Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in this season of special trees by recalling their visit to the “Crooked Bush” in Saskatchewan some years ago near Phyllis birthplace. The Crooked Bush is a three-acre patch of trembling aspen with unique twisted growth patterns that have …
Read
Category:Kickass
Kickass and Elon’s XMas
Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, through his seasonal powers of being bad in these pre-Christmas days in order to make other bad people feel good about themselves, has intercepted Elon Musk’s letter to Santa: “Listen up, old man. Here’s the new Christmas …
Read
Kickass and Guns
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis as perplexed as everyone else at Madison’s recent inclusion in the school-shooting category but they refrain from joining in the inane response of “thoughts and prayers” and try to embrace the following “bottom line” as proposed after a recent …
Read
Kickass and Norma’s Birthday
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper would wish his younger sister a happy 92nd birthday today but he knows she would bring up the occasion of his telling her that if she held the tennis racket in front of her face it would protect her from the …
Read
Kickass and Flying Saucers
Attribution: Віщун, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, hopes, along with the keeper and Phyllis that the New Jersey drone mystery is soon put to rest in the manner of the mysterious cow killings and mutilations of the 1970’s. Some fifty years ago, long before drones, unexplained cattle deaths …
Read
Kickass and Ninety-Year-Olds
Attribution: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and the multitudes in wishing Dick Van Dyke a happy 99th birthday as he dances in a new musical release–“All My Love” and says that his advice for a long life …
Read
Kickass and Superstition
Attribution: The original uploader was DrL at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper rising on this Friday the 13th to the bad luck of not being able to find his glasses. After he had rubbed the “luck stone” he carries with his lucky Swiss army …
Read
Kickass and Cookies
Attribution: Ruth Hartnup from Vancouver, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be sleeping in to avoid being stepped on by the keeper as he–the keeper steps on and off the bathroom scale following cookie day at the weekly Vista West social hour: “Oh, Christmas cookie we love …
Read
Kickass and Polio
Attribution: National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s two best boyhood pals came down with polio during the epidemic of the early 50’s. Both cousin Rob and neighbor Darold suffered lifetime crippling effects, with Rob henceforth walking only …
Read
Kickass and Finance
Attributiion: Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper peaked out at understanding financial matters with the $2 bill, and thinks of bitcoin as loose change chewed by the dog. This leaves him standing on the corner as the financial parade becomes so outrageous that it takes up the entire …
Read
Kickass and Help from Phyllis
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper in a state of some distress as Phyllis takes on yet another project to go along with her many noteworthy artistic accomplishments. The keeper’s main concern, of course, is that the time Phyllis spends with her new paint and brushes will …
Read
Kickass Remembers December 7th
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that on this day that “will live in infamy” in FDR’s famous words, it lives on in the keeper’s memory as a ride in the family Model A Ford to stop at Riven Clark’s Standard Oil gas station on Highway 8 to hear …
Read