Attribution: Photo by Mike Lewinski on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the disappearance of jackrabbits in Wisconsin. Nobody has seen one for years and DNR biologists say they are officially “extirpated.” In his boyhood Barron County days, the big white jackrabbits were like the royalty of winter, jumping up from …
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Category:Memories
Kickass and the Deer
Attribution: Photo by Prazanthy Ramesh on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assist the keeper in celebrating the keeper’s uncanny foresight in buying a pair of snowshoes on the hottest day of this erratic season. It happened when Phyllis left the keeper unattended at St. Vinny’s and he spotted these beautiful Iverson snowshoes, brand new and …
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Kickass and Dad’s Wagon Rides
Attribution: Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, turns it over to the keeper on this very windy day to remember a story his dear old dad told of his own boyhood in North Dakota when he hooked his coaster wagon to big tumbleweeds and let the wind pull him across the …
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Kickass and Future/Past
Attribution: NASA/Carla Thomas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has resolved to stop dwelling on his past and concentrate more on his future which is guaranteed to be a much less cluttered field of commentary material. In keeping with this resolve, the keeper will now …
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Kickass and 2025 as a Model A
Attribution: Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, having sampled an entire day of 2025, has consulted with Phyllis and decided to go through the year identifying himself as a car, which in his case would be a Model A Ford made the …
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Jimmy Carter: A Man for All Seasons
Attribution: Tuntematon, Valkoisen talon valokuvaajat (01/20/1977 – 01/20/1981), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter President of the United States, master diplomat, naval officer, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Jimmy Carter was also a man who lived in the same Plains, Georgia ranch home he had bought as a young man, who …
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Kickass Goodbye to Jimmy
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper joining the world to bid adieu to Jimmy and to recall one more time the wonderful experience of floating down the Mississippi on the Delta Queen for three days with Jimmy and Roselyn during Jimmy’s POTUS time. The opportunity to swap …
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Kickass and Christmas Memories
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, pauses on this Christmas Day to paw through a few memories with the keeper. The keeper goes first: A cold backseat ride in a rattling old Model A Ford through a brittle, star-lite night from Grandma and Grandma Helgeland’s farmhouse, after lutefisk and lefse …
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Kickass and Head Chopping
Attribution: Reuben R. Sallows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, does his best to keep the keeper from stepping into the bottomless quicksand of life but was unable to deter him from preoccupation with the reality that in order for there to be a traditional Thanksgiving feast somebody has …
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Kickass and Little Boy Blue
Attribution: Nursery_Rhymes.djvu: Edward Cogger derivative work: Theornamentalist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis like to remember things from their long-ago childhoods, and the keeper offers the following which he thinks might be appropriate at this time: “Little Boy Blue Come blow your horn …
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Kickass and Grouse Hunting
Attribution: Henry Thomas Alken , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper using this bright Oct. 18, 2024, to jerk his memory machinery back 50 years or so to the days when he and John Lawton wallowed in the glory years of ruffed grouse populations across the state. …
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Kickass and October 11, 1940
Attribution: markbyzewski, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, under the impression that the keeper had a memory for all occasions, is disappointed that he has no specific recall of Oct. 11, 1940, a day that began with warm shirtsleeve weather and turned into a vicious blizzard across the upper …
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