Photographes du National Geographic, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper in memorializing R. B. (Rolland) Curtis, Wisconsin’s most decorated WW I soldier who was a mentor of sorts when the keeper was sorting through the debris of pending adulthood in Barron County. On a fishing excursion, …
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Month:May 2021
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Home Sweet Home
Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels By Geoff Carter It looks as if we’re finally over the hump. It’s the beginning of the end. Covid infections—and deaths in the U.S.—are on the decrease and shrinking daily. We’ve been told we can actually gather in public again without fearing for our health, and that those of us who are …
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Kickass and Korean Artillery Shell
“Arlington National Cemetery on a Sunday Morning” Clynnwersch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, excuses the keeper for getting personal with his Memorial Day thoughts, specifically how the artillery shell that buried him in Korean dirt and debris could have been a foot or so different and might have …
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Kickass and “Weather Through Filibuster”
Ralf Roletschek (GFDL 1.2 or FAL), via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is assisting the keeper in deciphering a Repub-designed program to deal with rotten weather over the Memorial Day weekend. Called “Weather Through Filibuster” or WTF for short, the program is based on the Repub held contention that warm sunshine is the …
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Face to Face
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoffrey Carter “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” –George Orwell On May 13th, the Center for Disease Control changed course somewhat abruptly on its mask policy, announcing new guidelines. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated “”Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and …
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Kickass Remodels Memorial Day
“Arlington National Cemetery Rows” Joeyp3413, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in considering how Memorial Day is built around those who die when they are handed official guns and ordered to go to a shoot-out with total strangers. The keeper lucked out when it was his turn …
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Kickass and Wolf Traffic Control
National Archives and Records Administration , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting the recent research implication that the presence of wolves—an estimated 1,000 in Wisconsin, greatly reduces the incidence of deer-traffic collisions, which averages nearly 20,000 annually and results in eight deaths and 477 injuries …
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Kickass and Big and Little Lies
“Nekoosa Paper Company on Wisconsin River” National Archives at College Park , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the very latest—and to the keeper the most offensive, example of rich men in positions of power refusing to acknowledge that their terms have expired: Fred Prehn, …
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Kickass and Homeless Cricket
“North Portland Homeless Tent Camp”Graywalls, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis, while driving through Madison ‘s Reindahl park–named after a shirt-tail predecessor of the keeper’s, happened upon a couple of puzzling scenes: men playing cricket and, not far away, the remains of a …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Summer Fun
“Drive-In”RoyBuchanan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The Ten Best Summer Films of All Time Finally. After fourteen months of quarantine, confinement, isolation, boredom, and loneliness, we appear to be on the brink of beating the pandemic and getting back into a—somewhat—normalized social existence, which could mean a real summer—one with concerts, crowds, fun, and traveling. …
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Kickass and Capitol Celebrations
Ander107, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that something incredibly worthwhile took place Saturday on Capital Square in Madison as the do-nothing Repub legislators were replaced by beautiful young women and their smiling escorts in celebration of delayed proms and other joyous occasions. Instead of obstruction narcissists dominating …
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Kickass and Repub Revisionists
United States Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting yet another instance of modifying the record as the 100th anniversary—May 31, of the Tulsa massacre approaches. Despite the recent eye-witness account of 107-year-old Viola Fletcher before congress, in which she recounted details of …
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