Kickass and Gloria Steinem

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in honoring another great woman–Gloria Steinem who died earlier this week at 92 after a lifetime of helping lead her collective gender out of the male dominate historical weeds. Among the many things Gloria said was that there would …
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Kickass Goes Beyond Howling

Attribution: Henry Edward Knobel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, still working to teach the keeper how to howl effectively, tries to ignore the brutal truth that the required reaction to the POTUS narcissistic cruelty has progressed beyond howling to demand snarling, mad-dog attacks complete with abject resistance and …
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Scorched Earth

Attribution: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using GEOS data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Adam Voiland., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter As malignant, cruel, narcissistic, greedy, criminal, vindictive, juvenile, misogynistic, incompetent, racist, destructive, deceitful, power-hungry, stupid, and un-American he is, Donald Trump is …
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Kickass and the Log-Walk to School

Attribution: Joshua Mayer from Madison, WI, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper coming late to the competition for the toughest walk to school–uphill and into the wind both ways, amends his entry to include the log walk into time. This did not involve just …
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Kickass and the Cherry Trees

Attribution: Андрей Романенко, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in utilizing trees for territorial marking purposes, recognizes their importance in meaningful communication. It is therefore easy for him to understand just how upset the keeper and Phyllis are over the news of a hundred or so 60-year-old cherry trees …
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Kickass and Phyllis’s Dancing School

Photo provided by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper announces the tentative opening of the Phyllis School of Impromptu Dance and Acrobatics after her recent spectacular demonstration.  It began as Phyllis was pivoting with a handful of books, whereupon she executed a partial reverse rotation, stepped off-balance past the …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass”

Tit for Tat: Review of Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass ★★★☆ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Slapstick, satire, parody, black comedy, the rom-com, and screwball comedies. Everything from Duck Soup to Dr. Strangelove to A Fish Called Wanda to Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail to Bringing up Baby to Young Frankenstein to Idiocracy falls under the umbrella of film comedy, but …
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Kickass and the Body Camera Fiasco

Attribution: Photo by Junior REIS on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper ready with an explanation as to why such an enlightened city as Madison has yet to provide its police force with body cameras. The keeper has learned that it is all due to an early misunderstanding regarding the true function of …
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Kickass and the Has-Beens

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper did a little turn-back-the-clock number with the kind help of friends Ken and Joel with a lunch gathering of current “has-beens,” a group that has been in existence since before Pat Lucy left Wisconsin to become ambassador to Mexico. The …
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Kickass and Moon Over Mazo

Photo provided by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis, noting the recent Sturgeon Moon machinations, thank the keeper’s grandson Andy for sending along a photo by “Lindsey’s cousin” of the moon’s performance over the Mazomanie house the keeper and his family members built 25 years ago and …
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Kickass and Canadian Toilet Paper

Attribution: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that it was as inevitable as the sunrise that the keeper passed along critical information about the toilet paper issue, specifically how it might be influenced by what goes on between the US and Canada. Many Canadian trees are cut …
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