.38 - 3 Feature Leads: Narrative Lead

Narrative Lead:

• A narrative lead tells a story paints a picture for the reader

Information used for Lead:

Thomas J. Serle works for Parker Bros. Circus, which is in town this week. Performances are scheduled at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day through Sunday, beginning today. Serle, who maintains a home in Fort Lauderdale, is a laborer who helps care for the animals at the circus, including 10 elephants. During a conversation with a reporter, he said: "Some people look on work with a circus as a glamorous job. It ain't. But I been doing it all my life, and it's too late for me to change. I'll be 60 next year. I was born into it. Both my folks were circus people. I started out as an acrobat until I fell and busted a leg. It never healed quite right, so they offered me this job, and I took it. What else could I do? There's all kinds of myths about circuses, like about these elephants here. Some people say they're afraid of mice, but that's crazy. When we pen the elephants up for the winter there's always mice that get in their hay, and it don't bother them none. The elephants never try to run away or stomp them or anything. They share the same cages all winter. And then some people say elephants got a good memory. Hell, some of the ones we got are so dumb they can't remember a simple trick from one year to the next."

Lead:

Elephants the largest land mammals on our planet frightened by the sight of a mouse. Thomas J. Serle a member of the Parker Bros. Circus who takes care of the circus animals, had something to say about the myths and misconceptions of the exotic elephants.

"Some people say they're afraid of mice, but that's crazy." with her experience observing the elephants that are apart of the Parker Bros. Circus she sees elephants are unaffected by the presence of mice in their pens.

Serle the 'mythbuster' also stated "some people say elephants got a good memory. Hell, some can't remember a simple trick from one year to the next." So why does Serle's comments contradict the normal belief in these "myths".