Clinton, Connecticut, is a small shoreline town situated 25 miles east of New Haven. It was founded in 1663 when a committee appointed by the General Court at Hartford laid out a settlement called the Homonoscitt Plantation. In 1838, following multiple name changes during the intervening years, it came to be known as Clinton. It is two hours by car or commuter train from New York City and two and a half hours from Boston. And for those that ski, it is three hours from Southern Vermont and New Hampshire. Clinton was the birthplace of Yale College in 1701; the hometown of choice for a family and their performing bears, who, for years, headlined with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey; and the place where Dr. Seuss spent his summers. More recently, Tony Award-winning actor Jefferson Mays and television journalist Erica Hill grew up there.