Attribution: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes and Bill Mullen Kickass and the keeper hand it off to old Tribune friend Pulitzer winner Bill Mullen for his response to yesterday’s Kickass post about Jim Lovell on his 96th birthday. Thanks, Bill. “And to think that Lovell grew up as a Wisconsin kid, …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Play Ball!
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I sighted my first robin a few weeks ago. The daffodils and crocuses are starting to peek through the ground. After possibly one of the longest winters in the history of the modern world—at least subjectively speaking–spring has arrived. We can enjoy walks in the sunshine, digging in …
Read
Kickass and Jim Lovell
Attribution: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that the message for the day should come from astronaut Jim Lovell as he celebrates his 96th birthday with the following comment: “We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about …
Read
Kickass Remembers Jackrabbits
Attribution: Photo by Mike Lewinski on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the disappearance of jackrabbits in Wisconsin. Nobody has seen one for years and DNR biologists say they are officially “extirpated.” In his boyhood Barron County days, the big white jackrabbits were like the royalty of winter, jumping up from …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Gorge”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo ★★★1/2 Long-Distance Relationship: Film Review of The Gorge By Geoff Carter Genre movies have come (or gone) a long way. It used to be that a spy movie was just a spy movie. We could always trust James Bond to be suave, sophisticated, and deadly—and his movies to be fun romps. …
Read
Kickass Hiding Under Bed
Attribution: Photo by kuaileqie RE on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, woke up to the dripping of the keeper’s poetry on a rainy Sunday: ‘If I had a Telsa I would sell it. “if I were a Repub you would smell it. “If the mad POTUS has his way And tells his lies with every …
Read
Kickass and Questions
Attribution: Photo by Ludovic Migneault on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to assist the keeper and Phyllis as they wake to yet another day of grappling with the profoundly absurd questions of the day: *How the hell did we give a narcissistic sub-par lying golfer the clubs to drive the entire world into …
Read
Kickass and Adjustments
Attribution: Gene Daniels , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is not much help to the keeper as he grapples with changing eyesight conditions due to macular degeneration, which currently has him wearing an eye patch to deal with seeing double images. At this point in his nonagenarian existence, the …
Read
Kickass and the Deer
Attribution: Photo by Prazanthy Ramesh on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assist the keeper in celebrating the keeper’s uncanny foresight in buying a pair of snowshoes on the hottest day of this erratic season. It happened when Phyllis left the keeper unattended at St. Vinny’s and he spotted these beautiful Iverson snowshoes, brand new and …
Read
The Fourth Wall
Attribution: Photo by Ilmi Amali Q.A on Unsplash By Geoff Carter I’m sick of politics. The last six weeks—four months—have been exhausting. We’ve gone from shock to disappointment to denial to acceptance (pretty much the stages of grief) to greater shock, disbelief, fear, and anger. Of course, to be fair, this is only one side of the argument. …
Read
Kickass and Two Phyllises
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper not only survived a long day with the VA eye clinic and the VA emergency unit’s MRI machine, but also gained surprising proof that he actually has a brain, and there appears to be nothing significantly wrong with it to …
Read
Kickass and Seeing Double
Attribution: Jonathan Trobe, M.D. – University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s latest vision issue is seeing double, which is one thing in seeing two images of Phyllis but quite another when it comes to watching the TV news showing multiple …
Read