Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper pretty much denying birthdays, especially his own, but also those of his children who have somehow gotten so old they creak and limp. Even the youngest—Mike, who reportedly is now 70 years old and does not have the decency to lie …
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Category:Humor
Kickass and Birds and Frogs
Attribution: Photo by Elisa Stone on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports a major shift in the keeper’s area of interest this spring from “birding” to “frogging” based on DNR information suggesting that he is less likely to be comfortable in the company of millions of migrating warblers and more at ease consorting with emerging …
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Kickass and Surviving High Tech
Attribution: Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper as Phyllis does her best to keep him precariously balanced on the gangplank of today’s high-tech ship as it sails into the seas of push-button wars, in-house thievery and unopenable plastic containers. The keeper lived most of his life when going …
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Kickass and Telephone Talk
Attribution: Photo by Marjan Blan on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper in his extreme telephone ineptness in this phone-saturated world that requires him to have a fulltime personal telephone operator—Phyllis, of course. It is the keeper’s sense that his phone difficulty began with his very first phone call when his mother …
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Kickass and the Outhouse Threat
Attribution: Lee Coursey from Decatur, GA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper reviews his life with emphasis on the events, like wars and accidents that might have ended it early on, he realizes he has not dealt with the real possibility that he could …
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Kickass and Dog Dementia
Attribution: Photo by Raul Torrento on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog assumes that along with the keeper and Phyllis, everyone watched the 60 Minutes feature on the benefits of studying dogs’ dementia to shed light on how it happens with humans. Being at the age where his recliner could turn into an F-35 at any …
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Kickass and a Good Night’s Sleep
Attribution: Photo by mali desha on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper fresh from “a good night’s sleep,”–a much valued thing as the years pile on with their inclement weather notices that impact Phyllis’s sleep more than the keepers. The keepers “good night’s sleep” history begins with a bad night’s sleep when his …
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Kickass and War Experience
Attribution: Photo by Navy Medicine on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper ever anxious to recognize some benefit of war, particularly the one he participated in, wonders if his Korean duty, which was about taking the kinks out of the 38th parallel, might have some application with just how to get out of the …
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Kickass and First Day of Spring
Attribution: Thomas Wolf (Der Wolf im Wald), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in greeting this first day of SPRING—2026 and wondering if it is necessary to go beyond that simple observation for this Friday March 20 to just be one helluva great day! …
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Kickass and Media Billionaires
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, having spent his “working” life gathering and disseminating information as an ink-stained wretch, appreciates the recent surfacing of a quote by either Einstein or Twain stating that when the billionaires finally control all the media, everyone else will be feeding …
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Kickass and New Wheels
Attribution: Photo by Mobio Marketing on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has a new set of wheels, and adjusting to them may require more than was demanded when his first wheels were pulled out from behind the neighbor’s machine shed in the form of a no-tires Model T Ford pickup that …
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Kickass and Remembering Up a Storm
Attribution: Photo by kim giseok on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and everyone else in a post snowstorm St. Patrick’s Day full of bright sunshine and white snow covering everything green except the shadow of billionaires’ money. As is his fallback—not fall down—position the keeper goes back over the years …
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