What's the fuss?

I don't particularly like snerkers or plot leaks. But at the same time, this frenzy of Potter protection seems silly to me. http://us.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/07/18/books.potter.onebay.ap/index.html suggests that somehow leaking the secret of the story will ruin the reading? But if the story is only a setup for some secret . . . well, I prefer books that have enough heft that I can read them a second time. Admittedly, I know there are stories that are built around the secret ending, and are less effective a second time - but that usually means the characters, scenes, or other parts are somewhat creaky, and that the twist ending was the whole story.

If Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (what a silly name, incidentally) is really a good read, all the whoop-te-doo about the secret won't make the slightest difference in the reading. If it isn't, well, that's a different problem, not to be solved by secrecy but by rewriting and editing!

Where's the pea?

Oh, that's cute. You might have seen the report about cardboard in meat buns in China. It was quite well-reported here in Japan. And today, we find that China has arrested the reporter, insisting that he faked the report. Which led the late-afternoon news here to start wondering who to believe, the original report (which was broadcast nationwide in China, then got picked up by the international press - and suddenly is claimed to be a lie) or the new claims that there is no problem with meat buns, only an over-zealous reporter faking a report.

They also poked around and pointed out that Korea has recently had a report about bad ice (apparently one of the manufacturers wasn't being too careful to separate drinking quality water from other water, and had inclusions like straw in the ice - which gets cubed and served in drinks) BUT there are some claims that this was also a bad reporter.

And the report (from somewhere) that someone was injecting watermelons with chemicals to make them appear redder and heavier, which also has been labeled a fake.

So right now, either the manufacturers, the whistleblowers, or the reporters are lying, depending on who you believe - and the governments are busily arresting various parties and trying to convince everyone that the local exports are OK, no matter what the reporters say. Or is the report that all this is going on a fake?

So who do you believe? Is the pebble under this cup or that one?

I think I'll avoid the meat buns for now, thanks. And ice cubes. And maybe the watermelons, too.