Attribution: Marcin n® ☼, recreated from scratch by Quibik, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper on this 4th of July listening to the echoes of explosives out of Philadelphia as four people die in the 29th mass shooting of the year to bring the total US dead to 2,900 …
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Kickass and Inane Fireworks
Photo by Arthur Chauvineau on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper will be joining the dogs under the porch or the bed or any other place that shields him from the inanity of 4th of July fireworks. From backyard boom freaks to soaring commercial rocket excesses, the keeper sees the use of explosives …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Asteroid City”
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons “Living in Another World”: Film Review of Asteroid City By Geoff Carter There are only a few filmmakers working today whose style can be recognized within the first few frames of a film. This was possible with past artists like Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Tati, or …
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Kickass and Rules to Live By
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, worked with the keeper in formulating the following rules to live by: *Being a billionaire is immoral: turn yourself in. *Millionaires require permits to be issued by the homeless and the hungry. *Those running for POTUS on the Repub ticket need to join the scarecrow …
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Kickass and SCOTUS Dog Decision
Adelaidasofia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has been advised by the keeper that the recent rampage-against-reason by the Supine Court of the US includes the long-standing right of dogs to stand on three legs while peeing on trees and fire hydrants. Under the six/three SCOTUS decision, with the …
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Kickass and Phyllis Update
Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in an update that includes the following: *Phyllis is at home recovering from her midnight heart attack, artery stent in place and feistiness intact. *Reports of a very elderly man, who uses a walking stick, being lost in the …
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Kickass and Phyllis Heart Attack
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in reporting that Phyllis experienced a middle-of-the-night heart attack and is currently recovering at UW Hospital after the insertion of a stent in a totally clogged artery and medication for another that was 70 percent clogged. Phyllis anticipates being released today …
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Another Breath of Fresh Air
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Life seems more hectic, frantic, and stressful than ever before. Not only do we have the usual worries about money, health, and our kids, but we also have additional anxieties concerning climate change, political extremism, mass shootings, raging pandemics, government dysfunction (maybe not such a new problem) plus …
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Get Well Soon, Phyllis Stokes…
Photo by Bill Stokes Best Wishes from The Pen in Hand Blog…
Kickass Rejects Horseshit
Redneck Revolt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s impatience with an allegedly enlightened populace’s unwavering allegiance to some of the rules that were written back when a major traffic problem was horse shit in the streets. That there are laudable basic precepts to live by in …
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Kickass and Fallingwater
lachrimae72, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s efforts to rid his cluttered mental closet of trash has finally taken up his thinking that Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwaters” house in Pa. is an offense to a beautiful natural stream and would justifiably be illegal in Wisconsin. Building …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Magic Under the Stars
RoyBuchanan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:112_Drive-In.jpg By Geoff Carter Whenever I’m near my hometown, I go past the site of the old Starlite Drive-in, which they torn down a while ago. I still miss the sight of the titanic blue structure towering on the horizon, and always remember the place where I spent a …
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