The Couch Potato’s Guide to Downtown Easttown: Review of “Mare of Easttown”

Artwork by Michael DiMilo Review by Geoff Carter HBO’s limited series Mare of Easttown is a compelling seven-part thriller that stretches the boundaries of expectations for the criminal drama genre. Mare Sheehan, Eastown’s veteran police detective, is not a typical TV cop. Although skilled, conscientious, and devoted to duty, Mare is also acerbic, brutally honest, and has–not …
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Kickass and Friday the 13th Weather Forecast

Photo by Mary Gorski By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is assisting the keeper in bringing weather forecasting into the current century and offers the following Friday the 13th example: *Temperatures and tempers will remain at dangerously high levels as the jet scream of ignorance continues to dominate across the nation. *A severe pillow fight …
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Lost in the Funhouse

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Why can’t we get off this merry-go-round?  Despite the availability of safe and effective Covid19 vaccines, the nation is experiencing a new spike in cases—the worse since last winter—especially among children and young adults, in populations that refuse to get vaccinated. Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence that he sought …
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The Couch Potato’s Guide to Old Hollywood: The Legacy of Audrey Hepburn

Paramount-photo by Bud Fraker, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Only a few actresses had the ability to exude the easy elegance, charm, and vulnerability of Audrey Hepburn. Grace Kelly could at times, but she didn’t quite match Hepburn’s otherworldly onscreen presence. Hepburn radiated natural uncontrived beauty and flawless grace, and she seemed …
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Kickass and the Beaver Flood

Mount Rainier National Park from Ashford, WA, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis are more or less lost in the wilds of Central Wisconsin where their back road travel was most recently obstructed by beaver. The toothy rodents had clogged a …
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Kickass and Covid Deaths

Prefeitura de Itapevi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in noting the reappearance of the “Wear a mask” signs; and in their lamenting that the new masking is due to the daily Covid19 death toll climbing to 350, mostly among the unvaccinated, which makes …
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That Sinking Feeling

Artwork by Michael DiMilo Article by Geoff Carter “The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.” — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library (Hardcover)) Shit floats. —Popular adage We’re treading water in a cesspool of information. Flooded with theories, …
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Kickass and Walking and Chewing Gum

Annalyn Gallego/Province of Camarines Sur, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, motivated by the fact that only slightly over 50 percent of Wisconsin residents have had both Covid19 shots, is assisting the keeper in formulating a Covid vaccine mandate based on stupidity as measured by the ability or inability to simultaneously walk …
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