Attribution: White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., Michael D., and Geoff Carter Hey bots, I am still reeling from the last episode of The Donald Trump Amateur Hour. Pam Bondi’s appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee looked …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Secret Agent”
Swimming With Sharks: Review of The Secret Agent ★★★★ By Geoff Carter Illustration by Michael DiMilo Some movies are great fun and don’t try to be anything more. They grab you by the lapels and take you with them into galaxies far, far away, or on fantastic quests for magic rings, or put you in …
Read
Kickass and the Extra Hour
Attribution: Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis accepting with gratitude the extra hour of March 7, 2025 and hanging it on a hook with all of the others—in the keeper’s case that would be about 34,467 hours and—hopefully, counting. Phyllis’s hour tally is impressive but not …
Read
Kickass and Trevor’s Eighth Birthday
Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis heading out to Mazo for the 8th birthday party for Trevor one of the keeper’s great grandchildren, at which the keeper will bore Trevor and others by pointing out that he is old enough to have had eleven and …
Read
Kickass and School Shootings
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, works with the keeper to point out that the US’s global leadership in school shootings has been taken over by MAGA and the warrior POTUS with the remote style military “school shooting” in Iran, where at least 168 third grade girls were slaughtered along …
Read
Kickass Poetry Revision
Attribution: By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper unable to resist a bit of revision of some of the classis from his and Phyllis’s childhood: “Old Mother Hubbard went to her cupboard not to get her poor dog a bone but because she couldn’t find her GD phone.” “Trumpty Dummy sat on …
Read
Operation Epic Quid Pro Quo
Attribution: White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter On a Sunday morning eighty-five years ago, December 7th, 1941, our nation awoke to the news that the U.S. was at war. Last Sunday, we awoke to learn that we were at war once again, and that this time we were the aggressors. The …
Read
Kickass and Tech Disaster
Attribution: Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis temporarily capturing what could be considered a substitute grandchild as measured by the ability to help with tech problems. His name is Colin and he and his employees are actually in the business of rescuing the inept from the …
Read
Kickass and Feeding the Young and Old
Attribution: Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in acknowledging that as the only meaningful function for every species is reproduction which includes lots of obligatory activities among them feeding the young until they are adept enough to feed themselves. Thus, ingrained early as a vital …
Read
Kickass and Korean Letters
Attribution: Signal Corps Archive, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, looks over the keeper’s shoulder as he sorts through a packet of “Bill’s letters from Korea” as it was labeled by the keeper’s dear mother who worried and “prayed” him home from a year of combat with an Infantry …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Walking on a Wire: Review of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Parenting isn’t easy. This a lesson most of have learned the hard way. An even harder lesson is that perhaps not all of us were not cut out to be the supportive, loving, helpful, …
Read
Kickass and the War Morning
Attribution: Fars Media Corporation, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper reassessing his self-assigned responsibility to make a daily comment on whatever registers on his erratic flight plan, sometimes as a diversion from an impossible truth and other times to call attention to yet another absurdity or …
Read