Attribution: Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, turns it over to the keeper on this very windy day to remember a story his dear old dad told of his own boyhood in North Dakota when he hooked his coaster wagon to big tumbleweeds and let the wind pull him across the …
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Category:Social Commentary
Kickass and Complaints
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper who never aspires to “Good boy!” status, was gratified recently with proof that some of his communication efforts are succeeding in reaching readers. Fellow Vista West residents B and C were among those who took the trouble to respond to …
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Taken for Granted
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “Don’t it always seem to go/ That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone/” –“Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell Humans have a peculiar tendency to become quickly accustomed to surrounding circumstances—particularly good circumstances—and then to subsequently take them for granted. The excitement of getting a …
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Kickass and VA Eye Clinic
Attribution: Marianne O’Leary Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stays home this morning as the keeper and Phyllis trot off to the VA eye clinic to learn more about the recent changes in the keeper’s AMD–Age relatd Macro Degeneration. After years of careful monitoring and treatment by the …
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Kickass and Political Money
Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in passing along survival tips in the money-dominated political circus which currently has Elon-the-Insufferable attempting to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat for a guy who wants control of all female Badger bodies so he can dress them in …
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Coup D’uhtat
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Donald Trump came swaggering into the Oval Office on the first day of his second term like a sailor on his first night of shore leave—and he behaved pretty much like a drunken sailor, too, signing executive orders like bad checks and—figuratively—standing on the bar proclaiming he was …
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Kickass and Dog Shelter
Attribution: Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in an effort to help the keeper and Phyllis understand what contrary things are occurring in their world encourages them to think of themselves as being stray mutts in a corporate-owned animal shelter that has a contract to provide dog meat to North Korea …
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Kickass and Vision
Attribution: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, hands it off to the keeper who insists on writing a personal note to his wonderful mother, gone these many years but never forgotten: “Well, Mom, as I am tying my shoes this morning in the manner you …
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Kickass as a Jackrabbit
Attribution: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, turns it over to the keeper on this wintery Saturday: “They were like the royalty of winter, those big jackrabbits that would spring magically out of nowhere to lope with infinite grace across 40 acres before stopping to reassess the …
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Mighty Love
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Originally Published 2/14/2022 By Geoff Carter In her novel Surfacing, Margaret Atwood wrote “The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them, there ought to be as many for love.” She‘s probably right, although what passes for love today might not be as important to us as snow …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Substance”
Illustration by Michael DiMilo Inner Child: Film Review of the Substance ★★★★1/2 By Geoff Carter In a number of recent independent films, including Drive Away Dolls, Love Lies Bleeding, and the X Series there has been a blurring of boundaries. This is particularly true in the horror genre. Subgenres like body horror and hag horror have been reinvigorated …
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The Fascist Cookbook
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally published September 26, 2024) A refresher course on Project 2025. This is where our country is presently headed. I grew up during the late sixties and early seventies when youth counterculture was king. Rock and roll, pot, LSD, free love, and political activism were all part of …
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