Attribution: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, wonders at the keeper’s insistence that if he had been at the recent Correspondent’s Dinner, he would have led a mid-speech walkout that would have left the orange POTUS spouting his garbage to an empty house. There is something …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “The Odyssey”
Lost: Film Review of The Odyssey ★★★★ Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Film versions of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, and most other Greek and Roman myths, are often framed as epic tales of mortal men struggling to control their own lives. In movies like Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans, the gods are …
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Kickass and the Band Tournament
Attribution: Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash By Bill Stokes
Kickass and the Sunrise
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper fell asleep during the Correspondents’ Dinner program just as awards were given to the reporters who wrote about the Epstein/POTUS connection. This prompting the keeper to dream about efforts to remove the wolf from grandma’s bed and caused him to …
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Kickass and Old Sunburn
Attribution: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team, E. Kraaikamp (ROB), CC BY-SA IGO 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathized with the keeper as VA dermatologists probed at the keeper’s damage from the hot suns of his youth. Wrapped in his Norwegian mother’s handed-off onion-paper skin, the keeper …
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Kickass and the National Bird
Attribution: Photo by Pete Godfrey on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting the keeper’s reference to an old Kickass post, advises the bald eagle that its days as the national bird are as much as over and it should look for a new job, perhaps in recycling. The historical item is from July 24, 2018 …
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Midterm Exams
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter A big test is coming up for America, a test that could determine the course of our democracy (or lack of it) for generations. The midterms. During the last election, we were gullible enough to be fooled twice (shame on us), and, as a result, we are now …
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Kickass and the Britannicas
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noting the keeper’s inclination to dig things up that might better remain buried, reviews the long saga of the Encyclopedia Britannica. As a symbol of knowing everything the Encyclopedia Britannica was “it”, in the keeper’s early adult years and when he scored a complete …
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Kickass and Cooking a Shore Lunch
Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the colorful air wafting down from Canada reminds the keeper of one of his more embarrassing–nay, “humiliating” moments, when on a Canadian fishing trip, he took it upon himself to cook the fish shore lunch for his father, Uncle Duffy and their …
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Kickass and Mom’s Coughing Genes
Attribution: Zephyris at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper having the low class to be critical of his mother for passing on to him a cough-trigger mechanism that has him barking “treed” until he is unfit company at weddings and funerals unless the ceremony …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Review of “How to Make a Killing”
No Mystery: Film Review of How to Make a Killing ★★1/2 Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The definition of film noir found in the dictionary probably has a picture of Humphrey Bogart smoking a cigarette and holding a revolver next to it. Look up femme fatale and you’ll find a black and white …
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Kickass and Canadian Smoke Signals
Attribution: NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, tries in vain to calm the keeper in his frantic insistence that unless the US accurately reads the smoke signals being sent down by a compassionate Canada a fate worse than death is likely to befall the US citizenry. The failure …
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