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:

  • New Deal Bashing: A New Tool For The Ignorant

    You’ve been hearing this piece of idiocy forever, “It wasn’t the New Deal that saved us from the Great Depression, it was World War II.” In other words, domestic deficit spending is evil, but military deficit spending on a humungous scale is somehow not deficit spending at all! Go Figure. New Deal Bashing, DeBunked! All…

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  • Welcome To Chicago East! AKA Washington, DC!

    Where it’s cool to be hip, smart, and Liberal again, at last! Welcome To Chicago East! Old guard Washingtonians can feel it coming: a vast sea change in the culture of the Capital City. Many locals are unaware of what’s about to happen. Want to see how cool this stodgy old town could actually become?…

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  • Kick’m While They’re Down!

    Four Days after the 2008 Presidential Election, on November 6, 2008, James J Patterson had this to say, “The 2010 Congressional Election Campaign began on November 5th”…would that it had. A reprint of that column is here, and may prove insightful as we head into the stretch run… Now that the Republican/Conservative era is at…

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  • To Be Or Not To Be… A Pig With Lipstick?

    Artist Greg Robison asks Patterson’s Vagabonds to Compare and contrast! This Is A Watercolor Of A Pig…   Is It Still A Watercolor Of A Pig? You Decide !

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  • UNITE THE CLANS!! DO IT NOW!!

    Our Midwest Vagabond, Mancheenee, has weighed in with his thoughts on the Democratic and Republican Nominees. Consequently, at his request, we take our first survey of the Free Thinkers of the Inner Sanctum, Patterson’s Committee of Vagabonds. Mancheenee, cultural critic, and lifelong movie buff, after viewing both Democratic and Republican conventions, summed up his impressions…

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  • Greetings

    Please allow me to introduce myself: I’m the man the first ten amendments to the American Constitution were intended to protect. That’s right, it’s me. I’ve read them, memorized a few even, and I can tell you, until further notice, I’m watching my back. Let’s review: Bill of Rights

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  • It’s About America, Stupid!

    How Did We Get Here? Six months ago you could ask any Democrat from Santa Barbara to Portland, Maine, and they would have said the same thing regarding the eight or so candidates seeking the 2008 Democratic nomination: “I’ll take any of them!” But “time changes everything” as the old song goes, and Chris Mathews…

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  • Links

    Literature Rose Solari Poetry, Prose and news from our favorite poet, lecturer, and playwright (http://www.rosesolari.com) The Writer’s Center An outpost of Civilization in the Capital of the Empire (www.writer.org) Gargoyle Magazine (www.gargoylemagazine.com) WordWrights Magazine (www.wordwrights.com) The Henry Miller Museum (www.henrymiller.org) Sante Fe Writers Project (http://www.sfwp.com) An Independent Press With Some Pizzazz! Left Coast Writers (http://www.leftcoastwriters.com)…

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  • common scents

    The PHEROMONES

    The History & Music Like Goliards of old, The PHEROMONES crisscrossed North America in the 1980’s and ’90s lampooning the local clergy and constabulary and anyone else who fell into their satirical cross-hairs. From the epicenter of chicanery and peccadilloes depravity, Washington, D.C., the ‘Mones took on the right wing, the arms industry, lawyers, yuppies,…

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