John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: Time Travel Via an Assortment of Journal Entries

Slate Culture

In this week’s essay, John discusses Mothers’s Day, playing tennis with the Attorney General, medical scares, and more

Notebook Entries:

Notebook 19, page 16. April 2011

Is it possible, through applied thought, to become systematic in an approach to life? If you were to do that how would you proceed?

Notebook 16, page 6. July 26, 2005

“I’m here with a bunch of midshipmen and wondering what there is to do around here.” - Boy trying to hit on a girl working @ The Reef in Castine, ME.

Notebook 15, page 30. September 2004

Head problems:

Sunday 9/5 morning

Tuesday 9/7 evening

Wednesday 9/8 before lunch

Notebook 22, page 22. April 24, 2014

Question:

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

• What do you want to be now?
• Why the difference?

Notebook 9. 1995

“That’s just the ticket the doctor ordered”

Notebook 13. 2001

“Free as a clam”

Notebook 17, page 67. December 2006

The man sitting next to me has a face on the boil and garlic and old booze on his breath. When he sleeps, he sighs. For this leg of the flight I am wrapped in his breathy gumbo.

Notebook 15, page 7. April 2004

“In all these there are messages for those who use their reason.” - Quran quotation

Notebook 15, page 80. 2005

Would like to meet her.

Notebook 54. July 26, 2020

“Writing requires a reader. You can’t do it alone.” - John Cheever

Notebook 15, page 71. 2005

In the light of sobriety not sure what this means

Notebook 13. March 2001

Yesterday I played tennis with John Ashcroft the atty. general of the U.S.

Notebook 13, page 108. December 11, 2001

Anne just called. There is one little heartbeat beating in her today. Everything is okay for this hurdle. I must say, I was really worried.

Notebook 20, page 10. December 24, 2013

“Sometimes Dad says weird stuff, just ignore him” - Anne to kids about me

Notebook 15, page 84.

“Life goes on,” Hayawi says. “We are in the middle of a war [in Iraq] and we still smoke the water pipe.”

Notebook 45, page 24. April 16, 2019

Our savior lives by the manner in which we live.

Notebook 19, page 23. 2011

People on their mobile phones in England say goodbye a lot: “Cheers, alright then, speak to you soon, ta.” (That’s four ways of saying goodbye). Amelia tells the story of a man who thanked a ticket-taker by saying “Ta, magical, cheers.”

References:

Disaster on the Penobscot - John Henry Fay for Naval History Magazine

One Man’s Meat by E.B. White

The House at Allen Cove I E.B. White House Tour - New England Magazine

Little Plastic Castle - Ani Defranco

“Two Years of War: Taking Stock” - Anthony Shadid for the Washington Post

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

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