The Pen in Hand Blog featuring Bill Stokes
Photo by Bill Stokes
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Room Next Door
Illustration by Michael DiMilo A Friend in Need: Review of The Room Next Door ★★★★☆ By Geoff Carter Film, like painting, is mostly–but arguably–a surface medium. While voiceovers and internal dialogues might allow audiences access to a character’s thoughts or intentions (think Sin City, Taxi Driver, or A Clockwork Orange), the audience is mostly constrained—as we are …
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Kickass and Blaize’s Party
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis thoroughly enjoyed great granddaughter Blaize’s “golden” birthday party hosted by Blaize’s parents Sunny and Kyle. To be three on the third is an important milestone in Blaize’s life and in her pretty party dress she made the most …
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Kickass and Sunrise
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that things have a way of working out for the keeper whether he deserves it or not. Say there is going to be a terrific sunrise on May 3, 2025, but the keeper at 5:53 a.m. is in the middle of an important …
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Kickass Can’t Sleep
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to advise the keeper or Phyllis on why one or the other of them often wakes up in the middle of the night, usually to a bladder demand, and is then unable to get back to sleep and must then lie in …
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Kickass and Demonstrators
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper lending a hand as Phyllis and her Vista West cohorts join the May Day crowd of “IMPEACH-CONVICT-REMOVE” demonstrators across the country. Fresh from a previous practice session earlier at the Capitol there was a serious sign making endeavor—Phyllis’s sign reads “I’M …
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Glimmers of Hope
Attribution: Stiller Beobachter from Ansbach, Germany, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” –Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto Admiral Yamamoto said this after the Japanese sneak attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor—the strike he himself had planned. The …
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Kickass Remembers Grocery Shopping
Attribution: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper remembers a grocery shopping trip with his mother as follows: Park in the Barron, WI. back alley and lug the crate of fresh eggs in through the back door where grocer Harry Meyers checked them over …
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Kickass and Phyllis Demonstration
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper assists Phyllis in celebrating the liberal victory in her Canadian birth country, which speaks to the bald buffoon POTUS’s recent boast that he “runs the country and the world.” “Right into the ground, Baldy. Right into the ground! Meanwhile, back …
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Kickass at the River
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis joining the flood of life forms spending time along the Wisconsin River as Spring dominates like green paint spilled everywhere. The river, with its dark cold water running swift and steady has attracted life ranging from pelicans to people, …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “We Live in Time”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Measured by the Heart: Review of We Live in Time ★★★1/2 By Geoff Carter The tragic love story has been with us forever. From the star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet(and West Side Story) to Love Story to The Notebook to Titanic to Brokeback Mountain—and many, many more—these tales of love and loss and regret draw audiences like flies …
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Kickass and Correspondents’ Dinner
Attribution: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Having been permanently identified by the current POTUS as “enemy of the people”, the White House Press Corps did away with the traditional appearance of a comedian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, previously saying it was an effort to …
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