I’m reading this silly article on Slate, “Grandpa Got a Dog…Oh, no!” by Emily Yoffe, and I’m noticing quite a few interesting turns of phrase. This one, however, really caught my attention:
When he [the beloved dog] died my mother pulled down the shades and went into a state of mourning. For years she wore a locket around her neck that was bursting with his coarse hairs, a piece of jewelry that looked like it was fashioned at Hogwarts.
I must say that I’m more delighted at finding a reference to Harry Potter in a Slate article than I am at the success of the metaphor. Because first of all, jewelry isn’t fashioned at Hogwarts–Hogwarts is a school. And secondly, assuming someone at Hogwarts did make jewelry, I have no idea what it would look like. The metaphor fails!