Dumbledore is gay (and I mean that with love!)

J.K. Rowling, author of the world-wide best-selling Harry Potter series, met some of her American fans Friday night and provided some surprising revelations about the fictional characters who a generation of children have come to regard as close friends.

In front of a full house of hardcore Potter fans at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rowling, sitting on the stage on a red velvet and carved wood throne, read from her seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," then took questions. One fan asked whether Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, had ever loved anyone. Rowling smiled. "Dumbledore is gay, actually," replied Rowling as the audience errupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort's predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonshed fans, Rowling added. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy."

In answer to the question "Did Hagrid marry?" Rowling replied that sadly, no. The half-giant had a flirtation with a giantess but she found him "a tad unsophisticated" and the relationship never went forward. In response to the audience's groans of dismay, Rowling said, jokingly, "O.K., I'll write another book." And when the audience continued to express disapproval added, "at least I didn't kill him."

Other minor characters, according to Rowling, came to happier ends. Neville Longbottom, Harry's meek and hapless classmate, married Hannah Abbott, another classmate.

--Peg Tyre www.newsweek.com

Are you ready for some football?

It will come as no surprise to any of you that I am NOT a football fan. That being said, I will admit that I have been pushing to have football at Sacopee Valley since I started working there four years ago. I remember talking to Little Dustin's mother when he was a freshman. "Why doesn't Sacopee have football?" I asked. And she said, "Oh we're working on it!" And here we are, four years later. After much work and determination by our former principal and a dedicated group of teachers and parents who saw the absolute NEED for Hawks football, we finally have a team. Yee ha!

Why was I such an advocate for Sacopee football, you may ask? The answer is simple: we needed it. My high school had a HUGE football team (and a stadium, if the truth be told) and I saw what the team did for the school and the community as a whole. It wasn't just about the players or the fans; it was about school pride. Students who never attended anything else were sure to freeze their butts off in the bleachers every Thanksgiving morning to see the big Bayonne High versus Marist football game. It didn't matter how well either of the teams did the rest of the season: Thanksgiving game was THE brag point for the remainder of the year until Thanksgiving rolled around again.

Sacopee needed that. I'm not saying that the multitude of activities, clubs, and events didn't serve students, because they absolutely did (and do!) But there was a huge untapped population of kids at Sacopee that didn't have one ounce of school pride, who wouldn't be caught dead in the building or on school grounds after 2:15. It was those kids that we, as teachers, failed to serve. That's why we needed football.

And so here I am, writing this the morning after Sacopee's first home game. It didn't much matter that we won (we did -- 48 to 14 or something like that). What DID matter was all the fans I saw there. Let me tell you, it was huge. I saw administration, teachers, secretaries, lunch ladies, custodians, parents, alumni, and TONS AND TONS of students. There were students there that I would have bet money would never go. Oh they were there. I saw students who graduated years and years ago. I saw community members whose children had long-since graduated. I saw people from out of the district too, all there to watch Sacopee Valley history: our first home game.

I won't lie. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the actual game (I do know that we won!) Like I said, I don't much care for sports. The fun I had was watching all the fans, stomping and cheering. I couldn't help but smile when mobs of middle school girls swarmed Ford so they could have him paint their favorite player's number on their cheeks. And I absolutely ADORED our new Hawks mascot (now I love Seany Mc EVEN MORE -- if that was possible!) The community that was created last night was magical, and I feel so very fortunate to have been able to see it. For the first time in I don't know how long, I saw genuine SACOPEE PRIDE.

Truth be told, I will probably never attend a football game (Sacopee or otherwise) ever again. And that's okay. I feel like I already saw this community at its very best, and man oh man, does that make me proud. Sacopee pride finally IS district wide.

And the best part is: it will only get better!