Airport security in New York attempted to confiscate her working copy of book 7, the final installment of the Harry Potter series.
Did they mistake it for toothpaste...or were they simply interested in seeing how the book ended?
Perhaps they determined that if she were sitting in her seat, continuing her work, and an in-flight soda pop spilled on the paper, the resulting mix of drink and ink might result in a climax?
My praise goes to Rowling, who rightfully refused to hand it over. The manuscript contained handwritten pages and edits for which there were no copies.
Think about it. Would you part with something that had already made you richer than the Queen of England?
I don't think so!
Lordy, Lordy! What were these people thinking?! Rowling was ready to hop on a cruise ship, even swim back to Scotland before she handed over her precious Harry Potter.
How much more ridiculous must we become before we return to our senses?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, look around you....and I mean take a real hard honest-to-goodness look.
We have finally reached the point of fearing fear. Every step we make, every word we utter, every move we make has to be reviewed, monitored, padded, researched and analyzed.
There is no threat to spontaneity...we've already lost it.
We cannot remove all the obstacles and threats in life any more than we can guarantee success, health and prosperity.
But we still believe in this fantasy. Our government says "Trust Me" and promises to keep us safe, patting us on the back as our big brother while kicking us in the behind.
The way I see it is that if they are now confiscating manuscripts from famous authors, pretty soon the government will require strip searches at the entrances to grocery stores and DNA scans before entering a post office.
Boarding an airplane will soon require that you check everything with all of us seated in our birthday suits, row after row of safe, secure nude passengers. We will be no threat because we'll be too embarassed to move from our seats.
Ah yes, a new era in flying that should really help ticket sales.
J.K., you go girl! And if the rest of us have any ounce of concern left we will also start objecting to these intrusions into our lives that are doing squat to protect us.
