Lacrossewi, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be assisting the keeper in drafting a contract for Tim Michels, the eastern billionaire who wants to add the Wisconsin gubernatorial mansion to his collection of mansions elsewhere, in effect making Wisconsin residents his property as in “plantation.” The keeper is suggesting that instead of an …
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Month:September 2022
Kickass and Sanibel
Eeviann, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, comments that there was a period in the keeper’s life when he spent icy chunks of the northern winter in the balmy environs of Sanibel Island and Sarasota Fla., where hurricane Ian destroyed part of the Sanibel-Ft. Meyers causeway. While a hurricane …
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More or Less Equal Before the Law
Deval Kulshrestha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons “We are a government of laws, not of men.” John Adams said that. “All men are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson said that—in The Declaration of Independence. Atticus Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, said “In this country, our courts are the great levelers.” These are all fine …
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Kickass and Old Men Remember Death
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in a bit of alteration of the Ogden Nash poem that ends “But old men know when the old men die,” by adding “old dogs” to the mix. The occasion is the demise of Sugar, a small white poodle type that lived …
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Kickass and the Sheep Dip Treatment
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in observing that those who refuse to honor the will of the people by gerrymandering themselves into office or by denying the outcome of elections or refusing to abide by the expiration of appointed terms or by …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Winona Ryder
PM – Il Piccolo Missionario, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter From the gawky pre-teen in Lucas to the Goth-crazed teenaged Lydia in Beetlejuice to the manipulative and it’s-fun-to-be-bad accessory after the fact in Heathers, Winona Ryder has always—at first because of her age and then in spite of it—exuded an air of innocence tempered by a keen …
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Kickass Revisits Drink, Drank, Drunk
Photo by Vasil Korzh on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s misfortune in finding yet another box of clippings and letters from his dim, dark journalistic past that covered the time he wrote “Drink, Drank, Drunk” for the Milwaukee Journal, a series of six articles exploring the detrimental choke hold …
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Kickass and Lost Prop
Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper cheers the recent finding of the 3,000-year-old canoe at the bottom of Lake Mendota; and is reminded once again of the time that the propeller fell off his outboard as he and several highly questionable fishing companions …
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Kickass and Hanging Globe
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper’s reluctance to accept the inevitable limitations forced on him by aging; and announces that following a recent experience, he will not be installing any anchors in the ceiling ever again. For one thing, he has no business getting any farther up …
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Kickass and the Holocaust
Unknown photographer from the Auschwitz Erkennungsdienst. Several sources believe the photographer to have been SS officers Ernst Hoffmann or Bernhard Walter, who ran the Erkennungsdienst., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper having watched the Ken Burns TV series on the US role in the leadup …
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Kickass and the Accordion
Tetopa, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, recognizing today as the autumnal equinox with equal amounts of stupidity and intelligence, will be contacting the public high school across the street to offer to help with endowing an accordion chair in the new music department addition …
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Who Are These People?
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” These immortal words of President John F. Kennedy became the inspiration for tens of thousands of young Americans. To them, and many others, these words stood for selflessness, sacrifice, and a …
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