, spent the night with pals at the Crazy Larry club in Chelsea - a magnet for the rich, young yah crowd - and left in the early hours of Friday with a pretty blonde girl...

"He spent the night dancing with two slim posh girls and asked the DJ twice to play The Killers. He got into deep conversation with one of the girls and later left with her."

A pal of Daniel's told us the star likes his girls tall, slim and posh. Sounds like a Hermione Granger fixation to us...

*headdesk* Oh well, it would obviously be cruel and snarky to point to this sort of article as reason #382 why Emma Watson is less than perfect in the role, so I won't.

Lyrics: The last one was Madonna's Live To Tell from 1986, spotted by under_crisis. This time, let's try a story song:

We used to walk down by the river
She loved to watch the sun go down
We used to walk along the river
And dream our way out of this town (1990s)

Comments

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

That sounds like Richard Marx to me, and a spot of Hazard.

Am I the only one that's totally unsurprised that sexual-themed fancy dress makes most women feel like a stiff drink? And chances are, it's not even the thought of their own costumes and possible toe-pinching fishnets that are doing it - it's the thought of what the men might be wearing.... More research needed in this vital area, I feel, to clear up any doubt ;).

[muggle-prof.livejournal.com]

lyrics reminiscent of Springsteen's The River period, but apparently not.

Hermione Granger tall, thin and posh??? Not in the books I read.

[under-crisis.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a Hermione Granger fixation to us...

hello, like hermione granger is even actually posh? did they think hermione is "yule ball" chic all the time? plus, when is bushy hair posh? huh?

i'm just protesting over the obvious fangirling of the dan-emma ship. not that i'm totally against it, but duh.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

What she said. (The song bit, that is. I have no research results on fancy dress, sex and alcohol. Thank you for adding one to my list of NY resolutions... Back next year with THE FACTS!)

[tree_and_leaf]

Even non-sexual themed fancy dress makes me feel like a stiff drink!

[tree_and_leaf]

Hermione couldn't be more middle (Labour-voting, Guardian-reading) class if she tried, but since this point apparently escaped the filmmakers, I suppose it shouldn't surprise us that the Daily Mail doesn't get it either....

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

LOL. That's an excellent point.

[snorkackcatcher]

It is indeed Hazard.

The comments thread at the Register proposed a number of theories, of more or less seriousness(!), but one that made sober sense (sorry) was that such parties tend to attract only the less conservative who are more likely to drink a lot while partying. But I'm sure Dr Clapp (yes, that's his real name) will want to test this theory ...

[snorkackcatcher]

Fair point!

[snorkackcatcher]

The Register comments thread had a number of theories -- mostly facetious, of course, but including one pointing out that 'partygoers in general' and 'attendees of sexually-themed fancy dress parties' are probably populations with a rather different distribution. Makes sense to me ...

[snorkackcatcher]

I could make a vaguely plausible case for Hermione being tallish -- 5'6" to 5'8" -- but that would depend on maths, always shaky ground for HP theories! But posh -- no, not really, and definitely not in the 'rich, young yah crowd' sense of that article.

[snorkackcatcher]

Emma Watson sounds quite posh when she talks -- I just checked her IMDB bio, and she went to a private prep school even before she got the part in the HP movies -- and apparently she's 5'6" and naturally blonde, so appears that way in photos (hint to press -- NOT SAME as character). But I suppose she did look the part for the first two movies - Cuaron has a lot to answer for. :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Hermione couldn't be more middle (Labour-voting, Guardian-reading) class if she tried

*snort* That's a very good way of putting it, actually. To be fair, I thought Emma Watson was a reasonable match for the first couple of movies, but from PoA on the divergence is noticeable.