When I'm playful I use the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales. --Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

For my mother, Betty Gruber Sobel, a four-star navigator who can sail by the heavens but always drives by way of Canarsie.

Once on a Wednesday excursion when I was a little girl, my father bought me a beaded wire ball that I loved.

He wrested the world's whereabouts from the stars, and locked the secret in a pocket watch.