Kickass Envies the Trash Collectors

Attribution: Photo by James Day on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper observing that the measure of social value by the very young is largely influenced by the amount of noise made and how it is made, hence the awe and respect for the trash collectors banging around with their awesome over-the- top loader …
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Kickass and Alien State of the Union Report

Attribution: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/303938034, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper having intercepted what is obviously a report from an alien observer of the State of the Union spectacle. “In yet another mystifying Earth ritual the leaders of the planet’s richest and allegedly one of the most advanced countries …
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Kickass Remembers and FORGETS

Attribution: Illustration by DonkeyHotey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis and their crowd of “seniors” working with each other and the younger establishment in memory matters. Accepting the verity that almost at birth memory begins to do wacky things in the forgetting department—Where did …
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Kickass and Mom’s Poetry Book

Attribution: Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper in his feeble efforts to “organize” the keep-safe treasures of his long life ran across his mother’s book of “One Hundred And One Famous Poems,” published in 1929 just a couple of years before the keeper was born. Mom’s small, …
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Kickass and Tax Revolt

Attribution: Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, observes Phyllis working at the computer all day to file her and the keeper’s income tax forms, after which she suggested that perhaps a tax revolt might be in order considering how the government—particularly the current one, spends so much tax money on bombs …
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Kickass and Earth’s Fate

Attribution: Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper tuning in to his Outer Space frequency to hear the following: “Attention all those millions out there observing the quaint space experiment on Earth whereby the most advanced …
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Kickass and the Sucking Goat

Attribution: Photo by Sergiu Vălenaș on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that in his tireless search for meaningful parallels in life, the keeper is convinced he has found one in the memory of “Snowball,” the useless Billie goat of his farm- boy childhood and the current occupant of the White House. Snowball, a hornless, …
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Kickass and Jesse Jackson

Attribution: Leffler, Warren K., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper’s getting-acquainted-with-Chicago days with his old Army friend Bob Shepherd, a Black Southsider who was the keeper’s personal MLK and then some. As an essential experience the keeper and Bob were in the back row of a …
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Kickass Covers the Courts

Attribution: Brandonrush, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, indulges the keeper in yet another deep dive into his newspaper clipping past with parts of an entry from his covering the courts in Stevens Point in 1958-59.             The day-long hearing and trial grew out of an incident at the Parakeet Tavern …
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Kickass and the Clippings

Photo by Samet Kurtkus on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper gratefully accepting the assistance of granddaughter Sarah in once again attempting to deal with the debris of a lifetime as an ink-stained wretch in the newspaper business. “Clippings” they are called. Thousands of them in drawers, files and boxes taking up space …
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