Paul Chelon

This is Paul X. Chelon from Funchal, Madeira of Portugal as I met him at the Loggia dei Lanzi, the other day. Paul is the sweetest, nicest guy you ever want to meet: clever and witty. He runs a very successful orthotics business (the only one on the island) and is related to the late Herberto Hélder (his mother was Herberto's first cousin) ... so of course, we talked about modern poetry and such. The conversation was extremely pleasant but I couldn't help noticing a tension of some kind and Paul frequently shifting his weight from one side to the other. Turns out he suffers from hemorrhoids and, that day, went through a particularly bad flare-up. When I mentioned the large number of Pharmacies in Florence, he smiled weakly and said that he travels with is own  (mostly useless) collection of potions, unguents, and tinctures. I wished him good luck and went down towards the river.