Commonwealth Club from San Francisco, San Jose, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper and the rest of the world takes a lesson from Jimmy Carter on how to die–with acceptance and dignity; there is this time to dwell on how the peanut …
Read
Month:February 2023
Kickass and No Turning Back
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, can attest to the fact that if the keeper were a dog he might have difficulty following the rules of “fetch.” It is the warning signs for “Road Closed” that have caused him the most trouble down through the years, but after many lessons …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Fablemans”
Light and Dark: Film Review of The Fablemans Attribution: Jorge Simonet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans is—like much of his work—simultaneously totally enjoyable and disturbingly inevitable. It is Spielberg’s peculiar gift that he is able to mythologize the ordinary, to turn the everyday into the epic, and the …
Read
Kickass and Visiting Dogs
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in encouraging younger family members to use this blah time of the year to visit their elders, and to bring the dog along. Mike, Sarah and Jessie brought Boo–the command schnauzer, with them yesterday, and a very good time …
Read
Kickass and Stokes Pokes
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is amazed along with the keeper that the “Stokes Pokes” column identity has resurfaced after all these years as the name of a column for the new “Vista West Breeze,” a newsletter by VW residents. Originated by Sherm Sword, city editor of the Stevens …
Read
Kickass and Farewell to Tony Earl
Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes with the keeper that the flag in front of Vista West and those elsewhere across the state are at half-mast today in honor of Tony Earl who died this week at the age of 86, leaving in the wake of his life more friends …
Read
Kickass and Migration Therapy
Photo by Geoff Carter on Birdfy by Netvue By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in doing something about the weather. The plan is to convert a nearby vacant child-care facility into a Migration Disaster Center to provide counseling for robins, cranes and other bird species that erroneously assumed that by Mardi …
Read
Unidentified F…ing Objects
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Since the sighting, tracking, and downing of the Chinese weather balloon/surveillance device off the coast of South Carolina a week or so ago, three more airborne objects have been observed and subsequently downed over or near American airspace. Nobody knows exactly where they’re from or who sent them. …
Read
Kickass and Post-Larry Meiller Show
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from his stint on Larry Meiller’s WPR radio show to promote his book “Treeson: An APOLOGIA to Trees” now suspects that he might have spent his life working in the wrong communications medium, print as compared to radio. Had …
Read
Kickass and Dogs as Voters
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be working with the keeper on this primary election day to allow dogs to vote, the thinking being that any species smart enough to cut the deals that dogs have with humans is smart enough to choose those who write the dog-walking rules. There …
Read
Kickass and the Symphony
Photo by Samuel Sianipar on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis heard the Madison symphony and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor Sunday in the big room of the Overture Center through the courtesy of good friend Tom Humphry. They are not regular concert goers, at least not under the stylized symphony circumstances, …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Top Gun: Maverick”
Photo by Houses Cheung on Unsplash Deja Vu All Over Again: Film Review of Top Gun: Maverick By Geoff Carter Movies are nectar for the masses. The people love the panache, the stars, the glitz, the glamor, and their occasional sheer audacity of movies. But most of all, the people love their predictability. Action thrillers like Die Hard, True …
Read