My obsessive neatness is rarely a good thing, but hopefully it helped you understand the wiring on the breadboard! I have checked the connections from the arduino pins to each pad on the LCD and they all seem to be good. I had already tried using the LCD in 4-bit mode, and unfortunately it didn't work the second time around either. The sketch without the delay() and clear() yields the same response. Maybe it is time to get another LCD and test my current circuit with that... Thank you anyway!