Attribution: Missouri Historical Society , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, consults with Badass Badger for the best way to contend with a day that includes news and photos of starving children, the narcissistic outrageousness of abusive pedophiles, fresh war casualties, celebrity nonsense, the price of eggs, cheerful messages from …
Read
Kickass and Workers Over Billionaires
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joined the keeper and Phyllis and several hundred enthusiastic sign carriers, bell-ringing alderwoman Joanne Pritchett, the singing “Raging Grannies” and a multitude of “Silver Badgers” in wheelchairs, with walkers and using canes at the intersection of Tree Lane and Gammon Road Monday to wave …
Read
Kickass and Cow Chip Throwing Contest
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s proud announcement that granddaughter Sarah participated in the Sauk-Prairie cow chip throwing weekend, running a marathon and throwing a chip a respectable distance. The keeper is not on Sarah’s coaching staff which is headed by Sarah’s father Mike who has …
Read
Happy Labor Day from the Pen in Hand Blog
Attribution: Richard Hurd from Green Bay, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Support Our Unions!! King Harvest Has Surely Come by The Band “I work for the Union/’Cause She’s So Good to Me/ –Robbie Robertson
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Legend of Ochi”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Beauty of the Beast: Review of The Legend of Ochi ★★★★☆ By Geoff Carter As a child in the sixties, I cut my teeth on family films like Old Yeller, Babes in Toyland, 101 Dalmatians, and The Parent Trap, a cinematic universe dominated by Walt Disney, whose influence spread from the big screen into …
Read
Kickass and All Americans
Attribution: archivesnews, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the door stop dog, notes there are similar results in sniffing up those masked ICE guys with their disguises and hostility, and the scents given off by those with their street signs and chants protesting the emergence of Nazism to replace Democracy: They all have …
Read
Kickass and Badass Badger
Attribution: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports receiving a message from Badass Badger who provides security for the keeper and Phyllis from his post on their 5th floor Vista West balcony. That message, when its language was cleaned up for public consumption, was: “On this Wisconsin Badger …
Read
Kickass and School Walk
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that during a recent visit to youthful haunts the keeper, retraced the mile and a half of country roads that he and his sister and brother walked to the one-room country school up in Barron County. The retracing was done by car in …
Read
Kickass and the Story of an Hour
Attribution: Meena Yarlagadda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper in an attempt to manipulate time, designated one specific hour yesterday during which he isolated himself in a comfortable outdoor chair with a view of little else but a parade of pillow clouds across a beautiful blue …
Read
Cornered
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We’re in deep trouble and there doesn’t seem to be anything anybody can do about it. Our rights, our way of life, and our democracy are under attack from within. Armed soldiers are patrolling the streets of our greatest cities, U.S. citizens are being arrested, detained, and deported …
Read
Kickass and Evening News
Attribution: U.S. News & World Report photographer Thomas J. O’Halloran, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper watching the evening NBC news program of 8/26/25 when one of the lead stories was the engagement of Taylor and Travis the celebrity show biz-sports couple. The story went on …
Read
Kickass and Cousins
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper immersed in cousin matters as a result of a recent meeting with cousins Pat and Barbara and Ron, and then remembering what an incredible adventurous pleasure it was to have grown up with a raft of cousins almost within shouting distance. …
Read