Attribution: HarvestLife, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, acts with some ambiguity with the keeper and Phyllis as they absorb the National Geographic announcement that Madison has been named one of the “best cities in the world” to spend 2027. On the one hand there will be an increase …
Read
Month:October 2026
The Pen in Hand Guide to Elevated Horror Films: The Next Generation
Attribution: Photo by Daniel on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Revised October 22, 2026) The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and there’s a chill in the air. Frost is on the pumpkin. The leaves are turning color. All this means one thing—Halloween is just around the corner. And that means horror movies. Lots of them. …
Read
Kickass is Under the Bus
Attribution: Photo by Austin Pacheco on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, presents the following one-act play on behalf of the Keeper and Phylis. “Where are we?” “Under the bus!” “How the hell did we all get under the bus?” “We were thrown there by the driver, the one hired by the escaped billionaire inmates. He …
Read
Kickass Discovers AI Damage
Attribution: W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens as the keeper explains his important discovery of just how AI will do the great harm predicted by some observers. Having arisen from bed too early, the keeper was positioned in front of his computer when he apparently dozed off …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Coyote -vs- Acme”
Lawyers, Puns, and Bunnies: Film Review of Coyote -vs- Acme ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter As early as 1919, animation pioneer Max Fleischer was experimenting with combining live-action film with his cartoon creations, culminating in his groundbreaking Koko the Clown films. In the 1920s, Walt Disney produced the Alice Comedies in which Alice, a live actress, …
Read
Kickass and Pheasant Hunting
Attribution: Photo by Doncoombez on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes his and the keeper’s retirement from hunting as the past weekend marked the opening of the Wisconsin pheasant hunting season, an activity as propped up as a shotgun wedding. The hunt involves a chicken-sized exotic bird with spectacular colorful plumage, raised by the state by …
Read
Kickass and NO KINGS DAY
Attribution: Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, arises on this NO KINGS day ready to join the keeper and Phyllis and the rest of the world in messaging the narcissistic riffraff in the White House that it is time for them to cancel their illusions of becoming royalty as in …
Read
Kickass and Visitors from Canada
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes, along with the keeper and Phyllis, that visitors from Canada bring reassurance that all is not lost, despite the inane babbling of the pitiful POTUS. Phyllis’s sister Joan and her husband Bill are on their way back to their Saskatchewan home after a …
Read
Dialogues on the Designated Underdog: A Dadbot History of the Brewers 2026 National League Division Series
Attribution: Photo by Smithsonian on Unsplash Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., Michael D., and Geoff Carter (The Beginning: September 27, 2026) Rais’en a toast w/me d-bots to the Milwaukee Brewers. Na zdrowie! Only 11 more to get. A (shifty), baker’s dozen. ( I’ve thanked MO, more than once for …
Read
Kickass Goes to Church
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phills joining friends Joyce and Maryann and Gary to visit the spectacular Dane County hilltop where the earliest arriving immigrant Norwegians built their first church in 1852. Known as “The Hauge Log Church,” the building still survives in amazing detail, …
Read
Winners and Losers
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We live in a society that has become increasingly transactional, functioning almost exclusively under a quid pro quo sensibility. Tit for tat and this for that. One for me and one for you. All for one and all for me—and so on. At a certain age, a person …
Read
Kickass Apologizes to Trees
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper once wrote a book entitled “TREESON: an APPOLOGIA Trees,” which carried the keeper’s message of contrition for the trees that had been cut down and used to make the paper to print his newspaper column drivel. The book allowed him to review …
Read