Kickass and D-Day

Avi1111 dr. avishai teicher, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis are among the Vista West residents who gather weekly for a “Happy Hour” event at which there is mild and usually light-hearted celebration of having survived another week. Yesterday–June 6, the group was …
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Kickass Deals with Sleep Apnea

Dyolf77, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, never has trouble sleeping, but the keeper, with his mild case of sleep apnea, does, and as usual he took his troubles to the VA where the sleep lab prescribed a device that fits in his nostrils to retard the ease of exhaling which in …
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Kickass and School is Out

Attribution: Rasheedhrasheed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Kickass, the doorstop dog, assures the keeper that there is no way for him to replicate the joyous feelings he once knew when school days ended and the glorious summer laid out there like the yellow brick road. If there is another individual transitional experience of such magnitude, …
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The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Not Just Another Happy Ending

The Ted Lasso Finale: Not Just Another Happy Ending The Cast of Ted Lasso at the The White HouseThe White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Apple TV Series Ted Lasso has been something—like the team it chronicles—of an underdog story. At face value, the show seems predictable: a comedy combining elements of the fish-out-of-water, a …
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Kickass and Phyllis Family

Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, congratulates the keeper and Phyllis for the successful hosting of Phyllis’s family gathering during which there were no fisticuffs, shoving or shouting but rather hugs, handshakes and harmony. As is the case with all mothers, Phyllis has not retired from any of her matriarchal …
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Kickass and the Balcony Horse

Chrisu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsBy Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper for having mismanaged the Vista West balcony where he and Phyllis reside by allowing it to be taken over by messy sparrows, and having evicted them, now experiences a sense of balcony loneliness. One possible remedy was offered in …
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Kickass and Balcony Sparrows

Starley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, holds the keeper’s hand as he surrenders to authorities for having had a prohibited bird feeder on one of the Vista West balconies where he and Phyllis reside. Early on, the feeder attracted a few house finches but it had evolved to …
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Kickass and Credit World

Cecco del Caravaggio , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in celebrating the fact that the country has decided to pay its credit card bill. What a wonderful thing! All children and grandchildren take note: credit cards are abominations. Pay them off and rip them …
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Freedom from Thought

Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In the latest in a series of educational innovations from the far-right extremist Republicans—the MAGAs—executing their regressive agenda, a new round of book-banning has been sweeping the nation over the past three years. Along with old favorites like To Kill A Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit …
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Kickass and Dark Memory

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, steps aside as the keeper notes that a dark memory can remain buried forever, like a seed planted too deep, and then one day sprout up as a mental weed: and it is so that the images emerge of the bloody …
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Kickass and the Weinermobile

WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, laments, along with the keeper, that of the countless issues thar require lamenting, near the top of the list has to be the renaming of the Oscar Mayer advertising vehicle from “Weinermobile” to “Frankmobile.” Is nothing sacred!!! This uncalled-for corporate move obviously …
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