Thanks to Claire M. Jordan, the author of an excellent essay in our collection, I have been able to update the page listing differences between the UK and US editions of Deathly Hallows. Most of the differences are simply substitutions of US terms for British ones (e.g. ‘crib’ for ‘cot’). There are a few interesting changes in wording as well.
Recently, some of my friends have been receiving unwanted and annoying phone calls from members of the press, trying to get in contact with me. This is definitely not appreciated. One friend has had to change her phone number several times to avoid these kinds of calls, but is still receiving them.
To avoid this kind of harassment, I’ve created an email account which can be used to contact me directly. The address is
steve.lexicon@googlemail.com. Please use this method of reaching me and do not call my friends and family, as they will not be willing to talk to you and will not put you in touch with me.
Steve
There’s been a decided lack of new posts here, I know. Sorry about that. I spent most of the week in London at the publisher working on the new book, In Search of Harry Potter, which is due out October the 9th, and so I’ve been commuting back and forth, which means hours on the train. So there have been only a few behind-the-scenes updates and edits.
One baffling problem I’ve been trying to sort out is the fact that our /icons folder wasn’t working. I finally determined that it’s because the server has its own folder with that name and automatically hijacks any URL. So this evening I need change that folder name and then track down and fix any links that will then point to the wrong place. Thank goodness for Dreamweaver. Even so, that’s going to take some time.
One thing that a working /icons folder means is that we will be able to start working on the icon database (the one that we’re missing all the current data for) and get the icons to work properly. If they’re set up right, clicking on an icon in the timeline or the Portkey brings up an icon search page with relevant links and saved searches for that icon through the entire database. This will expand over time as we begin databasing more areas of the Lexicon until clicking an icon will give you a well-organised screen of everything in the entire site which has that icon attached. So if you click on the Potions icon, you’ll see a list of people, places, timeline events, canon snippets, creatures, essays, and so on that are related to that topic, along with a concise definition and even offsite links.
Should be very cool … but I need to get the folder to work first, and the start re-entering all that data ….
I’ve fixed the Google search for the site, so have at it. Unfortunately, the Remembrall isn’t working right now because it’s fixed on the wrong domain. I’m sure we’ll be able to sort it out, but for now just use the Google search.
Great news! Thanks to Roonwit, we have our timelines back. Well, almost back. The back-up file was dated March 2007, so some material was lost. Also, since the domain names have changed, the links in the timeline entries themselves don’t work at the moment. However, we’re hoping to get things cleaned up, working properly, and updated soon.
But any way you look at it, this is fantastic news, and I am so grateful to Roonwit for his help.
As you might have noticed, the Lexicon has had some technical problems over the past week or so. We’re in the process of updating and upgrading everything. Part of the process involved transferring some domains around, and along the way an error resulted in the www.hp-lexicon.info domain losing its DNS settings. We can’t reset them until the transfer is complete. So in the meantime, you can access the site at www.hplex.org and www.hplex.info. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience.
I’ve just switched the What’s New blog back on. I’ll be updating it as things come back on line properly. Just about everything is working the way it’s supposed to, with the exception of the Timelines. We’re working on that and hopefully will have restored very soon.
In the meantime, welcome back!