I Take It Back!

So for a while I had been saying that I thought it would be really funny in (Harry Potter) book 7, Harry got shot, or something. The idea being that everyone was so concerned about him being killed by Voldemort, and then J.K. Rowling was all, 'Hey, look, Muggles can be a dangerous bunch too. Mostly harmless? Hah!'. Then I had this weird dream the other night.

Ms. Rowling, or someone, was reading from book 7, but it can't have been the night it was released, because we'd have all had our own copies and been driving home. But I was there, I think with my dad. Perhaps it was a few hours before midnight and someone was breaking the rules. Anyway, the location was on this street and in this type of building that seemed like it would fit well on Main St. in Oberlin, near the Feve, maybe. We were crammed in this little room, where there was a little stage set up, where the person was reading from. In the back was this big three story apartment. I went over there to use the bathroom a couple of times, it was really hard to find, involving walking up some steps along the back of the living room, the directions the residents (who I think I knew, it might have been the Slocums, or someone very much like them) gave me were very complex. They had a dog, and I was hanging out in the backyard by this big pond later, but that's another part of the dream that probably didn't make any sense ever. But down to the book. It was being read aloud, I think, but played out in my head like a movie. Harry and Ron had been separated from Hermione. They'd been riding a bus, and for some reason had to get off, but Hermione stayed on. Harry and Ron were wandering around in some woods, and they eventually came to a road. Somehow, they were exposed to the (Muggle) media, and there was a story about how the bus had crashed and several people had died. It never said directly that Hermione had died, but it sure implied it. Then the story stopped, probably because I was really upset about Hermione dying. I shed a couple tears for Cedric every time I read book 4, but man, for Hermione, I sobbed for 10 minutes, straight. My dad seemed to think it was a bit ridiculous, but it wasn't. It was horrible. (Then the backyard stuff with the pond-lake that makes no sense, then I woke up.)

But yeah, I'm sorry I ever thought it would be funny for one of the trio to die. Even in a mundane way like a motor vehicle accident. I take it back.

Russian Roulette

So in the X Files eXco class I'm taking (a 1 credit class taught by fellow students or community members on almost any subject imaginable), there was a presentation on an episode we watched a couple of weeks ago. The episode is called "Pusher", and it's about this guy with the ability to mentally force his will on others. Late in the episode, he forces Mulder to play Russian Roulette with him, and at one point has Mulder point the loaded gun at Scully instead of at himself.
The presenters mentioned that the Wikipedia article about Russian Roulette involves a really complex formula about one's chances of losing. I was intrigued, so I checked it out. Turns out, it really is complex. There are also several young people who have foolishly played and lost. But there's one instance that kind of makes me laugh/sigh:

"In 1999, three Cambodian men all got drunk, and decided to play Russian Roulette with a land mine, each taking turns to stamp on the mine. The three died in a great explosion minutes later. They were later posthumously awarded a Darwin Award."

I don't know if the Darwin Awards are a good thing or not. They make death seem slightly more humorous to smart people, which includes pretty much everyone I know, but I suppose the recipients end up having their ridiculous, fatal decisions magnified. But, then again, they kind of deserve it. A land mine? Seriously.