DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD

American poet Robert Frost received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times. In 1961, at the age of 86, he recited his poem

Encounters With Those Inescapable AI Generated “10 Best Lists”

Can Artificial Intelligence reliably rank the 10 greatest poems of all time?
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Downsizing Pays off Big — With a Trip Down Abbey Road

I don’t know exactly what I expected from my personal downsizing campaign, but something really interesting is happening to me.
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A birds eye view of Walden Pond, near Concord, MA. (Photo Nolan Johnson)

Reading Thoreau Again

One of my friends contacted me not long ago and said, “Hey, you’re going to be in the Ken Burns documentary on Henry David Thoreau in March. I just saw you in the trailer. Are you going to do anything to be ready for when it comes out?” Truth told, I knew there was a Thoreau documentary coming sometime in 2026, but I wasn’t sure when.
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When is Enough Enough?

Do Jefferson's 27 indictments of King George III and the Parliament of Great Britain in his Declaration of Independence have application today?
About 40 boxes of books culled from Clay’s massive personal library sit ready to be taken to their new home.

The Great Downsizing Campaign

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” — Thoreau
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John Carey, an early and influential mentor of Clay’s, was the Merton Professor of English at Oxford University. Professor Carey died recently at the age of 91.

Remembering My Beloved Oxford University Mentor

Clay remembers an early and influential mentor, Professor John Carey of Oxford University.
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The Best Laid Plans (er, Bags) of Mice and Men

Clay laments a rare failing in German baggage-transfer efficiency and plans a few interim wardrobe additions — while awaiting his bag’s return — and sticks close to his flat lest he miss the improbable delivery window.
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The Most Famous Painting in the World

On a recent trip to Rome Clay contemplates art in its many forms and why the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in the world. There are so many instantly recognizable paintings yet none of them is as widely recognized or parodied as the Mona Lisa.
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Are We Rome?

Answer: we are Rome … but are we doomed to suffer the Republic's fate? Clay parallels the Republics (Rome's and our own) considering ways to avoid Rome's calamitous end.
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Jefferson and Slavery: Ken Burns on MS-NOW

Clay considers Ken Burns' recent portrayal of Thomas Jefferson in a recent interview, where Burns suggests the Declaration's "all men are created equal" applied only to propertied white males, urging a more nuanced look at Jefferson's universal ideals, racial suspicions, and his own contradictions as a slaveholder.
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