Peeling the Orange

Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Set aside his greed and his corruption.  Set aside his complete contempt for the law and the Constitution.  Set aside his callous disregard for human life and the suffering of millions—many of them children.  Set aside his lust for power.  Set aside his incompetence. Set …
Read

Kickass and Old Drivers

Attribution: Photo by Neda Vidakovic on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis winding up their long relationships with vehicles with a faithful Subaru that rests docilely in basement parking until there is a medical or supply need and the keeper assumes the driver’s seat with Phyllis occupying the “participating passenger position.” …
Read

Kickass and the Lumber Camps

Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis with their lumber camp experiences and remnant exposure, are often awed in contemplating that dramatic brief time in history when brave—foolhardy, men—and a few women took to the big woods with hand tools to bring down the …
Read

Kickass Goes to Prom

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, consults with the keeper about just what to do about April being the prom month after Phyllis says she has no interest in going to the prom because it hurts her feet to dance, especially as an inept dancing keeper is likely to step …
Read

A Night at the Opera

Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter Timothee Chalamet is wrong. And he’s right. During a CNN/Vanity Fair town hall with Matthew McConaughey, the young actor said, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or, you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though no one cares about …
Read

Kickass and Being Somewhere

Attribution: Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in noting the many interesting places where people find themselves this morning—looping around the moon, routinely getting the kids to school and then yourself to work, running a mile on an old railroad bed, walking the dog, heading over …
Read

Kickass and Diversion Scheme

Attribution: Photo by FETHI BOUHAOUCHINE on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper, in his efforts to use diversion to help with deodorizing the Trump zoo stench, shares a boyhood memory of spending two days to buy BBs when the clerk at the Farmers’ Store apparently thought the kid standing by the peanut barrel …
Read

Kickass and Migration Oddities

Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in looking to Nature for information on yesterday’s national “migration” to the sidewalks and streets across the country and then back home to weekend chores, pleasures and malcontent. In addition to the well-known migrations of caribou and monarchs and …
Read

Our Right to Know

Attribution: Warren K. Leffler, U.S. News & World Report Magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter The American people are deeply indebted (more than we know) to the free press and the journalists who risk their lives to uncover corruption, expose criminality, and preserve the personal freedoms in our lives. Without their work, …
Read