This post will SPOIL (plots, that is).

Note: This post may contain spoilers for the following:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
• Hot Fuzz
  
• Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde

Spoil is a funny word, isn't it? Anyway, to the post.
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I'm finally reading the second Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde, Lost in a Good Book; I've already read the first and listened to the third and fourth, but the fifth has just come out, so I decided I ought to get the full backstory before I check that one out. Anyway, one of the big deals in this one is that Thursday (LiteraTec for Special Operations, aka SpecOps, in Swindon, England) keeps finding herself in the middle of weird coincidences. Unfortunately, the weird coincidences are always accompanied by an attack on Thursday's life, so her uncle Mycroft (who later jumps into the Sherlock Holmes stories, and fans will recognize him as S.H.'s brother) gives her a device that will detect a fall in entropy (i.e., a growth in coincidence) - it's just a mason jar of rice and lentils mixed together, but as entropy decreases, the rice and lentils separate into distinct patterns. And, fortunately, it works the charm to warn Thursday the minute things begin to fall into place.

I know that this is only fiction, folks, but I'm beginning to wonder if I need to make myself a jar of beans and rice. Allow me to jump to Monday evening, when I went walking after a long day of packing. I'm listening to HP7 now as I walk, so that's always a pleasure, and this was a strikingly good day - I think I went through chapters 17-19 on my walk. In this section, some of the accusations against Dumbledore are revealed, and much of the events revolve around Harry and Hermione reading the letter where Dumbledore talks about ruling Muggles for "the greater good." I couldn't help be a little distracted about that, as I thought about how tempting that mantra can be; in fact, it relates quite a lot to the ongoing debate over censorship in librarianship - many would claim that restricting people's choice of reading will do them good in the end - but really, this idea of the "greater good" depends wholly on an uncorrupt power who can decide what ultimately will be greater good. [Note: this would be a great place to digress into religion and philosophy, but I'll save that for later.]

Of course, the Harry Potter action started up again not long after this revelation (and thank goodness - I was getting quite sick of Harry whining about how wretched and unfortunate and unloved he is), so I was distracted to other thoughts.

However, that night, P and I watched Hot Fuzz. I thought about writing an entirely separate post about this movie, as I still cannot believe that I not only checked it out but also watched it all the way through (there's a scene depicting a pointed stone from the top of a cathedral falling and splitting right through a guy's head, to give you a lovely picture that you'll surely see again in your dreams tonight). But it's necessary to mention it here because at the end, you discover that the town leaders have been gruesomely murdering people and making the murders look like an accident - why? You got it - for the greater good. (For the greater good, they chant...)

And the rice and beans really came together last night, when I was reading away in Lost in a Good Book and there it is, in black and white (and on page 270), that "greater good" once more. Of course, this time Thursday uses it as an excuse to get out of trouble, but still, the coincidence is hard to ignore, eh?

Or maybe it's just a well-worn phrase. Nevertheless, I intend to be particularly watchful for anything that might resemble greater good - or any other weird happenings on this planet. I recommend you do the same.