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Fellow dweebs, yesterday I wrote a blog post about Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter and how my incredibly disappointing girlfriend has proven to be even more of an incredible disappointment by refusing to take me there immediately.*

In that post, I quoted a bit from the New York Times, who in turn quoted a "tearful" 21-year-old, Blythe Passantino, who was visiting the park on opening day. I noted that "Blythe... seems intent on ruining the most magical and kickass day ever with the single most depressing quote of all time." Here it is:

“I really wanted to live here; it was so much better than our real lives.”

Lo and behold, I got an email from Blythe shortly thereafter titled "Royally Misquoted." Hit the jump for Blythe's email, as well as a few magical threats against the fact-checkin' squad at the New York Times.

*She still hasn't taken me, by the way.

Blythe's email:

Hi Erik, my name is Blythe Passantino.

I'm not really that depressing!!

The New York Times misquoted me. The quote actually was, "When I was 11 I wanted to live in the Harry Potter World. It seemed so much cooler than real life. When the first book came out who wasn't waiting for a letter from Hogwarts?? Now I read the books to my kids."

And even if the quote from the Times was actually what I said, I don't think it's that depressing. I think a lot of people turn to literature to escape problems in their lives and the Harry Potter series is a perfect venue in which to do so. That quote, however skewed, says to me, "Harry Potter changed my life". What's depressing about someone who found a positive outlet?

Just wanted to clear that up. It kind of sucks that every blogger in the world is ragging on me. But hey, I guess now I'm 'Harry Potter famous'!

~B

p.s.
The security at Universal are actually really nice :]

Because I'm awesome at solving problems, I told Blythe she should get in touch with the Times and use a reparo charm to fix their incorrect quote. To which Blythe replied:

Oh trust me, those reporters might get a little more than a repairo charm coming their way!! More like a confundus charm!!

Confundus, just FYI, "causes a person or animated object to become highly confused. There appear to be varying degrees of inflicted confusion, ranging from tricking a person about a specific issue to making them lose all semblance of common sense, even to the point of endangering themselves." Which seems okay, I guess, but considering "every blogger in the world is ragging on" Blythe, it doesn't seem unreasonable for her to just go all out with some crucio action. But hell, what do I know. Shouting "CRUCIO!" at people and then running away as fast as I can is my solution to pretty much everything.