Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, cheers on the keeper and Phyllis as they celebrate their 6th wedding anniversary with a Vietnamese dinner at Pho Nam where Phyllis drank from a coconut and the keeper demonstrated anew that he will never master eating noodles using chopsticks. In their Vista West crowd, …
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Category:Holidays
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Best of the Irish Cinema
Artwork by Michael DiMilo The Pen in Hand’s Top Ten St. Patrick’s Day Movies By Geoff Carter It’s that time of year again, that special day of days set aside to celebrate the joy of being Irish. Green beer, corned beef sandwiches, the wearing of the green, The Chieftains spinning on your turntable, and a …
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Kickass and Going to the Moon
Attribution: NASA / USGS (see PIA04304 catalog page), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed home as the keeper and Phyllis went across the street to the Memorial High School Planetarium for a great “heart”-themed show that refreshed their perspectives that as tiny heaps of casually arranged cells, they …
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Kickass and Stupid Cupid
Attribution: Photo by Volodymyr Tokar on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has his application in to replace Cupid with “Stupid” as the Valentines Day symbol in keeping with the current trend for utterly unqualified candidates assuming positions of great responsibility. As the keeper becomes widely known as Valentines Day “Stupid” and …
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Mighty Love
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Originally Published 2/14/2022 By Geoff Carter In her novel Surfacing, Margaret Atwood wrote “The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them, there ought to be as many for love.” She‘s probably right, although what passes for love today might not be as important to us as snow …
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Kickass and Groundhog Day 2025
Attribution: EleetCanoe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, using his rare ability to know almost everything before it happens, reports on the latest executive order from the current POTUS: “Executive Order # 365: Starting right now–this very minute, all groundhogs are hereby notified to turn …
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Happy Martin Luther King Junior Day from The Pen in Hand Blog
Attribution: Nobel Foundation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Oh, Christmas Tree
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Each year, in the family holiday tradition, my wife and I venture out to buy our Christmas tree. We’re lucky enough to live across the street from a big tree lot so we don’t have very far to go—we can walk right over. It’s very convenient. It’s also …
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Happy New Year’s Day from The Pen in Hand Blog
Geoff Carter and Company wish you a very Happy, Prosperous, and Safe 2025!! Attribution: HitomiAkane, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Auld Lang Syne by The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin
Kickass and Dryer Flying
Attribution: Baron Maddock, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper welcoming the new year by announcing that from where he most often does his best planning he can hear the clothes dryer out in its hall closet and as it heads into the spin cycle it sounds …
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The Pen in Hand’s Guide to the Movies: Ringing in the New Year
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash By Geoff Carter We’re almost there. We only have one more day of 2024 to endure. It’s been a year of firsts. Some we would like to celebrate, others not so much. But New Year’s Eve is a time to look forward to fresh starts and renewed aspirations. It’s a time of hope …
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Kickass and Grandchildren
Attribution: Eric Ward, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper’s inability to deal with the fact that his first grandchild was born 50 years ago when Katie came into the world as a flawless “19-incher,” the keeper at the time being heavily into trout fishing and its …
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