Author Archives: jharrin4

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About jharrin4

mass communication/speech instructor at College of DuPage and Triton College in suburban Chicago. Army veteran of the Viet Nam era.

Real Wonder Women

The other day I opined on my Facebook page about how the recently released movie Wonder Woman was being praised by reviewers and other culture critics in a rather hyperbolic, if not absurd, manner as a rare instance of showing a … Continue reading

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Memorial Day (bitter irony edition, 2019)

It’s Memorial Day weekend. Heading off to see family and friends in far-flung outposts of the USA? Staying home. Hey, do as you please. It’s still a “free” country. Oh yes, citizens, you are free to do as you please … Continue reading

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Inspired to a Higher Calling

Teachers. You know, possibly one or two of whom we will forever recall, the ones who somewhere along the educational pathway, made a special impression. From kindergarten to graduate school, or whatever level of formal education one completes, most everyone has … Continue reading

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Prevus Malus

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington, D.C. There’s a manifestly unfit for duty prevus malus within that building. Why the Latin? Well, it’s a so-called “dead language” as in virtually nobody speaks it–at least very fluently. Or understands it, other than its … Continue reading

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A Confederacy of Dunces (kudos to John Kennedy Toole)

John Kennedy Toole wrote the now cult-classic novel, A Confederacy of Dunces in the early 1960s; it concerns one Ignatius J. Reilly as a sort of modern-day Don Quixote. It’s a great read full of colorful characters, with laugh-out-loud episodes woven throughout its 400 page narrative. Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981. Unfortunately, JKT […]

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Murder, Incorporated

Hey, guys and gals, kid and kiddies! How’s your day going? Is life a slice of Norman Rockwell, all-American, cozy, comfy, loving togetherness in that well maintained ranch house somewhere in suburbia, with its white picket fence, some tulips in bloom … Continue reading

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An Epitaph for the Flowers of May

May 4, 1970. Kent State. Four students shot dead by Ohio National Guard soldiers during a campus demonstration protesting the Vietnam War. That, not even two years removed from the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. No one was … Continue reading

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Enough Already

My mail–both snail and e-versions–are liberally laden with pleas for me donating money (as part of mass mass mailings that attach a specific name to each as if the recipient is gullible enough to believe it’s personal). It’s tedious. It’s … Continue reading

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April Fools Day: April 29th and May Day edition

April 29th, 2017. Just a few daze away! President Strangelove’s (a.k.a) small hands; racist; neo-fascist; xenophobe; Islamaphobe; misogynist; con artist; flim-flam man; fake prez; Fox News junkie; and, apparently, Destroyer-in-Chief,  will mark his first 100 days as the illegitimate occupant of the White House. … Continue reading

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Political Dog Days

There was an important vote taken in Georgia yesterday. The contest  was between an upstart Democrat against an array of Republican candidates seeking to replace the vacated House of seat of Tom Price, now the Health & Human Services Secretary. The … Continue reading

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