"There is something magic inside the marathon because everybody is the same level, " says Sepulchre.

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Along this journey the slumbering power of natural magic awakens inside her, allowing communication with all in her kingdom, and with it the strength to unite them against their common foe.

FORBES: Some Ideas for Replacing 'Harry Potter'

Hollywood's elusive magic is best experienced inside the Chinese Theatre - a bona fide movie palace that opened in 1927 under the direction of Sid Grauman.

BBC: Five Oscar-worthy theatres in Hollywood

From afar, it would be easy to underestimate how thoroughly depositors in Spain and Italy understand that they are inside the magic circle of "core Europe" and have nothing to fear from the Cyprus precedent, in which insured bank depositors might be asked partly to pay for their own bailout.

WSJ: Jenkins: Yes, Let's 'Bail In' Depositors

His chance to flee their Dickensian gloom comes with the appearance of a magic peach in the garden: he crawls inside, where he finds a posse of insect friends, and travels by air and sea to an improbably benign New York.

NEWYORKER: James and the Giant Peach