Episode #24: I need a hero!
It’s our 24th episode, which means were going with the whole 24 theme. And in that vein, we’re discussing what it takes to be a hero. Jack Bauer is a hero, but so is Harry Potter. What are the key elements that makes Harry a hero? What does he need to do to ensure victory over evil in the coming finale? All this in our 24th episode on heroes.
And the news:
- Scholastic is doing some cool things to celebrate the release of HP and the Deathly Hallows
- France put out Harry Potter Stamps. They also have a cool contest.
- Time Magazine just figured out the Harry Potter is ending
- Apparently a lot of people in England don’t know that Cedric died
- David Yates gave a new interview.
And the blog post of the week, from the latest blog posts on Harry Potter: the Gryffindor Gazette lists a few easter eggs in the Harry Potter books. If you have suggestions for a blog post, please let us know.
You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download an mp3 directly.
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March 15th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I’m on vacation for 2 weeks and I get back to find a new podcast for my favorite books AND my favorite TV show. I must now fight the urge to listen to episode 24 before episode 23.
Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.
for more jack bauer facts check out:
http://www.notrly.com/jackbauer/index.php?topthirty
March 16th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Tim: I love those Jack Bauer facts! There’s a bunch of really funny ones for Chuck Norris as well.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Harry Potter…my hero… *faints*
Hehe just kidding, but great episode. 24 rocks my socks! Haha.
March 16th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I Remember In The Order of The Phoenix Dumbledore Saying Something About The Prophecy Could Maybe Be About Neville and Not Harry, Well What If In The Deathly Hollows Neville Ends Up Sacrificing Himself Thus Making The Prophecy True. Id Like To Maybe Hear About Your Opinion on My Theory.
March 16th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
In Prizoner of Azkaban They Use Timeturners To Save Buckbeak And Sirius Black. Why Didn,t It Occur To Them To Use Timeturners To Save Dumbledore…??
March 17th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Hi Greg & Penny,
I’ve listened to every one of your HP Progs podcasts, and just wanted to let you know that you do have listeners from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Or England, as you Americans like to call it. Maybe we should have come up with a catchier name for our country…
But then that would go against our whole foreign policy – which is to confuse people. For example,
– the UK, Great Britain, and England all mean different things.
– Edinburgh is pronounced, “Edin-bru” (that’s bru like bruh, not like broo)
– we drive on the left hand side of the road, rather than the right – unlike pretty much every other country in the world.
– we (sometimes) measure gas (petrol) in gallons, but our gallons are a different size to yours.
Also, seeing as you asked:
– the Isle of Mann is a small island half way between England and Northern Ireland (in the Irish Sea)
And just so as you know. Whenever you quote the Sun newspaper, be aware that the Sun is roughly equivalent to the National Enquirer, but with more naked women.
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to write for a while – partly because Greg’s attempts at a British accent are driving me crazy – and partly to say how much I enjoy your show. I was surprised yesterday when I realized that it had reached Friday and I hadn’t listened to this week’s show yet. Sad but true.
And finally, if you ever need to quote something with a British accent then let me know before the show, and I can record it for you with my genu-eye-n accent. Which is just a sneaky way of getting a preview of what you’re going to talk about next week!
So long, and keep on prognosticating.
Andrew, from England, now living in the good ol’ US of A.
March 17th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Hey guys,
Love the show. Just started listening this week actually but I caught up in good time. I live just north of Winnipeg, Manitoba…actually about 10 minutes. It’s very common here to measure distance in terms of time. Even in The Peg if someone asks for directions you’ll commonly hear “2 minutes that way” or “I’m 10 minutes from you guys”…Maybe 24 is a Canadian show in disguise!
Cheers,
Keenan
March 17th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Andrew: Is my British accent really that bad? I spent years watching Monty Python and thought I had it down pretty good. Perhaps not…maybe you can give me a few pointers.
March 17th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Hmmmmm, All the talk about food made me hungry. The 24 TV show stuff made me think of how I am ignored when it is on. I don’t like the show either Penny. The Harry Potter conversation was good especiaaly give Ron Weasly credit for his courage. Greg’s use of an explicit word made me think he was imitating Paris Hilton. Two hours for a meal reminded me that my wifes only domestic quality is that she lives in a house, Thats it . Aaron
March 17th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Andrew- thanks for all the helpful tips and suggestions. We actually do know the difference between all the places in the UK (although I do have to ask, if you are going to generalize all the people who live in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland what do you call them? British? English? Bringli-Irish?) but like typical Americans we tend not to pay too much attention to anything outside the borders of our fine country (and to most Americans that probably includes Alaska and Hawaii).
Perhaps we will have to consult you on an as needed basis to be our British/English/whateverish (there I go again, I am scared to offend) fact checker. Where in the states are you living?
I think you crushed Greg with your assessment of his British accent. He has always prided himself on his accents. Now I am going to have to pick up the pieces- thanks man
I am actually very interested in dialects and accents (I am a speech-language pathologist by profession and I tend to listen to people talking very intently) and have actually been trying to figure out the British accent lately. I am really only looking at the standard London accent but I can’t figure out what the exact rules are for the /a/ sound because it is not consistantly pronounced /ah/ as we Americans often think it is- it seems to change based on the consonant that comes before it but I can’t figure out the exact rules. If you could help me out with this, I’d appreciate it greatly. OK, I have monopolized enough of this comments section.
I am glad you listen- keep the comments coming (even if they are just to tell us about all of our seemingly anglophobic remarks) because we really do appreciate it. And heck, maybe we’ll consult you before we take our whirlwind trip to the UK- whenever that happens!
Ronald- Thanks for the thoughts and welcome! as far as the time turners go, (now I can actually talk about this a bit better because I just finished re-re-re-re reading Prisoner of Azkaban today) you can’t actually change major parts of history with the time turners. Dumbledore actually died and according to the predestination paradox theory which we discussed in episdoe 23, you can’t change actual events in history. Also, there would really no point in the whole HP story if Harry could just go and fix things with time travel. It is a shame though…
As far as the Neville/Prophecy thing goes. My interpretation of Neville and the prophecy is this. The prophecy very well may have been about Neville and not Harry but Voldemort interpreted the prophecy to be about harry, thereby MAKING it about Harry and in this whole process he also made Harry stronger than he would have been if Voldemort had just ignored the prophecy etc. So Once Voldemort made that decision to go after Harry, Neville sort of got excluded from the equation. I think even though Neville wasn’t discussed in it, the Chapter in Half Blood Prince titled “Horcruxes” (my favorite chapter in the HP books!) helps to shed light on this.
Paige- you ok? I hope you didn’t bump your head with that faint!
Keenan- Welcome! Kiefer Sutherland actually grew up in Canada- so that could be an explanation! We look forward to hearing from you in the future!
March 17th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Aaron- let’s be nice to the wife! And Greg was DEFINITELY not imitating Paris Hilton- Yuch.
March 17th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Greg – your accent is a darn site better than my attempts at American; despite having lived here for two years. To answer Penny, I lived in San Francisco for a bit, and am now in Cleveland, OH – which is rather colder. I’ve been to DC a couple of times, but never to Baltimore.
And I must apologize – I didn’t actually mean to imply that you didn’t know the difference between UK/Britain/England,Scotland,Wales etc – I was merely trying to have a light-hearted dig at our (British) selves.
Penny – it’s cool that you’re a speech pathologist; I suspect you’re far better at these accent things than any of the rest of us.
I was amused when one of my American friends did a British accent, and it was a mixture between the Queen and Michael Caine.
The A sound is the killer. In the south of England the A in bath (barth) is pronounced differently to the A in can – whereas in the north it’s the same.
If you want to email me off the comments section I’ll happily try (and I emphasize /try/) to explain specific examples if you’re curious.
Oh, by the way – “bloody” isn’t really all that bad. It’s not something I’d say in front of my Mom, but there are plenty of worse things you can say.
Anyway – we’re getting way off topic. I love you guys – this is the first podcast that I’ve really subscribed to, and you guys are great. I was very amused by Greg’s story (a few weeks back now) about the computer programming job where he had no computer. Genius.
A final Harry Potter thought – are we sure that Harry himself (or else his scar) can’t be a horcrux? That would be such a fitting ending to it all, if Harry could only defeat Voldemort by destroying himself (hence fulfiling the prophecy that neither shall die while the other lives).
It’s also of course a good Christian allegory (as you’ve previously mentioned) with Harry sacrificing himself for the sake of others. You could even try to take it further and talk about the part of Voldemort’s soul that resides in Harry being equivalent to our sin that Jesus took upon himself, although that may be stretching it.
And finally… (no really)
How come it was book four that people couldn’t finish? Book 5 was way too long and really annoying to read (because Harry was annoying) for the first half – but as far as I can remember book 4 was pretty good. Very odd.
Anyway – it’s past my bed time. Keep the podcasts coming!
March 18th, 2007 at 4:33 am
Please Answer My Previous Comment…????!!!!
March 18th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Ronald- if you look closely four comments up, you will see that I did answer your previous comment (look at the sixth paragraph).
March 18th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Andrew- first of all, your photography is unbelievably impressive. Greg and I should get you to take our official HP Prognostications press picture. Oh well, if only we got to cleveland more often (“Cleveland Rocks!”).
Don’t worry, I don’t think either Greg or (or is that nor) I were offended at your remarks and they were pretty funny. It is really true that we Americans don’t know or care about other countries/cultures/languages etc. It always humbles me when I meat people from Europe who can speak 3-4 languages fluently yet I can only speak English with confidence (as well as break my teeth Hebrew and break my fingers sign language).
I’ll have to e-mail you with my British pronunciation questions. I really started thinking a lot about this when I was listening to Jim Dale read HP and the HBP on tape/CD. I love his accent and I think he uses a pretty standard “anchorman” type of British dialect but I still can’t figure out the exact usage of the /ah/sound. Oh to have an endless amount of time to devote to something like that…
I think we discussed the possibility of Harry being a Horcrux. If I remember correctly, Greg prognosticated that Nagini was a Red Herring horcrux to make us realize that a living thing could actually be a horcrux and that it is Harry. I personally don’t know if I agree with that because Dumbledore (and by Dumbledore, I mean JKR) stated with quite a certain tone that Nagini was a horcrux and I really do think that when Dumbledore states something strongly it is really JKR stating it= therefore it is a fact. That is just me though. It would completely fit into the HPPROGS Deathly Hallows theory though if Harry WERE the horcrux. But I also think that if he were, hopefully he would be ablet o get around sacrificing himself completely.
I am in complete agreement iwth you about Book4 Versus Book5 on the unreadability scale. I recently re-read book five and the only reason I didn’t kill myself or go into a medically induced coma was that I started the book from Harry’s trip to Hogwarts. The whole first several hundred pages were completely insane, in my opinion.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
That should be “Meet people” not “meat people”
March 19th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Hello again , a bit off topic but I have been encouraging my wife to read the blue one. Order of the kleenex or something like that. She is on about chapter six and having a hard time getting into it. Any suggestions to offer encouragement? I have these electrodes hooked up to her so when she wanes I push a button and shock her back into diligence. Only problem is there are times when I have to go to work or a child needs mom stuff. Wizard Rock seems like a cruel form of torture but I have not managed to find a way to channel it’s harmful effects to her without affrecting the rest of the family. Any suggestions to help keep her motivated would be appreciated. If I get nothing I guess we will have to wait for the movie in July but it seems like you miss out on a lot that way. BUZZZZZZZZZZ!
What fun , Aaron
March 19th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I have two little bits of news!
1: There are rumors that DH will be 688 pages in the US edition. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#article:9632
2: Emma Watson is said to be set to sign the contract for the last two films (yay!). http://mugglenet.com/app/news/show/734
Both those links should work. If not, you can just go to their main pages and they’ll be right there. Thought I’d make your jobs a little easier. Plus, I’m really happy about both, and I have no one else to talk to about it!
Paige xxx
March 19th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I believe Hogsmeade has a post office. The owl’s are color coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there. So I assume ther are probably other post office’s.
March 19th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Just for the record, Penny really is a good cook!
March 20th, 2007 at 8:35 am
I am going to kill someone at wordpress. I just wrote a whole comment and it got deleted when i tried to post it.
Here we go again:
Aaron: My only suggestion to getting through OoTP is this. It gets easier first when they get to school and second once the DA starts. I agree it is a very hard book to get through. you might want to try a cattle prod though. Please make sure she reads it before the movie comes out. From what I hear, there are many important parts of the book which are being omitted from the movie. The good news is that if she finished OoTP, then she can start HBP! Question: if she hasn’t read some of the books, how does she listen to HP podcasts?!? Aren’t there too many spoilers?
Paige- From what I understand, this lenght is just about the same as HBP. that works for me. As much as I would love the last HP book to go on infinitely, I am glad it won’t be too long (a’la OoTP). as far as Emma is concerned, whether I like her or not as Hermione, I will be happy if she signs for the last two movies. it wouldn’t make sense to have such a major character change in the end of the series.
Aishel- thanks! It is so nice to have friends who listen to the podcast and make comments (especially flattering ones)! BTW, if anyone wants the Delmonico Steak recipe- here is a link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_22047,00.html (yes it is a Rachel Ray recipe, *nods sheepishly* but it is mmm good.)
March 20th, 2007 at 10:02 am
In a press release sent out this morning from Scholastic, the U.S. publishers of the “Harry Potter” series, announced that the last book in the series will have 784 pages and that it will be printed on recycled paper.- the rumor was a bit off but that is ok. I think this is a great length!!
March 20th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
When read the article i thought to myself “784 pages THATS IT?!?!
I thought this book would be longer i mean with All The Loose Ends There Are To Tie.
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:38 am
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