Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the demise of yet one more sign of spring—the “cow party” which was the day the cows, after a winter of standing in cramped stalls, were turned loose in the cow yard or pasture for an exercise opportunity. …
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Category:Memories
Kickass and Double-Breasted Suit
Attribution: Marcus Kaiser 【 MqaTalk 】, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reminds the keeper of his responsibility in guiding the Easter style dress parade, an honor which he earned many years ago by purchasing the very last double-breasted men’s suit in the Midwest, maybe the entire country. Double …
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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 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 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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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 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 Sleeping Cop
Attribution: Photo by Jessica Smith on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper having grown up in and around a two-man police force town—Barron, recognizes the personal nature of the relationship between the “law” and the citizens. The records tend to be in the minds of the police and the policed, and the keeper …
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Kickass and the Snowy Owl
Attribution: Petr Kratochvil, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assures the keeper that it is never too late to try to clean up the record so long as the final tally has not been inked in. So, here are the basic facts on a matter that has been haunting the …
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Kickass and Polar Plunge
Attribution: eagle102.net, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper is anxious to firm up his and Phyllis’s excuse for not attending the big Mazomanie Winter Solstice bonfire and the subsequent plunge into Black Earth Creek. The fact is they were both busy with their recliner clinical trials …
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The Possibilities Book
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter Christmas is a time that, for most of us, evokes fond childhood memories. Who doesn’t sit around the tree on Christmas morning, watching their adorable children tear violent swaths through reams of wrapping paper, and remember their own visions of sugarplums, bikes, road race sets, Barbie dolls, board …
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