John Dickerson

John Dickerson is co-anchor of "CBS Evening News" and anchor of "CBS Evening News Plus." He is also a Contributing Writer to The Atlantic and is co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest.

  • 03/25/2023: A Voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion

    The Met has a wonderful write-up of all that is going on in this etching:

    A Voluptuary Under the Horrors of Digestion, James Gillray (British, London 1756–1815 London), Hand-colored etchingJames Gillray’s famously brutal caricature of George, Prince of Wales encapsulates the effects of uncontrolled self-indulgence upon the heir to the British throne. Sprawled in his chair after a lavish meal, the prince picks his teeth with a meat fork; his lack of gentility is underscored by the over-flowing chamber pot at his elbow used to anchor unpaid bills. Just thirty years old, his accumulated ailments can be inferred from remedies piled at right – pills and potions to treat “stinking breath”, “piles” (hemorrhoids), venereal disease and poor digestion. A portrait on the wall suggests a more effective remedy – depicting Luigi Carnarro, a Venetian nobleman whose life was famously saved by going on a strict diet. By including “Voluptuary” in the title, Gillray invoked contemporary worries that traditional British masculine virtues were being enervated by a culture obsessed with luxury.

    Click here to get a very close up view of the etching. Gillray had a troubled and fascinating life which I should like to know more about. Or, if you prefer…about which I should like to know more.

    • More Notions

  • 04/15/2023: Campaign History: Reagan and Bush in Nashua

  • 04/14/2023: Summer's End

    It’s hot today for the first time of the season, which makes it feel like the start of summer. Time to start stacking the sandbags against the end of summer blues. The sun is going down. This song came on shuffle. It’s from John Prine’s Tree of Forgiveness. Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the […]

  • 04/10/2023: New Feature: CBS political archive tastes

  • 04/08/2023: Chat GPT and checking yourself

    When your words don’t land as you intend it can be because a) you were unclear b) the people listening misunderstood your point or c) some members of the audience are willfully misunderstanding what you say. I was recently asked about the Tennessee lawmakers kicked out of the body. So I asked Chat GPT to […]

  • 04/02/2023: CBS This Morning on Trump Indictment

  • 04/01/2023: What's in the Indictment? A debate with Chat GPT

    Here is an argument about the recent indictment of former President Trump: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted. The people who know what is in the indictment aren’t talking. The people who are talking don’t know what’s in the indictment. None of them do. It’s sealed. Nevertheless, a lot of time will be spent […]

  • 04/01/2023: Chat GPT is terrible at poltiics

    Question: The Manhattan district attorney has issued an indictment of Donald Trump but the facts are not known and will not be known for several days, how should that encourage or discourage a person from forming opinions about the indictment itself? As an AI language model, I cannot provide personal opinions, but I can offer […]

  • 03/28/2023: See the gift, ease the burden.

    Everyone has at least one gift and one burden. It is hard to find the gift in some people. See the gift, ease the burden.

  • 03/26/2023: Old note found: moving up the time of grace

    Dr. Nadia Chaudhri died on October 5, 2021. She narrated her death from cancer on her Twitter feed. Every time I read her writing I thought about the grace on display. The lessons she was able to give us. I just found a note I wrote to myself after reading one of her entries: “move […]

  • 03/25/2023: A satisfying GPT exchange

    A lot of the coverage of change GPT has been about the learning and development of artificial intelligence. What I wonder is how we, as humans, are going to slowly learn and acculturate to the kinds of exchanges with ChatGPT and its cousins. What I’m thinking about is the psychological closeness that will accrue in […]