For 15 years, he wrote a long-form narrative every three weeks for the New Yorker; he’s also written shorter reported pieces, comic sketches and doggerel for the Nation, Time and elsewhere.

Some listeners heard a latter-day Ogden Nash in Mr. Osgood’s segments, though he told People magazine, “My stuff isn’t poetry — it’s just rampant doggerel.”

Let John Denton’s doggerel stand in for all the great jottings that didn’t make it into “Dear California.”

ChatGPT can turn out doggerel poetry or freshman and sophomore essays, pass tests on some technical subjects, write press releases, compile legal filings with a veneer of professionalism.

Worse, he was capable of doggerel even dogs wouldn’t want to read: