Gilderoy Lockhart confessed the reality only in front of Harry and Co. Did the media ever learn the truth? The trio couldn't be credible sources to media, but they could at least tell the truth to Dumbledore (if Dumbledore already didn't know) or others who could spread the word. Did the wizardi...

Some of this information is being obtained from the official chat for this answer. I created a 10x10 grid for this image to help keep track of what is being identified. You can find it by clicking this link, since the image is too large to display properly here. Bold indicates unsolved. (In p...

IIRC the treatment of homosexuality in Heinlein's writing changed a lot over time. My recollection is that in an early book (possibly Stranger in a Strange Land?), a sympathetic or authorial mouthpiece character refers to gay people as "poor cripples" or "confused" or something along those lines....

I've noticed that I use a lot of exclamation marks when my characters are talking. They appear a lot in action scenes. Is there any rule of thumb when using exclamation marks?

I want to run a campaign "from the book" for a group of new players (played RPGs before, but stuff much much lighter then D&D, and I've not DMed this edition before. I DMed D&D 4e once: over prepared in some areas, under prepared in others, so the pacing was horrible and off putting. I didn't r...

The villain hiding their name as an anagram is an old trope and one that J. K. Rowling would have known and might have planned for from the beginning. But Tom Riddle is never mentioned in a book before Chamber Of Secrets. And there was no need for her to have it planned as anagram names are eas...

When I say "the 10 books", I mean the seven Harry Potter novels, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. However, I will also gladly accept verifiable information from Pottermore or further supplemental canon information from J.K. Row...

It's been 3 years and 8 months being a moderator here and it was really an enjoyable ride. It still feels like it was just yesterday the announcement was made and I joined the team. It was nice working with iandotkelly and Napoleon Wilson. And time to congratulate A J for joining the team and I a...

I find myself often in writing using too many commas, but then going through and editing many of them back out again or restructuring to use full-stops. Is there a rule of thumb I've forgotten from my school days (English language was never pushed very hard beyond first-school) that would help m...

They are all grammatically correct (as far as I'm aware), but I think they give different feelings. Parentheses feel like an aside to the audience, like a weaker form of footnotes. I use them a lot in technical writing — often to indicate bits that are optional or additional information/explana...

I'm putting the finishing touches on a Lazarus Long Halloween costume, and I've run into a bit of a question. I have a vague recollection of one of Heinlein's books stating that Lazarus never grew a beard, but googling doesn't turn out any reference to it. Does anybody remember any passages which...

She is name after Ayn Rand the phylisophycal individualist total contra to the Borg. In an interview Ayn says she is seven of nine (probably truly ment 7 or 9 with accent). This is in a documentary on Netflix you can check yourself.