Junk Shop Window
Essays on Myth, Life, and Literature
A visit to the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, England, results in a meeting with a telepathic dog. A trip to see the Irish Rovers on St Patrick’s Day becomes slapstick worthy of the I Love Lucy Show, An attempt to record the right background sounds for a Sherlock Holmes radio play opens a doorway in time to the world of a century ago. And Hermes, the Greek messenger god, appears in various guises, relaying sometimes cryptic, sometimes life-saving messages.
Junk Shop Window is getting so much praise from reviewers and interviewers! Take a look at these:
A rave review by Pulizter-prize winning critic Michael Dirda in The Washington Post:
Another rave by poet and scholar Charles Rammelkmap in The Hopkins Review:
A delightful interview with the author by fiction writer Leslie Pietrzyk on her acclaimed blog, To Be Read:
A probing, insightful interview with Maryland Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri on her award-winning radio show, The Poet and the Poem:
And a heart-felt, lovely interview with poet and activist Ethelbert Miller on his weekly WPF literary show, On the Margin:
Meet James J. Patterson
James J. Patterson was born in Washington, DC, five days before Nixon’s infamous “Checkers Speech.” He’s been lurking about in what he calls “The Capital of the Empire” ever since.
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Joanna Biggar On Bermuda Shorts
“Happily, early on, James J. Patterson discovered that the bumpy road through life was lined with books. Clearly, somewhere along the way he pulled out a volume of Montaigne. ¨The young 20th century rebel must have found much to admire in the French Renaissance thinker’s essays, and especially the meaning of the word essayer, to…
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The Only Way Out!
The Only Way Out Of The Financial Crisis! Economist Paul Krugman smells smoke, so he’s yelling “Fire!”! In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, he sees a new and prolonged depression setting in. Meanwhile, Simon Jenkins at the London Guardian has a solution that could and should take fire all around the globe,…
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Pattersonian Update
Vagabonds unite! Quick takes here on The Tea Party’s Presidential candidate, Texan Secession, Summer Reading, CEO Compensation, Immigration, The World Cup is a Fraud, Bermuda Shorts Updates, and yes, More Summer Reading…
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Calling All Economists II
A year or more ago I sent an appeal to Patterson’s Vagabonds to debate the idea that America should suspend sending jobs to “Slave Nations” like China, by simply stating that no job should be exported to a country that does not allow collective bargaining. Since not a soul replied, I can only conclude, the…
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Let’s Plant Trees!
OBAMA SHOULD PLANT 20 BILLION TREES FDR in the 1930s employed 3 million Americans between the ages of 18-25 in the Civilian Conservation Corps, and among other good deeds, they planted five billion trees…
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Katherine Williams On Bermuda Shorts
“Some of the essays are the literary equivalent of the Buddhist meditation on the skull, which is meant to use the sense of impending death as an impetus to love the juicy, impermanent life at hand. How fortunate for the reader that life, for this author is music…”
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Myra Sklarew On Bermuda Shorts!
Poet, Scientist, Educator, Mrya Sklarew: “It is like sitting down with a very intelligent friend and having the kind of conversation you’d always wanted to have.” Read her charming letter here…
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Rick Walter on Bermuda Shorts
Lovers of the personal essay should be rejoicing in the streets at word of this collection. For readers and acquaintances of Jimmy Patterson, it is long overdue, but the author was born in Washington, D.C., where the machinery of progress is congenitally slow. So this book, in many important ways – is what all satisfying…
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Calling All Economists!
In a previous harangue among our beloved Vagabonds I floated the idea that America should pass a law stating that jobs should not be exported to countries that do not allow Collective Bargaining. I would now like to invite those economic wizards smarter than I am to share their thoughts on such a proposition. Simply…
