Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter We visited the beautiful resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, not so long ago. Our trip happened to coincide with Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This holiday, celebrated on the evening of November 1st and the day of the 2nd,, is an offshoot of (but …
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Category:Holidays
Kickass and Halloween Witches
Attribution: Photo provided by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper favors Halloween as his favorite holiday for its encouragement to do totally stupid things. It can’t get any stupider than to tip over the outhouse, which was a feature of the keeper’s youthful Halloweens. The advent of modern …
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Whistling In the Graveyard
Photo by Geoff Carter Por Dia de Los Muertos and Halloween (Originally posted on October 31, 2019) Photos by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter While driving around running errands this last Sunday, my wife and I found ourselves in the somewhat unusual position of having some time to kill, a strange situation for us. It …
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Kickass and Native Peoples
Attribution: Grand Canyon National Park, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remarking that celebrating the indigenous people and Columbus on the same day is such a fox-in-the-henhouse situation as to be beyond insulting. During his long journalistic meandering the keeper had many occasions of contact with …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Vincent Price
Attribution: Allied Artists, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Well, it’s that time of year again. Halloween, Dia de Las Muertas, All Hallows Eve—no matter how you slice it—that night of bewitching and trick or treat is nearly here. (Although since we’ve been seeing ads for it since Labor Day, it might seem …
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Happy Labor Day from the Pen in Hand Blog
Attribution: Richard Hurd from Green Bay, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Support Our Unions!! King Harvest Has Surely Come by The Band “I work for the Union/’Cause She’s So Good to Me/ –Robbie Robertson
Kickass and InDepends
Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis survived Independence Day 2025 curious as to whether or not “INDEPENDence Day” had anything to do with the origin of the “Depends,” brand name, a not unheard-of word in their crowd. See more at… The Bill Stokes Author Page
A Fourth of July Memorial
Attribution: Photo by Alex Martinez on Unsplash By Geoff Carter Every Fourth of July, we celebrate and honor an idea, a hope, and a dream which has survived more than two hundred and forty years. It seemed to be an impossible dream, that a nation could function as a free democracy, with lawmakers elected by the people to …
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Happy 2025 Father’s Day from the Pen in Hand
Happy Father’s Day!! Photo by Kris Carter
Kickass and Birthday Parade
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper is happy with the birthday celebration and parade over the weekend. He wished a very happy 90th birthday to his brother Orville at the lunch party that included their 91-year-old sister Norma and Orv’s daughter Lea. And then later there was a …
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Kickass and Festivals
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, napped as the keeper and Phyllis joined in the summer-long tradition of immigrant descendants gathering to celebrate their ethnicities. It was the “Festa Italia” at Mckee Farms Park and a great time was had by all thanks in part to the hosting of Gary and …
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Kickass and Memorial Day 2025
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper is still around on this Memorial Day to get his usual note off to the two I & R platoon mates who are NOT around and haven’t been since the artillery shell took them out the day after their squad …
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