.you must be mad, or else you wouldn't have come here

I didn't tell you how I'd touch it... *cheeky grin*

My theory is that they're hairists - short hair equals ugly in their book, and with Barbara having such big hair that means she's beautiful. AND THE COMPANION CHRONICLES REVIEWS HAVE BEGAN! A guy called Rob Hughes is doing them, and did a review of Steven's CC Mother Russia in the last podcast. *iz proud of herself* I'm sure they are. *pictures Fitz in a similar hairstyle and starts giggling*

Jo loved the news about the Brigadeiros, even though she cannot eat any due to being a diabetic. After Tony read my e-mail she came up with a theory that the real reason why the Brig is in South America is because he opened a restaurant and is selling Brigadeiros. :P You can find my following e-mail to them here. Tony and Bob found my choice of stories to show the girls a bit odd, but eventually agreed that some aspects we usually find odd as adults are usually appealing to kids, like the Sea Devils soundtrack, and that picking that story was indeed a good decision for that reason. Also, they think the twins are amazing (the girls have fanboys! :D) and the Easter Egg at the end of this particular episode was dedicated to them! (It was a bit of the Sea Devils soundtrack, by the way.)

Also, as I mentioned before, this fortnight's edition of Professor Dave's podcast was about Harry Potter, and for that reason I sent them this:

Hi everybody!

I have to agree with Professor Dave that the Harry Potter books can be a bit formulaic when it comes to their most basic plotline but, as a Literature major and a qualified librarian, I have to say I don't really care. Reading a Harry Potter book is like building a puzzle - you see the pieces before you and start building it in your mind as you read. Inevitably, when you reread it you'll realize that some of the pieces you found at later stages of the story were staring right at you the whole time - sometimes, in fact, they were within reach two or three books previously. For me, that makes for good reading. Of course, the mere fact that they are the sort of books that kids willingly pick up and practically devour in one setting would be enough to earn my praise. I'd offer these to my 8-year-old cousins (AKA the Mad Twins) if it wasn't for the fact that the Portuguese translation is so bad - particularly the latter books, which were clearly translated in a hurry in order for them to be released as soon as possible. After "Goblet of Fire", I gave up on those and got myself the original version.

The commercialization of the Harry Potter phenomenon had one big advantage, though: many great authors would probably have never been released over here if it wasn't for the fact that publishers decided to gain some extra cash by releasing other books of the same genre, as children's fantasy was practically non-existent over here before the Harry Potter success. One example is Diana Wynne Jones who, believe it or not, was a complete unknown over here until a few years back, when her Chestomanci books were translated to Portuguese with the words "If you like Harry Potter you'll love these" on the back cover.

To be continued below...