Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis with a message for all grandchildren, great and otherwise: If you insist on emerging from your cuddly, cute stage to enter a growth cycle that would shame July corn, try to give your old grandparents—great and otherwise, some warning. …
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Kickass and Sit and Stay
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be starting the new year by assisting the keeper and Phyllis as they review the true significance of “sit and stay!” in their lives. This old dog-training command obviously goes far beyond its original aim of having the target subject actually “sit and …
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Happy New Year from The Pen in Hand Blog!!
Attribution: Rakib Ale, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A Year to Remember
Attribution: Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash By Geoff Carter Today is New Year’s Day, typically a time to look back at the events of the past year. This is a time when our triumphs, defeats, gains, and losses are examined, weighed, and measured. In many ways, 2025 might be a year we would not care to remember, but …
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The Pen in Hand’s Guide to the Movies: Ringing in the New Year
The Ten Best New Year’s Eve Films Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash By Geoff Carter We’re almost there. We only have one more day of 2025 to endure. Thank God. It’s been a year of firsts. There’s a few we would like to celebrate, others not so much. But New Year’s Eve is a time to look forward …
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Kickass and Hi-Tech
Attribution: Photo by phyo min on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, endorses the keeper’s New Year’s resolution that he will never again complain about the abuse continually bestowed on him, and Phyllis, by the ever-changing tech world. With the subject of tech torture eliminated from the flow of the keeper’s communicating, expect more observations about …
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Kickass and Canadian Visitors
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper, being married to Canadian-born Phyllis, feels a special concern with the word out of Canada that the Canadians are through visiting the US due to it having been taken over by the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, especially on 5th Avenue. …
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Kickass and Dead Zoo
Attribution: René Cortin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s recall of the starvation zoo story that never became a news story because the culprit was an acquaintance of the publisher of The Wisconsin State Journal where the keeper was employed. The zoo owner’s plan had been …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Train Dreams”
Lost in the Woods: Movie Review of Train Dreams ★★★★ By Geoff Carter Illustration by Michael DiMilo Some movies are plot-driven and action-packed narratives that grab you by the collar and pull you through heart-stopping adventures without ever letting go. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Predator, and Die Hard (a Christmas movie? The debate rages on) are prime examples …
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Kickass Milks the Cows
Attribution: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Common By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper offering to teach the ICE agents how to milk cows, a skill that heretofore had been performed by those who were more recent immigrants than all the rest of us and who needed to lay …
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Kickass and a Dog’s Life
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis driving a hundred miles with two young passengers to be part of a Phyllis family Christmas gathering at which a gifting game was played, great food was served by Alexis and Jerad and introductions were made to their chickens, …
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Kickass Goes South
Attribution: Florida Memory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that for many years the keeper would be using these post-holiday days to return his Christmas gifts for cash he could use to buy enough gas to get the hell out of Wisconsin and far enough south to go …
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