Attribution: Photo by alex lauzon on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the multitudes in greeting this sunny Monday, July 13, 2026 with enthusiasm and the irrefutable knowledge that the possibility of being shot and killed by an unidentified POTUS gestapo agent is as real as more ICE raids at …
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Month:July 2026
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Undertone”
Inner Demons: Film Review of Undertone ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter These are scary times—not only in an existential sense, but also in the world of cinema, specifically in the arena of the horror film. In recent weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to review Obsession, Backrooms, Companion, The Bride, Frankenstein, Weapons, Send Help, and Good …
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Kickass Dissects the News
Attribution: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with Phyllis in her monumental task of untangling the keeper from the tech webs that ensnare him on what seems to be an hourly basis. Most recently, in an effort to pass along important “breaking news,” the keeper …
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Kickass Talks to Fish
Attribution: Paul Nute, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, having no regrets about anything in his wayward life, is at a loss to understand the keeper’s ambition to balance his account with the fish that shared his bounty of years. Those fish were mostly trout that the keeper met in …
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Kickass Rock and Roll Music
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, protected the couch as the keeper and Phyllis boarded the Vista West bus as activities director Caitlin drove it to Fort Atkinson for an afternoon show at the Fireside Dinner Theater. The feat of ticketing, feeding, seating and presenting a bang-bang rock and roll …
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Kickass and “Takes a Peek”
Attribution: A McCarron, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remembering the experience of a relative who, with his wife, was being shown a for-sale house when the realtor pointed to a door and identified it as a closet. Interested in seeing it all, my in-law intended …
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Perspective
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter At times, it’s difficult to see what’s right under your nose, or to see change happening over time, like when you haven’t seen a niece or nephew for a few months and are amazed at how much they’ve grown or to see how much a beloved uncle has …
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Kickass and Wolves in Charge
Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper on one of his “trips,” imagining how it might have turned out if, back when the earliest wolves and humans first began hanging out around the same campfires, just how it would have evolved if the wolves instead of the humans …
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Kickass and Long-Ago Summers
Attribution: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, shares the speakers’ couch with the keeper on this post 4th of July morning to allow him to revive other such mornings when the rural communities across the Midwest measured them by: *Cavernous hay mows stuffed to the …
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Kickass and The Silver Badgers
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper announces to the world that living with Phyllis adds many dimensions to his life, and most recently he has been basking in the reflected energy of Phyllis’s identity as a founding member of the Silver Badgers, the lively protest group …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Project Hail Mary”
Joyride: Film Review of Project Hail Mary ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Movies can be art, movies can be social commentary, movies be instructional, but mostly—in reality—movies can be, and are, entertaining. They have to be, at least in this country because the film industry is a business, and feeling good is …
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Kickass and Back to the Water
Photo by Bill Stokes Photo by Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, observed the 4th of July action from under the bed as the keeper and Phyllis joined the multitudes in a symbolic return to the water from whence their species came. That water attraction, in its identity as a living and recreational cultural prize, has …
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