https://mva.gov.ua/, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in welcoming great-grandchildren into their respective clans; and they watch images of the sweet babies, as the incredibly tragic world news carries items of the maiming and slaughter of Ukraine children. The keeper is reminded of some …
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Foul Weather
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Over the past two weeks, our Wisconsin weather—always a wild card—has been beyond extreme. We shot up from a high of sixty-one degrees last Wednesday to a high of ninety-five on Thursday (never mind the heat index). That next night the temperature plummeted to the low sixties. This …
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Kickass and Phyllis Photos
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that as a photo-artist, Phyllis works at performing visual miracles with her photos, as well as with those of the keeper, who operates with the photo philosophy that if he takes enough shots of the same subject, one of them may turn out …
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Kickass and Indecent Senators
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, would see the keeper’s memory bank in the form of a landfill, except that it predates such garbage-handling progress and goes back to the days of rat-infested dumps where anything could be deposited to …
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Kickass and Naked Gardening
Tainted Fruit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, having successfully assisted Phyllis in negotiating “Naked Gardening Day” back in May, is offering his help as “Naked Bike Riding Day” is followed by “Naked Hiking Day,” marking activities that Phyllis once participated in—fully clothed, of course. …
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New Wave Cinema 2.0: The Films of Martin Scorsese
Siebbi, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter In The New Wave 2.0 series, The Pen in Hand Blog will be examining the work of today’s most provocative and influential filmmakers, artists whose filmic stylings and compelling narratives have stretched the boundaries of modern cinema. Referencing Francois Truffaut’s definition of an auteur, these pieces …
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Kickass and Father’s Day Leftovers
Koburg, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in a Father’s Day leftover that cites the area of useless things fathers taught their offspring; in the keeper’s case that would be harnessing a team of work horses, which was, of course not useless at the time, the keeper …
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Kickass and Father’s Day
Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that if the book of fathers is ever written, its title should be something like “Flying on Empty” or maybe “Brain Surgery Using Chopsticks,” pointing to the verity that no father in history has ever had a complete grasp of just …
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Kickass and POOF
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, having something of an ancestral history with packs, understands the keeper’s desire to form a pack to counter the inane “Proud Boys” pack now emerging as the lead hyenas in the Jan. 6 democracy herd take-down attempt. Recently freed from the burden of feeling …
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Kickass and Fruit Fly Travel
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s Covid timeout has enhanced his efforts to see his recent mountains/glacier travels with Phyllis in a more natural context, perhaps like that of a couple of fruit flies emerging from nowhere to seek some of life’s vague sweetness. If there …
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Kickass and Covid Quarantine
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the Covid isolation for the keeper and Phyllis is going as well as that sort of thing can go: the keeper defines it as waiting for “green” at one of life’s arbitrary traffic lights; Phyllis fills the waiting time with soup-making and …
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Prime Time
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I’m old enough to remember when the Watergate hearings aired in May of 1973. The Senate had established the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to uncover unlawful activities—including the Watergate break-in—during the 1972 presidential campaign. Of course, thanks to the incredible investigative reporting at the Washington Post, …
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