Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We’ve survived another Halloween season, which, regrettably (to me at least), is becoming more and more of a Hallmark holiday. Increasingly elaborate costumes, extravagant home decorations, and a growing cornucopia of movies and limited series have inundated us for weeks—if not months, but the psychopathic killers, monsters, aliens, …
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Category:Social Commentary
Kickass Retires as Hunter
Attribution: Henry Farny, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper submitting his formal resignation as a natural predator, which means, of course, that he is no longer a member of the hunting crowd that now swarms over the land like an alien invasion force. Being a hunter …
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Kickass and DST Poem
Attribution: USMC Archives from Quantico, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in offering the following: THE MISSING HOUR Goodbye, Hour, So sour, so dour. Take your lies and git! We’re tired of your —t! You promised wealth And great good health. You gave …
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Kickass and the Weather
Attribution: freddie marriage fredmarriage, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper being suddenly put in charge of the weather by Phyllis and her fellow Silver Badgers as they join the multitudes of “No Kings” protestors this afternoon along Gammon Road at Tree Lane. Defying the old adage that …
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Kickass and Undercover Ice
Attribution: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis still missing, having disappeared several days ago in the Baraboo bluffs. An official walker-wheelchair-walking stick equipped search party has been mounted out of the Vista West independent living facility on Madison’s west side where a group …
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Kickass and Native Peoples
Attribution: Grand Canyon National Park, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remarking that celebrating the indigenous people and Columbus on the same day is such a fox-in-the-henhouse situation as to be beyond insulting. During his long journalistic meandering the keeper had many occasions of contact with …
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American Diamond
Attribution: Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash By Geoff Carter Once upon a time, baseball was America’s pastime, but the sport’s popularity has waned. It’s not as violent as football or as exciting as basketball or as fast as hockey. It’s a sport that takes its time (even with the pitch clock) but one in which, in a …
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Kickass and October 8, 2025
Attribution: Gregory H. Revera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, congratulates himself for helping the keeper and Phyllis survive the three-day harvest moon with its overpowering evening shows and its apparent effect on Phyllis’s sleep. A skeptical keeper had only to do very basic research to learn of extensive …
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Dialogues on Political Dissent: Armed and Dangerous
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., Michael D., and Geoff Carter Bots, Some thoughts on the Kirk assassination. There has clearly been an uptick in political violence in the last few years, and the perpetrators follow the typical American pattern. They are men, …
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Kickass and New Calendar
Attribution: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, endorses the keeper and Phyllis’s explanation for the prevailing summer-in-October: it obviously is the result of “Only I can fix it, Trump” redoing the calendar to eliminate Christmas as being overstaffed, symbolized by a jolly fat …
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Kickass and Cop Horses
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis, impressed with what they at first thought might be ICE on horseback but turned out to be a couple of Madison cops riding their big gentle mounts around the westside neighborhood in a relaxed get-acquainted patrol. Curious residents, among …
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Blind Eye
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter As a people, Americans are pretty good at ignoring things. Typically, if we see a couple creating a scene on the street, we’ll ignore it. If we see a child having a major tantrum in the store, we’ll ignore it. If we see someone peeing on the subway, …
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