home stretch now, is it?

Okay, so everyone's on about how spoiler-y their friends are prepared not to be in the run-up to Book Seven. So I will take this opportunity to reiterate that my spoiler-phobia extends even to speculation-phobia. I am not interested in people's opinions on Various Questions; I am not interested in Various Questions, because the minute I ask them, I start Thinking, and the odds of turning out to have spoiled myself are non-zero. Yes, there are some questions that are obvious, but I'm trying not to think about them either. Fence around the Torah, y'all. If I could have got this far without knowing the title of the damn thing, I would. (Thanks, WaPo.) As it is I imagine I'm going to have to put on dark glasses and noise-canceling headphones and have ellen_fremedon and wordplay guide me by the elbow through the release party.

I know it's hard for people to grok how not-kidding I am with this, but I am not even shitting you. Couple of months ago I explained this very head-in-the-sand-ness and the next words out of the mouth of a friend of mine were exactly the kind of speculation I'd just spent three minutes saying I wanted to avoid -- which she wouldn't have done, if she'd understood I was serious. So I'm saying here: I really am serious. A couple of you have posted things recently (by which I mean, since the publication date was announced) that have caused me, knowing they were there (but not, thank god, having actually read them) to temporarily move you off the default view. If I had my druthers, all discussion of the book's content (potential or actual) between now and 22 July would take place behind cuts. Can I have a show of hands, please, of people who think I am sufficiently silly that there's no chance they'll indulge me in this?

I suppose I could pre-emptively de-default everyone I know to be an HP fan, but that seems a little extreme at this juncture ...

hurrah!

I have just seen a drug commercial that included the caution that the product is "not for people with serious liver problems; or for women who are nursing or pregnant, or may become pregnant".

I am over the MOON.

Why?  Because look!  They've coordinated properly!  Most drug warnings say "women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant".  Which is bad bracketing -- expanded out like an equation, it says women who are nursing, women who are pregnant, or women who are may become pregnant.  Tilt!  But the ad I just saw coordinated the two things with "are" separately from the one with "may".  Hurrah!

If you're in need of cholesterol medication, note that the product is Zetia, and their copywriters have passed Ass/Elbow Differentiation.