OotP and the scope of Voldemort's influence

In the comments to my post of last month about the first chapter of OotP, in which I suggested that Harry was under the influence of Voldemort to varying degrees right from the first page of the story, my dauntless Brit-beta (and fine HP author in his own right) Alec Dossetor said this and really blew my mind. Follow-ups are here and here.

I think Alec may well be on to something. What do you think?

And since I'm talking about other people's posts...

naomichana just wrote a really wonderful essay about the abuse of the term "Mary Sue", which as most of you know is a subject near and dear to my heart. So go read it.

And hee! to hedda62's related comment about the Giant Squid being her personal Mary Sue...

*howls with mirth*

I have just seen the EW pic of Neil Gaiman. I'm not a big Gaiman fan yet -- I've only read Neverwhere and Coraline and had mixed feelings about both, though Sandman is on my reading list as soon as I can find a copy. But I do enjoy skimming his blog, and the comments he made about this picture are just delightful:

No eyeliner. Just lots of squinting and scowling and suchlike, while a huge fan blows my hair and coat about, and I have to keep my hands where the photographer put them. Also, in that photo, sucking an ice-cube, to cope with the bleeding tongue. And a lady who would nip in every couple of minutes and powder the shinier bits of my face.

As I explained to someone recently, I felt like they got exactly the photo they wanted. I just didn't quite understand why they wanted it.

Heh. Well, it doesn't look a whole lot like the other pictures of him I've seen, but it's a rather nice picture in its own gothic, high-camp way...

My writing personality

Gacked from hedda62... and nope, it looks like everybody doesn't get the same answer.

( Well, what is it? )

Pants, pants, pants... [/David Letterman]

First reactions to Alias premiere...

( It's Syd! And Weiss! And... )

Yes, I am twelve.