Attribution: Dorothea Lange, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and thousands of other “Depression babies” would likely not exist had there been an “affordability” consideration to their births. But since there is no immediate cost to the physical act of making babies, even with an …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to Defining the Holiday Movie Genre: The “Die Hard” Question
Originally Published December 19, 2024 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter At this festive time of year, many of us observe the holiday traditions of Christmas like trimming the tree, singing carols, buying the presents, visiting Santa, and on and on and on. Part of our celebration of the holiday includes seeing the myriads …
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Get Off My Cloud
Attribution: Photo by Ava Tyler on Unsplash By Geoff Carter We recently took a week-long trip to Puerto Vallarta, one of our all-time favorite vacation destinations. We booked an early, a very early, an ungodly early, flight. Our Uber driver got us to the airport about 3:30 am—partly because we always try to follow airport guidelines—but partly because …
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“Just Like the Ones I Used to Know”: The Pen in Hand’s Guide to the Ten Best Vintage Christmas Movies
Photo by Geoffrey Carter 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 spirit of Christmas amongst all …
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Kickass and Illegal Order
Attribution: Hillebrand Steve, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, after getting Phyllis’s approval, is seeking reactivation of his military status so he can see what happens when he refuses to obey an unlawful military order to help murder men in …
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Kickass and Broken Tail
Attribution: T. H. Heard (engraver), Heard, T. H. (engraver, active ca. 1879) (Engraver) Harper’s magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, ever anxious to share his vast store of rural knowledge with innocent citified friends, notes that growing up “country” means being surrounded by critters …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to Spinning Classic Christmas Vinyl
Photo by The Retro Store on Unsplash By Geoff Carter While those of us at The Pen in Hand 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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Kickass and Calling Reporters Names
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper passing the word that when it comes to calling reporters derogatory names, the POTUS—with his “piggy” and “bad person” is a minor leaguer. As he thinks back over the years at some of the names he was called, …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Eddington”
Don’t Fence Me In: Film Review of Eddington ★★★☆ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Films about conspiracy theories seem to be everywhere lately. After reviewing Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, an incisively caustic black comedy about the conflicts between reality, beliefs, and alienation, I watched Ari Aster’sEddington, a neo-Western set during the Covid lockdown in 2020 …
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Kickass and Day of Infamy
Attribution: Photographer: UnknownUnknown Retouched by: Mmxx, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis on this “day that will live in infamy” to suggest that the country is under a sneak attack that is more debilitating than any Pearl Harbor, and the defense against it has …
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Kickass and Girls’ Ride Home
Attribution: Photo by A n v e s h on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper identifying with FBI director Kash Patel on the possible fallout of giving girlfriends a ride home. When it happened to the keeper, that fallout literally turned his life around. He was doing the chivalrous task of giving …
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Kickass and the Speed of Electricity
Attribution: Thomas Booker (CoderThomasB), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, observes, along with the keeper and Phyllis, that life is a continuous process of learning from the curious among us, such as Louie the hired man who once challenged the horse barn ghost to come out and account for itself. …
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