Snape, Snape, Severus Snape

Had to do it, closure.

Went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. II in 3-D last evening and enjoyed it immensely.

It is phenomenal that this began from someone living out of a van. There was a preview for a movie with Jim Carrey, who also lived out of a van for a while. Sppoookkyy.

Now, for all of you purists out there, I have this to say. Nothing, really.

I went about Harry Potter the complete opposite way of nearly everyone else on the planet. In fact, after the movie, I may have had coffee with the last remaining soul in the universe who has not read at least one Harry Potter book. I saw the first one before reading the book, and well, then the snowball effect. I heard how different the movies were, etc., and I just didn't feel like getting into that whole spider's nest (yes, the giant spiders make an odd cameo), so I "opted out" and just watched the movies.

Now, the real purists probably just started a anti-Robert campaign...but, I will get to the books. I am usually the other way around, and in fact, I can only name a couple book-movie pairings that I did see the movie first, or if I did, I had no intention of reading the book and/or vice versa.

Perhaps the strongest example of seeing the movie first was Zorba the Greek. How can I not think about Anthony Quinn while reading Kazantzakis' book? Quinn channeled Zorba.

Ok, this is not about Zorba, well, kind of, everything in Indra' Net is related, but I digress.

So, saw the movie, talked to another Harry Potter lost soul (he had a good excuse, at least...), and since my friend is a former colleague of the Antwerp International School, where I taught for a while, why not have full circle?

One of my classes was a study skills class, which was pretty much like Mr. Kotter's class. OOOhh OOOhh Mista Fuull--toon. Sweathogs redux.

Loved these guys so much I could scream. Seriously, they had a knack for being able to simultaneously drive me up the wall and make me laugh really hard.

And, so we come to Severus Snape. This was my kryptonite and I made the mistake of letting them know. This little ditty about a Snape and Diane..., no, no Diane. But, this little ditty will stick in your head like the tar baby on Bre'r Rabbit. The more you try to get it out, the more it sticks. They were merciless with this. Whenever they could tell I was having a bad day at work, they would play it. How could I be upset, those little Sweathogs. Yo, Lloyd, Freddie, Michael, and Felix, hope this sticks in your head:

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape

I am going out to buy a van to go live in...

PS: Shouldn't Hogwarts have been called more like Ravenstein...