After talking with Meade about the sweet potato vine he's got trailing over the edge of the deck railing...

... I had a conversation with Grok, from which I will quote only my own writing. You'll have to imagine the Grokage:

1. Am I right that in the 1950s there was a trend, among housewives, to cut off a piece of a sweet potato and use it to grow a vine, which was considered decorative? And am I right that this was inspired by a Matisse painting?

2. I'm thinking of "The Red Studio."

3. Yes, please search for 1950s primary sources (e.g., magazine articles or gardening guides) to see if there’s any mention of Matisse or The Red Studio in relation to this trend.

4. Maybe I just remember my mother's sweet potato vines and then later I connected to "The Red Studio" because the item with personal resonance was part of the rather chaotic assemblage.

5. Something in a work of art can have resonance for you that has nothing to do with what the artist had in mind. That's great, perhaps, but some people don't like interpretation that isn't grounded in the intent of the creator.

6. No, I'd like you to connect my last observation to the notion that the Constitution should be interpreted in accordance with the intent of the framers.

7. Now restate that point about the "living Constitution" to create resonance with the idea of the sweet potato vine twining about the 1950s kitchen or the Matisse studio. Be creative. Consider the potential for writing a poem (in the style of Billy Collins) about the memory of the sweet potato and the professionalism of judicial technique.

You can see the whole conversation here, including the poem Grok took the initiative to write.