Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, paused with the keeper and Phyllis yesterday for a memory service for the 34 residents who have died at Vista West during the five years it has been open. Considering a resident population of less than 200, some simple math might produce a death …
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Kickass Pays His Taxes
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, naps as the keeper consults with his tax advisor, otherwise known as Phyllis, as to the status of his estimated tax account. If there was ever a time for a tax revolt it is now with 750,000 homeless people sleeping in US streets, hungry school …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Anne Hathaway
Attribution: Anne_Hathaway_at_the_2007_Deauville_American_Film_Festival-01.jpg: Mireille Ampilhac derivative work: Caspian blue, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Any fan of the movies knows Anne Hathaway’s work; as a teen, she starred in the megahit Princess Diaries and has graduated from the Disney stable of squeaky-clean stars to appear in everything from intense psychological dramas to comedies, action thrillers, …
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Kickass Has No Regrets
Attribution: Photo by Filip Andrejevic on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, goes against the wisdom that dwelling on regrets is pretty much a waste of time, and allows the keeper to dwell on the regret that when he visited Paris many years ago he did not go see the Eiffel Tower. There is no clear …
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Kickass and the Frat Boys
Attribution: Rotograph Company, New York City (publisher), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, hands it off to the keeper for his rant on college fraternities. The “frats” have recently been in the news for making Cornell University look like a juvenile fun-house parking lot complete with playpens for the …
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Kickass Talks to the Cows
Attribution: StanCoFair, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting, along with the keeper, that if they have not already left town, those hundreds of world class cows in Madison this week for the World Dairy Expo are on their way home, or maybe on to the next show ring. …
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Kickass Watches the Trees Undress
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper deeply immersed in watching the spectacular color changes occurring in the trees that dominate his and Phyllis’s view out across Madison’s Gammon Road. As the trees stood in their staid and steady deep green summer work garb two days ago, it …
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Into the Light
Attribution: Photo by infinyd photo on Unsplash By Geoff Carter “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” —Helen Keller She would know. Trapped in a world of silence and darkness as a child after being afflicted with an acute fever, fully aware that a world existed outside her perception must have …
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Kickass and Democratic Weather
Attribution: Photo by Shūto Yabuta on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, on this rainy morning of Sept. 30, 2026 joins the keeper in applauding the democracy of rain–step out into it and you get wet no matter who or what you are, or might think you are too important to get rained on. The same …
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Kickass at the Intersection
Attribution: Photo by Connor Gan on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper spending an hour in a UW campus/hospital parking lot next to one of the incredibly busy intersections. The occasion was a Phyllis medical appointment and the keeper had brought along a book to occupy his waiting time. But he never picked …
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Kickass Remembering Jerry and George
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Geoff Carter Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper stumbling across a faded newspaper clipping that detailed one of the tragedies that came to determine the course of his life. And as always the clipping found the keeper and Phyllis reviewing the early tragedy in her life, and how …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Mayday”
From Russia With Love: Film Review of Mayday ★★★☆ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Top Gun was an incredibly popular film and, some may argue, a significant cultural phenomenon. It even spawned a sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, thirty-six years after the original. With incredibly well-staged battle scenes, state-of-the-art military technology, and the independent audacity of …
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