VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis Curley, and Geoff Carter Yeesh…. come back from my joyful, gabby, Tuesday “Slacker Ride” awash with endorphins and 14 young kids are dead in Uvalde, TX . Just passing on the Steve Kerr’s commendable rant—he is in Texas tonight …
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Month:June 2022
Kickass and Canadian Friends
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports a pause in the mountain-glacier chase of the Keeper and Phyllis to visit Phyllis’s friend Sheila and her husband Patrick, and brother Albert, who is in Calgary for a wedding. That Canadian-born Phyllis has friends and family here is not surprising of course, nor …
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The Ugliest Americans
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The novel The Ugly American, by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, was an absolute sensation when it came out in 1958. The book was a series of vignettes detailing the general contempt with which American diplomats and citizens treated indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. The term “ugly American” originally …
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Kickass and Lake Louise Redo
Wilson Hui from Calgary, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that there is no doubt that the genius of the Keeper and Phyllis’ mountain and glacier chase has been reached as they settle into a luxurious room at Chateau Lake Louise overlooking the spectacular lake nestled in …
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Kickass and the Glacier
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass the doorstop dog, notes the serious nature of the Keeper and Phyllis’s hunt for glaciers and mountains as they end up on top of 800 foot thick Athabasca glacier in Alberta’s Jasper National Park after a ride in a monstrous vehicle especially designed to traverse glaciers. Standing …
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New Wave Cinema 2.0: The Films of Woody Allen
Colin Swan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter In The New Wave 2.0 series, The Pen in Hand Blog will be examining the work of today’s most provocative and influential filmmakers, artists whose singular filmic stylings and compelling storytelling have stretched the boundaries of cinema. Drawing upon Francois Truffaut’s definition of an auteur, …
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Kickass and Jasper
Photo by Martina Vitáková on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the Doorstop dog, reports the Keeper and Phyllis were greeted to Jasper, BC by a junior sized grizzly bear as they left the railroad cars and boarded a tour bus to continue their glacier mountain quest. Jasper is surrounded by the snow covered Canadian Rockies …
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Kickass Onboard the Rocky Mountaineer
Photo by Adam Patterson on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass the doorstop dog, picks up his report on the Keeper and Phyllis’ traveling travails on the mountainous banks of the Fraser overlooking Lytton, BC, a town totally burned up in a forest fire last summer. A flaw in the tracks ahead dictates the delay, and …
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The Last Straw
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter It happened again. Despite the thoughts and prayers, the demonstrations, the pleas, and the warning signs, it happened again. On May 24th, nineteen fourth graders were shot down like dogs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by an eighteen-year-old armed with semi-automatic weapons that he had purchased …
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Kickass in the Wild
A Note from the Editor Because Kickass and the keeper–our Mr. Stokes–have traveled far beyond the reach of modern technology, we will be without the pithy humor and all-encompassing wisdom of his daily pieces for a short time. He will be returning to The Pen in Hand soon.