Is this how I appear to children?

I popped into the Dairy Godmother earlier today to pick up a wand. You know, for a friend.

There were two little girls there. They were clutching their Harry Potter tomes and studying me intently while their mother was at the register. They kept nudging one another and whispering, as little girls are wont to do.

“You ask her.”
“No, you ask her.”
“No, you ask her.”

I finally smiled at them and said hello.

They stared at me in abject terror, then one of them blurted, “Are you evil?”

They seemed to think I was in costume. As Bellatrix Lestrange.

Their mother was mortified. I found it amusing.

To be fair, this has been going on in some form or another for years. Here’s an example from 2007:

“Bellatrix Lestrange”
November 27th, 2007 | 8:39 am | rebecca
tags: bellatrix lestrange, harry potter, helena bonham carter categories: true life 2007

People tell me I look like Helena Bonham Carter.

That would be well and fine, I suppose, but then they clarify that they mean Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. So what they really seem to be saying is that I remind them of an insane serial killer, which makes me want to lean forward and hiss at them, “Well then maybe you shouldn’t be annoying me,” possibly while waving a pen as a wand and hissing curses.

Nodding and smiling is a more practical plan.

One of the women in the locker room yesterday was leaning more towards “Fight Club Helena,” as she kept calling her, but the others out-voted her. Fight Club Helena?

At least no one was voting for “Planet of the Apes Helena,” right? Then they clarified that I’m “the small version.” I didn’t know what that meant ’til I looked it up. Helena Bonham Carter appears to be carrying Rosemary’s baby. She is hugely pregnant. Makes much more sense now.

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Ah well, time to go to the movies. Later, I’m going to get a haircut.

edited July 15, 2011 to relink & replace image