Rowling Out the Truth

Joanne Murray, or J.K. Rowling as she is known the world over, was born Joanne “Jo” Rowling on July 31, 1965, in Gloucestershire, England. Celebrated for creating the wildly popular Harry Potter series, Rowling is also well-known for inspiring kids to read, for winning innumerable book awards, and for charming the media with such an incredible rags-to-riches story that Forbes named her the first person to become a U.S. dollar billionaire by writing books!

Thinkwriter is delighted to present what J.K. Rowling describes as her “most vivid memory of childhood.” What follows is that memory, in Rowling’s own words.

My most vivid memory of childhood is my father sitting and reading The Wind in the Willows to me. I had the measles at the time, but I don’t really remember that. I just remember the book.

In light of the truth that a single memory illuminates a person’s worldview in the same way a single blood sample reveals a person's health status, what does J.K. Rowling’s early memory suggest to you about her worldview?

Please review the following four possibilities and make your selection by voting in the poll to the right. To share your thoughts, please leave a comment at the end of the post, even anonymously if you wish. As always, thank you for participating!

1. The wind is invisible.

2. Words make the world bigger.(correct answer)

3. Creativity is contagious.

4. There's a fly in the soup.

Paul Harvey: Page One

Paul Harvey, the renowned broadcaster with the captivating delivery and the cleverly pitched commercial, has shared a few of his earliest memories with the public over the years.

As you may recall if you've visited Thinkwriter in the past, when we have access to a person’s earliest memory or memories, we have the perfect window through which to recognize this person's worldview. With training, practice, and an experienced understanding about earliest memories, we are able to know and to quickly understand much more about a person than we could otherwise.

Let us now review Paul Harvey’s earliest memories.

1.) I remember once smoking grapevine behind the garage and getting a mouthful of ants.

2.) I remember my first crush. I was 7. Hoping to be noticed, I snapped a rubber band against the neck of poor little Ethel Mae Hazelton. She ran home crying.

3.) I remember my first kiss. It came from a teacher. I remember I was 7; she must have been 100. I forget what I had done thus to be rewarded because I was so flustered when she kissed me. She kissed me right on top of the head – when there was hair there. Instantly, I was in love forever.

4.) I remember during the Depression getting down to one wearable pair of pants. I discovered in class one day that the seat of my pants had finally worn through. I was excused from class early. Embarrassed, I walked home sideways down Main Street. I got angry about my situation when I spotted a chauffeur driven automobile transporting one of the oil barons of the city. I felt sorry for myself and jealous of a man I had never met. When I arrived home I showed my mother the hole. She took me to downtown Bell’s clothing store where she purchased a new suit of clothes that came with two pair of pants. It cost eleven dollars and ninety-five cents. (I later learned she had taken the money from the account she set aside for paying taxes.)

To begin to recognize Paul Harvey’s authentic worldview, look first for the commonalities in his recollections. A person's eariest memories always share a similar drumbeat. After a careful review, select Paul Harvery's worldview from the list to follow. Vote your best choice in the poll to the right.

Stay tuned and in the next few days, I will post his worldview and a commentary to explain the answer.

As always, thank you for participating! (poll now closed; correct answer in red)

1. Man is basically good.
2. I’m the king of attention.
3. Try not to show your ass.
4. Love makes the world go round.

Robert J. Wagner: "Number Two"

Actor Robert J. Wagner has been active in Hollywood for nearly six decades. His memorable work includes A Kiss before Dying, The Longest Day, The Pink Panther, the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs, and many others. He also starred in three popular television series: It Takes a Thief; Switch; and Hart to Hart and has been featured on the current popular sitcom Two and a Half Men.

In Wagner’s recently published memoir, Pieces of My Heart: A Life (2008), released twenty-seven years after the mysterious death of his wife, screen star Natalie Wood, Wagner tells for the first time his story of what happened on the night of Wood’s death. Wagner also reveals his clandestine love affair with Barbara Stanwyck when she was forty-five and he only twenty-two and just getting started in Hollywood. Their romance lasted four years.

But to really know the man, let’s first understand Robert Wagner's earliest memories and bring to light his worldview.

Please vote for the one choice that best represents Robert Wagner's worldview... and thank you for participating!

Robert Wagner remembers….

1. When I was little, I stuck something in an electrical socket and blew out every outlet in the house. My father was in the bathroom shaving, and he came roaring out, grabbed me, put me over his knee, spanked me with a hair brush, then threw me off his lap for this terrible thing I had done.

2. When I was seven, my father took me to the train station in Detroit and tipped the porter $10.00 to make sure the package – his son – arrived safely. On my coat was a tag: “Deliver this boy to Mrs. Pierce, Hollywood Military Academy; Hollywood, California." As soon as the train pulled out of the station, I ripped the tag off my coat.

3. My father has opened a checking account for me so that I could pay my expenses on the trip. I remember that in Albuquerque I went into a souvenir shop and bought an antique gun so I could protect myself against the marauding Indians I was sure would attack the train at some point.

4. I was sitting under this tree when I was a little kid on a golf course, and I looked down the fairway and I saw these four gentlemen that I’d seen in the movies for so many years – Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott, and Cary Grant – walking down the fairway, you know, and I looked at these men – and I thought…God, I want to be one of them. That’s what I want to be.

5. Once when I was twelve or thirteen, I took a BB gun and shot all the lights out in the tunnel of the country club at Bel-Air and generally embarrassed my father by being a smart-ass. The country club incident made him close his fists and go after me – again – but a couple of other men held him back.

Robert Wagner's worldview is...
1. I am an actor.
2. I write the lines.
3. I cast the players.
4. I direct the scene.

MAE WEST: "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better."

In a Thinkwriter post entitled “bat-out-of-hell” published in 2007, readers were invited to name “Carrie Ann’s” worldview by way of perhaps her most revealing early childhood recollection.

Carrie Ann’s childhood memory is the story of a brief verbal exchange between her mother and father, followed by a request for a favor from Carrie Ann by her mother. At one point in the recollection, Carrie Ann’s mother refers to her daughter as a “bat-out-of-hell.”

Readers of Thinkwriter were asked to think about Carrie Ann’s memory and to select her worldview from a list of four possibilities: (1.) I have to win, (2.) Women rule, (3.) I’m courageous, and (4.) I’m the man.

(To learn more about Carrie Ann’s worldview, please read the post entitled, “a smug little smile says it all.”)

What follows now are four engaging earliest memories from the indomitable queen of the bawdy double entendres, the remarkable Mae West. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol, West was one of the most controversial stars of her day . . . and way ahead of her time!

Taken from the 2009 biography of West by Charlotte Chandler, Mae West’s earliest memories clearly demonstrate West's approach to life.

And so you may be wondering…what do Carrie Ann and Mae West have in common, if anything?

For one thing, they have in common the list of choices for worldview. Thinkwriter is using the same four worldview choices for Mae West as previously offered for Carrie Ann’s worldview selection. Whether or not these two women share the same worldview (or anything else, for that matter), remains to be seen. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, after you read Mae West’s four memories, please choose from the following list the best worldview for Mae West. Vote in the poll to the right, and thank you so much for participating! (poll now closed - correct answer is #4)

(1.) I have to win. (33% chose this response)
(2.) Women rule. (25%)
(3.) I’m courageous. (16%)
(4.) I’m the man. (25%)

And here we go…

1. (Chandler writes…) One of Mae’s earliest memories was her desire to have her picture taken with a dog, a very particular dog with long white hair, a black eye and a black ear, which she had seen ‘around the corner.’ One of her uncles was delegated to bring the elusive canine in.

2. “We went to a store and there were a hundred dolls. Everyone thought all the dolls looked alike. The one I wanted was on the highest shelf no one could reach. Everyone in the store thought I just wanted that one because I was difficult. But I wanted her because she had a mauve dress. If you see the difference and other people don’t, they just think you’re being difficult. I always knew what I wanted. My mother never questioned it. She made them get a ladder and get me the one I wanted.”

3. “I grew up in Brooklyn in a fine residential section near a block of those single buildings, one story high and all French, housing a barber shop, a millinery shop and a hairdressings parlour, all with mirrors in the doors and windows, long fancy work at the bottom, and I’d pose as I’d walk along and I’d look at myself this way and then that way…In a window of a jewelry story there used to be a big diamond hanging on a black velvet bust and I’d say to myself, “I’ve got to have a diamond like you and then I’d be absolutely more than happy.”

4. (Chandler writes…) About her earliest stage appearance as “Baby May – Song and Dance,” at a Sunday concert at the Royal Theatre in Fulton Street, Brooklyn, at the age of seven “going on eight,” at which she wore “a pink and green satin dress with gold spangles and a large white lace picture hat,” with pink slippers and stockings…and sang “Movin’ Day” to great audience applause and won a gold medal from the Elks….Mae West says,” I heard the applause…applause just for me, and I knew they really liked me, and I knew then there wasn’t any other place I ever wanted to be.”

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

Yes, Happy Birthday Charles Darwin (September 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882) . . . and you’re looking pretty good for being 200 years old! Matter of fact, we talk about you as though you’re still around to defend yourself! Even today, there is an engaging article about you in The New York Times.

Of interest to Thinkwriter, of course, are your earliest memories and what they tell us about you and your worldview.

Taken from your autobiography, the following earliest memories are just too good to omit even one.

Charles Darwin remembers…..

1. My earliest recollection goes back only to when I was a few months over four years old, when we went to Abergele for sea-bathing, and I recollect some events and places there with some little distinctions.

2. My mother died in July 1817, when I was a little over eight years old, and it was odd that I can remember hardly anything about her except her death-bed, her black velvet gown, and her curiously constructed work-table.

3. One little event (when I was about age eight) has fixed itself very firmly in my mind…I told another little boy that I could produce variously coloured Polyanthuses and Primroses by watering them with certain coloured fluids, which was of course a monstrous fable and had never been tried by me.

4. I remember I once gathered much valuable fruit from my Father’s trees and hid them in the shrubbery, and then ran in breathless hast to spread the news that I had discovered a hoard of stolen fruit.

5. When I was a very little boy I remember stealing apples from the orchard, for the sake of giving them away to some boys and young men who lived in a cottage not far off, but before I gave them the fruit I showed off how quickly I could run and it is wonderful that I did not perceive that the surprise and admiration which they expressed at my powers of running, was given for the sake of the apples. But well I remember that I was delighted at them declaring that they had never seen a boy run so fast!

6. I remember clearly one other incident during the years whilst at Mr. Case’s daily school – namely, the burial of a dragoon-soldier; and it is surprising how clearly I can still see the horse with the man’s empty boots and carbine suspended to the saddle, and the firing over the grave.

7. Once, whilst returning to school on the summit of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which has been converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one side, I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which passed through my mind during this very short, but sudden and wholly unexpected fall, was astonishing and seem hardly compatible with what physiologists have, I believe, proved about each thought requiring quite an appreciable amount of time.

8. Once as a very little boy, whilst at the day-school, or before that time, I acted cruelly, for I beat a puppy I believe, simply from enjoying the sense of power; but the beating could not have been severe, for the puppy did not howl, of which I feel sure as the spot was near to the house.

9. To my deep mortification, my father once said to me, “You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family.” (But my father who was the kindest man I ever knew, and whose memory I love with all my heart, must have been angry and somewhat unjust when he used such words.)

10. How well I remember killing my first snipe and my excitement was so great that I had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hands.

Charles Darwin’s worldview is…. (Poll is now closed and correct answer is in red.)
1. I live to imagine. (0%)
2. I am compelled to know. (40%)
3. I see things my way. (40%)
4. I am fit to survive. (20%)
Please vote in the poll to the right . . . and thank you for participating!

Martin Luther King: Dream Maker

Few historical figures are as compelling as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Similar to Billy Graham, King had a presence, a calling, and a following, but most important of all, King had a voice . . . a voice bigger than life . . . a voice impossible to ignore.

What follows are six of King’s earliest memories. Thinkwriter invites you to read the memories and then select King’s worldview from the list at the bottom of the post. Please cast your vote in the poll to the right of the list, and thank you for participating!

Martin Luther King remembers . . .

(1.) [I was much too young to remember the beginning of the depression] . . . but I do recall, when I was about five years of age, how I questioned my parents about the numerous people standing in bread lines.

(2.) I joined the church at the age of five. I well remember how this event occurred. Our church was in the midst of a spring revival, and a guest evangelist had come down from Virginia. On Sunday morning the evangelist came into our Sunday school to talk to us about salvation, and after a short talk on this point, he extended an invitation to any of us who wanted to join the church. My sister was the first to join the church that morning, and after seeing her join I decided I would not let her get ahead of me, so I was the next.

(3.) When I was about six years of age, an incident happened. From the age of three I had a white playmate who was about my age. We always felt free to play our childhood games together. He did not live in our community, but he was usually around every day; his father owned a store across the street from our home. At the age of six, we both entered school – separate schools, of course. I remember how our friendship began to break as soon as we entered school; this was not my desire but his. The climax came when he told me one day that his father had demanded that he would play with me no more. I never will forget what a great shock this was to me. I immediately asked my parents about the motive behind such a statement.

(4.) I remember a trip to a downtown shoe store with Father when I was still small. We had sat down in the first empty seats in the front of the store. A young white clerk came up and murmured politely: “I’ll be happy to wait on you if you’ll just move to those seats in the rear.”

Dad immediately retorted, “There’s nothing wrong with these seats; we’re quite comfortable here.”

“Sorry,” said the clerk, “but you’ll have to move.”

“We’ll either buy shoes sitting here,” my father retorted, “or we won’t buy shoes at all!” ...whereupon he took my hand and walked out of the store.

This was the first time I had seen Dad so furious. I still remember walking down the street beside him as he muttered, “I don’t care how long I have to live with this system; I will never accept it.”

(5.) When I was about eight years old, I was in one of the downtown stores of Atlanta, and all of the sudden someone slapped me, and the only thing I heard was somebody saying, “You are that nigger that stepped on my foot.” And it turned out to be a white lady; of course, I did not retaliate at any point. I wouldn’t dare retaliate when a white person was involved. I finally told my mother what had happened, and she was very upset about it. But the lady who has slapped me had gone, and my mother and I left the store almost immediately.

(6.) When I was fourteen, I traveled from Atlanta to Dublin, Georgia, with a dear teacher of mine, Mrs. Bradley. I participated in an oratorical contest there and I succeeded in winning the contest. My subject, ironically enough, was “The Negro and the Constitution.” That night Mrs. Bradley and I were on the bus returning to Atlanta. Along the way, some white passengers boarded the bus, and the white driver ordered us to get up and give the whites our seats. We didn’t move quickly enough to suit him, so he began cursing us. I intended to stay right in that seat, but Mrs. Bradley urged me up, saying we had to obey the law. We stood up in the aisle for ninety miles to Atlanta. That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.

Martin Luther King’s worldview is . . . (correct answer in red)

1. If the shoe fits, wear it. (11%)
2. Man is the system. (44%)
3. The red man will get ahead, man! (0)
4. Anger motivates. (44%)

Billy Graham - Number 7

Southern Baptist, Evangelical Christian, and spiritual adviser to multiple U.S. presidents, Billy Graham has preached to more people around the globe than any Protestant in history. Number seven on Gallup’s list of admired people for the 20th century, the 90-year-old Graham is currently front page news simply for moving his church membership from First Baptist Dallas to First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, about 85 miles from his current home in Montreat, North Carolina. (...and Thinkwriter will add more about Billy Graham in the days to come.)

For now, let’s take a look at Graham’s earliest memories to determine the worldview of the man who first made America safe for public testimonies of faith. What follows are three of Graham's earliest memories in his own words. Please vote for the worldview that best fits Billy Graham, and thank you for participating!

Billy Graham remembers...

1. When Grandmother Coffey died, I was in elementary school, and my sister Catherine and I were called out of school. [I learned] Grandmother had sat up in the bed and almost laughingly said, “I see Jesus. He has his arms outstretched to me. And there’s Ben! He has both of his eyes and both of his legs!”

(Ben Coffey was her husband. He had been badly wounded in the Civil War, ultimately losing his left leg and sight in his right eye.)

2. We always had a collie – at least one – and what would any farm be without plenty of cats? Not knowing any better, I once took a cat and shut it in the doghouse with the dog. They hated each other with some ancient instinct when they went in, but after spending the night inside they came out as friends forever.

3. I had one narrow brush with death as a child. Once when I was sick, Mother thought she was giving me cough medicine but she gave me iodine instead. If it had not been for a quick call to Aunt Jennie, who suggested some thick cream from the dairy to counteract the iodine, I might have died.

Billy Graham’s worldview is…. (Please select the best answer and vote in the poll to the right.) [Poll is now closed. See correct answer in red.]

1. Life is an experiment. (25%)
2. Life is a contest. (8%)
3. Life is a magazine. (0%)
4. Life isn’t everything. (66%)

Eleanor Roosevelt remembers...

Since becoming First Lady of the United States in 1933, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt remains to this day the most celebrated wife of any American president, living or deceased. Born to wealthy parents on October 11, 1884, Eleanor lost her mother at age eight and her father two years later. She is pictured here with her father, Elliott Roosevelt, and her two younger brothers, Elliott, Jr. and Hall Roosevelt. In this photograph, she has her father's attention and his hand. What follows are four of Eleanor's earliest recollections.

1. One of my earliest recollections is of being dressed up and allowed to come down to dance for a group of gentlemen who applauded and laughed as I pirouetted before them. Finally, my father picked me up and held me high in the air. He dominated my life as long as he lived, and was the love of my life long after he died.

2. [My father] could be annoyed with me, particularly when I disappointed him in such things as physical courage. We went to Sorrento and I was given a donkey so I could ride over the beautiful roads. One day the others overtook me and offered to let me go with them, but at the first deep descent which they slid down I turned pale, and preferred to stay on the high road. I can remember still the tone of disapproval in my father’s voice though his words of reproof have long since faded away.

3. I remember my trip to Vesuvius with my father and the throwing of pennies, which were returned to us encased in lava, and then the endless trip down. I suppose there was some block in the traffic, but I can remember only my utter weariness and my effort to bear it without tears so that my father would not be displeased.

4. I was sent to a convent to learn French and to be out of the way when the new baby arrived. I was not yet six years old. One of the girls [at the convent] swallowed a penny. Every attention was given to her; she was the center of everybody’s interest. I longed to be in her place. One day I went to one of the sisters and told her I had swallowed a penny. It must have been evident that my story was not true so they sent for my mother. She took me away in disgrace.

Eleanor Roosevelt's worldview is which of the following? Select the best one. (correct answer in red)

1. A bad penny always comes back. (0%)
2. I must seek attention. (30%)
3. I have to be needed. (40%)
4. Stay off the low road. (30%)

Please vote for your choice of Eleanor Roosevelt's worldview in the poll to the right, and thank you for participating!

Vice President-elect Joe Biden Remembers

At twenty-nine years of age, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He was the fifth youngest senator elected and now has served for the sixth longest period among current senators. Perhaps just as interesting is the fact that Biden is the first Roman Catholic to be elected Vice President of the United States . . . but wait . . . there will be more about Biden in the follow-up post.

Of interest to Thinkwriter is first determining Joe Biden’s worldview via a thoughtful understanding of his earliest memory.

We know Vice President-elect Biden is from Delaware (born in Pennsylvania) and that his father, financially successful in the earlier years, struggled later to support his family. Biden's earliest memory originated during a period when the family was “broke” and living in the house where his mother grew up. His mother’s brother was still living there, as was an old maiden aunt, “Grandpop’s sister-in-law, Aunt Gertie Hewitt."

Joe Biden recalls….

I remember being up in Aunt Gertie’s musty room on the third floor one night. She was beside me, scratching my back. “Now, honey,” she said, “your father is not a bad man.” This, of course, had never occurred to me. “Your father’s not a bad man. He’s just English. But he’s a good man.”

~ A young Joe Biden

(about 5 or 6 years old)

Choose what you believe to be Joe Biden's worldview from the choices listed below. Cast you vote in the poll to the right and check back later to learn the results and more about Vice President-elect Joe Biden. (Thank you for participating.)

1. Scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours. (0%)
2. Nationality doesn’t make the man. (33%)
3. Discrimination never sleeps. (66%)
4. Deals happen in musty rooms. (0%)

Please vote now..... (poll closed; correct answer in red)

Mark Twain remembers...

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "Mark Twain," has been called “the father of American literature.” In his lifetime, he enjoyed great popularity and was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Born in Missouri on November 30, 1835, Twain was quite familiar with the institution of slavery and explored it in his writing. On the eve of a historic presidential race in which we Americans may surely elect our first black president, let us discover more about Mark Twain and his undeniable worldview.

What follows are three earliest memories from Mark Twain. . . in his own words.

1.
What becomes of the multitudinous photographs which one’s mind takes of people? Out of the million which my camera must have taken of this first and closest friend, only one clear and strongly defined one of early date remains. It dates back forty-seven years; she was forty years old then, and I was eight. She held me by the hand and we were kneeling by the bedside of my brother, two years older than I, who lay dead, and the tears were flowing down her cheeks unchecked. And she was moaning. That dumb sign of anguish was perhaps new to me, since it made upon me a very strong impression – an impression which holds its place still with the picture which it helped to intensify and make memorable.

2.
There [is] …one small incident of my boyhood days …and it must have meant a good deal to me or it would not have stayed in my memory, clear and sharp, vivid and shadowless, all these slow-drifting years. We had a little slave boy whom we hired from some one, there in Hannibal. He was from the eastern shore of Maryland and had been brought away from his family and his friends halfway across the American continent and sold. He was a cherry spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing – it was maddening, devastating, unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper and went raging to my mother and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break and I couldn’t stand it and wouldn’t she please shut him up. The tears came into her eyes and her lip trembled and she said something like this:

“Poor thing, when he sings it shows that he is not remembering and that comforts me; but when he is still I am afraid he is thinking and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older you would understand me; then that friendless child’s noise would make you glad.”

…Sandy’s noise was not a trouble to me any more.

3.
My first visit to the school was when I was seven. A strapping girl of fifteen, in the customary sunbonnet and calico dress, asked me if I “used tobacco” – meaning did I chew it. I said no. It aroused her scorn. She reported me to the crowd and said:

“Here’s a boy seven years old who can't chaw tobacco.”

By the looks and comments which this produced I realized that I was a degraded object; I was cruelly ashamed of myself. I determined to reform. But I only made myself sick; I was not able to learn to chew tobacco. I learned to smoke fairly well but that did not conciliate anybody and I remained a poor thing and characterless. I long to be respected but I was never able to rise.

Taken from The Autobiography of Mark Twain

Please vote for your selection of Mark Twain's worldview in the poll to the right...

1. To love is to change. (37% of voters)

2. To learn is to grow. (12%)

3. To chaw is to spit.

4. To love is to lose. (50%)

I'm a Big Girl Now: Lynne Spears Remembers...

In the midst of the current financial meltdown and a seemingly never-ending presidential campaign, producers of ABC’s 20/20 actually took time during their October 10, 2008, broadcast to focus on pop star Britney Spears. At the end of a brief story about Spears, co-host Elizabeth Vargas introduced Spears' acclaimed new music video entitled "Womanizer," a provocative music video in which Britney Spears plays numerous parts.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at Britney Spear's mother's early memory – a recollection so telling we can name Lynne Spears’ worldview in a single word.

Lynne Spears remembers…
One of my earliest memories is Sandra (my sister) playing dolls with her friends; I was her living doll to dress and boss, and they had to make do with plain plastic dolls.

In a word, Lynne Spears’ worldview is… (correct answer in red)
1. Accommodate. (30% of voters)
2. Surrender. (10%)
3. Pretend. (50%)
4. Model. (10%)

Please vote for your choice in the poll to the right...and share your thoughts in the comments section by clicking on "comments" following the video. Thank you!

The official video was pulled, but check this out instead.....

The King Remembers. . .

My parents entered me in a talent show. I wore glasses, no music, and I won. I think it was 5th place in this state talent contest. I got a whipping the same day…my mother whipped me for something – I don’t know, [going on] one of the rides. Destroyed my ego completely. Elvis, age 10 (Taken from The Rise of Elvis Presley: Last Train to Memphis by Peter Guralnick .)

Elvis Presley's worldview is.... (#2)
1. Don't Be Cruel. (received 37% of the votes)
2. (I Did It) My Way. (50%)
3. (I'm) All Shook Up. (12%)
4. Make the World Go Away. (0%)
Please vote in the poll to the right. Thank you!

Nancy with a Capital N

Overwhelmingly elected by her colleagues in the fall of 2002 as Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi is the first woman in America to lead a major party in the U.S. Congress. Before being elected Leader, she served as House Democratic Whip for one year and was responsible for the party’s legislative strategy in the House. On January 4, 2007, Pelosi was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Nancy Pelosi comes from a family well known for public service. Her father was mayor of Baltimore for 12 years, after serving five terms in Congress. Her brother also served as mayor of Baltimore.

She graduated from Trinity College in D.C. in 1962. She and her husband Paul, a native of San Francisco, have five children and seven grandchildren.

Look over Pelosi’s early memory and select her worldview from the four choices listed below. Please vote in the poll to the right of this post. Be sure to focus on the memory when making your selection and thank you for participating!

Nancy Pelosi remembers….

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Capitol. It was on a cold January day in 1947, when I was six years old. The occasion was my father’s swearing in ceremony for the fifth term in Congress.

My brothers were excited. As our car approached the Capitol, they kept saying, “Nancy, look at the Capitol.” I said I didn’t see any capitals. They insisted, and finally I asked, “Is it a capital A, B, or C?”

As we drove closer, my brother Joey turned my head toward the most amazing sight. I didn’t see the giant letters I expected. Instead, I saw this stunning building with a magnificent white dome.

Pelosi's worldview is.... (correct answer in red)

1. I try. (38% of voters chose this worldview)
2. I need men to point the way. (chosen by 15%)
3. I’m right. (chosen by 30%)
4. I learn by traveling. (chosen by 15%)

...and just for fun....

Remember John Mitchell: Law and Order Man?

John Newton Mitchell (1913 – 1988) was inarguably the most powerful person in the Nixon cabinet. Mitchell and Nixon first met in 1967 when their respective law firms merged. Friends by ‘68, Nixon persuaded Mitchell to manage his 1968 bid for the U.S. presidency.

Once elected, Nixon rewarded the superbly organized Mitchell by appointing him attorney general, a position Mitchell reluctantly accepted and then held from 1969 to 1972.

Mitchell resigned in 1972 to manage President Nixon’s triumphant reelection campaign. At that point, of course, Mitchell’s biography takes an even more dramatic turn… (but more about that in the next post).

In the meantime, please peruse Mitchell’s two early memories and select what you predict is his worldview. Cast your vote in the poll to the right, and, as always, thank you for voting!

When interviewed about his childhood, John Mitchell begins by saying his was a "normal" childhood, "like Huck Finn,” he says, filled with playing all the sports: baseball, hockey, golf, hunting, fishing, and sailing…and “mischief.” As he speaks, Mitchell begins laughing to himself about a specific memory from childhood involving his “old wooden school.” As he recounts the memory, Mitchell’s laughter becomes so robust that he has trouble finishing his story!

(1.) “One night a fire burned the school clear down to the ground. Whole damned school went. My brother and I were there, and we watched it. We were so damned glad to see that thing burn down. We watched it! We threw our books into the fire. We were so glad. We just threw out books in. My father gave us a good whack. I’ll always remember that. Whew!”

Telling the school memory prompts Mitchell to tell a second childhood memory.

(2.) “You know, I burned down the house in Blue Point. It was one Fourth of July. We had sparklers, and it was daylight and, you know, we were supposed to wait until after dark. Well, I was a kid who didn’t want to wait, so I took some of those sparklers down under the porch and – well, it burned down the house.”

Although these two memories clearly reveal Mitchell’s worldview, something even more interesting makes them doubly valuable: They aren’t true.

According to others in a position to know, the first story is complete fiction in terms of Mitchell's involvement, and the second only slightly authentic in that a few leaves supposedly catch fire from Mitchell's lit sparklers, but an adult standing nearby douses out the tiny flame with a pail of water. The house never burns down – nor the porch. (Both memories are taken from The Strong Man by James Rosen, copyright 2008.)

Because Mitchell makes them up, these two memories are even more compelling… and more telling.

With all of this in mind, what is John Mitchell’s worldview? (Correct answer in red.)
1. I am the devil’s advocate. (42%)
2. I am above the standard. (42%)
3. I can cheat. (14%)
4. Nice guys are never rewarded. (0%)

FIVE BOYS: Spielberg, Washington, Cruise, Woods, and Trump

Okay... an earliest memory is as characteristic for the owner as the sound of that person's voice and the shape of his or her handwriting! If you doubt it, look at the five memories below and see how easily you can match each with its owner. Make your selections by using the polls to the right of this post (note: Polls are now closed. Bloggers correctly matched Donald Trump and Tiger Woods with their earliest memories; however, not everyone was able to correctly match the other three memories to their rightful owners - but good try and thanks for voting!). Start with the obvious matches and then use what you know to figure out the rest. And guess what? Your earliest memories are just as telling.

(1.) One time when I was a child I thought I saw an angel. I woke up one night, and it had wings and kinda looked like my sister. I walked over to the door and opened the door so some light could come into the room, and it sort of faded away. I asked my mother about it, and she said it was probably my Guardian Angel. So I’ve always felt protected. It was as real as you are in front of me now; that’s the God’s honest truth.

(2.) As a kid, I was making a building with blocks in our playroom. I didn’t have enough. So I asked my younger brother, Robert, if I could borrow some of his. He said, “Okay, but you have to give them back when you’re done.” I used all of my blocks, then all of his blocks, and when I was done I had a great building, which I then glued together. Robert never did get those blocks back.

(3.) I remember when I was about four years old, and I played in a pitch, putt and drive for little peewees. It was a 10-and-under deal, and I finished 2nd. I just remember the trophy being as tall as me. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that you’d get a prize that was as tall as you and big as you.

(4.) My father took me on a two-hour drive to go skiing in the hills outside Ottawa. I was hungry, and he refused to stop to let me buy a snack. He told me to eat imaginary food. We then spent a long time making and then eating a make-believe sandwich, complete with soda and chips.

(5.) My dad took me out to see a meteor shower when I was a little kid, and it was scary for me because he woke me up in the middle of the night. My heart was beating; I didn’t know what he wanted to do. He wouldn’t tell me, and he put me in the car and we went off, and I saw all these people lying on blankets, looking up at the sky. And my dad spread out a blanket. We lay down and looked at the sky, and I saw for the first time all these meteors. But what didn’t scare me, but was very soothing, was watching this cosmic meteor shower. And I think from that moment on, I never looked at the sky and thought it was a bad place.

Ben Franklin: Paying Attention at Age Seven

Now seems the opportune time to look at one of our most celebrated statesmen. What follows are two earliest memories from the amazing Benjamin Franklin. Make your selection of his worldview from the list below the memories, and please vote in the poll to the right of the post. Thank you for participating!

(1.) When I was a child of seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my little pocket with half-pence. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I met by the way, in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for it. When I came home, whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family, my brothers, sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth, put me in mind of what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my folly that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

As I came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met many who gave too much for the whistle. (taken from H.W. Brands' biography of Benjamin Franklin)

(2.) Kites, as Franklin would later famously show, could also be useful. Sending one aloft, he stripped, waded into a pond, floated on his back, and let it pull him. “Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes around the pond,” he recalled, “I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over without the least fatigue and with the greatest of pleasure imaginable.” (taken from Walter Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin)

What is Franklin's worldview? (correct answer in red)

1. I consort with nature. (29% of voters selected #1)
2. I ride the wind. (0%)
3. I whistle at opportunity. (23% of voters selected #3)
4. I harness pleasure. (47% of voters selected #4)

Sarah Jessica Parker: Three Earliest Memories

(1.) Around age two, I recall attempting to shave with a straight razor. I remember being fascinated by it, thinking that the idea of shaving was cool. So, one day I tried it, and I slit my face open. I was always in trouble.

(2.) When I was two years old, I remember I had to be rescued by my mother after becoming disoriented while inside a snow tunnel that had been built by my brothers and sister.

(3.) The first word I ever spoke was “dangerous.” I was in the kitchen with Mother and picked up a knife. When my mother took it away from me, I said “dangerous.”

Sarah Jessica Parker’s worldview is… (including poll results)
1. Mothers know best. (0%)
2. Trouble works for me. (7%)
3. I play the edge. (78%)
4. Life can hurt you. (14%)

Crash "Seen:" Tim Russert's Early Memory

Every summer, our family used to rent a cottage for a week at Wasaga Beach in Ontario, where Dad, a strong man who loved the water, used to let my sisters and me lie on his back while he swam. One morning, when I was five or six, we were on the beach in our bathing suits when I noticed that Dad had several scars on his back. I had probably seen them before, but this was the first time I really noticed them.

When I asked Mom why they were there, she told me that Dad had been injured in a plane crash during the war. So, of course I went over and asked him, “Dad, were you really in a plane crash?’

“Yeah,” he said, but the word was barely out of his mouth before he jumped back in the water. Even at that age, I could see that he was running away – or in this case, actually swimming away – from my questions.

As the years went on, especially on Memorial Day, when we went to the local cemetery to plant little American flags on the graves of war veterans, I sometimes asked him about the war. Although I desperately wanted to know what happened, I was careful not to push too hard. It was clear that he didn’t want to talk about it, and I imagined that I might feel the same way if something that terrible happened to me. Every time I asked about the war, he would parcel out another detail or two. One year he said, “Everybody did their job, and I did mine. I was a parachute rigger.” Another time, referring to the crash, he said, “It was a foggy day, really bad weather.”

When I was in high school, the two of us were in the basement one day when Dad walked over to his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a manila folder. He handed me a yellowed clipping for the October 24, 1944, edition of the Southport Weekly, an English newspaper. The headline read US BOMBER CRASHES IN FLAMES AT AINSDALE, and the article described the crash of a B-24 Liberator at an air base in England. I read it quickly and zeroed in on the key lines: “The plane, which had been circling around as though preparatory to landing…somersaulting into a field, immediately bursting into flames. When the place crashed it broke up, and some of the air men were thrown clear.”

Dad, I realized, had been one of them.

Tim Russert’s worldview is…
1. I seek fame.
2. I seek to know. (100%)
3. I seek to teach.
4. I seek to entertain.

BOY BONO

Known by his stage name Bono (pronounced BAH’-NOH, meaning good voice), Paul David Hewson, born May 10, 1960, is the lead singer for the Irish rock band U2. Of course, a person does not have to be interested in U2 to become fascinated by Bono and his work (but more about that in the next post). In the meantime, see if you can determine Bono’s worldview by looking over his early memories reproduced here. Take a good look and then choose the worldview that fits him best from the list at the end of this post. Enjoy!

Memory #1. “I have a vague memory of being in the hospital, aged three, for tests to find out what was wrong with the screaming child (I cried from the day I was born). It was a strange thing; they seemed to think it might be something to do with my heart.”

Memory #2. “The crying stopped on the first day I went to school. I remember that day. A boy came up to my new best mate, James Mahon, and bit his ear, and I took that kid’s head and banged it on some iron railings. It is terrible, but that is the sort of thing I remember.”

Memory #3. “I have a memory of one particular row with my father, and he locked me in the box-room (a tiny room about the size of a cupboard). So I went up; I pulled up the blind, opened the window, and I was sitting on the window sill with my feet out, talking to my mates who were down the street below. I was telling them what an absolute ass my father was and suddenly they fell very quiet. The old man was standing right behind me listening to my abuse, yards and yards of expletives, cruel descriptions all now on his record. As I think about it now, he had a lot to put up with.”

Memory #4. “My father used to make things. He was good at DIY (do-it-yourself projects) and he’d be building presses and wardrobes and whatever. I remember he was upstairs in the bedroom, and he was using an electric drill and there was a scream, a wild, mad sound. Mother and I ran out to the bottom of the stairs and we looked up. My dad had been drilling a piece of wood while holding it between his legs and the electric drill had slipped out of the wood and gone right into his crotch. He was standing and holding it with the ‘I’ve castrated myself’ kind of look on his face, and I remember my mother literally crying with laughter. At that point, of course, we didn’t know if he had castrated himself or not, but as serious as she must have known it was, she couldn’t stop laughing. She had a real dark sense of humor.”

Memory #5. “I remember my mother chasing me with a wooden cane after I had done something bad. I was running away from her, terrified, but when I looked around I saw her laughing her head off. She couldn’t take discipline that seriously.”

Memory #6. “I remember having a photograph taken with my brother, Norman (who is eight years older than me) and not liking it. I was around three years old. We had two little china leopards standing as ornaments on the mantel and at the end of the session, there was only one leopard left, and I was put away for that!"
(All 6 memories are taken from the 2006 book entitled U2 by U2, written by U2 and Neil McCormick.)

Please select Bono's worldview from the following 4 and cast your vote in the poll to the right. Thank you for participating! (Note: The Bono poll is now closed. Results by percentage of votes are listed below.)

The correct answer is...
1. I have something to say. (100%) ...wow!!
2. I scream the pain away.
3. Women are music.
4. Men make noise.

Mommy...dearest: Barbara's Early Memories

We think we recognize someone when she has come into our living room for so many years, but you guessed it....there's always more than meets the eye. To see Barbara Walters through a Thinkwriter's lens, start by perusing her earliest memories* and then select the worldview you think fits her best. Four possibilities are listed at the end of this post and a poll is in the right hand column. Please cast your vote and thank you for participating!

(#1) When I was in the hospital [age 7 or 8] recovering from the operation [appendectomy], which in those days kept you in the hospital for almost a week, my mother would take the streetcar back and forth from Brookline to Boston every day to see me. She had to then walk a good ten blocks to the hospital. One night I heard someone entering my room and, thinking it was the nurse, whom I didn’t want to see, I kept my eyes closed. When the person left the room, I finally opened my eyes and saw at the foot of my bed my favorite doll. My mother, worried that I would feel alone, had taken the streetcar at night to visit me one more time. The memory has stayed with me all these years. I can barely write about it even today. It makes me so sad for her.

(#2) One Christmas I remember saving money to buy my mother a cut-glass perfume bottle, which many women kept on their dressing tables. My mother had a considerable collection, and I was sure she would want to keep adding to it. I carefully chose what I thought was the perfect one, chiseled in the shape of a half-moon. I wanted my mother to love it and not want to return it, as she did so many of my father’s gifts. She returned his presents so often that he stopped buying anything for her. I have kept this lesson in mind all my life. No matter what anybody gives me as a gift, I say, “Terrific,” and wear it at least twice (before trying to return it).
The day before Christmas, unable to keep my secret totally to myself, I asked my mother if she would like another bottle for her collection. “Not really,” she said. “I have too many already.” I could barely keep back the tears, but it was too late. The next morning I gave her my shiny wrapped present. She opened it, took me in her arms, and exclaimed, “Of all my perfume bottles, this is the most beautiful. It makes all the others look dreadful. I am going to give them all away and only keep this one.” And she did.

(#3) When I was about seven years old, the school put on a little performance for adoring parents. It featured a robin red-breast as the lead and a chorus of little brown-costumed chippers. I was assigned the leading role of the robin. But here’s the thing: I didn’t want to be the star. I wanted to be in the chorus, to be like all the other kids. So to this day I recall going home and watching my mother, who sewed very well, cheerfully making my robin costume. I tried it on, with its big gorgeous red belly, spread my wings, and burst into tears. When I told my mother why, she came to school with me the next day and explained the situation to the bewildered teacher. My mother and I went home, tore up the costume, and I became a chipper in the chorus like everyone else.

Cast your vote for Barbara Walters’ worldview in the poll to the right. (Note: This poll is now closed; voters' selections are listed in percentages. The correct answer is #2.)
1. Mothers rule. (15%)
2. I work it. (61%)
3. I deserve presents. (0)
4. I get my way. (23%)

*All three memories are from Barbara Walters' memoir, entitled Audition (2008).