"Being—forgive me—rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger."

Things I saw on the way to work this morning:

- A dead rat, belly up on the subway platform, blood around its head.
- Guy passing out pamphlets hyping "Jews for Jesus."
- Three people reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the 6 train.

Dude, I so finished that book on Saturday. Okay it took me 11 hours (it took Jane 4.5 hours!) and some of the details are a bit of a blur. Has anyone else finished it? I know I'm not the only dork amongst my friends. In fact I'm such a dork that I went to Scholastic's recreation of Diagon Alley on Mercer Street, though it was packed with kiddies and you had to queue up to see stuff like Eyelops Owl Emporium etc. Anyway, Holly and I went onto Botanica afterwards (our second bar of the evening), drank some ill advised Wild Turkey, gave fake names to some guy trying to chat us up, and then went to a book store on Prince Street for an adult Harry Potter party. Oh yes, I drank something called Hufflepuff Hooch, also ill advised since I was hungover Saturday morning.

Amazon delivered copies of Harry Potter at 1 pm and Jane and I immediately began reading. After coffee, pee, and sushi breaks, I was finally done after midnight. Now I am suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal . . .