Attribution: Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper and Phyllis that diversion in these absurd Wizard-of-Odd days is essential, and the discovery of the dead 20-foot Burmese Phython in an Iowa County ditch near the rural Hillside School fills the bill nicely. Community attention immediately and almost …
Read
Kickass and Flying Through the Night
Attribution: Photo by Chris Briggs on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that while the keeper and Phyllis and their flightless crowd slept through last night, 25.2 million birds were in flight up in the night sky on their way to summer family- rearing haunts as far away as the arctic tundra. That is a …
Read
Absolute Corruption
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The great English historian Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” and speculative novelist Robert Shea once declared, “Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.” Current events seem to be bearing out these predictions. Of course, what’s transpiring in Washington, D.C. today is …
Read
Kickass Remembers Earth Days
Attribution: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Gabrielle Spalding, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the multitudes on this Earth Day to salute its originator—Gaylord Nelson, and in the keeper’s case, to remember a few personal contacts with the classiest senator Wisconsin …
Read
Kickass and the Morning Maze
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper starts every morning looking out across the parking lot at the schools and the streets and the many distant buildings, and then marveling at how everybody gets where they need to be in such a fast-paced routine of sharing intersections and …
Read
Kickass and Saving Beagles
Attribution: Photo by David Gomez on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, would be traitorous to his species if he did not encourage the keeper to at least acknowledge the chaotic scene that has been playing out at the dog breeding and research facility in rural Dane County. Hundreds of activists have attempted to “rescue” some …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “Sirat”
Road to Nowhere: Movie Review of Sirat ★★★★ By Geoff Carter Illustration by Michael DiMilo The language of cinema is a sophisticated complex of image, words, actions, rhythm, color, and motion. It encompasses the familiar and describes—if not defines—the unknown. From traditional narratives like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, or even One Battle After Another to movies that eschew normal …
Read
Kickass and the Wisconsin River
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis’s relationships with rivers has been long and varied, and in the keeper’s case fraught with challenge, particularly with the Wisconsin River where ambitious river projects have often turned to minor disasters and embarrassment. An example might be the expedition …
Read
Kickass and Stormy Daniels Weather
Attribution: US Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, cooperates with the keeper and Phyllis as they try to help others deal with the hack that put the Stormy Daniels Weather Service on the net in place of the old National Weather Service, and everything went to “hail” as …
Read
Dialogues on Confusions of Grandeur: What Would Jesus Do?
Attribution: Artificial intelligence, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Mark M., Dave S., Mark O., Dennis C., John K., Michael D., and Geoff Carter Have you guys seen this? According to multiple news sources, including “The New York Times”, Trump posted this grandiose AI generated image of his Christ-like self on “Truth …
Read
Kickass and the Hereafter
Attribution: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting that dogs have delegated their hereafter administering to humans and they are therefore all going to heaven—the dogs not the humans, the keeper, as he gets ever closer to the head of the big line, notes some …
Read
Kickass and Having a Book
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper joins Phylis in announcing that the keeper will no longer be working long hours on “Oh, The Women!” his novel about women saving the world from the ravishes of libido-driven men. It is finished, or “abandoned” in a form the …
Read