Kickass Cremation of Sam McGee

Kickass, the doorstop dog, says the keeper appears to be in something of a mental deep freeze and apparently is incapable of getting his mind out of the frozen gutter.  Yesterday, after re-reading “To Build A Fire,” he decided to see how much he remembered of Robert Service’s “The Cremation of Sam McGee.,” Not much it turns out, but he remembered the gist of the poem and felt warm for the first time in days.

He also discovered that Service actually knew a Sam McGee and had permission to use his name in the poem.  The actual Sam McGee was a road builder who, years after publication of the poem, traveled back to Alaska and at a tourist stop bought an urn that was purported to contain his own ashes.

Kickass likes happy endings: “There are strange things done in the midnight sun.  by the men who moil for gold……..”.