The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Judge”

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter It’s a well-known adage—and rightly so—that cinema is a collaborative process. A wide-ranging conglomerate of artists ranging from cinematographers, stuntmen, screenwriters, make-up artists, costume designers, production designers, composers, musicians, actors, producers, and finally—ultimately–the director. And this is only a sampling of the artists and technicians who make movies …
Read

Kickass and Pony Silver

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper uses “Derby Day” as a reminder that for an amazingly long period in his developing life he was at the mercy of an arrogant, narcissistic member of the horse family, specifically a pony named Silver who may have been named …
Read

Kickass and Rudy’s Bankruptcy

Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, in his ceaseless sifting and winnowing, not to mention wasting time, happened across Rudy Giuliani’s report to the bankruptcy court listing his monthly expenses at $43,000 and stating that he owes $153 million to creditors, much of …
Read

Kickass and Shooting Dogs

Attribution: Flickr user eric gates . Photo uploaded to commons by user ltshears, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, with something of a “dog’s” personal interest, joins the keeper in observing that when the national subject of debate focuses on when or if a human should shoot a dog, …
Read

Kickass and Cow Manure

Attribution: Wikideas1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lauding the efforts of Henry Redman, writer for The Wisconsin Examiner, for his comprehensive story regarding the problems associated with cow manure disposal in the case of a factory farm in St. Croix county that wants to expand …
Read

Not One of Us

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…” –(The Declaration of Independence) Right. These words were written by a slave owner …
Read

Kickass and Student Demonstrations

Attribution: uwdigitalcollections, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, indulges the keeper as he recalls a bit of his experiences with student demonstrations, the first being when Willard Gonske climbed up into the country school’s lone pine tree and refused to come down. At issue was Willard’s pending discipline for …
Read