The Pen in Hand Blog
Illustration by Michael DiMilo
Month:May 2025
Kickass and Five Reasons to Exist
Attribution: Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, warns the keeper and Phyllis that it will obviously only be a matter of time until they get notices from the Fox News rejects and Musk, who are now producing the national tragi-comedy TV show in Washington entitled “What’s …
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Kickass and Four Sons
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noted the keeper’s delight with the recent posting by Becky W. of an old photo of him and his four sons at a long-ago rare moment when the sons were all lined up like innocent choir boys. The photo dates to the early 1960’s …
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Kickass and Spring of 2025
Attribution: USFWS Mountain Prairie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis issuing the following executive order: All Wisconsin residents and visitors shall, within the next few days, immerse themselves in the birthing of the summer of 2025. It is a magnificent thing: trees in colorful new-leaf …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Companion”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Body and Soul: Review of Companion ★★★★☆ By Geoff Carter What is it that makes us human? Is it sentience, emotional awareness, empathy, intelligence, or the knowledge of our own mortality? Is it the ability to manipulate our environment? We share many of these qualities with our fellow creatures. Birds build their …
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Happy Mother’s Day from The Pen in Hand Blog
Attribution: Photo by Nienke Burgers on Unsplash To all the great mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers–and to Mother Earth, too. Happy Mother’s Day!!
Kickass and World Mom
Attribution: Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the rest of the world to pause this day to think about Mom without whom none of us would be here. Thanks for that, Mom. And we know that if you were in charge, the …
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Kickass and Hummingbirds
Attribution: Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, watched the keeper hang the hummingbird feeder off his and Phyllis’s 5th floor balcony railing and refrained from laughing at such foolish human behavior. (Dogs can laugh but they do it silently so it doesn’t embarrass their keepers who are forever doing dumb and …
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Kickass and Chicago Bobs
Attribution: Photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in welcoming yet another great “Bob” with Chicago ties onto the scene, but he cautions Pope Leo that he will never have the clout in the keeper’s life that his old pal Bob Shephard had. From a snowy Korean hillside with …
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Kickass and Military Industrial Complex
Attribution: Dsns.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper and Phyllis can do nothing about their membership in the “US Military Industrial Complex” except pay their dues and complain about the annoying roar of F-35s sharpening the spears of war out at Truax. Want to go …
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Stemming the Tide
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The beat goes on. And on. It just won’t stop. Like the relentless pounding of a jackhammer or the thumping of an overdriven car speaker, the deranged agenda of the Trump administration and its Project 2025 adherents will just… not… stop. For a while, it seemed as if …
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Kickass and Canada Relations
The Pen in Hand Blog featuring Bill Stokes
Attribution: Aerra Carnicom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CGI_Canada_Flag.png