Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed home and napped as the keeper and Phyllis wrestled with the question of “Where have all the flowers gone?” with a windshield survey designed in part to immerse them in something–spring flowers, free of the current narcissistic idiotic political meddling. It turns out …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Pitt”
Making Medicine: Television Review of The Pitt ★★★★ By Geoff Carter Illustration by Michael DiMilo I—and many of my boomer friends—grew up watching TV medical dramas. They were everywhere. Medical Center, St. Elsewhere, Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Marcus Welby, M.C., M*A*S*H*, and dozens of others kept popping up like weeds on network television. Most were dramas, …
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Kickass and Natural Dinner
Attribution: Photo by James Wainscoat on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper promotes the verity that humans are as much a part of the natural world as the birds and the bees, he points to the many natural parallels to the interrupted community feeding at the Correspondents dinner last night. When …
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Kickass and Printer Hookup
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper will be filing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the man in India who spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with Phyllis as the two of them discussed the intricacies of hooking up a new printer and even at …
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Kickass and the Big Snake
Attribution: Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that diversion in these absurd Wizard-of-Odd days is essential, and the discovery of the dead 20-foot Burmese Phython in an Iowa County ditch near the rural Hillside School fills the bill nicely. Community attention immediately and almost …
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Kickass and Flying Through the Night
Attribution: Photo by Chris Briggs on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that while the keeper and Phyllis and their flightless crowd slept through last night, 25.2 million birds were in flight up in the night sky on their way to summer family- rearing haunts as far away as the arctic tundra. That is a …
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Absolute Corruption
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The great English historian Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” and speculative novelist Robert Shea once declared, “Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.” Current events seem to be bearing out these predictions. Of course, what’s transpiring in Washington, D.C. today is …
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Kickass Remembers Earth Days
Attribution: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Gabrielle Spalding, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the multitudes on this Earth Day to salute its originator—Gaylord Nelson, and in the keeper’s case, to remember a few personal contacts with the classiest senator Wisconsin …
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Kickass and the Morning Maze
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper starts every morning looking out across the parking lot at the schools and the streets and the many distant buildings, and then marveling at how everybody gets where they need to be in such a fast-paced routine of sharing intersections and …
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Kickass and Saving Beagles
Attribution: Photo by David Gomez on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, would be traitorous to his species if he did not encourage the keeper to at least acknowledge the chaotic scene that has been playing out at the dog breeding and research facility in rural Dane County. Hundreds of activists have attempted to “rescue” some …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Sirat”
Road to Nowhere: Movie Review of Sirat ★★★★ By Geoff Carter Illustration by Michael DiMilo The language of cinema is a sophisticated complex of image, words, actions, rhythm, color, and motion. It encompasses the familiar and describes—if not defines—the unknown. From traditional narratives like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, or even One Battle After Another to movies that eschew normal …
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Kickass and the Wisconsin River
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis’s relationships with rivers has been long and varied, and in the keeper’s case fraught with challenge, particularly with the Wisconsin River where ambitious river projects have often turned to minor disasters and embarrassment. An example might be the expedition …
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