John Warwick Brooke , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis tried to watch the latest movie version of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” but were put off by the movie maker’s skill in portraying the gore of ground combat; to the point that …
Read
Category:Kickass
Kickass and Van Gogh
heptc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that Phyllis took two of her grandchildren–Geordan and Luka to see the Van Gogh immersive show, and all pronounced it a pleasurable outing. There may be no connection, but at a lunch gathering following the show, Phyllis peered into one of …
Read
Kickass and Cloudy Days
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s take on the cloud- shrouded January that prevails: It is global politics with Putin and the Russians denying everyone any sunshine, and Xi and the Chinese using the cloud cover to lay personal claim to the moonlight. There has been actual speculation that China …
Read
Kickass Gets a Haircut
Altwngirl – Self Scanned, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is encouraging the keeper to accept the fact that getting a haircut is enough of an accomplishment to consider a day well spent. It is in adjusting to these kinds of vintage-age experiences that the keeper and his age …
Read
Kickass and Brother Orville
DVIDSHUB, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens up as the keeper reports on a visit with his brother Orville during which the accuracy of childhood stories was challenged for both of them. It has, after all, been more than 80 years. One constant is the adjustments that life demands, …
Read
Kickass and Speaker of the House
DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in trying to buoy up his confidence in the intelligent working of government by watching how the Repub reps go about selecting a speaker of the house, while the New York buffoon who reported his mother died twice and …
Read
Kickass Takes on Football
B, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper that the saturation of football in American culture is little improvement over the collective coliseum days of Rome, and in some respects is justifiably compared to dog and cock fighting as organized spectator sports. Structured by billionaire overlord …
Read
Kickass and Young Storytellers
Attribution: קלאופטרה, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that while the keeper was a professional storyteller for decades, he found himself at a disadvantage recently in a storytelling session with Tyler and Trevor, a couple of very young great grandsons. It was one of those rare and wonderful occasions …
Read
Kickass and TREESON the Book
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper and Phyllis in stepping into 2023 as if they owned it. The daily miracle of their being together at this juncture in their lives is not taken for granted, nor is their plain old presence on this flat earth. The first day …
Read
Kickass and Youthful Sound
See page for author, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on a belated clan Christmas gathering focused around Mike’s chili and Phyllis fruitcake during which the Clan dog Boo made an authoritative territorial statement and a bevy of young cousins shook Vista West out of its vintage-age slumber with …
Read
Kickass and New Year’s Resolves
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper over his New Year’s resolution dilemma in that after a long life of multiple, long-standing character flaws that demanded annual resolution-making, the keeper has finally emerged as a perfect human being, whereby making any New Year’s resolutions would be extraneous and ridiculous. The best …
Read
Kickass and Crow Rejection
Photo by Niklas Veenhuis on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes on the keeper’s mental jousting as he strives to find something positive in most things, even including the abject rejection by the neighborhood crows who have not done so much as a fly-over of the balcony where for most of the past year there …
Read