Photo by Artem Kniaz on Unsplash (Originally posted in December, 2020) By Geoff Carter We’re almost there. We only have one more day of 2023 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 …
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Category:Michael DiMilo
“Just Like the Ones I Used to Know”: The Pen in Hand’s Guide to Vintage Christmas Movies
Photo by Geoffrey Carter (Originally published, December 10, 2021) By Geoff Carter Well, the Christmas season is upon us in full force. The commercials are everywhere. We’ve seen that ad for the car—or Energizer Bunny, wrapped in a bow and sitting in the driveway on Christmas morning at least one hundred times. Sometimes it’s hard to find the …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to Spinning Classic Christmas Vinyl
Photo by The Retro Store on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December 2019) While the Couch Potato will always be slavishly devoted to his TV home entertainment center, this week he will be putting down the universal remote in order to turn his focus solely on another entertainment form—music. Part of the reason for this departure …
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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 (Originally published in December, 2020) 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 …
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A Moment of Clarity
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In a surprise move last week, the Republican Party took a moral stand. Despite their recent tendencies to kowtow, cave, and kiss ex-President Trump’s posterior, the House of Representative Republicans finally decided to demonstrate that they do know right from wrong by expelling disgraced Republican Congressman George Santos. …
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The Pen in Hand’s Guide to a Vintage TV Christmas
“Oscar the Elf” Photo by Geoff Carter
Strange Fruit
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” –Thomas Jefferson Politics is a strange business everywhere but has become especially peculiar in America. Thomas Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty has been bearing strange fruit. In the past, our democracy …
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The Pen in Hand Movie Guide to Hiding Under the Bed
Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally published on October 31, 2020) I grew up in the sixties and seventies, in what might be called the golden age of the horror movie. Not only were we able to see films The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Scream and Scream Again at the drive-in theater, but every Saturday afternoons we …
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They All Fall Down
Artwork by Michael DiMIlo By Geoff Carter The dominoes are beginning to fall. Who will be next? Nineteen people were indicted in the Fani Willis RICO case against those conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. And, as we’ve seen so often in TV police dramas like Law and Order, Breaking Bad, or The Wire, prosecutors are …
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Kickass Interviews Gerry Mander
Artwork: “Money Badger” by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in incredulity that no member of the press has interviewed GerryMander, considering that after he was put in place by big money, places like Wisconsin became brothels for narcissistic “Johns” with perverted ideas about how to have their way …
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The Nature of Teflon
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter There was always that guy in high school who got away with everything—a Ferris Buehler. We all knew him. Maybe he was a smooth talker, a star athlete, the class president, or the valedictorian. Maybe he had that air of innocence and was the last one anyone would …
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Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Towering White Pines—monarchs of the North. Beautiful cold and crystal-clear lakes. Deep, dark, peaceful woods. Silent, gold-tinged, magenta clouds scattered across the skies at sunset. Wisps of fog rising from the water at dawn. Red-eyed loons rising from the cool depths. These are the Northwoods of Wisconsin, better …
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