Word: potter
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that democracy: census schedules from 1790 through 1920, military records from the Revolution to the start of World War I, passport applications going back to 1795, documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, ships' passenger lists. Since they were created by bureaucrats for bureaucrats, cautions NARA archivist Constance Potter, "a novice can have trouble...
Aside, perhaps, from that lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, Harry Potter will seem familiar to anyone who has ever read a decent fairy tale. Harry, 11, is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, and their son Dudley. Is it worth pointing out that the Dursleys are as dreadful as one might expect of people named Dursley--they make that step-family of Cinderella's seem merely ill-tempered by comparison--and that young Dudley is a fat, spoiled bully who keeps breaking Harry's glasses...
Happily, a few chapters into J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which Scholastic Press published last September, our hero receives a letter via owl informing him that he is, in fact, a famous wizard and has won a place at the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And with that, the reader and Harry together are plopped down into a world every bit as fantabulous and vividly original as those created by C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl or, for that matter, George Lucas...
...completeness of Rowling's vision may explain Harry Potter's stunning popularity. First published in Britain in 1997, the book has scooped up an assortment of prizes. Scholastic paid $105,000 for the U.S. rights, and it has so far been on the New York Times best-seller list--adult best-seller list, that is--for 15 weeks. The sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (which will be out in the U.S. in June), has hit No. 1 on British best-seller lists, and some impatient U.S. fans have begun ordering copies through the British subsidiary of Amazon.com...
...lilacs and the violets. Artistry in the Garden, the New England Spring Flower Show, continues to bloom today. Exhibits include a "living room," furnished with living plant material, a tribute to "My Fair Lady" depicted in an English courtyard market and a display of topiaries of Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit and Friends". Bayside Exposition Center, just off I-93 and Morrissey Boulevard, Boston. 536-9280. 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. $13 in advance, $14 at the door...