Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting the keeper’s inclination to dig things up that might better remain buried, reviews the long saga of the Encyclopedia Britannica. As a symbol of knowing everything the Encyclopedia Britannica was “it”, in the keeper’s early adult years and when he scored a complete …
Read
Kickass and Cooking a Shore Lunch
Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the colorful air wafting down from Canada reminds the keeper of one of his more embarrassing–nay, “humiliating” moments, when on a Canadian fishing trip, he took it upon himself to cook the fish shore lunch for his father, Uncle Duffy and their …
Read
Kickass and Mom’s Coughing Genes
Attribution: Zephyris at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper having the low class to be critical of his mother for passing on to him a cough-trigger mechanism that has him barking “treed” until he is unfit company at weddings and funerals unless the ceremony …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “How to Make a Killing”
No Mystery: Film Review of How to Make a Killing ★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The definition of film noir found in the dictionary probably has a picture of Humphrey Bogart smoking a cigarette and holding a revolver next to it. Look up femme fatale and you’ll find a black and white …
Read
Kickass and Canadian Smoke Signals
Attribution: NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, tries in vain to calm the keeper in his frantic insistence that unless the US accurately reads the smoke signals being sent down by a compassionate Canada a fate worse than death is likely to befall the US citizenry. The failure …
Read
Kickass and National Mother
Attribution: Jack Dykinga, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that it has been a reoccurring dream of the keeper’s that a national no-nonsense mother explodes onto the political scene as if she were returning home early and surprising a gang of house-partying teenage bums, whereupon she starts swinging …
Read
Kickass and the Keeper’s Summer Cold
Attribution: Harry Pot for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, can now report that the keeper insists that the bad air from the Canadian wildfires is part of the plot to cause him maximum misery with a summer cold. It has always been the case that the keeper considered …
Read
Kickass and the Bad Air
Attribution: Bureau of Land Management California, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be barking his alarm to help the keeper and Phyllis spread the word that the polluted gray atmosphere is the result of Pete Hegseth’s efforts to adjust the testosterone levels of the military, which as he …
Read
The American Gestapo
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Minnesota Governor Tim Walz created a major controversy when he compared ICE agents in Minneapolis to the Gestapo. In a commencement address to the University of Minnesota Law School in May 2025, he said, “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked …
Read
Kickass Edits the Shooting Statement
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper, in his fumbling attempt to organize political information to make it as useful as possible, revisits the file that begins with the quotation, “I could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and it …..” In his assertion that he is …
Read
Kickass, Is He Alive or Dead?
Attribution: TV studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s experience with the question of “Is he dead or alive?” as the blunt inquiry was recently asked about the invisible Senator McConnelly. The keeper’s occasion was part of his news reporting on the climax of the two-day …
Read
Kickass Greets the Day
Attribution: Photo by alex lauzon on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the multitudes in greeting this sunny Monday, July 13, 2026 with enthusiasm and the irrefutable knowledge that the possibility of being shot and killed by an unidentified POTUS gestapo agent is as real as more ICE raids at …
Read