The other day I completely freaked out because I was in the presence of Leonard Marcus, LEONARD MARCUS, the children’s book historian, editor of the soon-to-be-released Annotated Phantom Tollbooth.  I was standing at a register, credit card in hand, completely in awe of this white haired, bearded man who was Leonard Marcus. 

It was the wrong Leonard Marcus.  The Leonard Marcus I met teaches Public Health at Harvard, and has been influential in the development of terrorist preparedness and emergency response.  After I asked him about the Phantom Tollbooth, he was very kind and told me that “there are a lot of us out there.” 

I’ll say it—meeting Leonard Marcus, the public health one, was still really cool.