If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
The legendary Kiki of Montparnasse posed for Man Ray’s 
![Eugène Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People. 1830. Louvre, Paris. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/05/delacroix_liberty_1830_2.jpg "Eugène Delacroix. Liberty Leading the People. 1830. Louvre, Paris. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]]")
All the talk about slow food and slow blogging reminds me of this story from the Left Bank. I published it first in September 2007, near the beginning of this blog. It remains one of the most satisfying pieces of new writing that I’ve done here. I was sad the day it dropped off the [...]
Entries from November 2009
Giving Thanks: One Reader Is A Miracle
9
November 26, 2023 at 6:00am
by Mark Willis
Bouquiniste · Ms. Modigliani · Paris · VIe · Ve Add Your Comment
After 150 Years, Charles Darwin’s Still Got My Back
0
November 24, 2023 at 5:20pm
by Mark Willis
I had to laugh out loud this morning when I heard an NPR announcer quip that today is the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin “going rogue.” He meant the 1859 publication of On The Origin of Species, of course, but he was reaching for something else. If Sarah Palin heard the comparison, she must have [...]
Tutelary Spirits Add Your Comment
Sesame Street Turns 40 Today, & “L” Is Still Swell
1
November 10, 2023 at 4:16pm
by Mark Willis
The flaneur knows that an interesting street can be an art gallery, a library, a classroom. Even the representation of a street on television has possibilities for children whose overprotective parents won’t let them walk down the real thing. So here’s a tip of the hat to Sesame Street on its 40th birthday!
When I heard [...]
Playing by Ear Add Your Comment
Song For My Father
5
November 3, 2023 at 9:44am
by Mark Willis
Robert F. Willis (May 12, 2023 - November 3. 1987)
For Bob Willis, All My Love
I remember walking through snow to Long’s Bookstore
two men not at work on Wednesday morning
with time to kill before going to the clinic.
The father says tentatively
pushing hands into coat pockets:
I don’t know what poetry is
I work with my hands
I’m awkward with [...]