Jan L. Willis

🏘 Midtown is Memphis. 🎶 📚 Librarian to the kids. 📽 Film. 🎷Music. 🐕‍🦺 Animals. 📖 Books. 🎸Bruce.

[Into The Forest Dark @ElliottBlackwe3]

“The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.”
― E.B. White

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

You are perfect.

[Amunet @freakoutsideofx]

Sports bring people together. Just look at Mookie and Pino.

[Matthew Zeitlin @MattZeitlin]

This kind of deadline poetry is probably a dying art but when it’s good it’s really good

[Darren Rovell @darrenrovell]

Spike Lee became a Knicks season ticket holder in 1985.

His first game was Patrick Ewing’s first game.

He has his first NBA title, 41 years later.

[20th Century Hub @20thCenturyHub]

Louis Armstrong relaxing in a rocking chair at sunset in Death Valley, 1958.

© Photographer Art Kane.

Art Kane flew Louis Armstrong to Death Valley from Las Vegas where Armstrong was performing. Initially hesitant to fly without his wife Lucille, the 4-seat Cessna could only accommodate Armstrong, Kane, the pilot, and a rocking chair chosen by Kane as a prop, a nod to Armstrong's hit “Rockin' Chair”. Despite initial reservations, Kane managed to convince Armstrong to take the flight. Tired of capturing Armstrong with his trumpet, Kane requested him to set the instrument aside, aiming to portray him as a man enjoying a well-deserved break from his life as a revolutionary jazz pioneer and globally adored entertainer.

[bill teck @billteck]

One time for the great John C. Riley, cool dude, amazing actor ,impeccable taste - DOWN BY LAW, THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE...

[Dr. Ellen Walker @EllenFWalker]

I don't think I can name an artist who painted his dogs with as much profound reverance as David Hockney did.

[Badger @Bertrom]

Eudora Welty.

1941.

Welty noted that her skills of observation began by watching her parents, suggesting that the practice of her art began, and endured as a gesture of love.

[TCM @tcm]

Academy Award winning actress @sally_field shares her introduction to the arts, as she talks movies and MORE with @BenMank77 – on our latest podcast episode of Talking Pictures!

The full conversation is now streaming, wherever you get your podcasts: https://t.co/WLpnJMq7M9

[Noirchick In Old Hollywood @Noirchick1]

On this day 6/11/1947 "Miracle of 34th Street" was released. Among the endless charms of the film, it also introduced us to Thelma Ritter in her first (uncredited) role...

[fOx @fOx1257067]

Released in 1975, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was an animated television special directed by legendary animator Chuck Jones and based on the classic story by Rudyard Kipling.

The story follows a brave mongoose who takes on two deadly cobras to protect the family that rescued him. For a generation of kids, it was one of those rare animated films that felt genuinely intense. The stakes were real, the villains were terrifying, and you couldn't help but root for Rikki-Tikki every step of the way.

More than 50 years later, it's still remembered as one of the finest animated adaptations ever put on television.

Did you watch Rikki-Tikki-Tavi growing up?

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

I believe most strangers are carrying invisible heavy things. A smile or a held door might be the only good part of their day. That’s a pretty good reason to keep doing it.

[Laura G @LaurasMiscMovie]

Ann’s house hasn’t changed! OUT OF THE PAST (1947) - Robert Mitchum was here.

#Bridgeport #Highway395

[Lynn Plourde @LynnPlourde]

Jane Yolen has passed...450 books...the matriarch of children's books...what a gift she was and will continue to be as her books and legacy will live on forever. 🫂💔

[Lost In Film @LostInFilm]

Barbara Stanwyck stars in the beautiful poster for the 2026 Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival that will take place in Bologna from June 20 to 28 @cinetecabologna.

[RadiantFilm @RadiantFilm]

Orson Welles on Buster Keaton:

"Keaton, one of the giants! What about The General—that’s a truly great movie, isn’t it? Now, finally, Keaton’s been “discovered.” Too late to do him any good, of course—he lived all those long years in eclipse, and then, just as the sun was coming out again, he died. I wish I’d known him better than I did. A tremendously nice person, you know, but also a man of secrets. I can’t even imagine what they were."

— This is Orson Welles by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich (1992)

[Heidi Graci @formermingo]

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of our kindergarten classroom fish, Fred. Fred brought joy and comfort to my students. He lived almost a decade. We loved Fred! #RIPFredtheFish

[horse @horsetwting]

we're good at everything

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.