Charles Clyde Ebbets , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper met three old friends–Harry, Chan and Marshall for lunch, and if the conversation had been prohibited from the subjects of infirmities, death, and rascal politicos there would have been long periods of awkward silence. Imagine that: four guys getting …
Read
Category:Social Commentary
Kickass and Women in Wineries
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that in the keeper’s continuing efforts to analyze the downfall of humanity, he observes that the historically accepted social trend of men hanging around taverns is now being replaced by women hanging around wineries. This cannot help but be a positive cultural turnaround …
Read
The Little Things
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week was bad. Really bad. Three mass shootings in California shocked the nation. Over the course of forty-four hours nineteen people were killed and dozens of others wounded. In all, over forty mass shootings have taken place in our country this January—a new monthly record. Of course, …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Film Review of “Women Talking”
Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash Strong Words: Film Review of Women Talking By Geoff Carter Language not only defines reality; it constructs reality, forming the narratives that are the lanes through which we navigate our world. Finding names for subtleties of emotions, relationships, and belief helps in the understanding of the concepts underlying the words. Language also …
Read
Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The boomer generation has hung onto the remnants of their youth like a terrier shaking a rat. They just won’t let go, unlike members of the Greatest Generation who accepted aging with dignity and aplomb. They didn’t mind sporting beer bellies or fret if their hair was thinning. …
Read
Kickass and High School Students
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper each weekday morning in watching the kids stroll across the parking lot on their way over to Memorial High School. They seem taller and more purposeful than the high school crowd the keeper remembers being a part …
Read
A Road Less Traveled
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter On Friday nights, my wife and I will typically open a bottle of wine and settle in to watch some streaming TV, usually a movie or a limited series, but this last weekend, after supper, I went into the family room and started sorting out some of our …
Read
Dialogues on the Price of Free Speech: Asocial Media
Geralt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Mark O., Dave S., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter The 1996 Communication Decency Act has at its heart Section 230: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by …
Read
Kickass and Secret Info
United States Department of Justice, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, is assisting the keeper in clearing up the matter of possibly having classified documents in his files. At some point during his three-year Army stint in Infantry intelligence units, 70 or so years ago, the Army deemed it necessary to clear …
Read
Dialogues on the Human Touch: I am not a Robot
Attribution: Prompt by JPxG, model by Boris Dayma, upscaler by Xintao Wang, Liangbin Xie et al. (Apache License 2.0 or BSD), via Wikimedia Commons By the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter Something appealing about that ‘60s imperative—Question Authority—in a proletariat way (to me)… I have a boatload of …
Read
House of Trumpenstein
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In Mary Woolstencraft Shelley’s class horror novel Frankenstein, a demented mad scientist seeks to kindle life in a body assembled from body parts of the recent dead. In the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, the nefarious Dr. Evil created an exact miniature duplicate of himself, his Mini-Me. Both …
Read