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Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Quiddy Challenge 1: Accepted!
There is still time to sign up to be this term's Seeker; if you have video collage experience, you can earn extra points for RAVENCLAW! Sign up here by tomorrow (AKA Wednesday, Sep 4, 2012)!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Things Every Ravenclaw Should Know: Your Middle Name is Frances (or Francis)
A Note from the Chief Archivist:
Dear Fellow Ravenclaws, I, Soprano1, your humble Chief Archivist, am here to report on events and lore both old and new that you need to know. You may never have thought you needed to know these things... but I assure you, you will be happier knowing them.
Ravenclaw, of all the Houses, has a long and rich history, and because new people come in all the time, some of that history (though in Muggle years only 3 or fewer years old) has become rapidly ancient and even lost and forgotten. And some of it was really fun, and gets recalled by the people who have been here for fourteen terms. We don’t want it to be something that makes Ravenclaw an exclusive insiders club (though, remind me to tell you sometime about the Elite Oligarchy of the Underworld of Knitting... but, I digress)... so I’ve started to document some of these things so that when someone says, “What on earth is up with all the Cephalopods?” we can say, “Oh! That’s in the Archives! Go take a look!” (In truth, Junior Archivist and Head of House Emerita IsisonEarth has claimed that story and will be bringing it to you sometime in October.)
If there is something you think should be in the Archives, please PM me or earburn me to a post. It will go on a master list and it will be handled in time. If there is something you want to document, PM me and we’ll talk! I do not look down my nose at offers of help.
So, weeklyish, usually on Saturdays, I will bring you a new article delineating the answer to those burning questions you didn’t even know you had about Ravenclaw History. They will be published in the Ravenclaw Aerie and also linked more-or-less permanently (and definitely Magically) in the Tower Pages (AKA the Archives). If you’re not sure where something is, ask around, and we’ll help you find it!
Now, on with our story.
The tale of why your middle name is Frances goes far back into the history, not just of the Tower, but of the House Cup itself. Yes, O Best Beloved, there was a time when Ravenclaw Tower did not stand on its own, but was merely a … thread … in the tapestry of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, also known as Hogwarts. Students would gather together in the Great Hall and the Houses intermingled more than they do now, largely because, as we already know from our Archival research, there were only about a hundred House Cuppers in the fall of 2008 (28 of them Sorted to Ravenclaw) and so they gathered together for warmth and company.
The very first reference to things with the middle name Frances/is is actually not about people. It is this post, from December 13, 2008, in which GazeboGal explains to new knitter (!) GoGoGirl84 that the stitches behave themselves better if you name them, and that all of hers have the middle name Frances (or Francis) just in case she needs to speak sternly to them.
The issue came up again a few days later, on December 31, 2008, in response to finding out that ScarlettB’s two apparent names (Scarlett Belladonna) are just a small percentage of her entire name. GazeboGal explained her own many names as well. Because you know, don’t you, that no one calls her “Gazebo” in her Muggle home, right? :-D Oh, and just as a side note, GG? You need to send your HIGH SCHOOLER!!! to Auntie Julia for his lesson in avoiding Zombie Relationships. It is time. Goodness, he was just a touch older than D1 is now when this was written...
Onward. In April 2009, in response to PrincessOnica (Our Founder!)’s post saying that she envisioned everyone’s age to be the same as hers (28 ½, the dear! I lost over a decade in that transaction!), GazeboGal responded, “Yeah, and everyone’s middle name is Frances.” This is the very first record I can find in which this bit of history is plainly stated.
It is not until we were awaiting the arrival of HeadBaby Z, Onica’s first house-cup child, that GG fleshed out her idea that in her head, Frances is everyone’s middle name. On November 29, 2009, well into the betting pool but days and days before Z finally arrived, GG wrote,
And it does! And replies to this post led directly to a personal moment for me, in which GG called me “Soprano Frances” for the very first time. (Also, if you have time to putter around that page, it’s full of awesome).
Time went on, and several Frances discussions were had. And then the Tower was rebuilt from its own rubble, and the Frances phenomenon was buried... and then resurfaced in this conversation. Which was about middle names, and also somehow included PorcupineSnuggle’s workplace’s very odd definition of the word “between.” The names conversation is lengthy and curvaceous and is punctuated by a Corgi Video of Radar Sneezing.
I’m sure I could find more, but you wouldn’t read it. So I’ll end by pointing you to the discussion in which, in response to SFCorgi’s lamenting that she’d passed several plant and floral names by Mr. Corgi, GazeboGal seems to have settled the matter. And history was made. And then, Isis knit Wee Corgi some Crabgrass, which ended up being her favorite toy. Silly me, I just knit an elephant.
And that, O Best Beloved, is the story of why your middle name is Frances, and why Wee Corgi has eleventy-one Aunties who call her Crabgrass, much to the horror of her grandma.
Dear Fellow Ravenclaws, I, Soprano1, your humble Chief Archivist, am here to report on events and lore both old and new that you need to know. You may never have thought you needed to know these things... but I assure you, you will be happier knowing them.
Ravenclaw, of all the Houses, has a long and rich history, and because new people come in all the time, some of that history (though in Muggle years only 3 or fewer years old) has become rapidly ancient and even lost and forgotten. And some of it was really fun, and gets recalled by the people who have been here for fourteen terms. We don’t want it to be something that makes Ravenclaw an exclusive insiders club (though, remind me to tell you sometime about the Elite Oligarchy of the Underworld of Knitting... but, I digress)... so I’ve started to document some of these things so that when someone says, “What on earth is up with all the Cephalopods?” we can say, “Oh! That’s in the Archives! Go take a look!” (In truth, Junior Archivist and Head of House Emerita IsisonEarth has claimed that story and will be bringing it to you sometime in October.)
If there is something you think should be in the Archives, please PM me or earburn me to a post. It will go on a master list and it will be handled in time. If there is something you want to document, PM me and we’ll talk! I do not look down my nose at offers of help.
So, weeklyish, usually on Saturdays, I will bring you a new article delineating the answer to those burning questions you didn’t even know you had about Ravenclaw History. They will be published in the Ravenclaw Aerie and also linked more-or-less permanently (and definitely Magically) in the Tower Pages (AKA the Archives). If you’re not sure where something is, ask around, and we’ll help you find it!
Now, on with our story.
The tale of why your middle name is Frances goes far back into the history, not just of the Tower, but of the House Cup itself. Yes, O Best Beloved, there was a time when Ravenclaw Tower did not stand on its own, but was merely a … thread … in the tapestry of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, also known as Hogwarts. Students would gather together in the Great Hall and the Houses intermingled more than they do now, largely because, as we already know from our Archival research, there were only about a hundred House Cuppers in the fall of 2008 (28 of them Sorted to Ravenclaw) and so they gathered together for warmth and company.
The very first reference to things with the middle name Frances/is is actually not about people. It is this post, from December 13, 2008, in which GazeboGal explains to new knitter (!) GoGoGirl84 that the stitches behave themselves better if you name them, and that all of hers have the middle name Frances (or Francis) just in case she needs to speak sternly to them.
The issue came up again a few days later, on December 31, 2008, in response to finding out that ScarlettB’s two apparent names (Scarlett Belladonna) are just a small percentage of her entire name. GazeboGal explained her own many names as well. Because you know, don’t you, that no one calls her “Gazebo” in her Muggle home, right? :-D Oh, and just as a side note, GG? You need to send your HIGH SCHOOLER!!! to Auntie Julia for his lesson in avoiding Zombie Relationships. It is time. Goodness, he was just a touch older than D1 is now when this was written...
Onward. In April 2009, in response to PrincessOnica (Our Founder!)’s post saying that she envisioned everyone’s age to be the same as hers (28 ½, the dear! I lost over a decade in that transaction!), GazeboGal responded, “Yeah, and everyone’s middle name is Frances.” This is the very first record I can find in which this bit of history is plainly stated.
It is not until we were awaiting the arrival of HeadBaby Z, Onica’s first house-cup child, that GG fleshed out her idea that in her head, Frances is everyone’s middle name. On November 29, 2009, well into the betting pool but days and days before Z finally arrived, GG wrote,
I just sort of assume that since Frances is such a perfect middle name that it’s Everyone’s middle name
Onica Frances
Cattie Frances
Scarlett Frances
CrazyRed Frances
see how nice that sounds?
And it does! And replies to this post led directly to a personal moment for me, in which GG called me “Soprano Frances” for the very first time. (Also, if you have time to putter around that page, it’s full of awesome).
Time went on, and several Frances discussions were had. And then the Tower was rebuilt from its own rubble, and the Frances phenomenon was buried... and then resurfaced in this conversation. Which was about middle names, and also somehow included PorcupineSnuggle’s workplace’s very odd definition of the word “between.” The names conversation is lengthy and curvaceous and is punctuated by a Corgi Video of Radar Sneezing.
I’m sure I could find more, but you wouldn’t read it. So I’ll end by pointing you to the discussion in which, in response to SFCorgi’s lamenting that she’d passed several plant and floral names by Mr. Corgi, GazeboGal seems to have settled the matter. And history was made. And then, Isis knit Wee Corgi some Crabgrass, which ended up being her favorite toy. Silly me, I just knit an elephant.
And that, O Best Beloved, is the story of why your middle name is Frances, and why Wee Corgi has eleventy-one Aunties who call her Crabgrass, much to the horror of her grandma.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Common Room Recap July 30 - August 2
This Week in Ravenclaw
- Ravenboyo playing a concert.
- Soprano1 styling the OWL turn-in.
- Bwhahahahaha.
- A bandbabe update.
- Creampuffs, caged eggs and happy cows...all in one post :)
- Plans continue apace for the Ravenclaw Commune.
- The great creampuff experiments...illustrated.
- Exciting life things for our HoH.
- This is the final Common Room Recap for the term. The last couple of recaps have been a little later than normal, sorry about that! Work schedule has made recapping a challenge. I will not be recapping the off-month. You are on your own for Quidditch and Advanced Studies planning! Soar Ravenclaw!
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