Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Supported by
Read the digital editionDownload the full issue as a pdf

Found Issue: Junk Drawer

Junk Drawer

Junk United

We grabbed a bunch of stuff from our junk drawers to make a meta-junk drawer!

1 When I was young, my cousins put troll dolls all over my house. I got tired of it and hid them all, then forgot them. Imagine my surprise when I opened a junk drawer 12 years later to find more than a dozen troll dolls staring up at me! Hayleigh Hayhurst

2 In 2006, I was one of 20 finalists for Oscar Mayer’s “Sing the Jingle, Be a Star” competition. I sang to Mayor Goodman and rode down the Strip in the wienermobile. I didn’t win the $5,000 top prize or land a part in a commercial, but I got some free bologna. Mya Constantino

This is a coin from Washington, D.C., that I brought home from a family trip. Brent Holmes

Sponsor Message

4 This bear-head bottle opener has been sitting in my kitchen drawer, patiently waiting years to be placed in a home with a backyard worthy of its grandeur. Okay, fine, I might be over-hyping it, but the time has come to take him from “junk” to decor. Christopher Smith

5 Years ago, I bought, like, a hundred of these arcane patches at a military surplus store and give them out as prizes at my chess club. Andrew Kiraly

6 When I was an exchange student to Begium in the mid-’80s, I commemorated my first foray into pubs by collecting coasters. I keep them in a kitchen drawer as if I’d actually take them out and use them, after all these years. Heidi Kyser

7 Camping in the Mojave Desert, I saw a surveyor’s wooden stake on the side of a road. Heeding the words of conservationist/curmudgeon Edward Abbey, I removed it. Not wanting to waste a stick, I carved this small stirring spoon while waiting for the morning coffee to brew. Scott Lien

 

Sponsor Message

May Also Contain: Chris’ designer AIGA cards, Pearl Jam limited beer packaging; Mya’s photo of her childhood best friend’s family, copy of Going Vegan by Linda Blair; Andrew’s embossed watch, Moleskine notebook; Heidi’s used birthday candles, pocket knife; Scott Dickensheets’ purple fan; Hayleigh’s cassette tape; Brent’s plastic rose, orange monster head; Scott Lien’s green pen from an old friend, Thee Swank Bastards pin, and Railroad Pass matchbook.

(Editor's note: Brent Holmes no longer works for Nevada Public Radio)
As a longtime journalist in Southern Nevada, native Las Vegan Andrew Kiraly has served as a reporter covering topics as diverse as health, sports, politics, the gaming industry and conservation. He joined Desert Companion in 2010, where he has helped steward the magazine to become a vibrant monthly publication that has won numerous honors for its journalism, photography and design, including several Maggie Awards.
Desert Companion welcomed Heidi Kyser as staff writer in January 2014. In 2024, Heidi was promoted to managing editor, charged with overseeing the Desert Companion and State of Nevada newsrooms.
As a 1999 graduate of Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA, Christopher Smith set out to make his mark in the designer world. Shortly after his arrival in Las Vegas, he started working for a small design studio, where is quickly ascended in the local design community. Wanting to branch out and see where else his designer eye could be used, he found his way to Greenspun Media Group where he started work on the Las Vegas Weekly and Las Vegas Life. Within his first 2 years he was promoted to Art Director of Las Vegas Life, where he received several awards for his work in this magazine.