Spitball Army

Using “The Road Not Taken” and another poem as jumping-off points, Frost biographer Jay Parini hopes to show the vandals the error of their ways — and the redemptive power of poetry.

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Being evasive is not the same as lying in Bush’s mind.

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Today marks the 189th anniversary of the birth of Walt Whitman.

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Aud. and I finished up the ironing this a.m. and then took Betsy over to Lake Callahan and went biking around the lake – then over to Cedar Lake, and back again. It was loads of fun and am so glad Aud. enjoys that sort of thing.

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Today I was sidelined with the incapcitating numbies, which is what I am calling the non-specific dizzyness and lethargy that I am associating with a cold. I also can’t sit still in one place today. So I am taking the opportunity to spend the afternoon in my office, clearing out the crap.

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I am sometimes very conscious that I am following the path of a leader who dies when He was less than half as old as I am now. I see and feel things He never saw or felt. I know things He seems never to have known.

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Let’s just assume that a polling population of 2,513 people is representative of the entirety of the United States. OK. That accomplished, take a look at what the entirety of the United States claims as its ten favorite books.

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At one of the three breaks between acts, I took an exploratory excursion down the many staircases that spiraled toward the basement. The Met, between acts, is one big 15-minute speed-party out in the lobbies, and all of the people are beautiful. My inner voyeur found it nearly as entertaining as the opera. I tried to spot celebrities, but saw none. Budgeting time for the climb back to my aerie, I went in to use the basement men’s room.

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One of the impressions that the book left me with – the first time – was how quixotically romantic it would be to spend lazy afternoons in a Spanish outdoor cafe sipping port and reading the racing columns.

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Like everyone else, you urinate. And at other moments you drink. What you do not know is what it feels like to do both at the same time. This experiment will show you.

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