Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper’s assessment that the Memorial program for Tony Earl Sunday at Monona Terrace was a most fitting wrap for the Earth Day weekend, bringing together as it did multiple people who worked with Tony to accomplish meaningful things in the name …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Milwaukee Film Festival
Something for Everybody: Festival Season Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/23LET4Hxj_U By Geoff Carter Milwaukee Film, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons For the Milwaukee film fan, or any cinephile who enjoys straying off the beaten path occasionally, the Milwaukee Film Festival is one of the best times of the year. I like to think of this event …
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Kickass and Kids and Cats
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, advises the keeper to use caution in all matters having to do with cats, considering the past hostility of some readers when the keeper wrote about them. But he–the keeper, cannot ignore the news out of New Zealand where a recreational competition among kids to …
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Kickass and the Bobcat
gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, having indulged the keeper as he wallowed through his past with publication of his book “Treeson: an APOLOGIA to Trees,” understands his tenuous emotional state upon hearing the news of the bobcat stuck in a car grill up …
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Kickass and News Perspective
NASA TV, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, interrupts his napping to assist the keeper in putting certain news items into relatable perspectives. The destructive blow-up of Elon Musk’s 33-engine, 394-foot-tall rocket ship, celebrated by Musk and his followers as a success, can be compared to someone in the …
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Kickass and Feinstein
Senate Democrats, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, having agreed to let the keeper into the “old dog” club, hereby extends the invitation to Dianne Feinstein, and reminds her that her days of chasing squirrels and dog-park dominance are over and she needs to take up serious napping. Physical …
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True Colors
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “The measure of a man is what he does with power.” –Plato “Despotic power is always accompanied by the corruption of morality.” –Lord Acton American politics has been devolving over the last decade or so. Discourse has become so gridlocked, it’s become nearly impossible for our two major …
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Dialogues on Red State Hubris: Southern Inhospitality
Artwork by Michael DiMilo Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., Paul C., and Geoff Carter This just in from the R dominated volunteer state: “Southern man, better keep your headDon’t forget what your good book saidSouthern change gonna come at lastNow your crosses are burning fastSouthern man I saw …
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Kickass and Columnist Day
Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in thanking Karen Mayers for pointing out that April 18 was “National Columnist Day,” which gives the keeper an opportunity to lament the fact that he cannot stop writing columns even at an age when he might …
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Kickass and Phyllis’s Cataract
Attribution: Bin im Garten, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper dropped Phyllis off at the UW Health facility this morning for the second of her cataract procedures; and he is now mulling over the possibility that Phyllis’s vision may improve to the point where she …
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Kickass Advice on Winter Survival
NOAA Photo Library, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis on this miserable, blizzardy morning in passing along seasonal advice for adjusting to and surviving winter now that Wisconsin’s three-day summer is over: ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-and repeat if necessary! Hold the applause! The keeper and Phyllis enjoy …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of Oscar-Nominated Short Animated Films
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Broadest of Spectrums: Reviews of Oscar-Nominated Short Animated Films By Geoff Carter My wife and I have made it an annual tradition to trek to the local movie theater and see the Oscar-nominated Best Short Subject Films, both the animated …
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