Happy birthday, Hermione/Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I've posted this link previously on September 19, but it's so perfect for this day that I'm posting it again. From Tom Smith:

According to her page at the Harry Potter Lexicon, Hermione Granger's birthday is September 19. This also happens to be International Talk Like A Pirate Day (for which, you may recall, I wrote the official chanty a couple of years ago). Which is pretty much all of how this song came about. At one point the refrain line had a slightly different rhythm, but Anne made a very good suggestion which I adopted.

I also had fun at the Pirate Nicknames page. "Hermione Granger" led to "Skylarking Charity". Ehh. "Ginevra Weasley" generated "Deadeye Pegs" (which works for me, as I don't much like Ginny).

But "Hermione Jane Granger" got "Buccaneer Jane".

Arrr.

A couple of continuity notes: No, it's not actually in the books, at least not yet. But JKR did say it, and I wanted that rhyme with "Hook".

Yes, I know Lucius is currently in Azkaban. [note: this was written in 2006]

"'Ships" in the next-to-last verse refers to relationships, i.e., who'll end up with who romantically. There's an ongoing and surprisingly rancorous online war between those think it'll end up Harry/Hermione (I'm on that team) and supporters of Ron/Hermione. I deliberately leave it open (sorry, Harry/Draco fans).

I was in a bit of a rush to get this one ready for TLAPD, and there's a good chance I'll remix it and likely tweak a couple of vocals. Don't panic, however -- I'll absolutely do so before iTom 1.0 is released, and... this one's a freebie anyway. Not wanting to be stepped on by the JKR/WB legal machine, I declare that this song is not gonna be for sale. I mean, I'm gonna put it on the album, but that's very much an incidental 'cause-I-wrote-it-now thing. Think of it as a bonus track. The song will always be up at TSO, and it will always be the better 192-Kbps quality. I do this very deliberately to avoid problems. No, guys, I'm not making money off Harry Potter. The title doesn't even call attention to HP.

Go here to listen to the song and to download it for free! It's a really fun song, a favorite of the girls. Let me know if this is new to you and if you listen and like. Happy birthday, Hermione! Don't worry--on hpalternity, Moony and Teddy will make sure you have a good one.

This is intriguing . . .

Could physiological differences underpin political leanings? A small but intriguing study finds that liberals and conservatives react differently when shown threatening images.

Panhandling

Interesting article on panhandling, something I've discussed in this journal before. Examines legal approaches for dealing with it and how different cities have altered their approaches.

Obama and McCain on equality

Thanks to thistlerose, who pointed out this post from penknife outlining where Obama and McCain stand on LGBT equality.