Careful What You Wish For: Review of Obsession ★★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In past reviews, I’ve written a fair amount about the renaissance of the horror genre in today’s cinema and these modern filmmakers’ expansion of the traditional genre tropes to include issues of social and cultural importance. It’s not just …
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Kickass and Display Letters
Attribution: Dclemens1971, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog is assisting the keeper and Phyllis with the international garage sale today as it offers the specialty item of 18 outdoor display letters with the following advertising: “For sale: 18 outdoor display letters. Lightly used in a bogus scheme to destroy …
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Kickass and Radio Ban
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper was told yesterday in discussion prior to a radio interview that the word “kickass” could not be said on the air as it was considered profanity and might be offensive to some listeners. This news caused the keeper to briefly consider …
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Kickass and Good Genes
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in wishing the keeper’s “little brother” Orville a happy 91st birthday and noting that he and their sister Norma now at 93, and the keeper flirting with 95–on the upcoming 9/11, the three of them represent a genetic handoff …
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Kickass at Madison Square Garden
Attribution: Zakarie Faibis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, as a Madison, WI resident has never had occasion to visit Madison Square Garden in New York, but the keeper has, once, when the Democrats gathered there in 1973 to nominate Jimmy Carter as their presidential candidate. The incident may …
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Circularity
Attribution: Photo by Galina Nelyubova on Unsplash By Geoff Carter A couple weeks ago, some old college buddies and I got together to go to our annual Brewers’ game outing. We keep in touch mostly because we exchange emails that inevitably spiral into discussions about politics, sports, and other sundry subjects, but we’ve known each other for decades. …
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Kickass Gets Storm Ready
Attribution: Mathias Krumbholz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, gets in extra napping this morning of June 10, 2026 as the keeper and Phyllis batten down the hatches in preparation for the violent weather predicted over the next two days. “Preparation” for them has limited application in their multi-storied …
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Kickass and Barn Talk
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, works with the keeper to explain “barn talk” under the terms of which the POTUS, during his recent stop in a Wisconsin barn, totally lost his cool and said he hated everybody except himself. Having grown up in a community where …
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Kickass and Phyllis as Publisher
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in his appreciation of the publisher of Ah, the women! his novel about women saving the world from the libido-driven outrageousness of men. That publisher happens to be the keeper’s wife Phyllis –“Trillium Press” who worked through Amazon and other creative entities to …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “No Other Choice”
Working Stiffs: Review of No Other Choice ★★★★ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Park Chan-wook’s black comedy thriller No Other Choice opens with an idyllic sequence of suburban family life in South Korea. A father, Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-Hun), is grilling in the backyard of his childhood home with his family. His beautiful wife Lee …
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Kickass and “Ah, the Women”
Image by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be up and yapping with the keeper and Phyllis with the following announcement: BILL AND PHYLLIS ARE HAVING A BOOK! It’s title is Ah, the Women! and it tells the story of how women take over the world to save it from the disastrous excesses …
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Kickass and Free Fun of D-Day
Attribution: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis’s acknowledgment of this June 6 as yet another “D-Day” slowly disappearing into the cultural topsoil. It’s assimilation is aided today by such things as the DNR’s promotion of free “fun days” when …
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