Geek of the Week: Sarah Vowell, Laverne de Montmorency

Welcome to "Geek of the Week"; here we honor one Muggle geek and one Wizard geek who embody Ravenclaw spirit...
when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Sarah Vowell (b. 1969)

"History is full of really good stories. That's the main reason I got into this racket: I want to make the argument that history is interesting."

Sarah Vowell has degrees in Modern Languages and Literatures and Art History; she made her living as a music journalist for quite some time, but she's most well known for her nonfiction books on American history.

Add to that her contributions to This American Life, The Daily Show, and The New York Times, and you've got a geek in demand.

Fun fact: she was also the voice of Violet in The Incredibles!

Find out more about Sarah Vowell on Wikipedia.

Laverne de Montmorency (1823 - 1893)

Laverne de Montmorency was sorted into Ravenclaw as a student at Hogwarts; her hard work produced excellent OWL and NEWT results in potions.  De Montmorency went on to invent several love potions, some of which are in use today (I'm looking at you, Romilda Vane).  If you don't want to brew your own, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes sells a range, and it's always useful to know how to make an antidote.

Find out more about Laverne de Montmorency on the Harry Potter Wiki.

That's all the geeks for this term -- so long and SOAR RAVENCLAW!!