Are the Harry Potter books used in American elementary, middle and high school curriculums? Not according to Hartford Courant: Harry Potter has made it in the movies and onto every kind of product imaginable — lunch boxes to boxer shorts — but has he flown his Firebolt into muggle classrooms? Not exactly, according to teachers …read more!

World Wide Words, a column that looks at ‘international English from a British viewpoint’, answers this question: Some of us in the US who have been exposed to the Harry Potter phenomenon wonder why a playing field is called a pitch in England, as in Quidditch pitch? Was it once made of pitch, or is …read more!

Business Week has an article about new technology being used to make real life Potter related items. Invisibility cloaks, Marauder- type maps, even flying cars may not be too far off in the future. “…company set up specifically to develop something called the M400 Skycar. It can travel on local roads at 35 miles per …read more!

A four member panel of the Classification Review Board has concluded that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban should be rated PG, rather than the M15+ originally signed. Thanks to the many TLC readers who sent in this link!

The Sydney Morning Herald has a short piece with Prisoner of Azkaban actor David Thewlis, in which he comments on his three young co-stars: Thewlis, who joined the cast as Professor Lupin for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, thinks it will be difficult for them to have acting careers outside the series. “The …read more!

Hey guys – because our email went down a bit, the sweepstakes will be open until tomorrow night, June 8, and 11:59pm ET. Hurry up and get your entries in! We’ve got too many to read in any sort of timely fashion, but we’ll update you as we go.

With Prisoner of Azkaban just released, some of you have been asking, in true insatiable Harry Potter fan style, “What about the next one?” As we reported previously, WB is still aiming for November 18, 2005 as a Goblet of Fire release date. (We reconfirmed that that date is still slated a few days ago.)

Box Office Mojo is reporting that the official total for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban‘s opening weekend in the U.S. is $93.7 million. This makes it the highest-grossing first weekend for an HP movie, and the third-highest opening weekend of all time in the U.S. (behind Shrek 2 and Spider-man), and bodes well …read more!

The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad has been dispatched, and has performed its noble work. All lines of communicado are now open.

DanRadcliffe.com has made a full transcript of the NY press junket press conference with Dan Radcliffe and Emma Watson, brought to you by collaboration with DanRadcliffe.com, HPANA, Mugglenet and TLC. Check it out here!