Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter At times, it’s difficult to see what’s right under your nose, or to see change happening over time, like when you haven’t seen a niece or nephew for a few months and are amazed at how much they’ve grown or to see how much a beloved uncle has …
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Kickass and Wolves in Charge
Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper on one of his “trips,” imagining how it might have turned out if, back when the earliest wolves and humans first began hanging out around the same campfires, just how it would have evolved if the wolves instead of the humans …
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Kickass and Long-Ago Summers
Attribution: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, shares the speakers’ couch with the keeper on this post 4th of July morning to allow him to revive other such mornings when the rural communities across the Midwest measured them by: *Cavernous hay mows stuffed to the …
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Kickass and The Silver Badgers
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper announces to the world that living with Phyllis adds many dimensions to his life, and most recently he has been basking in the reflected energy of Phyllis’s identity as a founding member of the Silver Badgers, the lively protest group …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Project Hail Mary”
Joyride: Film Review of Project Hail Mary ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Movies can be art, movies can be social commentary, movies be instructional, but mostly—in reality—movies can be, and are, entertaining. They have to be, at least in this country because the film industry is a business, and feeling good is …
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Kickass and Back to the Water
Photo by Bill Stokes Photo by Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, observed the 4th of July action from under the bed as the keeper and Phyllis joined the multitudes in a symbolic return to the water from whence their species came. That water attraction, in its identity as a living and recreational cultural prize, has …
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Happy Fourth of July from The Pen in Hand Blog!!
Attribution: National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Kickass and Fireworks
Attribuion: Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, on behalf of all dogs, condemns the use of exploding fireworks as the main tool for celebrating the country’s July 4th birthday. The BANG! BOOM! -practice is, as Kickass sees it, one of those brainless ritual holiday accouterments that once in the hands of profiteers becomes …
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Independence Day
(Last published July 4th, 2025, but–unfortunately, it is as timely now as it was then) Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Our nation is celebrating The Fourth of July today. Any American can—hopefully—tell you what this holiday is all about. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, severing …
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Kickass Does a Book Reading
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will nap today on behalf of the Keeper and Phyllis as they are off to Quarry Ridge Retirement Community to do a book reading program for the keeper’s novel Ah, the Women! It is the story of how women take over the world to save …
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A Fourth of July Memorial
Attribution: Photo by Alex Martinez on Unsplash (Originally published July 4th, 2025) By Geoff Carter Every Fourth of July, we celebrate and honor an idea, a hope, and a dream which has survived two hundred and fify years. It seemed to be an impossible dream, that a nation could function as a free democracy, with lawmakers elected by …
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Kickass and the Lost Wedding Note
Attribution: makaiyla willis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis found the following note lying on the floor near the elevator. “Dear Gert: “Well, Louie has done it again, we are on our way to the Taylor Swift wedding and of course we do …
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