One of my coworkers rides the Baltimore metro to work in the mornings. The Baltimore metro is a whole post in itself, but to make a long story short: there is only one line. It goes from a random suburb into downtown, so only people who need to travel along its non-sensical route can make use of it. Largely it is populated by crazy and/or homeless people who ride it around aimlessly. My coworker often regales us with stories of the insanity she witnesses on her 10-minute ride to work.
This morning she told us she'd seen a painfully young mother dragging her two-year-old down the metro stairs, shouting "Come on Muggles! We've got to catch the Hogwarts Express so we can do some magic!"
There was some discussion of how this was a cute way to get her child to hurry for the train. And it is! Except... it doesn't make sense. And I really tried to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn't.
"Heh, I wonder if her kid is going to hate that nickname when he gets older and reads Harry Potter for himself." [Blank stares] "'Muggle' is kind of an insult." [More blank stares] "Because... muggles can't do magic?"
"No, that's not true," another woman replied. "Hermione was a muggle and she did magic."
Oh, dear.
"Well, actually, Hermione was muggle-born." I clarified. "Her parents are muggles but she is a witch. That's why purists like Draco made fun of her. Her parents can't do magic. Because they're muggles. And muggles can't do magic."
"Oh."
And now I can never come to work again.
This just made me laugh out loud (i'm at the school today, so the sophomores are now looking at me with their skeptical side-eye glances)
This reminds me of when I was at my Aunt's house for Christmas, with most of my family and a few randoms. And my cousin starts taking about how ridiculous it is that there was this group of people that he works with who have a party for Harry's Birthday each year. My aunt asked "who knows Harry Potter's Birthday? that's crazy." I couldn't help it! I just blurted out "July 31st." The whole table just stared at me. Muggles (for real)
Posted by: beth | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 12:10 PM
You know what I just realized? My due date is on Bella Swan's birthday.
Posted by: Pink Herring | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 12:48 PM
And I'm obnoxious because I kept capitalize Muggle as I read this post. HP dorks unite!
Posted by: NGS | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 12:51 PM
I am shaking my head for you. Being pedantic gets me in trouble, too. At least you didn't go on about how the custodian is a squib, sort of as Hermione's opposite. That would probably have been TMI.
Posted by: RA | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 12:58 PM
I had no idea where you were going with this post and upon reading that line about muggles catching the Hogwarts Express to do some magic, I thought, "well that doesn't make sense..."
Ha. People like us must annoy the hell out of most people.
Posted by: Liz | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 01:22 PM
Oy...I have had a conversation (outburst) at work that involved the words "of COURSE they were MAGIC wands, are there ANY OTHER KIND?"
It got posted on the office whiteboard for a while.
Posted by: Erika | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 01:27 PM
Hahaha, this is awesome!
xox
Posted by: heidikins | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 01:30 PM
I love you so much. This is the best post ever.
Posted by: Janssen | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 01:31 PM
Oh bless their hearts. My 4 year old has never read the books or seen all the movies (too scary) and even he would know that.
Posted by: Isabel | Tuesday, March 08, 2011 at 03:58 PM
Ha- Hilarious. love it. I also laughed out loud with this post! :).
Posted by: Kirsten | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 04:34 AM
Information like that is what makes this world awesome. What if you hadn't said anything? People would continue living in ignorance.
Posted by: kirida | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 01:16 PM
You are the best. That's really all.
Posted by: Angela Noelle | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 01:22 PM