Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in wondering what happened to the children: In one of their meandering forays on a recent flawless summer afternoon across many miles of those wonderful winding driftless-area roads, past hundreds of interesting farms, and through dozens of communities of …
Read
Kickass and Senior Olympics
English: U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is assisting the keeper in reporting on little-known age-related news from the Toyko Olympics: ……First place in the competition to open a new bubble-wrapped kitchen utensil was won by an obscene-spouting 80-year-old using an …
Read
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Old Hollywood: The Legacy of Paul Newman
Warner Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Paul Newman was a master of cool—right up there with his peers Brando and James Dean—except he also had a certain down-to-earth quality the others lacked. Like Dean or Brando, he excelled at portraying characters that were typically a mixture of charm, intelligence, and sometimes …
Read
Kickass and Accordion Players Shot
Janet Spinas Dancer, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is trying to boost the keeper’s spirits after he—the keeper got the news that an accordion player was shot in the back at a Louisiana music festival last week. The bullet lodged in the zydeco musician’s ribs and did not kill …
Read
Kickass and Covid Poem
National Archives and Records Administration , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, despite heroic efforts, was unable to prevent the keeper from wasting valuable nap time composing what he claims is poetry. It isn’t, of course, but then he—the keeper, is overdue for his rabies shot. “You decline vaccines and refuse …
Read
Kickass and ’32 Chevy
AlfvanBeem, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s old-car restoration phase centered around the 1932 Chevy because it took him back to high school days when he had hauled an abandoned ‘32 out from behind a neighbor’s machine shed and drove it on dates despite it having …
Read
Passing the Smell Test
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter While we were recently visiting the family cabin recently—which is shared by three extended families—my wife started poking through the refrigerator. It contained a variety of half-used bottles of salad dressing, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, and various other sundries. She was—of course—checking expiration dates. Some of the …
Read
Kickass Eats a Duck
Tesla Delacroix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is not really a lot of help to the keeper as he—the keeper, tries to formulate a meaningful message to the duck that he ate in dining with Phyllis at Otto’s on a recent night. The keeper, while generally comfortable with being …
Read
Kickass and Brain Exercise
TapTheForwardAssist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis opted to pass up their daily exercise class Tuesday in favor of watching the four Capital cops testify at the legislative hearing for the Jan. 6 Capitol insanity. Just what this says about them—the keeper and …
Read
Kickass Says Goodbye
Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes on the keeper’s appreciation for his very brief contact with Bob Wills, the Milwaukee journalism giant who spent much of his long life fighting for the public’s right to know what its government is up to. Bob was instrumental in …
Read
Kickass and Dinner with Daughter Pat
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis ventured down to Madison’s Willy Street for a most enjoyable Sunday dinner at Buraka restaurant in the company of Ernest Hemingway and Pat Stokes, the keeper’s beloved daughter who left behind a devastated family when she went on …
Read
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Old Hollywood: The Legacy of James Stewart
Liberty Films, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter I was flipping around the TV dial a couple Saturdays ago, and there wasn’t much on—more ubiquitous reruns of Law & Order, even more overbearing chatter on MSNBC, and an endless line of banal reality shows. Then I happened to flip to TCM and caught the …
Read