The Winding Road

Attribution: http://www.ForestWander.com, CC BY-SA 3.0 US, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter I happened to be running an errand in my old hometown, the village I grew up in the other day, and I barely recognized the place. My middle school was gone; they’d razed it. Most of the businesses, including Falls Music, Sergeant Pepper’s Record …
Read

Kickass and the Rapture

Attribution: Jan Luyken , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, as curious as the keeper is in religious matters, was surprised to learn that the “Rapture” was a concept of evangelical men formulated sometime in the 1880’s, which may explain some of the “Rapture” no-shows as predicted by subsequent religious …
Read

Kickass and the Morning Start

Attribution: National Archives at College Park , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, along with the keeper and Phyllis, receives a reminder each morning of the miraculous process whereby everyone hurries to get where they are going and another day gets underway. The view of the Gammon Rd/Tree La. Intersection, …
Read

Kickass and National Library Week

Attribution: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and everyone else in pausing to honor the librarians on this special day.  With grandson Bud Andrews a librarian in LaCrosse and with memories of his librarian mother in Barron where he grew up, the keeper has these …
Read

Kickass and Eclipse Glasses

Attribution: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be helping the keeper in his project to reclaim and repurpose all the now useless eclipse viewing glasses for viewing TV during the current political campaign. Like the warning about eye damage occurring from viewing the eclipse without the …
Read

Kickass and the Eclipse

Attribution: Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper has prepared for the eclipse by practice napping and will be more than ready when the solar system shades are briefly pulled today.  Contrary to the inane blather from MTG the brainless congressional scarecrow identifying the eclipse as a Divine …
Read

Kickass and Geordan’s Autism

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, was a listener as the keeper and Phyllis entertained Phyllis’s son Kevin and grandson Geordan in one of those wonderful Saturday afternoon family conversations that knows no bounds and runs the gamut from the profound to the absurd with emphasis on the latter and …
Read

Kickass and Migration

Attribution: Photo by James Wainscoat on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in proclaiming that he will not cross that bridge when he comes to it, especially if it leads into Baltimore, he will take that “road not taken” hoping it leads to somebody’s woods, and he will be “on the road again” …
Read

Sanctuary

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We live in an age of dazzling and astoundingly rapid advances in technology. Personal computers emerged only forty years ago, and smart phones only became widely available to consumers in the 2000s and early 2010s, yet these electronics have become indispensable for modern-day life. We depend on them …
Read

Dialogues on Grumpy Old Men: Get Off My White House Lawn!

Attribution: Joe Biden: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (source: Joe Biden); User:TDKR Chicago 101 (clipping) Donald Trump: Shealah Craighead (source: White House) Сombination: krassotkin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter Bots, Last week’s biggest political …
Read