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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Category:Michael DiMilo
Bursting the Balloon
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The story was all over the headlines—”Pentagon Says It Detected a Chinese Spy Balloon Hovering Over Montana”, NY Times, 2/2/2023, or “Chinese Spy Balloon flying over U.S. ‘right now,’ Pentagon says”, Washington Post, 2/3/2023. And on and on. The story dominated the news cycle for the entire week, culminating on February …
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The Little Things
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week was bad. Really bad. Three mass shootings in California shocked the nation. Over the course of forty-four hours nineteen people were killed and dozens of others wounded. In all, over forty mass shootings have taken place in our country this January—a new monthly record. Of course, …
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Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The boomer generation has hung onto the remnants of their youth like a terrier shaking a rat. They just won’t let go, unlike members of the Greatest Generation who accepted aging with dignity and aplomb. They didn’t mind sporting beer bellies or fret if their hair was thinning. …
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A Road Less Traveled
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter On Friday nights, my wife and I will typically open a bottle of wine and settle in to watch some streaming TV, usually a movie or a limited series, but this last weekend, after supper, I went into the family room and started sorting out some of our …
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House of Trumpenstein
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In Mary Woolstencraft Shelley’s class horror novel Frankenstein, a demented mad scientist seeks to kindle life in a body assembled from body parts of the recent dead. In the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, the nefarious Dr. Evil created an exact miniature duplicate of himself, his Mini-Me. Both …
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Dialogues on the Big Bully Pulpit: Playground Politics
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Devotee-DeBusherre Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter This got wordy, I’ll try and distill it first. Though I don’t like the term for the campaign—bullying—(I think many scoff at it saying…”Well (male, gravel pitched, voice),…it’s a tough world out …
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The Pen in Hand’s Guide to the Movies: Ringing in the New Year
Maasaak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Originally posted in December, 2020) By Geoff Carter We thought we had it made after getting out of 2020, but this has been another hard year—remembering everything that happened is painful—but we have to; if we do not remember, we’ll be doomed to repeat the same mistakes yet again. …
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The Pen in Hand Presents a Michael DiMilo Production…
Babs and Knuckles in their Holiday Special Deck the Halls Artwork by Michael DiMilo Video and Story by Michael DiMilo In memory of Dave Bolyard The holiday season is all about family tradition. Whether it’s about going to Midnight Mass, carving the Christmas ham, avoiding the mother-in-law’s homemade eggnog, or sampling Grandma’s oyster stew, traditions …
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Birds-Eye View
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I received a somewhat surprising gift for my birthday recently. My wife gave me a bird feeder fitted with a digital camera that streams images of our backyard friends directly onto our handheld devices. The pictures are brilliant, sharp, and completely engaging. It’s as if the birds are …
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The Pen in Hand’s Guide to a Vintage TV Christmas
“Oscar the Elf” Photo by Geoff Carter
Nightmare on Main Street
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter As I get older, I occasionally catch myself repeating things. Maybe a story, maybe a joke, maybe a memory, maybe a point. That’s just part of aging—one of its inevitabilities. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about gun violence titled What’s It Going to Take? inspired by …
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