Attribution: Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper rummaging up a clipping from the Feb. 3, 1974 issue of he Sunday Milwaukee Journal in which he went on at great length about how being an “old person” is a particular hell due to the ways …
Read
Hitting Home
Attribution: Paul Goyette from Chicago, USA, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter After America somehow reelected a man who fomented a rebellion in an attempt to overturn the government, the last nine months have seemed unreal, like some sort of nightmare—an incessantly recurring nightmare. Terrible things are happening. Innocent American citizens are being …
Read
Kickass and Undercover Ice
Attribution: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis still missing, having disappeared several days ago in the Baraboo bluffs. An official walker-wheelchair-walking stick equipped search party has been mounted out of the Vista West independent living facility on Madison’s west side where a group …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Diane Keaton
In Memorian: 1946-2025 Firooz Zahedi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Probably best-known for her “La-di-da, la-di-da” refrain in her portrayal of the ditzy titular character in Annie Hall, that particular Diane Keaton role is nothing like her intense performances as the desperately promiscuous schoolteacher in Looking for Mr. Goodbar or the angry and frustrated wife and mother …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to Hiding Under the Bed: The Spookiest Halloween Movies of All Time
Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally published on October 31, 2020) I grew up in the sixties and seventies, in what might be called the golden age of the horror movie. Not only were we able to see films The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Scream and Scream Again at the drive-in theater, but every Saturday afternoons we …
Read
Kickass and Native Peoples
Attribution: Grand Canyon National Park, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remarking that celebrating the indigenous people and Columbus on the same day is such a fox-in-the-henhouse situation as to be beyond insulting. During his long journalistic meandering the keeper had many occasions of contact with …
Read
Kickass and Lost in Baraboo Bluffs
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis missing and presumed lost somewhere in the Baraboo Bluffs. While getting lost on the twisting roads through the beautiful thick forests now just beginning their leafy color show was more or less their intention, neither one of them anticipated …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Vincent Price
Attribution: Allied Artists, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Well, it’s that time of year again. Halloween, Dia de Las Muertas, All Hallows Eve—no matter how you slice it—that night of bewitching and trick or treat is nearly here. (Although since we’ve been seeing ads for it since Labor Day, it might seem …
Read
Kickass and Tech Inefficiency
Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper in his tech inadequacies from which Phylis is constantly rescuing him. If the keeper were prone to it he would be in a constant state of embarrassment. But then he considers what a long trip it has been for …
Read
Kickass and EMT Morning Visit
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper up early as the big red fire engine and its accompanying ambulance came rolling out of the dregs of night as quietly as stalking predators—no sirens screaming over the deserted streets, and red lights flashing only for arrival. The dark forms …
Read
Kickass and Shot in the Arm
Attribution: Photo by Luigi Boccardo on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, turns the morning over to the keeper to review an incident of his boyhood when he and his family shared life with a variety of animals on a small dairy farm in northwest Wisconsin. That sharing went over the top the time the keeper …
Read
Kickass and Selling Books
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, with his limited interest in words–“Eat, nap, fetch, couch,” was not at the recent gathering of writers and readers at a west side retirement venue but got reports from the keeper and Phyllis who were there along with writers Geoff and Jerry. This meant writers, …
Read