Attribution: David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, does not often step aside for guest voices, but makes an exception for Rosie Odonnell who sent the following from her home in Ireland to the rabid POTUS after he threatened to revoke her citizenship: “You are everything that is wrong with …
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Month:July 2025
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Jodie Foster
Attribution: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Jodie Foster has been an actor nearly her entire life–over fifty years. We’ve literally watched her grow up on the screen. From a youngster in a Coppertone commercial to a precocious Disney child star in Napolean and Samantha, Candleshoe, and the original Freaky Friday, she graduated to more …
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Kickass and the River
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis joining part of the clan for a first-sweetcorn river-side feast and learning yet another method of communing with the great river as it heads south, having completed its 23-dam work in Wisconsin. That new method is to sit in a …
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Kickass and ICE Pets
Attribution: Nhandler, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, seeks the keeper and Phyllis’s help in dealing with the impact of the shameless ICE invasion on pets. This is a serious matter particularly in California where pet shelters are increasingly over-loaded with the pets of children and berry-picking grandmothers identified …
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Dialogues on California Girls: Winning with Elegance
Attribution: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., and Geoff Carter CA State HS Track Meet, Clovis, CA Been sometime since, if memory serves representative Curley, (D-Mequon/Costa Rica), shared a bunch of psychology links/takes pointing out the complexity of this issue, …
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Kickass and No Sunrise
Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, points out that yesterday the keeper recorded the sunrise as an indication that despite personal and political travails the appearance of the sun peaking over the horizon was really all that counted. Well, this morning it didn’t happen. There was no peaking red ball …
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Kickass and July 10th Sunrise
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper may be overloaded with concerns about both natural and political disasters to the point that he needed some reassurance that while all may not be well, some important things are happening, such as the sunrise of July 10, 2025. It happened …
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Wake-up Call
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The second Trump presidency has been an unnatural disaster—as damaging as a Category 5 hurricane. And like a hurricane, this administration has wrought extensive and irreparable damage, damage to our government, our people, and our country—and to the people of the world who have depended on American aid. …
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Kickass and a new FETCH
Attribution: Ashraf Amra, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis’s discovery of a new TV version of the game of “Fetch,” in which a man with bloody hands—Netanyahu, throws a live hand grenade out to be fetched by a dog—Donald who has serious distemper. Has …
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Kickass and Note to IRS
Attribution: Matthew G. Bisanz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis feeling left out in that they did not receive personal letters from the IRS boss thanking them for their support of the billionaire narcissistic class. Friends have shared copies of …
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Kickass Goes for a Walk
Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, was not invited along when Phyllis promoted a walk around the block for the computer-bound keeper who once built newspaper columns around “Walking across Wisconsin with spring” and other similar “walking” themes that got him out of the office for days—even weeks at …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Gary Oldman
Attribution: Brett Cove at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brettdcove/, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter There is no more unique actor–or screen villain–than Gary Oldman. He can be the epitome of sadism, malevolence, or violence, but he can also be suave and charming—though he is never entirely trustworthy, even when portraying Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour or George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, …
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