It was Harry Poverty then

J.K. Rowling, the British writer who gave us Harry Potter, is worth $900 million, twice what the queen could cash out for. She lives quite well in her adopted city, Edinburgh. But when she arrived in Scotland's capital 12 years ago, she was a single mother with little money and no job. The local lads, she recalled, "amused themselves on dull nights by throwing stones at my two-year-old's bedroom window." Once, she had to push away a drunk who tried to force open her front door; another time somebody broke in at night while she and her daughter were in bed, The Scotsman reports. Rowling writes about her B.H. (Before Harry) memories of Edinburgh in "One City," a compilation of reflections by the city's famous writers. Proceeds will go to fighting child poverty in Edinburgh where, despite its affluent image, one in five children grows up below the poverty line.

Don't tell this to Rowling

A Norwegian film director, Nina Grunfeld, thinks Rowling's rags-to-riches story is too good to be true. Writing in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, she wonders, "Is it possible that a person can write six thick books that are translated into 55 languages and sell more than 250 million copies in less than 10 years? Is it probable that the stories then get filmed and commercially exploited to the degree seen here, without any well-thought-out strategy or highly professional players behind them?"

Grunfeld's self-described "conspiracy theory": The books have been produced by hack writers like those at the syndicate that produced the "Nancy Drew" mystery series of yore. Grunfeld, the 36-year-old daughter of a prominent psychiatrist, recently completed a highly acclaimed documentary on her father's life as a juvenile Jewish refugee from Slovakia sent to Norway in the 1930s. Rowling apparently doesn't read Aftenposten, but her Norwegian publisher's response in so many words: Nonsense.

Ben Franklin aerobics

Circle Jan. 17 on your 2006 calendar and help Benjamin Franklin celebrate his 300th birthday. ("Ben, you don't look a day over 146!") Among the many events planned is a major exhibit in Philadelphia. While Franklin's role as an influential American diplomat will get lots of attention, a new book by Stanley Finger, a medical historian at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that he deserves recognition for his contributions to health and medicine.

An early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of guy, Franklin was a proponent of regular exercise in an era when exercise consisted mostly of drinking or the occasional kite-flying. He was an accomplished swimmer, who recommended daily swims at a time when bathing was rare. For those unable to exercise outdoors, he advocated 15 minutes of brisk stair-climbing. He worked out with dumbbell weights, even into his 80s. Noting that his heart rate and temperature rose while exercising, he recommended that everyone engage in what we would now refer to as regular cardiovascular exercise. Sadly, it was Jane Fonda who made all the money.

Finally, boomers get some attention

A Pew Research Center survey on baby boomers found that:

Boomers are more likely to give money to their parents and adult children (29 per cent) than get money from them (19 percent).

71 per cent have at least one living parent. In 1989, just 60 percent of people ages 41 to 59 had at least one living parent.

Some 63 per cent have at least one adult child 18 and older, and of this group, 68 percent are supporting an adult child, in whole or in part.

56 per cent say it is a responsibility to allow an elderly parent to live in one's home if the parent wants to.

Nine in 10 boomers are satisfied with their family life. The satisfaction level drops among the 13 percent who have an elderly parent to care for.

We bet you won't read this

More than 80 percent of Americans gamble at some time in their lives. It might be the lottery, bingo, poker or simply waiting for a Port Authority bus. While most aren't problem gamblers, others gamble away their houses, cars or even their families. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a diagnostic tool that can help determine whether a person is a pathological gambler and what type of gambling triggers problems. The assumption is that different people have problems with different types of gambling and that researchers would do better not to lump football betting, slot machines, bingo and craps under a single umbrella just as they would not consider marijuana, cocaine and heroin simply as "drugs." More at mednews.wustl.edu.

From the AP
• Man Buys Smoker, Finds Human Leg Inside • Coach Stops Runaway Horse by Biting Ear • Man Allegedly Tries to Use 'Blurry' $100 • Police Break Up Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese • Suggestive Card Ruffles Farmer's Feathers • Nerds to Auction Themselves to Women • Toilet to Tap? San Jose Probes Plan • Seattle to Allow Pygmy Goats As Pets • Yankees Rookies Dress Up in Oz Costumes

Talk about gambling

Prominent among the downsides of the Internet are the group e-mail of lame jokes and the upbeat chain letters aimed at improving your life, unless you break the chain, in which case a fatwa goes into effect. Here's a recent charmer that founds its way into The Morning File inbox:

It goes on to list 21 indisputable tips for living a good life, but God (or your favorite superstition) help you if it takes you more than six minutes to read.

Non-random act of kindness

Last week we wrote about an elderly woman from New Orleans, Carol Blackstock, who was reunited with the cat she had to leave behind. There was a Pittsburgh angle in the complicated reunion process, but we didn't have any particulars. Here's the rest of the story: The people who brought the cat up from New Orleans, took care of it for three months and delivered it to Carol are Pittsburghers. They volunteer for Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania, which sent two vans down to New Orleans after Katrina and brought back about 25 stranded animals. Claudette Kulk of Highland Park took in an 8-year-old cat named Minou (French for "pussycat"), while Rebecca Reid of the North Side tried to find the owner.

Rebecca had the help of New Orleanian Kristen Marfiglia. VFA had rescued Kristen's cat and put it on a plane to New Orleans. A grateful Kristen asked how she could help. She checked out the apartment building in the French Quarter where Minou had been found. Through the building's management, Rebecca was able to locate the cat's owner in Michigan, where Carol is living temporarily with relatives. Next, VFA put out a call to its members for anybody headed to Detroit for Thanksgiving. North Siders Stephen and Emily Frey volunteered for the job. And so Carol and Minou were reunited on the night before Thanksgiving, thanks to some nice Pittsburghers. The rescue operations left a big hole in the Voices For Animals budget. They could use help: 1-877-321-4VFA or voicesforanimals@gmail.com.