Artwork by Michael DiMilo Volume III Over the course of the last two and one-half years, The Pen in Hand Blog has been lucky enough to have obtained the services of free-lance artist Michael DiMilo as a contributor. While his unique style has provided a provocative and edgy feel to the blog, DiMilo’s pieces–obviously–stand alone as works …
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Month:November 2021
Kickass and the Lost Prop
W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in celebrating the good-news story about the 1200-year-old dugout canoe being found and retrieved from Lake Mendota, to become the oldest retrieved watercraft in local history. And, of course, news of the event triggered a Lake Mendota memory of …
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Resignation Spring
Artwork by Michael DiMilo During the height of the COVID quarantine, over 9.6 million Americans lost their jobs (Pew Research Center). Restaurants, theaters, and other public venues were forced to close immediately, but every sector of the economy was eventually affected—and still is. After schools closed, many working parents had to stay home to care …
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Kickass and Dumb Rodgers
All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper endures a sore arm from a Covid booster shot, he cannot resist pointing out that in an Oct. 29 Kickass rant, he detailed his divorce from NFL football and all that goes with it, including the …
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Kickass Remembers the Hunt
Photo by Andrew Coop on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper regretfully turned down an invitation from son Larry to join him, grandsons Nick and Tony and other assorted riffraff at their woods cabin in the beautiful southern Minnesota driftless area for a weekend deer hunt. With other matters interceding, the keeper was left to …
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Kickass and Regurgitation
alleZSoyez, derivative mork of, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to challenge the keeper in his conclusion that the very natural process of regurgitation used by some birds and animals to feed their young, by bees to make honey and by cows to chew their cuds, is …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Living the High Life
Greg Hume, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Review of The White Lotus on HBO In the Buddhist religion, a white lotus is a symbol of mental purity found in the state of bodhi, or awakening. It is also linked to a state of enlightenment and strength. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the lotus-eaters were a society of …
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