Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper did a little turn-back-the-clock number with the kind help of friends Ken and Joel with a lunch gathering of current “has-beens,” a group that has been in existence since before Pat Lucy left Wisconsin to become ambassador to Mexico. The …
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Category:Memories
Kickass and Norske Nook Pie
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper that there are not many occasions that cannot be improved by a piece of pie, and if it is baked and served at one of the three Norske Nook locations in Wisconsin there is a spiritual quality to the event. …
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Kickass and TV Appearance
Photo provided by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper will be retiring from his very brief TV career following his appearance on the Channel 15 evening news with his presence built around the question of just why he was there in the first place. Young TV reporter Kayla gathered enough …
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Kickass and Scissors Sharpeners
Attribution: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, acknowledges Phyllis and turns it all over to the keeper on this day of Aug. 18, 2026. The scissors sharpener came ambling down the country road with his little bundle of worldly goods and a blank expression …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Best 21st Century Drive-In Double Features
Attribution: RoyBuchanan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter A former cultural mainstay of my youth, the drive-in movie theater, is dying a slow death. Once one of the most ubiquitous entertainment institutions in the country—and what could possibly be more American? A venue that combines cars, movies, and parties. Of course. I, and millions …
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Downriver
Attribution: Photo by Jonas Jaeken on Unsplash By Geoff Carter When I was about twelve years old, I used to walk home from school past a savings and loan that had a deposit envelope dispensary mounted outside its front door. It was supposed to be used for after-hours deposits. All you had to do was pull out the …
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Kickass and Big Animal Vets
Attribution: USDAgov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, rarely needs to see a veterinarian but is interested in the keeper’s news that the UW Vet School is working on a program to ease the looming big-animal veterinarian shortage across the rural environs. With the inflated economics of the vet school …
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Kickass and Grandma’s Sewing Maching
Attribution: Panjigally, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper’s family as it struggles with the problem of what to do with grandma’s old sewing machine. The dilemma is as common as weeds, and has generated multiple businesses to help with recycling “junk.” There are, of course, …
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Kickass and Cooking a Shore Lunch
Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the colorful air wafting down from Canada reminds the keeper of one of his more embarrassing–nay, “humiliating” moments, when on a Canadian fishing trip, he took it upon himself to cook the fish shore lunch for his father, Uncle Duffy and their …
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Kickass and “Takes a Peek”
Attribution: A McCarron, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remembering the experience of a relative who, with his wife, was being shown a for-sale house when the realtor pointed to a door and identified it as a closet. Interested in seeing it all, my in-law intended …
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Kickass and Long-Ago Summers
Attribution: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, shares the speakers’ couch with the keeper on this post 4th of July morning to allow him to revive other such mornings when the rural communities across the Midwest measured them by: *Cavernous hay mows stuffed to the …
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Kickass and the Country’s Birthdays
Attribution: Emanuel Leutze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in this time of celebrating the USA’s birthday, honors the keeper’s claim for the stage to reflect on the 200th birthday back in 1976 when he spent several weeks on a fascinating tour of meaningful historic sites for a series of …
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