Obama

In our last installment, our heroes had seen New York's finest gearing up to protect the president as he dined with Miranda Priestly Anna Wintour. But aside from the cops and the posses of wo/men in black and curious locals and tourists, there was nothing else to be seen at that time beyond the tented entrance to La Wintour's home. Would our intrepid Professor and Child get a chance to lay eyes on His Obama-ness if they returned later in the day? Stay tuned. . .

Today's episode begins with 2/3 of the Chambliss family heading back outside at 6:00 pm. The bustle in the streets had escalated. There were at least two cops on every street corner, Wintour's street had been totally closed off, and the police would not let anyone cross the streets or stand on the sidewalks within 100 yards of Ground Wintour. The Child and I gathered with a crowd of others on the steps of a local church, which gave us a good view of the tent in front of the house.

We waited, chatting with some of the others (an elderly local couple, a Japanese woman, two NYU students, some tourists from Michigan) and watching as the crowd grew, and the cops explained over and over: yes, it's Obama; no, we don't know when he'll arrive; no, you can't cross here; no, you can't stand here; no, you can't take any photos. In the meantime, a team of SWAT guys swarmed onto Wintour's roof. We were going to wave at them, but then we thought they might think we were brandishing guns and shoot us [just kidding]).

Then the cops (politely) made us all get off the church steps and move further down the street. They blocked us in with movable parade fences. About ten minutes later, they made us move back again. By this time, we were desperately hot, we'd seen nothing except a few designer-clad people enter the house, and we'd been moved back so far that we couldn't see anything anyway. So we decided to pack it in, ducked around the side of the fence, and went home.

When we emerged again an hour later to meet Partner for dinner, it must have been close to the Actual Arrival Time, because light-flashing police vehicles had closed off even the main avenue, and we had to detour around the block.

So we didn't get to see Obama. But now we know where Anna Wintour lives.

30 Days of HP Meme -- Day 6

( Ghost of Questions Past )

Day 6 Least favorite female character.

Each time I answer one of these "favorite/least favorite character" questions, I have a pleasant time debating with myself over the definition of "favorite." Person I'd most/least like to meet? Resemble? Be friends with? Sleep with? That I most/least admire? See as most morally-flawed? Just find boring and/or exciting or hot? Or should I consider things in literary terms -- characters I think are most interestingly- or skillfully-written, best/worst developed, etc.?

Problem is, the "favorite" often changes depending on which definition I'm using. And that's the case with "least-favorite female character." There are the ones I find boring, like Cho Chang; she doesn't seem individualized much at all; she's just mostly a generic "girlfriend." She has Asian background, but aside from her name, her Asian-ness doesn't inform her character. There are the ones whose characterizations I find problematic, like Molly Weasley. And would I like to be friends with someone like Dolores Umbridge? Certainly not, but she's not an "unfavorite" character at all.

So I thought I might as well just throw out all these definitions and go with a personal one: my least favorite female character is Sybill Trelawney, because she reminds me far too much of a person I know, someone who drives me batshit crazy. As far as I know, this woman isn't into cooking sherry, but otherwise, she could be Sybill -- fey, breathy, affected, scattered, given to trailing scarves, convinced of her own genius, dying to be seen as a charming, gifted eccentric, an artist who just can't be expected to see the world the way ordinary mortals do. But like Sybill, she loses a lot of the dreamy eccentricity when crossed and goes straight for the jugular.

Now it's very possible that I'm unfair to poor canon!Sybill, projecting onto her characteristics that belong only to the person I actually know, but it's too late now. Sybill Trelawney is officially my least favorite female character.

( The Ghost of Questions Yet to Come )