I’ve been watching Tiger Woods these last three days in the PGA Championship, the final major of the year in golf. If you like and follow golf, as I do, you understand how nifty it is to be witness to the prime of probably the greatest golfer ever to live. My apologies to Jack Nicklaus fans for crowning Tiger before he’s surpassed Jack’s records, but it is inevitable unless lightning strikes Tiger down on the golf course.

Tiger is about 30 years my junior, but I’ve never found age a barrier to having a hero. Excellence is my main criterion. My previous hero was Larry Bird, the greatest basketball player of all time, no matter what Michael Jordan fans say. Larry Bird was not only a great scorer, rebounder, and passer, but he made everyone around him a better player by all the little things he did on the floor. That’s a critical non-statistical attribute for a team sport.

I love having heroes. When they win, or at least have a heroic outing, I find it easy to fool myself into believing that I too have won. I think I’m like most people who enjoy living vicariously at some level in their lives. I suppose it explains why we root for our home team, whether it is our local team or, for me, the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. They win, we win. The need to pick sides and “win” is ingrained in human nature, at least in men’s nature.

Women are a bit different. They don’t see the need to examine the nuances of the game, or the statistics, when it comes to someone like Tiger Woods. I think they are too busy doing other stuff with their time, and I expect that is ingrained in them too. Tiger is ahead by three strokes as the 18th hole closes on the third day of the PGA Tournament. I predict he’ll win by six tomorrow.

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I’ve been interviewed for newspaper articles quite a few times in the 18 years since I began BHM. I’d say 95% of those interviews were for newspapers that didn’t particularly care for the Libertarian philosophy I advance in my magazine column. Just a few years ago, one major paper, the Medford Mail Tribune of Medford, Oregon, found the need to run a sidebar next to the story they carried about me. It was titled, “How conservative are the politics of self-reliance?” I’m certain the same newspaper would never run a story about an environmentalist and decide it needed to run a sidebar titled, “How liberal are the politics of environmentalism?”

But that is the nature of most newspapers these days. They are very liberal in their views, and they have a lot of difficulty dealing fairly with people like me. So it was nice today to be interviewed for yet another newspaper story by a reporter who sort of likes my Libertarian views. His name is Jay Stoler, a longtime reporter who has been a publisher and editor of a newspaper in the past. He is now publisher and editor of the “Curry News Wave”, a small free tabloid newspaper he recently founded.

I thought I’d beat Stoler to the punch by publishing something on him before he can get his article in print about me. Stoler is one of the more knowledgeable reporters I’ve met, no doubt due to the fact he’s been around a long time. He is also a good writer, judging from what I’ve seen in his print newspaper and on his website. And he understands many of the things that are wrong with our local government in my county, things I only allude to in my BHM print issue commentaries because I don’t want to get enmeshed in local politics. I get enough angry letters from people who live hundreds of miles from me; I don’t need angry letters from people who are a short drive from my home.

I expect an enterprise like Stoler’s “Curry News Wave” to have a good chance of success in this day, where only a half dozen years ago I would have given him little or no chance. That’s because Stoler understands that the internet is a key ally to the print publishing business these days, and his website is designed to help his print issue. The internet, by its very nature, pushes the cream to the top. It puts the news gathering process into the hands of readers, not print newspaper publishers and print magazine publishers with big dollars behind them. If the reader on the internet does not like the way news is being covered, or does not like the way it is written or presented, that reader will go to a source that suits him or her. The internet reader can sample a print publication for free just by reading it on the internet. The internet has equalled the playing field for publishers like nothing else in history.

That’s the major reason why I’ve invested time in getting the four BHM weblogs up and running, and why I invested in BHM’s own internet server several months back. The technology is now here that ensures a relatively level playing field for anyone who wishes to compete for people’s attention. You simply have to offer a good product. Stoler has a good product and understands the technology. BHM likewise will not just continue to grow gradually as we have done for years, but will likely begin growing more rapidly than in the past, thanks largely to the internet. The internet’s propensity to force the cream to the top will boost BHM and relegate lesser publications to the bottom.

It’s a great situation to be in. Go Jay Stoler!

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A lot of exciting stuff happened at the office today.

We got the new issue . Subscribers won’t get theirs (the Sept/Oct, No. 107) for a few more days. We’re always first because we get these half dozen issues FedExed to us. The cover looks beautiful. It’s very important to have a good looking cover for the sake of newsstand sales. It doesn’t matter what’s in the issue when it comes to percent sell-through on the newsstand. Bright cover equals good sales; dark cover equals low sales. Issue 16 (July/August 1992) had dynamite articles and a brilliant Don Childers’ cover drawing that showed a wolf howling at the moon at night and a cabin with glowing windows in the background. But the sales went through the floor because it was dark. Weird huh?

I love getting the new issue. It’s like Christmas. I wonder if other publishers get the same thrill I get. Work pretty much stops in the office when it arrives, and we all look through it to make sure everything looks good. If it doesn’t, of course, there’s nothing we can do about it at this point.

Also delivered to the office today were some new Trojan batteries for my GEM car, a tiny electric car I use only on the golf course, even though it’s legal on the road. I bought it used from another golfer about seven months ago when it became apparent that one of my knees would no longer reliably take me walking for nine holes.

Buying the GEM outweighed continuing to pay golf cart fees at my local course, Cedar Bend, which is 10 miles north of town and the best 9-hole course in the Northwest. I knew the batteries were nearly worn out when I bought it, so I expected to have to buy more. The cart takes six, each weighing 66 pounds. That’s 400 pounds in batteries. Wow! I’ll install them tomorrow.

Workers also broke ground on a new Subway franchise going into the front of our building. I brought in five sets of gun earmuffs for the ladies because workers were scheduled to do a lot of jackhammering on the concrete to put in the plumbing to the sewer. It was noisy all day. Thankfully, they used a concrete saw to do much of the work. A new Subway for Gold Beach is a big deal. This little town of 1500 is buzzing with excitement. The BHM building is located across the street from the 250-student high school, which has an open campus, meaning the students can leave campus and head to Subway to buy a sandwich at lunch time. That was a big plus for the franchise holder deciding to locate here. When my family travels we always stop at Subway. Now I don’t have to leave town to get one.

I also found a big spider on my propane tank near my woodpile today and have posted its picture here to see if someone can tell me what kind it is. It’s about an inch long and has white and brown stripes on its legs. If you know, maybe you can click the comments button below this post to let me know, or send me an email at editor at backwoodshome.com.

Annie and Erik also arrived in North Carolina today. They’ll sign the lease on their rental tomorrow. Thank God! I have to get Annie to show me how to get the captions for these photos to show up in Firefox. They show up in IE, but not Firefox. I’m a computer idiot.

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I have a “hands off” policy when it comes to BHM’s Forum, except on very rare occasions when civility no longer reigns and order needs to be restored, which last happened in the summer of 2006. A recent Forum post that uses some racial epithets has come to my attention, and I just wanted to comment on it.

The post is under the “Freedom/Rights” section of the Forum so I suppose the poster, RangerRick, feels it involves his freedom to say what he wants. Although I am for freedom of speech, the post seems more like “race baiting” than freedom of speech. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive. I’ve discussed race in my print issue column in the past , but I had cause, namely Harry Belafonte’s attack on Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. To initiate a discussion of racial epithets without sufficient cause seems like race bating to me. Maybe RangeRick feels he has sufficient cause. You can read the post to judge for yourself. But there is no doubt in my mind that RangerRick’s Forum post will offend some BHM subscribers. Still, for the sake of freedom of speech and because I want to give RangerRick the benefit of the doubt, assuming he has good intentions with his post, I’ve decided to stick to my policy of “hands off” in the Forum in this instance.

But I have to give you my feelings on this matter.

Most of us understand that you don’t yell “fire” in a theater because safety overrides freedom of speech. Most also understand you don’t shout “Kike” in a synagogue or “nigger” in a black church because respect overrides freedom of speech.

My wife, Ilene, is Jewish. She is also the business manager of BHM and works very hard to keep the magazine in good financial shape. Without her, I think BHM, the website, and the Forum would have folded long ago. She is also a “kike” if someone feels like exercising their freedom of speech to use a denegrating racial epithet against her.

My friend of 50 years, Richard Blunt, is black. He is BHM’s very popular cooking columnist who puts many hours of testing into his recipes before he writes his column. He is also a “nigger” if you choose to insult him with that name.

If I was out with my wife and someone called her a kike, she’d be offended, and I’d probably smash the name caller in the mouth. Same if someone said nigger to my friend, Butch (I’ve known him for 50 years so I get to call Blunt by his boyhood nickname).

And by the way, Mas Ayoob, BHM’s gun editor, is one of those “towel heads” or “sand niggers,” namely, he is a Syrian. So is Habeeb Salloum, one of BHM’s other popular recipe contributors. And how about John Silveira, BHM’s popular political columnist who just started blogging on the BHM website a few days ago. He’s a spic, anthropologically speaking, since he’s Portuguese. Of course, none of these people are insulted by denigrating names thrown their way. I don’t think!

I notice the Forum post doesn’t use the word wop, harp, or savage, referring to Italians, Irish, and Indians, respectively. That’s no doubt because these words are no longer offensive, although I’ll have to ask BHM’s most popular columnist, Jackie Clay, about “savage,” since she is an American Indian. No sense using racial epithets that are no longer offensive to most people; can’t get a rise out of people doing that. Oliver Del Signore, by the way, who is BHM’s webmaster and creator of the Forum, is a Sicilian Italian. Words like wop, guinea, garlic smuggler, or spaghetti vendor don’t offend him. Those words have lost their sting for most Italians. The same with Harp, which refers to my Irish ancestry. The Irish used to be valued lower than black slaves when they came to America in droves fleeing Ireland’s potato famine at the turn of the century, but now they are accepted. So we Irish don’t feel threatened by name calling anymore.

But some people do feel threatened, or insulted, or spoken down to, by certain names that RangerRick mentions in his Forum post. And I prefer to respect people’s wishes not to be insulted, no matter if I am exercising my freedom of speech. I think it is just common civility.

When I was at the Midwest Renewable Energy Show in Wisconsin a month and a half ago, whites, blacks, Jews, Asians, and Hispanics visited the BHM booth and subscribed. They were all interested in energy and self-reliance. One nice black lady bought a T-shirt and let me take her photo and post it in my blog, along with all the other T-shirt wearers. She loved the magazine. I wonder how she’d feel reading RangerRick’s post? Do you think she’d say, “Oh, he’s just exercising his freedom of speech to discuss these topics.” I don’t! I think she’d wonder if she subscribed to the wrong magazine.

And I guess that’s my point. Why bring up racial talk that hurts certain readers and writers if it has no particular point except, as far as I can tell, to bait more people into talking about race. Why not just leave it alone. Why fan a potentially destructive flame when you could be fanning all sorts of beneficial ones.

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Today I have to read articles from the green basket. Lisa has been telling me that certain writers want to know if I’m interested in their articles. I’ve got at least one I’m going to buy, but have to hook the writer up with someone more skillful. It’s a good story, and I’ve got the perfect writer. Just have to make a couple of calls. But I’m procrastinating.

I’m also very busy with this blog stuff. Now that we have David Lee, Jackie Clay, and John Silveira all blogging, I think I can take a break and take a closer look at the green basket. Lisa and Annie have looked at what’s in there, and made their recommendations. All I have to do is decide.

Deep down I’m a lazy person. I just want to play golf and catch fish. Mental work is much tougher than physical work. My breaks from mental work often consist of cutting and stacking firewood. I often restore my sense of mental order at the woodpile. But it’s summer, and my wood is already ready for next winter. What should I do? The grass is cut too. I could rebuild the chicken coop, according to a plan I’ve had in my head for weeks, but it’s kind of hot out. I could tear down the loft in the old barn and re-erect it in the boat barn, which I’ve been planning to do for several months. Or I could build the greenhouse I’ve been promising Lenie. But it’s still kind of hot out.

I could say screw it all and go fishing. But the ocean remains too choppy.

I guess I’ll attack the green basket. But first I’ll take a nap.

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I leave most of the dinner cooking at our house to my wife, Lenie, because she’s a great cook and enjoys cooking, but now and then I make Kale Soup, specifically the Kale Soup recipe perfected by John Silveira. It is better than any soup I’ve ever eaten, and that includes the pea soup at the Pea Soup Andersen restaurants in California. The recipe is pretty long (it’s in the BHM cookbook), but the kale is the most important ingredient. That’s why we grow lots of kale, because fresh kale from the garden makes the soup even more spectacular than it already is. The recipe calls for a linguica sausage, but I decided to use a smoked chicken and apple sausage this time because I’ve tried to eat foods that have less saturated fat since I had my heart surgery nearly two years ago. I was afraid I’d miss the linguica, but the new sausage tasted fine. This is the type of soup that is good fresh off the stove, but it tastes even better if it sits a day in your refrigerator. That gives the flavors time to meld together. I generally make a double batch, as I did this time, so we eat kale soup for a week. The soup is also healthy. Kale always ranks number one in the charts of nutritionists rating vegetables. The soup also contains lots of garlic and onions, which are also very healthy for you. This Saturday, Silveira will make a big pot of kale soup using linguica and bring it to the pot luck celebrating Pat’s life at Fall Creek Ranch near Ashland, Oregon. I’ll send him a copy of this blog post and ask him to include the recipe he uses Saturday in his next blog post. It’ll be the same one contained in the BHM cookbook. If you don’t own a copy of the cookbook, by the way, you’re missing the boat on a lot of great recipes. The Kale Soup I made is only one of hundreds of recipes in it. If you click on the image of the cookbook, you’ll find Kale Soup listed under the recipes contributed by the BHM staff. This one was contributed by John. By the way, have you noticed that both John Silveira and Jackie Clay are now blogging from the BHM website.

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