Quidditch.com's Incomplete Guide to Lemony Snicket Allusions has swamped Harry Potter in interest -- so click here to go directly to this section.  Updated for The Beatrice Letters and The End.

JK Rowling at Harvard Commencement 2008 delivered an excellent speech.  My daughters were there and I hope to get one or both of them to write up a review.

Amherst vs. Middlebury in Collegiate Quidditch, and the Boston Globe reports on it.

Check out this labor of love 3D Multi-Player Quidditch game.  Video here.  Congrats to John for what looks like excellent work.

The Online Quidditch League has moved from http://www.theoql.org to http://www.onlinequidditchleague.com. They are now starting up Winter League 2008.  Players are no longer being accepted but you are welcome to look at the schedule and watch some games.

Shaun has just started Magicus Magnificus a HP Role-Playing site and is looking for members.

Quidditch.... in VERMONT.  You know, I never would have imagined those words in that order would ever have appeared in this space.  But since Middlebury is taking on Vassar (another "What universe did I wake up in?" phrase) it seems wholly appropriate.  Best of luck to all!  And thanks to Ryan for this Flickr link to photos of the event.  I love the iconography at this -- like a skateboard magazine found in a Diagon Alley kiosk.  Look for the T-shirt with the team name "Badassilisks" (and make sure you pronounce it right).

Since the Northeastern US now has a thriving Quidditch community, Titus has followed the advice of Horace Greeley and gone to start the Western Quidditch League.  I'm a sucker for any list that reads (I paraphrase here) "1 Soccer Ball to serve as Quaffle, 1 radio controlled car capable of 50 kph..."

In re: Deathly Hallows, we're not writing about it until well into the fall.  No spoilers here, folks.

Brooms Online continues to improve.  Check them out.

Quidditch League 2007 is looking for players.

Bucknell joins the ranks of universities with Quidditch teams.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.:  The Movie   You know, I'm really tired of writing about how the movies do justice to neither the books, nor to the art of filmmaking.  Most of the performances don't do much for the glorious history of British acting either.  There is something they do justice to.  Bear with me a minute.  You know Dolores Umbridge?  The ultimate Yes-woman who acts as mouthpiece for the head-in-the-sand Ministry of Magic?  Anybody who's been in an organization with more than a hundred people in it will recognize the type (Anybody who's worked for a Post Office or a School District will immediately see their district manager).  Dolores will do anything to enforce her boss's will, with the same "why bother thinking for myself?" intensity of Condi Rice.  The thing is that she is such an excellent portrait of the urge to dumb down the populace to keep it docile that I'm sure the screenwriter had her own spitting image sitting across from him at all the production meetings with Time-Warner.  The huge cash cow that must be constantly fed and milked for the glory of the media empire is a harsh dominatrix:  it demands the sacrifice of much of the same independent will that Umbridge seeks to stamp out.  Where you come in is that rather than a fixed character out of someone else's mind, you can walk away from it -- forget about the DVD, the videogame, the action figures, and whatever tie-ins the fatburger franchises are cooking up.  Try it for a change --  that would be the ultimate homage to the spirit of Harry.  But based on the results of the box office polls, most of you are hurrying to join the Office of the Inquisitor.

The Online Quidditch League is one of those rare things: an on-line community that's actually burgeoning.  Check them out.

Terminus 2008:  If you're looking for a Harry Potter conference this summer check out these guys at Terminus.  Chicago is a really good town to visit.

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid is out.  It's not worth writing about.

I recommend this mash-up of The Wizard of Oz.  'Nuff said.

 

Had to happen sooner or later, someone is blogging ersatz Quidditch matches.  But I much prefer places like Middlebury College doing it in real life.

The Second War  is a Potter site still in the early stages of creation but devoted to developing an encyclopedia of  information about the film and books. They also have a game in production and link to their own RPG.

According to The Wall Street Journal ("The daily print blog of the American dream")  Vermont is ground zero for college Quidditch, with both Marlboro College and Middlebury College setting up teams and their own rules. Cool.  But let's not forget the progenitor of all crazy college sports:  43-Man Squamish.

I like this montage I discovered on YouTube.