I’m not big on graveyards, but on my quick jaunt through New England, couldn’t resist a visit to the Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord, Mass., where many a famous writer is buried. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate the engravings on those markers, the appeal of which escaped me as a kid when my Dad went through his embarrassing gravestone rubbing phase. Walking through the cemetery, I couldn’t help but imagine the families so lovingly memorialized  on these markers.

But I was even more amused by the modern offerings up on Author’s Ridge. My favorite: the Obama pin nestled next to a well-thumbed copy of “Walden” at Henry David Thoreau’s marker. The first shot is of the Thoreau plot, the second a close-up of H.D.’s marker, with the blue Obama pin barely visible.