I'm glad to see a thinktanker thinking even harder about Snape's role (spoilers!) in Book 6 than I am. But I think Kopel's wrong about a couple of things, as I discuss in the comments.

This he said, she said tale from the New York Times about the demise of a relationship caught my attention. I certainly empathize with the concept of a piece that "uses a sprinkling of facts to decorate a work of fiction."

Looking for blogosphere reaction on the Johnson/Kirtz split, I found the entertaining Breakup News blog, good for cynics.

All via literary superstar Jennifer Weiner, who wrote a book where a similar event drives the plot.

If you've read Book 6, you'll enjoy this Guardian contest to write about a major plot event in the style of another author. The Chaucer entry won, with Helen Fielding ("Hermione Granger's Diary") and Irvine Welsh pastiches as runner-ups: spoilers within (via Bonin).

In the comments section.