Attribution: Photo by Galina Nelyubova on Unsplash By Geoff Carter A couple weeks ago, some old college buddies and I got together to go to our annual Brewers’ game outing. We keep in touch mostly because we exchange emails that inevitably spiral into discussions about politics, sports, and other sundry subjects, but we’ve known each other for decades. …
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Kickass Gets Storm Ready
Attribution: Mathias Krumbholz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, gets in extra napping this morning of June 10, 2026 as the keeper and Phyllis batten down the hatches in preparation for the violent weather predicted over the next two days. “Preparation” for them has limited application in their multi-storied …
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Kickass and Barn Talk
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, works with the keeper to explain “barn talk” under the terms of which the POTUS, during his recent stop in a Wisconsin barn, totally lost his cool and said he hated everybody except himself. Having grown up in a community where …
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Kickass and Phyllis as Publisher
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in his appreciation of the publisher of Ah, the women! his novel about women saving the world from the libido-driven outrageousness of men. That publisher happens to be the keeper’s wife Phyllis –“Trillium Press” who worked through Amazon and other creative entities to …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “No Other Choice”
Working Stiffs: Review of No Other Choice ★★★★ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Park Chan-wook’s black comedy thriller No Other Choice opens with an idyllic sequence of suburban family life in South Korea. A father, Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-Hun), is grilling in the backyard of his childhood home with his family. His beautiful wife Lee …
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Kickass and “Ah, the Women”
Image by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be up and yapping with the keeper and Phyllis with the following announcement: BILL AND PHYLLIS ARE HAVING A BOOK! It’s title is Ah, the Women! and it tells the story of how women take over the world to save it from the disastrous excesses …
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Kickass and Free Fun of D-Day
Attribution: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis’s acknowledgment of this June 6 as yet another “D-Day” slowly disappearing into the cultural topsoil. It’s assimilation is aided today by such things as the DNR’s promotion of free “fun days” when …
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Kickass and Old Pick-up Lines
Annotation: Photo by Artyom Kabajev on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, as a resident of the independent living part of Vista West on Madison’s west side where the keeper and Phyllis live, hears a lot of interesting comments which, fortunately, being a cast-iron dog, he is unable to repeat. Recently, for example, his attention was …
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Kickass and Generational Communication
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on a meeting of the keeper’s granddaughter Sarah, with Phyllis and the keeper to brainstorm how to improve communication between the generations. After the obvious agreement that banning all phone use unless you are alone, the discussion went in a number of …
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See No Evil
Attribution: Clare Black from Morley, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter As a boomer who grew up during what was arguably America’s golden age, I still find it almost unfathomable that our country is teetering so dangerously close to a totalitarian takeover. At the time I came up in the sixties and …
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Kickass and Andy Rooney
Attribution: Stephenson Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in wondering how to get a message to the late Andy Rooney regarding a job opportunity on 60-Minutes, where Andy was a fixture for a long time. That message would advise Andy to stay wherever he is …
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Kickass and Wood Tick Meeting
Attribution: Peterwchen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, advises that there are times when the keeper’s unique ability to be a part of other communication circles should not be questioned but simply accepted, and such is the case as he reports on a meeting of the wood ticks in …
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