Attribution: YIRO5005, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Christmas on the Border, 1929 by Alberto Rios By Geoff Carter The holiday season is all about family tradition. Whether it’s about going to Midnight Mass, carving the Christmas ham, avoiding the mother-in-law’s homemade eggnog, or sampling Grandma’s oyster stew, traditions are what makes our holidays special. But …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “MaXXXine”
Illustration by Michel DiMilo A Star is Reborn: Film Review of MaXXXine By Geoff Carter ★★★1/2 While MaXXXine, the third and final installment of Ti West’s X Film Series, revisits some characters and situations from X and Pearl, the first chapters of the series, it takes us down a different—and deeper—rabbit hole than its predecessors. Instead of providing a …
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Dialogues on Rebuilding the Canadian Pipeline: Enbridge Too Far
Attribution: USEPA Environmental-Protection-Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring The Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., and Geoff Carter Bots, You may have heard of the controversy over Enbridge Line 5. Or not. You may not even be interested! But here goes. Sorry, this is lengthy and the payoff is not …
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Kickass and Polar Plunge
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis did not participate in the Winter solstice activities on the banks of Black Earth Creek in Mazomanie and therefore missed the opportunity to dive into the creek following the great bonfire. Many of the keeper’s family members, however, did …
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The Pen in Hand’s Collection of Unconventional Christmas Moments: “Fairytale of New York”
Attribution: John Tenniel , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Katzenjammer and Ben Caplan The holiday season is all about family tradition. Whether it’s about going to Midnight Mass, carving the Christmas ham, avoiding the mother-in-law’s homemade eggnog, or sampling Grandma’s oyster stew, traditions are what makes our holidays special. But some people are hurting. Many are …
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Kickass and Shortest Day
Attribution: Eric Jones / Winter solstice dawn over Llanrug By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis greeting this shortest day of the year with unbound enthusiasm and by withdrawing their names from the great “transfer portal.” It is their shared conviction that continuing to play on the current team with its incoming …
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The Pen in Hand’s Collection of Unconventional Christmas Moments: The Christmas Truce
Attribution: Frederic Villiers (1851–1922), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Christmas Truce By Geoff Carter The holiday season is all about family tradition. Whether it’s about going to Midnight Mass, carving the Christmas ham, avoiding the mother-in-law’s homemade eggnog, or sampling Grandma’s oyster stew, traditions are what makes our holidays special. But some people are …
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Kickass and Crooked Trees
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in this season of special trees by recalling their visit to the “Crooked Bush” in Saskatchewan some years ago near Phyllis birthplace. The Crooked Bush is a three-acre patch of trembling aspen with unique twisted growth patterns that have …
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The Pen in Hand’s Collection of Unconventional Christmas Moments: “Ice Dance”
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Ice Dance from “Edward Scissorshands” By Geoff Carter The holiday season is all about family tradition. Whether it’s about going to Midnight Mass, carving the Christmas ham, avoiding the mother-in-law’s homemade eggnog, or sampling Grandma’s oyster stew, traditions are what makes our holidays special. But some people are hurting. Many are …
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Kickass and Elon’s XMas
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, through his seasonal powers of being bad in these pre-Christmas days in order to make other bad people feel good about themselves, has intercepted Elon Musk’s letter to Santa: “Listen up, old man. Here’s the new Christmas …
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Crises of Conscience
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The world was shocked when Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Insurance, was recently murdered in broad daylight on a busy street in Manhattan. Reports confirmed a gunman clad in a gray hoodie who fled on a bicycle and then escaped on a bus and that shell …
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The Pen in Hand’s Collection of Unconventional Christmas Moments: “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” by Tom Waits
Happy Holidays from The Pen in Hand Blog
Attribution: Archives Branch, USMC History Division, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christmas_Card,_1_December_1941,_page_2_of_3.jpg