MuggleCast 95 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Intro music begins to play]
Micah: Because hell has officially frozen over, yes, Eric Scull is hosting, this is MuggleCast Episode 95 for June 17th, 2007.
[Intro music continues to play]
Eric: So guys, the City of Angels, the Big Easy, and the Big Apple.
Micah: Huh?
Laura: What are you talking about, Eric?
Eric: The City of Angels, of course.
Laura: Uh, yeah.
Eric: And also the Big Easy and the Big Apple.
Laura: Okay, so the City of Angels, Los Angeles.
Eric: Uh huh.
Laura: What’s the Big Easy?
Micah: New Orleans.
Laura: Right, okay.
Eric: New Orleans. And the Big Apple.
Micah: New York.
Laura: Great cities, but…
Eric: Well, actually, or it could just be a really big apple, but…
Micah: That’s true.
Eric: You guys…
Micah: Are you going on vacation, Eric?
Eric: Well, I am, actually. I’m coming home next week, but that’s not actually what I’m talking about, guys. The City of Angels, the Big Easy, the Big Apple – these seemingly inconsistent cities actually have something very special. They are linked, and now they relate to Harry Potter.
Micah: Really?
Eric: Can you guys figure out why?
Laura: Is Harry going on vacation?
Micah: He needs it after Book 7.
[Laura and Eric laugh]
Eric: No, it’s true. It’s true. You know what, how about we find out after Micah’s news segment.
Micah: Okay.
Eric: Okay? So that said, I am Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I am Micah Tannenbaum.
[Intro music continues to play]
News
Micah: On Thursday, J.K. Rowling announced plans to embark on an “Open Book Tour” of the United States. From her news section, she said:
“In October I will be touring the USA for the first time since 2000. The Tour will include four events, three to be held for schoolchildren in Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York City and one event in New York City for any U.S. Harry Potter fan who wins a ticket through a sweepstakes to be held by Scholastic, my US publishers. At each event, I will read from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, answer questions about the entire series, and sign copies of the latest book.”
You can visit Scholastic’s Potter section beginning July 30th for information on how to enter the sweepstakes and complete rules.
And J.K. Rowling has been busy on her website. She updated it earlier this week with the third part of the WOMBATs.
According to the site, “The Grade 3 WOMBAT is the final examination, and the most difficult. Not only is the subject matter much more advanced, but the examination is also more stringently marked. Certain answers will LOSE YOU MARKS, so choose carefully.”
Hopefully, you guys all do better than I did.
And it was announced Wednesday morning on NBC’s Today Show that Jo will give a rare television interview about the outcome of Deathly Hallows, as well as her plans for the future, shortly after the book’s release. This is scheduled to air in the US on July 26th, July 27th, and on Dateline July 29th.
UK fans will not miss out, as Jo will also make an appearance on BBC One’s Jonathan Ross on July 6th.
Another appearance has been scheduled, this time for BBC children’s show Blue Peter on July 20th, just a day before the release of Deathly Hallows. The show will be recorded, however, on July 5th.
Wrapping up news on J.K. Rowling, in Forbes’ annual “Celebrity Top 100,” the Harry Potter author is ranked as being the 48th most-powerful celebrity in the world. A person’s rank is decided by web hits, press clippings, television coverage, and pay related to that person.
Finally, Warner Brothers has announced today that the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack will be released on July 10th, the day before the release of the movie itself in the US and Canada. You can visit SoundTrack.net to get a sneak peak.
That’s all the news for this June 17th, 2007, edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
95 Episodes and Missing Hosts
Eric: Okay, thanks, Micah.
Micah: Oh, you’re welcome, Eric.
Eric: And this is – guys, this is episode 95 of MuggleCast. Can you believe that, 95 episodes?
Laura: You know I can’t believe it. We’ve pretty much – I mean, this is way beyond the average human life span, isn’t it? I would say.
Eric: Yeah, especially considering all the stress this show puts on us in our daily lives.
Laura: We’re grey now. You have no idea.
Eric: No, no no, no. But, no, so 95 episodes. We’ve got five more to the big 100, the amazing 100, and this is actually my first time hosting.
Laura: Yeah, congratulations.
Micah: Scary. Very scary.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Well, actually…
Laura: Here I am trying to be nice, and Micah goes, “Scary, so scary.”
Eric: Well, no, but anyway guys, so it’s 95, my first chance hosting, so I’m actually taking the best of it, but it’s actually just us three this week, isn’t it?
Laura: Yeah, only three of us. Where is everybody? What are these people doing?
Micah: Well, Andrew I think has a good excuse. He graduated yesterday, and he’s just enjoying himself, which I think he’s entitled to.
Laura: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Eric: Sometimes.
Micah: But also, congratulations are in order.
Laura: Yeah, congratulations, Andrew.
Micah: He survived high school.
Laura: Tough feat, tough feat.
Eric: Yeah. [laughs] I totally didn’t think he’d make it. I don’t know, what about you guys? Because, you know…
Laura: Why didn’t you think he’d make it?
Eric: I don’t know, I’m just saying. I thought he would make it. I thought he would make it. I’m actually very happy for him. And actually, have you seen his graduation photo that he has with his little brother?
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: And his certificate, on Facebook? It’s really cute.
Laura: Yeah. And I believe Jamie is off with Andrew. They’re at some graduation party. Ben, of course, is…
Micah: He’s on tour.
Laura: …on the book tour. Yeah, he’s touring. Like a rock star. Yeah, right.
Eric: And what about Kevin?
Laura: Kevin is – he’s going somewhere special next month.
Eric: Oh.
Laura: He didn’t – he wanted to keep everyone in suspense about that, I think, but he’s actually going trip shopping tonight, I believe, so he couldn’t join us either. So it’s just down to us three again. I mean three hosts again.
Eric: Three hosts again. Well, two of you were those – two of those three hosts, wasn’t it? It was you and Micah and Andrew?
Laura: Mhm. Yep.
Eric: What, and you guys called yourself the real trio.
Laura: Yeah, so this is the fake trio, everybody.
Eric: The fake trio?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Or are we like – aren’t we like – can’t we be like cooler, like the stupendous threesome, or something?
Laura: That sounds really bad. [laughs]
Eric: Nevermind, okay. So opening into the main discussion, guys…
Micah: The fearsome threesome.
Jo’s Open Book Tour
Eric: Oooh. I like that. I like that, Micah. You heard it here. The fearsome threesome, that’s what we’ll call ourselves. Okay, so guys, that’s our news. Thank you, Micah. And now, I’d just like to discuss this. So the Big Easy, as I was saying, the Big Easy, the Big Apple, and of course the City of Angels. Do you guys have any other ideas now that Micah’s news has concluded what that might mean, or am I just talking gibberish?
Laura: Well, I hear that it means a certain author’s going to be doing her first US book tour since 2000. So that’s pretty exciting, don’t you think?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Well, yeah. Yeah, pretty much.
Laura: So?
Micah: But it’s the first time since last summer, right, that she has been in the US?
Laura: Right, but it’s her first actual book tour since Goblet of Fire came out, so it’s been awhile. And it’s going to be really cool. From what I’m seeing here, it looks like that three of the events are going to be held for school children.
Micah: Right.
Laura: And one is going to be for actual ticket winners. So, are we going to try and get some tickets – enter to get some tickets to this thing? I think I am.
Micah: See? I don’t know because of what we do, would we be considered to actually enter into these ticket drawings? You know what I’m saying?
Laura: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: Because it kind of felt about the same way about the Signing in London that she is doing at the History Museum. Are we allowed to enter those drawings really because we work for a fansite and it seem kind of weird for us to actually…
Laura: That’s true.
Micah: …win a ticket to…
Eric: Yeah, as press.
Micah: …those events. As opposed to going as a media person to cover it.
Eric: Yeah. Or a special guest, or something. And I understand what you mean. I mean we are fans, though. We are also teenage fans so, but it would seem really interesting and really, like, they might – I don’t say they’d deny us, but it would look suspicious, I think.
Micah: Right.
Laura: Well I mean…
Eric: Like you said…
Laura: Regardless of whether, or not any of us does go I think it’s safe to say that MuggleCast will be doing something in New York City when she is up there. So, I’m really, really excited to hear she is coming back.
Micah: Yeah, and not too mention she’s not doing small venues. You look at the places that she is going to be and each of these three cities. The Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.
Laura: Mhm. It’s huge.
Micah: And then Carnegie Hall in New York, and I don’t really know much about The Ernest N. Memorial Auditorium, but it’s at some convention center in New Orleans. So, she’s definitely going to be filling these places up. I know mostly with kids, but it’s going to be interesting, and I don’t know. Can you guys see any sort of problems resulting from how they go about choosing the high schools?
Eric: Oooh, that is a little bit problematic because what are they doing? They’re actually going…
Micah: I don’t even know if they’re high school.
Laura: Are they high school?
Micah: Yeah, I probably shouldn’t say that. It’s probably…
Laura: Are they going to be Elementary Schools?
Micah: Could be a mix of all three.
Laura: Yeah. Could be.
Eric: Could be a mix of education.
Laura: What they might do is hold lotteries at schools. Like, they might have specific schools within the area that they’ve said, “You can send this many students.” And they’ll have a student lottery within the school to decide who gets to go. So, that way you’re actually getting fans who want to be there, as opposed to people who just don’t care.
Micah: Well, didn’t I…
Eric: Yeah, and…
Micah: …read something about a sorting hat? They are using The Sorting Hat for something. To decide on how these schools are chosen and who in the school is going to be able to go?
Eric: Oooh.
Micah: Like which classes?
Eric: Huh.
Micah: Let me see if I can find that.
Laura: Hmmm.
Micah: Oh, you know where I think I saw that. It was in my local paper, here on Long Island that I think mentioned that aspect of how these schools were going to be chosen, and how the classes within those schools were going to be chosen, but I don’t remember seeing anything on her site though, that said specifically.
Laura: Well, I’m sure we’ll find out as the time draws closer. There’ll be more details that’ll come out.
Micah: Right. But I think this is cool because not only this but if you just look at the amount she’s updated her site in the last week, she’s becoming a little bit more open, I think towards the whole idea of the series being over, and talking with different…
Eric: Oh my…
Micah: …people about it.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …God.
Laura: All the interviews…
Eric: So…
Laura: She’s going to be doing? It’s fantastic.
Eric: Totally! Totally, totally, totally! So, she says she’ll be – and also guys, she’ll be reading from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Laura: Mhm. Yeah.
Eric: She’ll be reading from the seventh Harry Potter book, and this was an interesting topic I wanted to bring up because -you know- last year at Harry, Carrie, and Garp in Radio City she read from Half-Blood Prince. She read, more specifically, she read – oh, what was it? What was the name of the chapter? I’m sorry? Where Harry and Dumbledore go back in time and see…
Laura: She read from the chapter where…
Eric: Yes.
Laura: …we saw Tom Riddle at the orphanage.
Eric: Tom Riddle…
Laura: I forgot the actual…
Eric: At the orphanage. Yes.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: And it was a very Dumbledore heavy scene, actually. She likes reading Dumbledore. But, uh, so just the idea now, guys. This is – people may say, “What can you get out of this?” But if she’s reading from the Deathly Hallows, I think it is safe to say either there’s still a large enough element of humor? In the book? That she can actually pick a few scenes and pick pieces of the book that would not just be safe to read, but actually, you know, enjoyable? In a way. Like, I don’t think she’ll read, necessarily like the worst parts of the book where people are dying left and right and somebody says their last breathing words to Harry as they go off and fight. So, what do you guys think about that?
Laura: I don’t know. I think she might. Because that’s the…
Eric: You think she might?
Laura: Yeah, I think she might because that’s – I mean those are the kind of scenes that everybody is looking forward to the most. Everybody wants to find out who dies…
Eric: Ohhh.
Laura: And everything.
Eric: I disagree actually.
Laura: What you don’t want to find out who dies, Eric? [laughs]
Eric: What? I want to find out who dies, but I don’t want to recur a central theme around the book. I was just thinking when I read this e-mail, I said, “Oh, great! So, there’s going to be a part of Deathly Hallows that she gets to actually, you know, that she reads that isn’t actually going to be the most depressing thing in the world.” Everybody dying around Harry because the trend I guess, is that all you guys think around Harry, including Ron and Hermione is going to die because they’re the fore front of all the events. So…
Laura: Well, no I don’t think Ron and Hermione are going to die, but I don’t know. I think the scene that she read at Radio City Music Hall wasn’t particularly what you would call happy, or funny. It was actually kind of sad because you saw what Tom Riddle’s life was like and it was very sad and so, I think that if anything we are going to hear her reading something that intriguing, as opposed to just humorous. I mean, I don’t know if she is going to read a whole chapter, an excerpt from a chapter, or if she’s going to read little bits from different ones. I don’t know how she is going to do it, but it would make more sense to me if she read a large chuck of one chapter just because…
Micah: Right. Or even the last chapter…
Laura: …there would be more continuity.
Micah: I can see her reading the last chapter sort of her way of finalizing everything, or maybe even the Epilogue.
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: I think that, that would be appropriate because in a way she is closing out the series on this tour.
Eric: Mhm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, will she be doing it -do you reckon that this will be her last book tour ever then? Or will she…?
Micah: No, no. I’m just saying that if she is saying that she is going to be reading from the seventh book, I think it would make sense for her to read from the last chapters, sort of for everybody to get an idea of how she would verbally close out the book, if she was reading it to an audience, which she obviously will be.
Eric: Ooh.
Laura: Good point.
Eric: That totally makes me more jealous that they get closure in a vocal format…
[Micah and Laura laugh]
Eric: From JKR. That’s very sad, so we do have to move on here, but real quick, I think. Three events. So, do you think she’ll do different readings for different three events, I think?
Laura: Nah.
Eric: Because she can read the last chapter. But will she do it for three people?
Laura: I don’t think she’s going to choose different readings to do. I think they’ll all be the same.
Micah: No, look at Radio City.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Now – oh, yeah.
Micah: She chose the same chapter both nights.
WOMBATS
Eric: Yeah. You’re right. Well, that’s the easy and the very economical thing to do. So, it’ll be interesting to speculate what she reads at the news event. Micah, what else have we gotten? New discussion here.
Micah: Well…
Eric: Oh, yes.
Micah: “Oh, yes” what?
Eric: The WOMBATS are back.
Micah: They are.
Laura: Did you guys take your WOMBATS?
Micah: I did.
Eric: How’d you do?
Micah: I don’t know, I haven’t gotten anything back yet.
Laura: They’re not scored yet.
Eric: Oh. Oh, right. Sorry. [laughs]
Micah: I can tell you how I think I did.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Okay.
Micah: Not very well.
Laura: Troll. [laughs]
Eric: Not very well. Yeah, I went to the site as soon as I heard through MuggleNet that the door was open, because – I don’t know if you guys know this, but it seems like my computer picks the worst times to, like, be a little bit shaky. And so I’ve never actually seen the door open before.
Laura: Really?
Eric: Never.
Laura: Wow!
Eric: Never ever. I mean, I saw a screencap that someone did. And obviously, when that one guy hacked JKR’s site. And they want me to stop mentioning that. [laughs] But no, so I’ve never actually seen the door without the “Do Not Disturb” sign on it. So, my impression of JKR’s site is just that she’s got a few raunchy tenants hanging around all the time. Because that “Do Not Disturb” sign is always there. So, I went there and I saw the procedures that we’re doing. Which we’ll talk about, how to get into the door. And I tried to take my WOMBATS. But actually, I discovered that it’s now Level 3. The hardest level of WOMBATS. And I actually – me not having taken the first two, decided that actually would be out of my league. And I didn’t want to embarrass myself. So I didn’t actually take the WOMBATS.
Laura: Oh, okay. So you didn’t actually take any of them, at all?
Eric: No, I haven’t. I haven’t.
Laura: No? Okay.
Eric: I would have liked to, but then I came on JKR’s site and I saw that it was, you know, Level 3. The hardest, most difficult, not-just-a-Harry-Potter-quiz, but you will need to have your wit about you. You know, and I was thinking, “Okay, I don’t have my wit about me. I don’t even have a firewall that works.” [laughs] And I actually broke my firewall, trying to allow Jo’s site to pop up. So, I don’t really know that I’m in a good situation. But what about you, Laura? Did you take it?
Laura: I did take it. And it was somewhat difficult. And she did remark that there were actually questions, this time, that you could lose points if you got them wrong. So…
Micah: Yeah. I’m done.
Laura: Certain answers you lost more points on. Hey, Micah?
Eric: Oh yeah, that’s right. You could actually lose points this time around. That’s actually what discouraged me. So Micah, what were the questions like? I mean, can you release any of that information, do you think?
Micah: Yeah, sure. [laughs] I particularly thought the section on the Ministers was pretty difficult. What did you guys think about that?
Laura: That was hard. [laughs] I mean, because I only knew one of them.
Micah: Yeah. Same here.
Eric: Part on the Ministers?
Laura: So… [laughs]
Micah: Although somebody was telling me that based on the timing you could figure out some of the others.
Laura: Yeah, there were some of them that you could, kind of, glean some sort of idea of how they matched up. Just because they had one that was something about activist rights or something. And that might have gone along with the Minister who was in office in the 60’s or 70’s. So, that’s kind of how I thought of it.
Micah: Yeah. Just overall, I thought it was really difficult.
Laura: It was hard. [laughs]
Micah: She always throws in those questions, too, that say, “In your opinion…” And you always wonder, “Well, if it’s my opinion, then why isn’t it the right answer?”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah. You know that’s entirely true. That’s a little strange. But, how long did it take to get the WOMBAT results back the first times?
Laura: A week, maybe?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Once she closed the door. Yeah.
Eric: Week or two?
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: She’s running out of time, too.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Micah: I mean, what do you guys think, though? Do you think we’re going to get something as a result of our results on the test? Do you think she’s going to put something up?
Laura: Maybe.
Eric: Well, you’re going to get your results.
Laura: Yeah. I’m sure that she’s going to do something.
Eric: What do you mean? People who only scored…
“The” Symbol
Laura: No, she wouldn’t do that. I think that if you took it, you get some sort of prize. But, what kind of intrigued me most about the WOMBATS was that you had to put the symbol together that appears on the spine of the book to access it.
Eric: You guys, you guys, and MuggleCast listeners, you know what we’re talking about now. Don’t you, by now? The symbol.
Laura: The symbol.
Eric: The symbol. I believe we’ve had, what? Four episodes now just titled, “The Symbol.” And it’s the one we always talk about. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s on the spine of the UK edition…
Laura: Yeah, it’s the triangle, circle with the line.
Eric: The little triangle with the little line through it. Little Circle, thank you Laura. So yeah, guys, what do you think about that? What do you have to do, Laura, to get the WOMBATS.
Laura: You have to put it together. You had to, I believe, you had to take the triangle and set it on top of the circle and set the line on top of the triangle. At least if I’m remembering correctly. But clearly this shows that the symbol does hold great importance. I mean, we knew that it was important before, but the fact that she chose to put it before the WOMBATS shows that it’s really something she wants us to pay attention to.
Eric: [laughs] Here I was hoping that it was just speculation, that it wasn’t actually important. And, yet we get this little musical triangle thing. I did open the door, just to see what it was like behind the door. And I remember back in music class in elementary school, little triangles that we used to bang stuff with. And I wish you could play a little triangle, do a little chime thing. But no, it’s actually that symbol which is haunting us.
Micah: It is. And it’s not only there. It was on, and still is on, Bloomsbury’s website.
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: So, it’s clearly important. And I’m still hanging on to my whole antipode theory.
Laura: Oh yeah, it was fantastic. Because just last week we did a whole discussion on this symbol and the antipodes. And I was absolutely floored to see this.
Eric: It was good.
Laura: So, it was really, really great.
Jo Interviews
Eric: And that looks like it causes us to continue. We did have for the news discussion, just that JKR’s doing some interviews around the release date. But some of them will be recorded beforehand. So actually, just quickly, there will be a Today Show announcement, which will actually it’ll be an interview and it’ll air in the US on July 26th and 27th. And on Dateline on July 29th will be JKR interviews.
Announcements
Eric: So actually, now let us continue past news discussion to current announcements for this week. First of all, guys, the little bit of a membership thing that MuggleCast had going for now, Pickle Pack, is actually now closed. Registration is closed for at least a year. It’ll be another year. Registrations are going in the Disney Vault here, folks. And actually I wish we kind of had another week because I had a few things planned for advertising. But actually you’ve missed your chance. It was actually the 16th was your last day to sign up for Pickle Pack and receive any video blogs once a week, as well as other things. So, sorry guys. We’re going to try to accommodate whoever didn’t sign up in other ways. But mainly, your time is up.
Laura: Yeah, but, I mean for those of you who were getting sick of us advertising it. It’s over now. You never have to hear about it again. So…
Eric: Yeah, yeah, that’s true.
Laura: Be happy.
Eric: That’s true. That’s true. It’s done. It’s done. I hear we got some hate mail. Laura got some pretty nasty stuff in the PO Box, like actual pickles?
Laura: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They sent me rotting pickles and all sorts of horrible things. No, no, they really didn’t. But actually Eric, that was a really, really nice way to transition into a PO Box Update, but we’ve got one more announcement before that.
Eric: Oh yeah, okay. So, that’s just, you know… And just you can tell us more about what people sent you. But just it is… And folks, it is still Global Spread MuggleCast Month. So, if you hate – if you like or hate Pickle Pack, whatever it is. It’s Global Spread MuggleCast Month, so please spread MuggleCast. There is a variety of advertisement banners you can put on your sites, Facebook, MySpace. So, that will be found at MuggleNet.com, I believe.
Laura: Mhm, yep.
Eric: And Jamie and Andrew had this little notation here for older episodes. Do you actually know the story with that, Laura?
Laura: Yeah, we get a lot of e-mails from people saying, “The older episodes aren’t on iTunes. I can’t get them. I can’t find them.” Well, this is not a problem because all you have to do is go to MuggleCast.com and go to “Episodes.” We have all of the episodes all the way back to the very beginning, the dawn of time where you can directly download them. So, you don’t even have to worry about it. We also have them in a format that will work for those of you who are on dial-up. So, the audio quality is not as good, but you can still get it. So, that’s the solution to that. We don’t have them all on iTunes for reasons unknown. I’m not quite sure. Maybe there is a limit to how many episodes you can have on there at a time. But that’s why.
Eric: Yeah. It’s actually a feed issue. It’s very big with the feed.
Laura: Mhm. Okay.
PO Box Update
Eric: So, we’re good with anouncements. Now Laura, you did mention you have a HUGE update about the PO Box.
Laura: It is very big. Huge PO Box Update.
Eric: Oh my god.
Laura: I am telling you guys. The number of times that I’ve been to the PO Box and I’ve opened it to find a key with a nice little note from my post office telling me that my PO Box is not big enough and I should probably get a bigger one because I have to keep going to lockers to get stuff out of it because you guys are sending so much stuff.
Okay, we did get quite a few parcels. One came form Leif in Hawaii. He sent me a lei, which he hand-made. It’s white and it’s really, really pretty. He also sent to mixed-media illustrations of Harry and Fleur, which are really, really fantastic. he actually go tinto art school and he used these as part of his portfolio. So, that was pretty cool. I am going to put those up on MuggleCast.com this week.
We also got the sweetest thing – Pamela from California – sent Andrew and I both graduation gifts. And I am assuming his is the same thing as mine. She sent me Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You Will Go. And she wrote a really, really nice, little personal note on the inside of it about how Dr. Seuss can put it in the simplest of words. And it is just really, really nice and really sweet. And I really enjoyed that. So, thank you, Pamela.
Eric: That is amazing.
Laura: I know, isn’t it? I thought it was the cutest thing ever.
Eric: Oh, The Places You Will Go, yeah.
Laura: And Sarah from New York sent Mikey a package. I am not quite sure what it is, it is very soft though. I squeezed it. It feels like a stuffed animal.
And something came for Ben from CafePress. I am not sure who sent it or what it is, but it is something for Ben. So, whoever sent that, thank you.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: I don’t know, that CafePress is pretty – you can prett much make, you can make anything into a shirt, can’t you? You can like – yeah.
Laura: It is not a shirt. It is quite small.
Eric: Oh.
Laura: We also got some letters. Maggie from Chicago – she wins the award for longest fanmail ever. Eleven pages front and back, handwritten.
Eric: Oh my gosh.
Laura: She also sent all six of you guys – she sent you guys each one dollar and she sent me a bracelet, which was really, really sweet. We also got a letter from Stephanie in Florida, Zarin sent us a postcard from Colorado, also letters from Jessica in Kentucky, Marissa in Michigan, Jasarine in California, Sam in California, Matthew from the UK – who also sent us these temporary tattoos that say, “Bollux to Poverty.”
Eric: Oooh.
Laura: So, that’s pretty cool. Damus from Georgia, Jodie from Washington, Holly from Canada, Emily from New York – who sent us a bunch of Horcux theories, like she sent us her hand-written notes, which was awesome. Katie from Tennessee, Erin from Illinois, Cathy from California, Selena from Illinois, Don from Washington and Jamie from Florida. So, we got a lot of stuff in the PO Box.
Eric: That is a lot of mail.
Laura: Lots of letters. A lot of inspirational stories. We got a couple of Chicken Soups we are going to use later in the show. So, thanks everybody for sending stuff to the PO Box. Keep on sending it. You will hear your name on the show.
Eric: Oh my gosh. And thank you, Laura for that! That was the biggest PO Box Update. I think it is safe to say that was a PO Box Update to POWN them all, really.
Micah: [sarcastically] Ha, ha!
Eric: Because that was just really good. Ha, ha! So, that was really good. Thank you for that. And I know we’ll do it at the end of the show too, but could you just do the PO Box address actually now?
Laura: Sure, that’s going to be:
PO Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
So, mail stuff.
Eric: Brilliant! Okay, so…
Micah: Did you guys talk about Podcast Alley at all?
Laura: No, but it’s not…
Micah: When you were in the announcements?
Laura: It’s not the beginning of the month, though.
Micah: I know its not the beginning of the month, but we’re third right now behind Free Talk Live and Keith and the Girl, and I just wanted encourage people to go out and vote for us.
Eric: And, okay. So, that was brilliant there, Micah. And now we have, that concludes the first half of the second part – first, second part of the first half of the show.
[Laura laughs]
Listener Rebuttal: Opals
Eric: And now we move on to listener rebuttals. If it is okay with you guys, I am going to field just the first one here.
Laura: Yeah, go ahead.
Eric: Okay, this one is from Vicki, age 17, from Canada. And her subject is “Opals.” She says:
I was listening to the latest episodes and was struck that despite your plentiful suppositions on the connotation of Antipodean, you didn’t pay much attention to the opal’s reference. I did a little research and thought you’d like to hear what I found. First, the opal is the official gemstone of Australia. Second, in England during the middle ages it was called patronus ferum. Do you think that this dragon could be connected somehow to a patronus?”
Okay.
“And also helping them flee dementors perhaps. Patronus ferum actually means patron of thieves. Do you think that if the trio were stealing something from Gringotts, that this could place this scene in the context of being a getaway from that episode. For what it’s worth, opal in the English middle ages, was believed to make one invisible. And the shimmery water-like opal is a hydrated metalloid, qualities are reminiscent of opals. Do you think that the dragon has some powers of invisibility or maybe a connection to James Potter, who left Harry the cloak? I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll wrap this up. Thanks for reading, hope this leads to some interesting discussion. Love the show, Victoria.”
Eric: What do you guys think?
Micah: Wow.
Laura: I think it’s interesting that she brings up the qualities of opals because if you remember the qualities of the invisibility cloak, Harry said it was like water woven into material and it was shimmery, so it almost is like – it is opal-like , which is interesting when you bring up the connection between invisibility and opals and the dragon.
Micah: I think there are a lot of different pieces here that she brings up.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: The first one though – the one I like, though, is it being the official gemstone of Australia, but then again that fits in with the whole name of the dragon itself. Talking about where it’s found and things like that. So, I’m not too surprised that that it is the official gemstone. Some of the other stuff though I’m not to sure about. The whole patronus ferum, to me seems probably more like a little bit of a coincidence than anything else.
Eric: Hmmm.
Micah: What do you guys think?
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Because patronus actually means fatherly, doesn’t it? Or about the fatherland, regarding that. Like patriotism, patronus, isn’t that the…
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: Well I’m studying English, so I should know, but actually the – okay so, well what I picked out of it was the opals, actually guys this isn’t actually, and I just discovered this the other day, this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, ha, ha, ha, that we’ve heard the word opal. It was actually the name of a prominent chapter in Half-Blood Prince called “Silver and Opals.”
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: Do you guys remember this?
Laura: It was the – wasn’t it the opals that hurt Katie, I believe? She had the opal necklace.
Eric: To say the least. I wouldn’t even call it hurt.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: They would have killed her and…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: And she became deranged and went six feet off the ground, and it was really, really, really kind of a scary scene in Half-Blood Prince. And that was actually from the opal necklace, the necklace of opals which seem like if they are anything incredibly powerful. What do you guys think about that opal necklace? It’s actually now we’re seeing opals might be something dangerous.
Laura: Ummm…
Eric: In fact, very deadly.
Laura: I think opals are simply powerful and I think that you can use them to your advantage to be good or to be bad. I don’t think that they’re inherently good or evil. I think that we’re seeing that they could be very powerful, though.
Eric: Hmm. And I – what led me to find it actually, I have to tell you guys this because I though it was cool, there’s actually – you know the opal necklace which is in the books said to be from Borgin and Burkes, is actually in Chamber of Secrets, I believe? When Harry…
Laura: I think it was, yeah.
Eric: When Harry – when Harry goes to, and it’s very carefully worded and I had previously misread this, so I wanted to clear it up, but in Chamber of Secrets when Harry’s in the Borgin and Burkes scene, JKR writes about a hangman’s noose that he sees, or Draco sees when he’s looking at the stuff and right next to it she alludes to a necklace, actually she says there’s necklace of opals, but she says it has claimed the lives of twelve Muggle owners to date. But actually, I think she was talking about the opal necklace and I had already thought that she was talking about the hangman’s noose this entire time, but if you read closely I think it actually is the necklace she’s talking about that has claimed so many lives.
Laura: Yeah, I think so. I think you’re right about that.
Eric: So, this necklace has been here since Book 2, it’s in Book 6, and now we have this opal clue. That was really startling.
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: And do you guys know isn’t opal a birthstone?
Eric: I’ll look it up right now. We’ll find if it’s a month.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Birthstone.
Micah: It is. It’s October.
Eric: Oh it is? Okay, well thank you Micah.
Micah: Not that that means anything.
Eric: Yeah. Oh wow, October is Halloween, though that’s very close to November, but…
Micah: And September, yeah.
[Laura and Eric laugh]
Eric: No, I mean Halloween, Micah.
Micah: No, no, I understand, yeah.
Eric: October 31st is , okay. Well, September… [laughs]
Micah: What do you guys think about the invisibility part of this? Where she talks about how in the Middle Ages it was believed to make you invisible.
Eric: Ohhh.
Micah: Could they be escaping from some place?
Eric: If you look in Fantastic Beasts there is a character called a Demiguise, is it Laura?
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: And it actually says that is what actually composes, part at least of an invisibility cloak, some of the material.
Laura: Yeah, its fur is used.
Eric: It’s like a fur. So this whole liquid, flowy material, and I’m actually, I’m in a kind silk kind of blanket thing myself right here because it’s quite cold out , it’s winter time when we’re recording this and I’m just thinking it would be really interesting if the dragon had any other kind of part in either invisibility cloaks or being elusive. Or just the very idea in this – in Vicki’s rebuttal that says maybe they’re fleeing the scene, what do you guys think about that?
Micah: I like it.
Laura: I think – I like it too, definitely because, especially if you look at Ron and Hermione’s faces…
Micah: I was just going to say that.
Laura: They look scared.
Micah: And Hermione’s looking up and I’ve read a couple e-mails on this, why would she be looking up? I mean how much higher can you get in the sky…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: …than riding up on top of a dragon?
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Micah: She’s looking up, a lot of people think that they may be pressed for time on something. Especially if it says, the description that the guy from scholastic gave, and said, “Oh it’s sunset.” So is it possible that they, that they need to get somewhere before the sun sets.
Laura: The sun sets.
Micah: And that’s why she’s looking up.
Laura: We – yeah you know what this makes me think of, you know we were talking about times of day in the last episode and we were talking about the possibility that maybe there’s a specific day when something special is going to happen in the book and what if that has a relation to them being able to hunt down the Horcruxes or destroy the Horcruxes, like what if they have a very limited window of time to do something with one of the Horcruxes.
Micah: Right.
Eric: Hmmm.
Laura: And maybe that’s where they’re trying to get to.
Micah: Very possible.
Eric: So, so would that be like Voldemort only allowing his Horcrux to be found at sunset or something? Something like that?
Laura: Yeah possibly they’ve – maybe there’s some kind of illusionment charm put on one of them.
Eric: Illusionment, hmmm. Well, to say the least it could be, you know, based on the intensity of the other Horcrux booby traps it might even be worse than illusionment. But I think if Jamie were here, and we have to move on to other rebuttals, but I know if Jamie were here he might bring up The Mummy. Did you guys see the movie The Mummy…
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: …where the city of the dead actually just – automatically appears to them as like a mirage type thing?
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: When they’re standing in the desert.
Laura: Yep.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: I thought that was cool. The sun comes up and the city of dead comes there.
Laura: Yeah, that’s a good comparison.
Listener Rebuttal: Cover Order
Eric: Okay, next rebuttal, who wants to read it?
Micah: The next rebuttal comes from Austin Thomas, 14 of Noblesville, IN. He said:
“Hey MuggleCast! After listening to your latest show, I came up with an interesting idea. My theory places the three Book 7 covers in chronological order. The first is the US Edition. Harry and Voldemort are obviously in some kind of intense battle. Afterwards, he, Ron, and Hermione need to escape, so they do so through Gringotts. (This is the UK Children’s Edition) Still in need of a speedy escape, the trio decides to hitch a ride on one of the fabled dragons that guard Gringotts’ vaults. (This would be the US Deluxe Edition) So, they take off on the back of the dragon headed to somewhere. Hope you like my idea. Keep up the good work. Thanks, Austin.”
Eric: Oh, so wait. Could Gringotts be employing these Antipodean Opaleyes who normally would not reside in England, or is it that Gringotts vaults, known for their volcanic, or at least magma-ic, magmaic nature. Could they have actually stretched the Gringotts vaults? Could they stretch to the center of the earth and around where there’s a whole network or dragons that live at the core of the earth?
Laura: I would think it would be more likely that they would actually employ these dragons because if they are as powerful as we’re thinking and they have powers of invisibility, they’d be very beneficial to a place like a bank. Because if you remember, Hagrid was talking about how there were dragons, and Harry was sure he saw a burst of flame, but he didn’t actually see a dragon.
Eric: Yeah. Oh.
Laura: So what if it was invisible?
Eric: Oh, oh wow. That’s cool. So, oh my gosh, wow. So that’s, actually if you think about that, if this is true, we have JKR in the first book, ten years ago, writing something that is actually humorous writing, for… You see that Harry just happens to see a – could swear he sees a burst of fire as he, as he passes. And it’s funny that – the possibility that it’s dragons. If a dragon was actually staring at him in the face, it just blew smoke the other way, but was invisible and was an Opaleye, this is just cool.
Micah: Yeah, very cool.
Laura: That’d be very, very cool, but I’m not sure that I think that they occur in chronological order, at least not in the fashion that Austin is describing, because I just I don’t think…
Micah: Well they have to occur in some chronological order. [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Laura: Well yeah, but I’m not talking about them all being at the end of the story, is what I’m saying.
Micah: Right.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: I think that definitely the US cover is at the end of the story. But as for the UK and the Deluxe Edition, I think they might fall more in the middle or around the period right before the climax of the story. I don’t think that they’re all three taking place at the end.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: See I tend to think the Deluxe Edition is the end of the story. I know a lot of people don’t think that because, well, isn’t that giving away too much information because it’s just saying basically that the three of them survive. But at the same time – I mean, I don’t know. To me that drawing that she did has a lot of finality to it, but that’s just my own opinion.
Eric: Hmmm.
Laura: Hmmm, I think they look to scared for it to be the end though.
Micah: Maybe…
Eric: Well, well actually do you think so Laura? Because the scariest thing in the world is fear of the unknown, and they don’t what’s next after Voldemort.
Laura: [laughs] It can’t be worse than Voldemort.
Eric:[laughs] Well, unless it’s like…
Laura: Unemployment.
Eric: Unless it’s Grindelwald and Voldemort.
Laura: Because they didn’t graduate.
Micah: They look pretty scared on the UK Edition too, the Children’s Edition.
Laura: Well yeah, but that’s why I don’t think it’s the end.
Eric: It’s because they don’t wanna land on a sword, Micah.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Oh no. [laughs] No, I’m not saying that one is the last one in chronological order, I think the Deluxe Edition is chronologically the last one, but I could be wrong. Probably am.
Eric: Hmmm. That’s definitely interesting. I mean I think that they’re kind of heading off somewhere and it could be towards the sunset, towards the – for either, whether or not they’re still in search of horcruxes or heading off into the sunset, like Grace Kelly. So, okay.
[Laura and Eric laugh]
Voicemails Return
Eric: Now we actually, guys, we don’t have a main discussion this week because we wanted to focus on a few things, namely content, and it was kind of a small show this week, kind of peaceful with just the three of us here. But what we do have for you, specially, is – what is it? Isn’t a word that starts with “v” that we haven’t used in about seven or eight episodes?
Laura: Ah, yeah, gosh, I can’t even say the word. It’s almost archaic if you think about it, I mean we haven’t done it in forever.
Eric: Wait, wait, wait, wait. We’re bringing back an old segment guys, [laughs] because it’s an expired segment we haven’t done in about 10 episodes, 15 episodes, we’re bringing it back! And it is called voicemails.
Laura: Oh my gosh, my heart just leapt out of my chest, I can’t believe we’re doing this.
Eric: Now for those of you guys who haven’t been paying attention since Episode 3, I mean that’s pretty much how long it’s been since we’ve been doing these.
[Laura laughs]
But, no, voicemails – that’s a bit intense, but voicemails guys, we’re actually going to – are we Laura? Do you really, do you have them together?
Laura: I do, I have them right here. You guys ready?
Eric: Oh my god, so you guys, wait, so okay, and I’m not going to keep asking the same question but we do have a voicemail line and we’ll give you the information for that, but you guys have been sending in our theories and we just want to let you know that we have been listening to them. I’ve heard a few and everyone else has heard a few, so we are still paying attention. If you’re still calling in, we are hearing your theories and hearing your voicemails and trying to translate that somehow onto the show without actually doing voicemails, of course. We’ve had some rebuttals and stuff, so we’re going to try and, you know, possibly do some more voicemails and stuff, but this is groundbreaking, because we’ve actually got some voicemails to play on this week’s show.
Voicemail: The Dragon and Harry’s Clothes
Laura: Okay, so let’s roll the first one.
[Audio]: Hey, MuggleCast. This is Cole, 14, from New Jersey. I just wanted to comment on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Deluxe Edition cover art. And I definitely think that the dragon is flying over New Zealand or Australia; it just can’t be England. There are no mountains in England – J.K. Rowling wouldn’t do that. But also, it looks as if Harry is wearing Muggle clothes, and I was kind of confused about that. What do you guys think? Thanks. Love the show! Bye.
Eric: Ooh. Okay, so – actually, let’s talk about the second part for a second there: Hermione and Ron are in wizard’s robes, but Harry’s in Muggle clothes? Well, that actually – that kind of fits, I think, with the opportunities in the book – that Harry might actually be separated from Hermione and Ron, but also in a Muggle public area. Actually, I’m…
Laura: Right. Well, I believe that on the UK Children’s Edition, Ron and Hermione are also in some sort of robes, and Harry’s not.
Eric: I’m pretty sure Harry is, though, becaue doesn’t he – because you can see his sleeves or something. He has really big sleeves?
Laura: Yeah, I don’t know. It seemed like there was something different around their robes.
Micah: If you look in the UK Children’s Edition, it seems like Harry’s the one wearing robes whereas Ron and Hermione aren’t.
Laura: Well, they’re wearing something different.
Micah: Right. We discussed that, too.
Laura: Like, it almost looks like dress robes.
Micah: Dress robes, is it for, I think, the wedding, right? Wasn’t that what we thought?
Laura: Yeah, we thought maybe this was after the wedding or something for Bill and Fleur.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Hmmm.
Laura: But, I mean, why would he wear Muggle clothes?
Micah: Well, what Eric was saying before, perhaps he had to go into a situation in Muggleland where he needed to look like a normal person; he couldn’t be in his dress robes.
Eric: Muggleland? Is that that new theme park they’re doing?
[Laura laughs]
MuggleCast 95 Transcript (continued)
Theme Park Tangent
Micah: Yeah, that’s the new theme park. Uh-huh. And speaking of that, okay, I have something to say…
Laura: I heard they were going to use the MuggleNet font logo.
Micah: Talking to Andrew…
Eric: Well, we’re in the middle of a voicemail, but go on.
Micah: Yeah, yeah, no, no, hold on a second. This is a little tangent, I’m sorry. But, I was talking to Andrew about it this week, and I mentioned it to Laura too, why would you create a theme park, this countless hundreds of millions of dollars spent on theme park, for a character who’s going to die?
Eric: Yeah. No…
Laura: Micah!
Eric: It’s fair enough. No, no, Micah asked that question because he doesn’t actually think that Harry is going to die. But, no, it’s true. And somebody’s…
Micah: What? “Oh kids, come on, we’re going to the theme park where the character you read about for the last ten years of your life – he kicked the bucket, by the way.”
Eric: Yeah. He kicked the bucket, but we’re still going to celebrate it. No, and that’s the other thing, I mean, there’ll be memorial services at 7:00 PM…
[Micah and Laura laugh]
Eric: …and 7:00 AM throughout the park.
Micah: At Hogwarts, every day.
Eric: You know, there’s a big fountain and a leaving – a condolence feast. You know, it’s not going to happen. So, Micah brings up an interesting point: is this confirmation that Harry’s not going to kick the bucket or that there’ll be a slightly happier ending? And [laughs] someone said to me yesterday, I wish I remember who it was, but they said, pretty much, that since it’s not Disney World and it is done in the Universal Studios, that they won’t have, necessarily, characters walking around, like Chip ‘n Dale all the time, like little Dobby or something like that. Do you guys think they’ll employ live talent?
Laura: Well, at Universal Studios they do have some live talent, so…
Eric: It’s true.
Laura: They might have some people, but that would be horrible if you think about it. Like, you know, at these theme parks…
Micah: Yeah, think about that, how are you going to market that theme park?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: What do you mean, how are you going to market it?
Laura: Harry’s not going to die. That’s the end. He’s not going to die.
Eric: Oh, yeah. [laughs] Yeah, no, it’s true.
Laura: But see, wouldn’t that be horrible, because you just put the thought in my head, how these theme parks – they have specific shows throughout the day, and what if you can attend Dumbledore’s funeral at 2:15, 4:30, 6:00?
[Micah and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah, Dumbledore’s funeral, where they… And it’s, like,it’ll be – no, that’s what replaces Indiana Jones’ Epic Stunt Show, you know, where all those – because that’s an old ride and all the things burst into flame, so when Dumbledore’s tomb bursts into flame, it’s the same pyrotechnic group that did that.
Micah: But think about how horrible that would be to bring your kids to.
Eric: Oh, yeah, no, totally. Micah brings up – you bring up an interesting point, and it’s well-heard and well-sounded. I don’t actually, yeah, you’re…
Micah: But anyway, back to the voicemail, sorry.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Micah: I just thought I’d talk about that.
Eric: No, no, it was good, it was incredibly enjoyable. Do you have anything else you want to say about the theme park? [laughs]
Laura: I think…
Micah: No, no, that’s – I’m good. [laughs]
Back to the Voicemail
Eric: Well, because I don’t want to get into it later. Okay, so…
Laura: I think you guys are right in saying that they probably get separated at some point in the story. Maybe they meet back up, maybe they get separated for a good amount of time, and then they meet back up at this point.
Micah: Yeah, because they were pretty set at the end of Half-Blood Prince, you know, telling him that they weren’t going to let him go and have at it alone, he was going to have them by his side, so, unless, like you guys said, they get separated somewhere.
Eric: Well, it’s interesting too, because if you think about it, and I’ve mentioned this in the past, about hearing once that there was going to be a pretty big Muggle side of events taking place in Book 7. Like, the Muggle world might actually find out about the wizards if there’s a large enough bang. Now, I don’t know exactly what your ideas are on this, but I for one remember in Book 1, McGonagall said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if on the very day that Voldemort was defeated, that the Muggle world actually knew we existed, because I’m a little bit tired of all this secrecy.” It could’ve been a very nice ode to what would actually happen.
Micah: Well, apparently, the Order of the Phoenix is teaming up with the U.S. military, I don’t know if you heard that.
Laura: Yeah.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: Did you guys see that earlier today, Fox and Friends? Ben and Emerson were on.
Laura: Yep.
Eric: Oh my gosh. I didn’t even want to reference that, so thank you, Micah. you saved me.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: You saved me from doing that. Guys, Ben and Emerson were on TV, and you can check MuggleNet for that. And, okay, so, this whole Book 7 Muggle thing. Wouldn’t Hermione and Ron, and I’m thinking about this, but if there on this journey that’s going to take them through various country sides, various places in the Muggle world, couldn’t Hermione put on Muggle clothing? She has Muggle for parents, she knows just about living with Muggles as Harry does, and Ron certainly isn’t too ignorant to it. Couldn’t they just wear Muggle clothes the whole book? Or, I mean, they do in the movies. [laughs] It’s – that’s – they do in the movies. But could they actually in the book?
Micah: Well, what if it’s a rescue-type mission that Harry is on there? You know, maybe he has to go and save them.
Eric: So…
Micah: Maybe they’re taken from him?
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: Maybe they were at school, you never know. Anything is possible in that situation.
Eric: That’s fair.
Laura: Yeah. And Eric, it was interesting that you brought up possibly Muggles finding out about wizards, because on the WOMBAT, Jo actually referenced the “Statute of Secrecy” that was put into effect to keep Muggles finding out about wizards and one of the questions was, “What do you think is one the worst pieces of legislation for the Wizarding World to date?” and that was an optional answer.
Eric: Oooh.
Laura: And so I’m wondering if that is the correct answer.
Eric: Wait a minute.
Laura: Maybe it’s better for Muggles to know about wizards.
Eric: No because they will be wanting magical solutions for all these things. Like, foot fungus, people have…
Laura: Well, is that such a bad thing?
Eric: …to learn that foot fungus, you just need to – if you don’t clean your feet…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: [laughs] No, but seriously, actually, Micah, now I see what you were saying about, “What do you think is the worst piece of legislation?” And it is a multiple choice answer – question?
Micah: No, Laura said that, but…
Eric: And isn’t…
Laura: Yeah, that was me.
Eric: Oh, well. Oh!
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Wait, no, Micah, didn’t Micah, didn’t you say that you didn’t like that it was a multiple choice answer?
Micah: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Laura: Oh, that it was optional? It was, like, your opinion?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Right, so you said that and then Laura just said that, yeah, okay. Not, but, so Micah, what you said about it being a multiple choice answer on your opinion and Laura, that’s just – you guys are right, kind of. Especially on a WOMBAT test where you can lose points for answers. “What do you think?” and then having. But yeah, I reckon that that was actually – the Statute of Secrecy would be the worst piece of legislation. But it could possibly be explored in the book.
Laura: Well, some of the answer, too, they were kind of stupid answers like, letting House-Elves be free or something along those lines, and it was along those lines. And it was like, I don’t see how that would affect the Wizarding World at large.
Eric: Ehhh.
Laura: The only answer that would affect the entire Wizarding World…
Micah: They’d have to do more work.
LauraL Yeah, exactly – would be the Statute of Secrecy so I thought that that was…
Micah: Yeah, I don’t know if I chose that but probably not.
Laura: … that Statute [laughs], as it were.
Eric: [laughs] At least you’re being honest. Probably not. So if they’re in a wizarding setting – and that’s true, they could have been pulled. I just think it would be, I mean it’s not that difficult or it doesn’t seem to be that difficult with, at least I guess in the movies, clouding my mind, for them all to don Mugglewear just so they don’t get looked at. I mean, just in the rare case, even if they are in front of wizards, wizards understand wizards dressing up as Muggles. Muggles don’t understand people running around in robes, believe me, I know. So…
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: So, guys, you don’t think they can just put on a pair of shorts or something. They’re actually in their robes, which I find interesting that Harry is not.
Micah: Well, to be honest with you, as a Muggle, I would find it a little bit more odd that there was a dragon flying above my house…
[Laura laughs]
Micah: …than people walking around the street in robes.
Eric: Well, I don’t know. I’m actually – ever since The Never Ending Story, that pretty much got me used to people flying over in big white carpets or dragons or whatever. Anyway…
Laura: Yeah, but Eric, you live in New Zealand. That’s commonplace there.
Eric: And it is! So that’s actually – sorry, guys – the first part of this voicemail. They mentioned about the hills in England. Now, we talked specifically about that last week, where I said that the countryside should stay the same. There shouldn’t be strictly wizarding countrysides, so unless we are in a fantasy, completely Unplottable place on the map, maybe the Bermuda Triangle – then it would actually seem like they are in a geographical location that would have lots of mountains such as Australia? Or New Zealand?
Micah: There you go.
Laura: Yeah, I mean, and Jamie confirmed that there is really no countryside that looks like this in the UK, so…
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: I liked Eric’s idea earlier, when you were talking about possibly Gringotts. We know there’s all those tunnels down there. Is it possible some point, there’s a place where you can, I guess, enter or leave from another area that would take you to another part of the world?
Eric: You know that would be cool.
Laura: That’s what happened when the Gringotts goblins tried to dig a hole to China.
[Micah laughs]
Laura: It’s what all of us wanted to do as children.
Eric: Well, and guys, remember, well, not remember, but actually have you guys seen – now, this is a stretch, this is really a stretch. I’ll be very happy with you guys. Have you seen the sequel to Mortal Kombat? Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
Micah: Yeah, I have seen it.
Laura: No.
Eric: Yeah, you know that system they used to travel through the core of the Earth?
Micah: Yep.
Eric: Yep. Absolutely. They have this system of tunnels that are just – you strap yourself to a big gyroscope, I believe it is, or it’s something along the same lines, where you’re strapped in and there’s a sphere that’s around you and it transports you really fast through these tunnels that go above some lava pits. Some expired lava pits, which is the basic idea, that and the movie – the core, which is cool, but do you guys think that it is possible and that what was JKR was alluding to? Or has she…
Laura: I doubt it.
icah: Not Mortal Kombat in particular. [laughs] Scorpion isn’t going to show up.
Laura: I don’t know. I kind of doubt that, though. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, get over here, Harry. [swooshing sound] Your Horcrux is mine. [swooshing sound] No. Actually, that is pretty good. Shang Tsung in the Harry Potter books, no…
Voicemail: Privet Drive
Micah: We have more voicemails, though.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, darn. Okay, fine.
Laura: All right, you guys ready?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Yep, next voicemail, Laura.
Audio: Hey, MuggleCast, this is Charlie from Virginia. There was a – the ancient magic Dumbledore evoked on Harry about him calling Privet Drive his home is obviously supposed to expire when he turns 17, but he never really thought Privet Drive to be his home. He always thought Hogwarts was his home. I wonder if Harry will start regarding Hogwarts as his home and using that ancient magic – does it transfer over to Hogwarts? I would be interested to hear what you guys think on the show. hanks! Bye!
Laura: Ummm.
Eric: No.
Laura: No. I don’t think so, because didn’t Dumbledore say that it was considered his home so long as he could technically walk through the door and…
[Eric laughs]
Laura: …be fed and welcome there.
Eric: And supposedly – yeah, it is worth calling into question, because it is true what they say on this voice mail, that Harry isn’t really – he didn’t really call it home. They treated him like crap and stuff, but the protection is on, and it has worn off. My own opinion is that Harry doesn’t need any more protection. He is old enough now that when he comes of age, and when he is able to be vulnerable now, when the protection wears of and he will have to face what is to come, and he won’t try and transfer that ancient magic to Hogwarts. Particularly, Harry can’t do ancient magic and certainly not that rivals Dumbledore in protecting him, and I think that Harry – even though he would like to have a safe haven, I think he has come to the conclusion that there is no safe haven anymore.
Laura: Yeah, and on top of the fact that it’s pretty much been made clear that once you are 17, that kind of protection doesn’t work anymore. You can’t use it anymore.
Micah: I think it is also important to remember that the protection doesn’t necessarily come from the house. It comes from Petunia.
Laura: From Petunia, right.
Micah: And she needs acceptance of him. One thing that I wanted to bring up though that I read, because I have been going over J.K. Rowling’s site a lot. Reading some of the things that came up that we may not remember, and I was looking at the whole “Remember my last,” because I’m just rereading Order of the Phoenix also as we get closer to the release date, and she said on her site that it is important to remember and to differentiate between the letters that were addressed to the Dursleys and letters that are addressed to Petunia, and I thought that was kind of interesting, because if you think about it, the note on the doorstep the day Harry arrived was addressed to both Petunia and Vernon.
Laura: Hmmm.
Micah: So, that means that Dumbledore was talking to Petunia way before that.
Laura: Yeah, that he actually communicated with heron her own.
Micah: Right.
Laura: Which is, I mean…
Micah: Which is very interesting, I think.
Eric: Did they, did JKR say that the last time that Dumbledore and Petunia had spoken was before Harry had come to the doorstep?
Laura: We don’t know, necessarily.
Micah: Wait. Say that again.
Eric: So Dumbledore says, “Remember my last,” but does that mean that the last time Dumbledore – I mean Petunia recognizes the voice, is scared to death…
Micah: It’s Dumbledore’s. I mean, there is no question about that.
Eric: No. I’m not questioning if it is Dumbledore’s. I’m saying, when was the last time that Dumbledore would have spoken to Petunia? Does it have to be before Harry came to live at Privet Drive, or was Dumbledore a little bit more in contact with Petunia throughout the years?
Micah: I think he contacted her before Harry showed up on the doorstep.
Eric: So she has…
Micah: I don’t think there is any question about that.
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: I mean, how else would she be accepting of him?
Eric: Well, no. I’m saying that he could have contacted her before Harry, but when Dumbledore says, “Remember my last,” “Last what?” is still a question, and does that mean that Dumbledore – like are you against the idea that Dumbledore contacted Petunia while Harry was living there?
Laura: I don’t know. I think that we can definitely say that he contacted her before Harry lived there, because McGonagall even said whenever Dumbledore said that he wrote a letter, she said, “How do you even explain all this in a letter?” And obviously you can’t, so clearly Petunia knew about the situation before Harry got there.
Eric: That makes sense.
Laura: He may well have contacted her over the years, but I don’t think it really matters what he is referring to. Basically, from that message, we know that they have been communicating just amongst themselves without Vernon involved, because he is clearly ignorant when it comes to all of the wizarding issues, he knows nothing, so I think it is safe to assume they have been in communication.
Eric: Hmmm, but…
Micah: Hold on one second, I’m looking it up right here. I have it.
Eric: Okay, so we will just check, because I think it would be interesting if Dumbledore was still contacting Petunia sometime during Harry’s childhood. I mean, 13 to 16 years is difficult time. You know, it’s a huge amount of time to not go in contact.
Micah: Okay, here it says, “What did Dumbledore’s Howler to Aunt Petunia mean?” He says, or sorry she says, “Dumbledore is referring to his last letter. Which means, of course, the letter that he left upon their doorstep when Harry was one-year old, but why then you may ask, did he not just say, ‘Remember my letter?’ Why did he say, ‘My last letter?’ Why, obviously, because there were letters before that.”
Laura: Hmmm.
Eric: Okay.
Micah: She said, “Now let the speculation begin, and mind you type clearly, I’ll be watching.” She goes on in a P.S. to say, “It has been suggested that I am wrong in saying that Dumbledore’s last letter was the one he left on the doorstep with baby Harry, and that he has sent a letter since then concerning Harry’s illegal flight to school. However, both Dumbledore and I differentiate between letters sent to the Dursley’s as a couple and messages directed to Petunia, alone. And that’s my final word on the subject.”
Eric: Okay, so she answered the question, completely helped us, and then said, “Wait a minute. No.”?
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: Yes, because she can do that.
Eric: Yeah, well, she can.
Micah: And she likes to do that.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Eric: Not many people would, but she did.
Voicemail: Why Does Trelawney Call Voldemort “The Dark Lord”?
Laura: Okay, Rosie from England.
[Audio]: Hey, it’s Rosie from England. I was just wondering, and I was just re-reading Order of the Phoenix and when Trelawny was reading the Prophecy, she kept calling Voldemort “The Dark Lord” and we know from Harry’s Occlumency lessons with Snape that only Death Eaters call Voldemort “The Dark Lord”? Could Trelawney have been a Death Eater at one time? What do you think? I love MuggleCast, especially Andrew and Jamie. Wooo!
Eric: [laughs] I don’t know. Guys, do you think from a casting standpoint that Emma Thompson has Death Eater in her?
Laura: Ummm.
Micah: It’s possible that, at one point, Trelawney was in Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether she was a Death Eater…
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: …I don’t think so. But, anyway.
Laura: Well, what interests me about this is Molly brings – or, not Molly, I’m sorry. That’s the next one. But Rosie brings up the point that in the prophecy Voldemort is referred to as “The Dark Lord,” and I don’t think that Trelawney was ever a Death Eater, but it makes me wonder. Where do these prophecies come from, exactly? Because they don’t come from the person making the prophecy, they’re just used as a channel.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: To convey it to someone else. So where do they come from? And wherever they’re coming from is referring to Voldemort as “The Dark Lord…”
Micah: Well…
Laura: …Which makes me wonder how much we can trust a prophecy.
Eric: Hmm, well…
Micah: I’ve got to imagine that there are times in the books, though, that there are other characters that refer to him as “The Dark Lord,” because I remember reading through – because I’ve been doing rereading of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, and I swear that there are characters that call him “The Dark Lord.” Even though I know what you’re saying and I know what Rosie’s saying about really only Death Eaters call him that, but there has to be instances where others do as well.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Well, it seems like it’s more of a formal title. Like, it’s either used by people who respect him or people who fear him, it seems.
Eric: Yeah. No, but it is interesting to see. What I liked about the voicemail is the question of is somebody talking through Trelawney, or is a Death Eater talking through Trelawney. I mean, that wasn’t said in the voicemail, but if Trelawney herself wasn’t a Death Eater, is this prophecy coming from someone who is a Death Eater? Like say for instance that Trelawney’s two prophecies that end up being true – what if Bellatrix Lestrange was convulsing somewhere and had a telepathic connection when Trelawney did?
Micah: Well, think about this, though. Think about this.
Laura: Well…
Eric: I’m just going to discredit my own theory. Bellatrix was in Azkaban when that second prophecy took place, but continue.
Micah: No, but I think it’s more creative writing, though. Because if you were to write the prophecy, and you’re JK Rowling, would you say “the one with the power to vanquish He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named approaches?” I mean, that sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it?
Laura: Well, what about “the one who has the power to vanquish Lord Voldemort?”
Eric: Hmmm, but still…
Micah: Well, it all comes back to the whole who can say his name.
Eric: That’s also true.
Micah: Not many people are willing to actually say “Voldemort.” They’re afraid to.
Laura: Yeah. But it just makes me wonder where exactly prophecies come from.
Eric: We don’t know.
Laura: You know?
Micah: I think Trelawney was doing her best impression of me when she said in that deep voice.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I think so too. I think the next time they revise–if they ever revise the audio editions, or have – they have them on iTunes now, I guess. Micah, after MuggleCast, we’re just going to do our own audio books, and we’re going to split up the workload with characters and we’re all going to read.
Micah: Uh-huh. And I get the prophecy. Is that what you’re saying?
Eric: You get the prophecy voice.
Micah: Okay. Cool.
Eric: We’ll find some other ones for you.
Laura: You get to read for Grawp, too.
Micah: Oh.
Eric: You get Grawp, you get…
Micah: Krum.
Eric: Maybe Hagrid. I don’t know. I’m not really partial to Ben’s Hagrid, but I kind of am, just because he’s done it so much. But…
Micah: No, yeah, Ben gets Hagrid. Krum. I’ll do Krum, obviously.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Krum, and we’ll also give you like, Luna, or something. Okay, and so moving on…
Micah: What?
Laura: We’ll give you a challenge. [laughs]
Eric: Next voicemail, please.
Laura: Okay.
Eric: Wait, did you guys have anything else about that?
Micah: No. We’re good.
Laura: No, that’s good.
Eric: Okay. Next voicemail.
Voicemail: Hufflepuff’s Cup
[Audio]: Hi MuggleCasters. My name is Molly. I’m 14 and I’m from North Carolina. I was just rereading Half-Blood Prince and I have a question for you guys. On page 436 of the US edition, Harry and Dumbledore are watching Tom Riddle and Hepzibah Smith in the Pensieve. Hepzibah shows Voldemort Hufflepuff’s Cup. She mentions that the cup has, quote, “all sorts of powers it’s supposed to possess, too, but I haven’t tested them thoroughly. I just keep it nice and safe in here.” I was just wondering what kind of powers these might be. You guys are all awesome, but Andrew and Jamie, you’re my favorites. Oh, and happy birthday, Andrew. Thanks! Bye!
Micah: I think…
Eric: Okay, it’s a cup.
Micah: Go ahead.
Eric: No, that’s it.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: That’s it. Micah. I was planning on – it’s a cup. I’m just reminding everybody.
Micah: Oh, no, I was…
Eric: Before you start saying that I think it time travels and…
Micah: No, no, no, no, no.
Eric: …and goes through other…
Micah: I was going to make a joke. I was going to say that Trelawney found out some of the powers of the cup.
Eric: [laughs] The powers of the sherry-filled cup.
Micah: Yeah, exactly.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Good joke.
Micah: This is really weird. I really am stumped on this one. I don’t know what type of powers it could have.
Laura: Yeah, I’m kind of wondering, I mean, could we be talking about something along the lines of the opals in Borgin & Burkes? Or is it evil? Is it bad? Does it hurt you if you touch it? I don’t know.
Eric: Well, it’s Hufflepuff.
Laura: I would think that if it was Hufflepuff’s…
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: …it wouldn’t be mean, but you never know.
Eric: You never know, some of those – well, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are the more cunning. Hufflepuff isn’t “a bunch o’duffers,” as Hagrid clears up, but it still remains that Hufflepuff is one of the least characterized houses. If you are mean and heartless, you get into Slytherin – and I understand that there are good Slytherins. If you’re kind of ambitious, you might get into Slytherin. If you’re courageous, you get into Gryffindor. If you’re smart, intelligent, cunning, you kind of get into Ravenclaw or one of the other two, but then everybody else kind of goes into Hufflepuff. If you’re nice, if you’re a little bit gossipy, I heard, you know, something like that, but we can’t really derive anything from Hufflepuff’s character traits that would somehow help us and assist us into figuring out what this cup is all about. Or maybe we’re not looking hard enough.
Micah: I mean, what powers could a cup have?
Eric: That’s a good question.
Laura: I think you summed it up perfectly.
Eric: Actually…
Laura: I think Trelawney knows.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Actually, there is another famous cup in history, and I’m just going to reference that. It’s- it had healing powers, and did something else, didn’t it? I’m thinking of the holy grail.
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: There you go…
Laura: See, I’m useless when you bring that up, because…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: …all I think of is Monty Python. [laughs]
Micah: I was going to say the Goblet of Fire.
Eric: Well, I’m thinking of Indiana Jones. I don’t know what you guys are up to, but I’m thinking of Indiana Jones, and he chose poorly and then the guy like turns into a skeleton. But the – I’m thinking of the holy grail. So, it had healing powers, and it’s something like the drink of youth; the drink of life? I…
Laura: Fountain of youth.
Eric: The fountain of youth, but the drink of life. Drinking things, and even in Alice in Wonderland, that have come from cups – or actually most of her’s came from vials, you know, kind of influences the potion thing. And it wasn’t – well goblets, just in general so far throughout the series, have been a little bit more prominent than we would have, at least, thought of originally.
Micah: True.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: So, there are some important cups. But it’s a good question overall. Do you guys have any other ideas?
Laura: No…
Micah: No.
Laura:… I mean, it’s a good question, but it’s really all speculation at this point.
Eric: So, we’ll – we’ll come back to that. But that, guys, that actually wraps it up for voicemails this week. Can you believe it?
Micah: What, that we actually did voicemails?
Laura: [laughs] Did voicemails?
Eric: Well, can you believe any part of that statement? I’m just, you know? I’m hosting and I’m trying to come up with things.
Laura: Yeah, I think we might have been dreaming, Eric.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Micah: It was all a dream.
Eric: Oh geez, I hope – well, no JKR said that it wasn’t, right? So, we can no longer
Micah: It better not be.
Laura: [laughs] That would make me so mad.
Micah: Well, I would wait for her plane at JFK when…
Eric: Well.
Micah: …she comes to New York and…
Eric: Micah, they will take you away for saying that.
Micah: [laughs] Yeah, that’s probably true.
Eric: Anyway, okay, so… [laughs]
Micah: I’m just kidding.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. No, but we all will.
Laura: We all will.
Eric: We all will, as well. It will be – I would love to see her, for one though, to the first crowd in the U.S. during her book tour, being reading like to New Orleans, or Los Angeles and [laughs] conclude it falsely and with, “And it was all a dream,” and then she snickers and runs out.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Road to Deathly Hallows: Who Will Survive?
Eric: She’ll just run out and everybody will be like, “Oh my god!,” so that would be cool. So, next – next on the roster here is the Road to Deathly Hallows. This week we’ve got a new topic, but actually before we get into that, Micah, didn’t we – we didn’t actually finish last week’s.
Micah: No, we did not. We…
Eric: Hmmm.
Micah: …ran into having too many characters to discuss, who will live and who will die.
Neville
Micah: So, let’s start where we left off with Neville. What do you guys think? Is he in trouble in this book?
Laura: I think he’s going to die. I think he’s going to die.
Eric: I think he’s going to have a good moment. I think JKR is going to really…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …treat Neville correctly in this book. I think she’s really going to give him something to do and, you know, Neville’s tired of being the forgetful, fat kid. And I think he’s really going to show off some of his anger, as JKR has already kind of placed in the line-up for taking down Bellatrix. Who, of course, was one of the torturers who may be responsible for his long-term memory loss or short-term memory loss.
Micah: Now, why do you think he has that memory loss? Because I read an e-mail recently that said it’s possible that he’s so forgetful because his grandmother puts a charm on him that is making him forget, possibly stuff that happened to his parents that she doesn’t want him to remember.
Eric: Oooh.
Laura: Right.
Eric: That’s really cool. I didn’t – I haven’t heard that one. That one’s, you know, putting the role of the grandmother on him. Like, Gran says, “It’s time’s for your soup,” you know, Neville.
Micah: Right.
Eric: And there is a potion in there to make him not remember his horrible life.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Micah: You think he’ll learn about the prophecy? Do you think he’ll learn…
Eric: But no that’s…
Micah: …in Deathly Hallows that he could have been Harry?
Eric: I…
Laura: Oh, yeah, I think he will.
Eric: Yeah. I think that’s actually Harry’s job, I think. I think Harry should tell Neville, if he tells anybody, and he’s told Harry and Ron – I mean Hermione and Ron. I think he needs to confide in Neville and be like, “Look, okay dude, you were like – you and me we’re not all that different.” [laughs] “You and I – we’re the same. We…” Yeah.
Laura: I think that Neville’s going to out in a blaze of glory. Like, not literally [laughs] on fire, but… I think that he’s…
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Laura: I think that he’s going to go out doing something courageous.
Micah: To prove why he’s in Gryffindor.
Eric: Though I would like – yeah, that’s true. That’s true, as well. He’s in Gryffindor and he seems a little bit more like a Hufflepuff, except for that one little scene in the first book where he stood up to his friends and he got 50 house points, and he won the whole thing. But, no, actually, my own personal opinion of Neville and his memory was not actually personal it was shared by a bunch of people- was of the charms and the curses that they did on his parents and stuff, he could have been hit, either with a few charms and curses, or possibly the Confundus charm, or Crucio even. You know? One – if he was hit with a curse at a very young age it could have done something to his mind. But I’m actually…
Micah: However…
Eric: I’m actually liking that vindictive grandmother thing.
Micah: Yeah. I think also something that works in his favor, though, was the whole idea that one of Harry’s friends going on to – or one of the students going on to being a teacher at Hogwarts. I think Neville teaching Herbology is definitely something that could happen.
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: So…
Eric: He is good at Herbology.
Micah: But, again, it could be anybody, I guess [laughs] that ends up being a teacher.
Eric: Yeah, that’s true. Wait, did J.K.R. say there’d be someone who’s definitely going to be a teacher?
Micah: Yes.
Laura: Yes.
Eric: Oh, cool.
Micah: And it’s not – didn’t she say it’s not Harry or did she not specify? I can’t remember.
Eric: Well, you peruse her site all the time.
Micah: It – I don’t think it was on her site. I think it was in one of those interviews that she did.
Eric: Oh, yeah. No, I totally – I totally don’t remember.
Micah: Oh.
Eric: Who’s next on the – who’s next on the list?
Snape
Micah: Severus Snape.
Eric: Ooo. Should we even talk about this?
Laura: I don’t know. That – that’s hard. I mean, part of me wants to say he’ll die and then another part of me says he’ll live so I – I just don’t know. I mean…
Eric: I think there’s so much speculation, there’s so much intensity…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …that even if Snape is good, I think…
Micah: Well, let’s say he’s good, who’s going to kill him? Voldemort?
Laura: Oh, I think Voldemort would kill him if he was good.
Eric: I think – I think he would – I think Snape should survive something from Voldemort. I think that would be cool. I mean, but – but, like, I guess Snape survives from Voldemort in one way which is that if he is good, he has tricked Voldemort and apparently done something that makes him so vulnerable that he kind of makes up for that person he killed.
Micah: If he’s evil, who’s going to take him out? Harry?
Eric: That’s the other thing. Well, Harry – you saw how Harry faired even though Snape was teaching him at the very time. He couldn’t even utter the word that he wanted because Snape would take him out. I mean this is – it’s true that Harry will get some more training and I’m not – I don’t want to generate impressions that he won’t be fit, but Harry’s got to take on Voldemort. That’s pretty much good enough, I mean, that’s hard enough to do. Taking on full grown adults. What if Remus, what if somebody else takes Snape out? Actually…
Micah: That’s possible.
Eric: …Remus and Snape never, I mean, you know, childhood, kind of, rivals in a way, I guess.
Micah: I never sensed any animosity between them though, really.
Eric: There’s not.
Micah: Not as much.
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: There’s – there’s not. And Remus even says to Harry, “I really can’t fault the guy ’cause he made my Wolfsbane potion when he could have left me to some very awkward nights.”
Micah: Right.
Eric: There is an animosity, but they do know each other and they do know the history of each other at Hogwarts. You know, as a – and they’ve been – they’ve been connected in the past though so I just – that’s what struck me.
Draco
Micah: Okay, Draco is up after Snape.
Laura: I think he’ll live.
Micah: Live in regret in some way, possibly?
Laura: Yeah, I mean, I think he’s definitely going to live. I don’t know if he’s going to end up choosing a side. I sort of see him as kind of a – more of a problem to both sides, like, because he won’t choose one and so instead of trying to beneficial to one or the other, he’ll just be more of a problem.
Micah: Well, could indecision get him killed, though?
Laura: It could, but I don’t know. I just don’t see, I mean…
Eric: Hmmm. There’s…
Laura: I mean, I just don’t see the point in him dying.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, there’s been some elusions to his weakness and his inability to handle at least Voldemort, but that was probably – I think that was just to serve the other plot, you know, for Book 6 and possibly that Draco himself was going to go up against Dumbledore. We’ve seen he can’t do that, but I think what Laura was saying, and there may be too many tragic heroes in this whole story
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: …who, you know, reveal themselves to be good, but then die. I…
Micah: Well, Laura brings up a great point, though, and this kind of goes back to what she said last week with Ginny and that is that the death has to be meaningful in some way to Harry. And I don’t know that Draco kicking the bucket would necessarily be meaningful to Harry at all.
Laura: Yeah. I don’t think he would really care, to be honest.
Eric: Hmmm.
MuggleCast 95 Transcript (continued)
Wormtail
Micah: Now, Wormtail.
Eric: Wormtail’s going to die.
Laura: I think he’s going to die.
Eric: He’s got to die.
Laura: I think that that’s a – that’s a no-brainer. I think he – I mean, he owes Harry a life debt.
Eric: Or…or…or…or – keep going. I’m just going to – I’m just going to do this obnoxiously.
Laura: Well, I’m just saying that he owes Harry a life debt and…
Micah: And how so? How do you think that’s going to be repaid? With his life?
Laura: I think he’s going to die.
Micah: Directly…
Eric: See it’s so interesting, because…
Micah: …like, stepping in front of something or giving up information and dying as a result?
Laura: Yeah, possibly. I mean, either of those ways, but it’s just – there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to die. I mean – I just – I feel it.
Eric: Wormtail. You feel it.
Micah: Well, one thing that’s possible though that – I don’t know if we’ve really discussed this, is that Wormtail knows where in Godric’s Hollow Harry’s parents lived and he’s technically – is he still – would he still be considered the Secret Keeper?
Laura: Yeah, but didn’t Jo say that once the people whom the secret was placed on died that…
Micah: I thought it was…
Laura: …anybody could find it.
Micah: …when the Secret Keeper died that the secret dies with them.
Laura: Or once the secret was betrayed?
Micah: That’s possible, once it’s betrayed. Yeah.
Laura: I would think once he betrayed it, it’s like there’s no point.
Micah: Yeah, but…
Eric: Hmmm. Well, there is. There is.
Laura: Because we know Hagrid found it.
Eric: If there was more than one person looking for the Potters and Wormtongue – Wormtail betrayed, you know, the answer to just one of them, I don’t think it would be fair that the people he didn’t betray the secret to could suddenly find Lily and James.
Micah: Okay. But he’s pretty much done, anyway.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Petunia and Vernon
Micah: These next couple are interesting. They’re actually couples: Petunia and Vernon.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: Yeah. Oh, they’re going to live. I don’t – I don’t really see where their importance is going to stretch on after Harry gets
Eric: But will they learn the error of their ways? Will they…
Laura: Probably not.
Eric: …be like, “You know what, you freaky folk aren’t so bad.” Like – like maybe in Star Wars with Ewoks and they’re all thinking “Ewoks aren’t so bad.” Will Vernon be up next to a cuddly – never mind.
Micah: House-Elf?
Laura: No, I don’t think so.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Yeah, never mind.
Micah: Well, I’m not saying – perhaps what happens is that Harry becomes of age and automatically, right after that happens, 50 Death Eaters descend on Privet Drive and basically storm the house. Is that a possibility?
Eric: That’d be cool.
Laura: Do the Death Eaters know about that protection?
Micah: No, but Voldemort does.
Eric: They should…
Micah: He said in the graveyard in Goblet of Fire.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: He knew the protection that was placed on Harry, “old magic – magic he should have known about.”
Eric: Yeah he did say. Oh yeah, that’s pretty cool. Yeah, I think it’s good to know where the enemy is and he may have tried to set foot on Privet Drive once or twice, but…
Micah: So, I think Petunia moreso could be…
Eric: I was in the area and…
Micah: Yeah. [laughs] Petunia could be in danger moreso than Vernon…
Eric: Ding dong. Yep.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: So they may…
Micah: What about Lucius and Narcissa? Sorry, go ahead.
Eric: Oh, good question. No, I was – do you guys think that Vernon might be, like, “Oh, thanks” to Harry in the end or something? Maybe a little bit of a…
Laura: No.
Eric: Little bit of a thing? Not even, you know, like a “leave us alone now?”
Micah: No.
Laura: Nah, I don’t think so.
Eric: Okay. Sorry, Micah.
Laura: I think he’ll always hate him.
Tangenet: Book Ending
Micah: What – now okay, I have something. This just popped into my head, and I’m sorry, but, what if the book ended with Vernon going to work and sort of people – those weird people he saw in the street…
Laura: People wandering around in cloaks…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: Oh. That’d be cool…
Micah: Happy because Voldemort was gone…
Eric: No, no, no. Well, that’d actually be cool. Just…
Micah: That’d tie it together from the very beginning.
Eric: It – yeah, that would be really cool if he went to work – no, on a normal day it’s not like – it’s not like it was all a dream or anything, but it’s not like he wakes up and goes to work, but he goes to work on, you know, the future day and they’re all celebrating.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: I know what you mean. That’s cool.
Micah: Okay.
Eric: But wouldn’t it be even cooler, though – sorry, and I’m just…
Micah: Go ahead.
Eric: These are just adding to this. Wouldn’t it be even cooler if they find out about the Wizarding World and wizards and Muggles are living side to side? Jump about two years in the future, and Vernon goes to work one day and there’s people with tails everywhere. And…
Laura: What? [laughs]
Eric: And there’s like bats flying around in the sky. Like WTF, you know? Like what if there’s a third civilization that just exists and there’s…
[Awkward pause]
Laura: I – I don’t know, Eric.
Lucius and Narcissa
Micah: Okay, so Lucius and Narcissa…
Laura: [laughs] I think Lucius will die.
Micah: See, I’m of the mindset that Narcissa dying would cause Draco to side with the Order.
Eric: Ummm…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: What’s the point – what’s the literary value of killing Narcissa? I mean, she’s Draco’s mommy and all, but Draco pretty much – pretty much makes his own decisions. He’s a responsible young man.
Micah: Yeah. I don’t think he likes his father very much, though.
Laura: No, but – I don’t know. I don’t think – I mean, I think that any of the deaths that are going to be made into a big deal all have to be deaths that affect Harry, but I think any of the deaths that we hear about that are just sort of like background information I think it’d be very – I think it’s very likely that at some point we’re going to read about Lucius Malfoy buying the farm.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. But the other thing about the Malfoys – I do think we’re going to see their manor. Don’t you guys? Because it was heavily alluded to in Book 2 that – that there was a lot of interesting stuff at the Malfoy manor and I think it might be unlikely that there’s another Horcrux there because Voldemort trusted Lucius with the diary and that got destroyed, but just generally there seems to be a lot of cool stuff at the manor and who better would know – I mean Dobby comes from Draco’s manor, you know? And there’s like this underlying theme of the stuff that goes on at the Malfoy mansion and they – you guys think we’ll be seeing that? Like Draco will show Harry around or say, “Look, I have this.”
Laura: I don’t think Draco’s gonna take Harry on a walking tour of his house, but…
Eric: Well, Dobby could.
Laura: Yeah, Dobby could. I mean what if, I mean, just sort of speculating here, what if the UK edition isn’t Gringotts? What if it’s the Malfoy manor?
Micah: Could be.
Eric: Yeah, so they’re under their drawing room floor then – when they like fall in…
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: Okay, another couple here…
Eric: What? Okay.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley
Micah: Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
Laura: Hmmm.
Micah: It would be heart-breaking for sure if either of them went…
Laura: Yeah…
Eric: They have to be the couple that just lives and out-sees their, you know, out-sees their kids – no, not outlives their kids. But…
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Eric: They have to be the couple that – with the Weasleys, and I came up with this idea last week, it just hit me. The Weasleys, there’s seven of the children, so I thought that none of the Weasleys, including Ron, would die because there’s seven of them and that would just be cool reinforcement of the number seven. So, I don’t know about the parents. I mean, I don’t even know if that has any significance, but that’s why I always thought the Weasley children would die.
Micah: Oh, I think it does. I think at least with Mrs. Weasley – but both of them, I mean. Both have been parental figures to him throughout the entire series.
Laura: Well I mean, wouldn’t it be horrible, though, if any of the Weasley children died…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: …and both of the parents lived?
Micah: Oh, yeah.
Laura: That would be horrible.
Eric: Well, that’s Molly’s greatest fear.
Micah: Right.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Is outliving any of her kids, and it would actually suck even if Molly died. It would be a bad thing because she was like, not necessarily the voice of reason, but she was just another parental voice – just more people with voices over what Harry should do with his life, and more of his guidance figures – they’re just getting snuffed out and they no longer have a voice and it’s like Harry’s completely – not on his own to serve the plot – but just on his own to the point where it’s like desperate, like come on. He has like absolutely no one who can give him any more advice anymore, they all died.
Micah: Yeah. They’re a…
Eric: Remus and Molly.
Hermione’s Parents
Micah: I think also, though, that, and this may be a little hard to prove, but, I think it’s possible that Hermione’s parents could be in danger.
Laura: Why?
Micah: I just don’t know. I see them as easy to get to and using them as possible bait for something.
Eric: Well, I can see that happening, if like, you know, one of the Death Eaters – like, perhaps the werewolf will have a plaque problem or something. He’ll go to the dentist and be like…
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: Yeah, yep, I can see that, definitely.
Eric: Hey, I have this molar and it’s canine. Like canine…
Micah: Have you ever seen the horror movie – I think it is actually called The Dentist? It’s a really creepy movie.
Laura: Oh my god, yes.
Micah: [laughs] It’s terrible. I never want to go to a dentist after watching that movie.
Laura: Oh, don’t remind me!
Eric: I haven’t seen it.
Micah: But anyway, moving on…
Eric: Yup, moving on.
Fred and George
Micah: Another pairing, Fred and George.
Eric: Goes with the Weasleys, I think. Magic of seven, power of seven. Girl power. Power of seven. Power of twins. Twins have power. And not to mention – the Weasley twins are exceptionally powerful.
Micah: Yep. I mean, I agree with that but at the same time, back when J.K. Rowling said that she spared somebody and killed two in their place, I couldn’t help but think about Fred and George.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, that’s a shame.
Micah: Because…
Laura: And well, it’s sad because their brother uncles who were twins, Gideon and Fabian, were both killed.
Micah: It’s true.
Eric: Yeah, their uncles who were brothers, that’s right.
Micah: Same initials too, which is kind of creepy.
Laura: Oh no, oh my god – that’s so sad.
Eric: Oh my god, Gideon and Fabian. Well, yeah. Gideon and Fabian.
Micah: Well, minus the last names.
Eric: F, F, F, and G P. Yeah – F and G died. Oh, that’s horrible.
Bellatrix
Micah: Back to the other side – Bellatrix.
Laura: Oh yeah, she’s going down.
Eric: Yeah, she’s going to die.
Micah: She gets hit with a car, right?
Eric: You know, it’s much easier.
Micah: By Neville.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Micah: It was Neville riding…
Laura: Sirius’ motorcycle!
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: Yeah. Oh, geez. You guys agree that she’s a goner, right?
Laura: Oh yeah. She’s gone.
Eric: It’s much easier to argue death for the bad guys, I mean, do we think any of them are going to live?
Micah: Well…
Eric: Actually, sorry, I just thought of Wormtail. Wouldn’t it be fitting for him to serve the prison sentence that Sirius did – I mean, do you guys think with all his worse memories?
Laura: Mhm.
Micah: Yeah, I think that would be definitely more justified of an ending for him than just taking the coward’s way out.
Laura: That’s true.
Eric: Or dying.
Laura: I mean – it’s like Batman.
Micah: That’s what I mean.
Eric: Batman doesn’t kill people; he puts them in insane asylums.
Micah: Right.
Eric: So I don’t know. [laughs]
Professor McGonagall
Micah: Okay, Professor McGonagall.
Laura: Live.
Eric: Live, but there was that strange animosity between Harry and her where he couldn’t tell her any of that stuff about the Horcruxes. Rightfully so, but I just don’t know where that was leading. So, I don’t…
Lupin
Micah: Yeah, I mean I think she should probably be safe. But what about Lupin?
Laura: I think he’ll live.
Micah: Really? There are a lot of theories out there that all the Marauders have to die.
Laura: Yeah… Yeah, I know. But why do all the Marauders have to die?
Eric: Because they’re the forefront of the wizarding community and they’re with Harry and Remus is Harry’s guardian, Harry’s would-be father, and everyone near Harry has to die so he can complete his journey.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: Very good, Eric.
Laura: But see, the thing is I don’t think that everyone near Harry needs to die.
Micah: No, I…
Laura: I think that there are specific people that it makes more sense for them to die.
Eric: Oh, like Ron and…
Laura: No, I don’t think Ron’s going to die, I think Ginny is going to die. [laughs]
Eric: No, Ginny…
Micah: Let’s stay off that because…
Laura: People got very touchy last week.
Eric: No, that’s completely fine.
Micah: But also, I don’t think Lupin is as attached as Sirius or Dumbledore.
Laura: Yeah, I don’t think so either.
Eric: I think he should be though. I think he is, in a way. Because if you look back on Prisoner of Azkaban, the best moments, besides that of Harry and Sirius at the end, were of Remus and Harry and talking about his father and all those DADA sessions with warm, fuzzy chocolate. You know? It was – not fuzzy chocolate, that’s a little bit disgusting…
[Micah laughs]
Eric: But with chocolate…
Micah: You find that when you clean out the movie theatre, right?
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Eric: No, I do find fuzzy chocolate as many – oh my gosh. But yeah. [laughs] We have a fairly new movie theatre that I worked at so it was good. But Remus and Harry – the scenes were very warm and heartfelt. I just think that Remus has been stationed. He has a duty foremost to the Order and to Dumbledore because of all the good things that Dumbledore has done for Remus. And it’s a little bit dangerous because we have to think of it in terms of we’ve got a big werewolf on the loose, Fenrir Greyback, who’s going to take him out? It’s going to have to be another werewolf. Bill is only a half-faced werewolf and I think Remus is going to have to go up against Fenrir, I think, in the end.
Laura: Mhm. Yeah, I think he’s going to take Greyback out.
Eric: Because who else is going to take out the werewolf? So, I don’t know if Remus is going to live or die.
Micah: Okay, well, we’ll leave it there.
Eric: But it’s a good question.
Cornelius Fudge
Micah: I will say, though, that in my opinion, there is one good guy that I would like to see get it and I don’t really know if you can consider him a good guy, but – Cornelius Fudge. I just – I want to see him go.
Eric: He’s…
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I want to see him go? Micah, that’s – I want to see him go? That’s really intense, man. What’d he ever do to you?
Micah: But you know what it is – I’m re-reading Order of the Phoenix right now and just the fact that he doesn’t believe anything really annoys me.
Eric: Yeah, okay.
Micah: So maybe that’s a little bit too harsh, but if he got – I don’t know. If something happened to him.
Eric: If he missed a few fingers, it wouldn’t…
Micah: Yeah, you know, snip a few of them off. If he had to go in to see the dentist from that horror movie.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: I wouldn’t mind too much.
Eric: You know, I have to rent this movie. I have to rent this movie The Dentist. Next weekend…
Micah: It’s really disturbing. It is.
Laura: Ugh, it’s so gross.
Micah: Any kids out there that are listening that are under the age of 15, I would not recommend seeing this movie.
Eric: Yeah. Of 25? Don’t go see the movie?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: But seriously, what were we just talking about? I’m sorry. Fudge – he’s already lost his position as minister. Now, we really don’t have any repercussion to see if he was actually upset about losing that, but…
Micah: Oh, you know what would be nice, though?
Eric: He’s pretty much been deemed…
Micah: If he was convicted of…
Eric: Well, he’s…
Micah: …something…
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: …and sent to Azkaban and had to live with Wormtail…
Eric: Of being stupid.
Micah: ..for eternity.
Laura: [laughs] God, you guys are horrible.
Micah: Okay.
Eric: Convicted. He’s an ignorant politician, but that’s the allegory of it all.
Micah: Yeah. We do need to wrap this up. I think that’s it, as far as who will live and who will die, and…
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: …next week, we’re going to do…
Laura: Probably keep going.
Micah: …Laura, what, where are the Horcruxes?
Laura: Yes, where are the Horcruxes?
Eric: Yes.
Laura: Wanted to do that this week, but this got a little long, so…
Micah: That is the most recent question, right, from Scholastic?
Laura: Yeah. Mhm.
Eric: From Scholastic. We may have another one next week, do you guys know if we’re going to have a next one?
Laura: Yeah, you get one every week.
Eric: One every week? Okay, so we’re kind of a week behind, we’ll try to figure out a way to do that.
Laura: We’ll catch up.
Chicken Soups For The MuggleCast Soul
Eric: Next week won’t be too long. I mean, where are the Horcruxes? We’ve already talked about this ad nauseum, so it’ll be – it’ll probably be a fast one. We might combine two next week. And finally, for this show, we don’t have a British joke as Jamie’s not on, but we do have Chicken Soup. Chicken, Chicken, Chicken Soup. This is the Special PO Box Edition, which I assume means that our Chicken Soups have come to us via post, or owl, to our PO box. Laura, take it away.
Laura: Okay. Our first one comes from Selena, 12, of Illinois. She says:
“Recently, a friend of mine, age 12, passed away. It was really hard to get through because at night I would get sad or scared. Then, and I’m serious, literally a week after it happened, I discovered MuggleCast. I listen to you guys all the time now, and you guys are hilarious and you have amazing theories. Thanks so much for helping me, it has truly made a difference!”
It’s – I mean, it’s really, really good to hear that our show is, you know, helpful in that respect, because losing someone, especially someone that young…
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: …I can’t imagine how difficult that is.
Micah: That it’s an outlet for people to just…
Laura: Yeah.
Micah: …kind of get away from whatever the case may be.
Laura: Mh.
Micah: Or the situation.
Eric: That’s, that’s what I originally…
Laura: Stay strong, is what I wanted to say.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Totally, stay strong, and it’s really good that you found Harry Potter, especially, as a series, because you know, we have shows like this. Not to toot our own horn, but we love – we like being there for you. So, it’s good, and we’re going to keep doing it for at least a little while longer. Another 200 shows, I think, we can do?
Laura: [laughs] Sure.
Eric: Maybe not.
Laura: Another 200 shows. Maybe, maybe not. Our next…
Eric: Let’s make it to 100 first. Before we do anything.
Laura: Yeah, let’s try that. [laughs] Our next one comes from Sam, 13, of California, and she said:
“My older sister recently had a baby. The midwife wouldn’t allow me to be in the room with my sister (I didn’t want to be in there anyway). I could still hear everything from outside the room, and I was really nervous, but with my iPod equipped with tons of MuggleCast episodes, I was able to get through it. My sister’s baby boy was born at 9:04 PM after a four-hour intense labor. He was named Victor (I wanted to name him Jamie). Thanks so much for relaxing me in my time of fear, and good pickles to all.”
Micah: That’s very nice. I’m sure Jamie would…
Laura: That is very nice.
Micah: …appreciate that.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Jamie – if Jamie were on, he would mention, quite like he did with Sarah, he would say how much he loved the name Sam, and – but, you know?
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: But then further, all S’s.
Laura: Well, hey, you know what, Sam? Maybe we can convince Jamie to change his name to Victor. What do you think?
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Maybe, maybe…
Micah: I don’t know about that.
Eric: Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Micah: What…
Eric: We’re going to go with that next week. That’s a good idea.
Micah: Where do they still use midwives? Is that a common practice?
Laura: Some people – oh, yeah, some people use midwives. A lot of people do.
Eric: Yeah. Some people do. They do home birthing, home birthing…
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: And they don’t actually go to the hospital, and that’s another choice, thing to do, and you can read up about it. There’s plenty of subjects.
Micah: Wow. Okay.
Eric: I mean, plenty of books. So people – yeah, I thought it was obscure at first, too, but then I looked it up and it’s actually, it’s common practice. I mean, pretty much.
Laura: Yeah, mhm.
Show Close
Eric: It’s just, some people want to birth from home. So guys, I think that Victor comment…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: That wraps things up this week. This was a great show.
Micah: Lots of stuff.
Laura: Fantastic.
[Show close music begins playing]
Eric: Lots of stuff.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: But I think we got through it. And it’s just the three of us, the Fantabulous Four – Threesome. What did we call it?
Micah: The Fearsome Threesome.
Eric: Fearsome Threesome. So that’s us broadcasting to you this week. Just closing contact information. We did voicemails on this show for you guys, if you’re just waking up now that the music’s playing again. Voicemails on this show, if you want to give us a call, you can in the US at 1-218-20-MAGIC, in the UK, 020-8144-0677, and Australia, 02-8003-5668. And, so that’s – also check out our MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM, Fanlisting/Forums, and all that other information, you can find on MuggleNet – sorry, MuggleCast.com. And, PO box again, Laura?
Laura: That’s going to be:
PO Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
Micah: And, of course, if you want to contact any of us, there’s a feedback form on MuggleCast.com, or you can just e-mail our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
Eric: That’s brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. So mugglecast at staff, feedback forms, stuff like that, everything else. Guys, that is it for this show, Episode 95. Once again, I am Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Micah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Eric: Thank you, and have a great day, night, thing.
Laura: See you next week.
Micah: See you.
Eric: See you next week.
Micah: 96!
Bloopers
Eric: So, that said, I’m Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
icah: And I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
[Eric sings show music]
Laura: Okay.
Eric: And then it goes into the thing. You know, not to bring politics into it, but I actually thought that, you know, they should bring No Child Left Behind into the whole mix, you know? All the schools that scored the highest, you know, I thought they were going to get to go see JKR, but…
Laura: Yeah, well.
Eric: But maybe not.
Laura: You guys both here?
Micah: Yeah, I’m bumming off…
Laura: Oh.
Micah: My neighbor’s connection now, so I shouldn’t drop out unless their router has as much problems as mine does.
Eric: Unless, unless they catch you.
Laura: See, MuggleCast. MuggleCast…
Micah: Exactly.
Laura: [laughs] Is stealing other people’s Internet.
[Eric laughs]
Laura: I should probably steal my neighbor’s, too, because they have a really, really nice one.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: But anyway, not that I would know why they have a nice internet connection, but anyway, where did we leave off? What did you guys hear last?
Eric: You got your first lei via some Hawaiian guy…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Via the PO box.
Eric: 96!
Laura: Whoa!
Eric: Gosh.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: 96? That’s like, 69 inverted and backwards and upside down.
Micah: [laughs] Oh, geez.
Eric: Only, it’s not, because…
Laura: [laughs] And that was our favorite show, wasn’t it?
Eric: I’m just trying to make sure Andrew has…
Micah: All right, can we stop recording?
Laura: Yeah, okay, we’re stopping. [laughs]
Eric: No, okay. So that was, that was great.
———————–