{"id":2359,"date":"2012-09-21T08:57:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T15:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com.php5-21.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com\/wordpress\/?p=2359"},"modified":"2012-09-21T09:25:48","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T16:25:48","slug":"special-power-recognizing-famous-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/special-power-recognizing-famous-people\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

My friend Rusty Cawley was amazed that I recognized author Michael Lewis on the street the other day.\u00a0 He asked me how that was possible.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my reply:<\/p>\n

Rusty, to properly answer this I have to mention my Theory of Special Powers.\u00a0 Everyone you know who\u2019s worth anything has Special Powers in some area.\u00a0 My sister Donna has Special Organizing Powers, for example (she could have straightened out the mess in Iraq).\u00a0 Your own mother has the Special I\u2019m Always Sweet and Fabulous Power.\u00a0 Remember James Boedecker?\u00a0 He had the Special I Was Born With This Ridiculous Physique Power.<\/p>\n

I have several Special Powers, and one of them is Remembering and Recognizing Show business People.\u00a0 I have a casting director\u2019s memory.\u00a0 In fact, casting directors think I should BE a casting director.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019ve been a bookwork since second grade.\u00a0 And I am a lifelong Lazy Writer.\u00a0 So I have the Lazy Writer\u2019s worship of people who can actually put down the donut\/PS3 controller\/Kindle long enough to actually write something and finish it and get it published.<\/p>\n

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Michael Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I LOVE my writers.\u00a0 I\u2019ve written to many of them over the years, and they ALWAYS write back.\u00a0 I have received letters from Garry Trudeau, Charles Schulz, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov \u2013 and all of those were before email.\u00a0 I watch interviews with them.\u00a0 I read about them.\u00a0 I read their blogs.\u00a0 I go meet them and hear them speak at Book Festivals.<\/p>\n

So I remember writer\u2019s faces.\u00a0 Also, it doesn\u2019t hurt if they are handsome, like Michael Lewis.<\/p>\n

Of course, handsome isn\u2019t a requirement.\u00a0 I\u2019d instantly recognize Joyce Carrol Oates, and we all know she looks like an \u201cAfter\u201d photo of a certain diminutive fisherman named Sm\u00e9agol.<\/p>\n

So this Special Power of mine acts like an antenna that\u2019s always powered up.\u00a0 So I notice things like, Hey, that\u2019s Edward Albee I his running shorts on the elevator with me.\u00a0 Or, hey, that\u2019s Alex Rocco from The Godfather on the elevator with me.\u00a0 Or I meet Gore Vidal in a porn shop in West Hollywood.\u00a0 Or, Hi, aren’t you Octavia Butler perusing the stacks at the library next to me?\u00a0 Or, look, I\u2019m holding the door at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for Oscar Winner Linda Hunt.\u00a0 It happens to me all the time.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt that I would instantly recognize Terry Pratchett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, George R. R. Martin, John Scalzi, Michael Connelly, or John Irving.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you have Special Powers, too, Rusty.\u00a0 What are they?<\/p>\n

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