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Big Weekend for the Outdoors

Tomorrow is National Hunting and Fishing Day, the day when we should all try our hardest to either introduce someone new or re-introduce someone to the outdoors. It's my hope that everyone reading this is taking advantage of a "national day" to do something we should all be doing routinely - introducing our friends and family to the idea of getting some analog entertainment.

As a college football fan, it's easy to sit on the sofa and cheer on a favorite team (or three) on a Saturday afternoon and evening while one of those glorious fall days goes to waste. Since I don't count mowing, edging and trimming as official outdoor activities, conning the neighbor's kid into mowing, edging or trimming your yard does not count- although you get ingenuity points from me for the "Aunt Polly's fence" solution to yard work.

Earlier this week, the President officially recognized National Hunting and Fishing Day. That recognition, normally pretty much taken for granted by most, caused more whispers than anything I've experienced in quite some time. I'm not going to say I am any sort of fan of the current administration or some of its "leanings" but I am trying to give this decision the benefit of a doubt. Being a professional skeptic who finds it impossible to believe any politician does anything out of a spirit of benevolence, I'm also wondering what the heck was behind the political decision to recognize the "desperate clingers" who hunt and fish.

But that's grist for another mill. It was a bit weird to see the Los Angeles Times take a poke at the President for his "Palin-esque" support of National Hunting and Fishing Day. The headline for what I'd have to call a "priggish" piece reads "Obama, like Sarah Palin, hails hunting, killing wild animals" a fair introduction to a piece that, manages to remind readers that the same candidate who once complained to elite San Francisco donors about "bitter small town Pennsylvanians who cling to their guns and religion" is now saluting those "ageless pursuits" hunting and fishing.

OK, it's hypocritical, but we are talking politics. As one of my friends in New York would say "Me-yow, kitty, take a valium and level out."

Tomorrow's about the outdoors - and I am proud to say I have experienced a good bit of it this week, and have plans to be outside next week as well. Too many of my days are spent indoors, confirming the dirty little secret that being involved in covering the outdoors usually means precious little time enjoying your chosen subject.

This week, it's been family time touring historic Charleston, South Carolina. Next week, it's one of those business/pleasure weeks that I relish. I'll be in Arizona, getting some high-quality shooting time while boning up my skills with the modern carbine rifle.

The next four weeks are all about the outdoors, offering me the opportunity to shoot in Arizona and Texas and try my hand at snook fishing in Florida. Gotta tell you, these kinds of assignments make it easy to get up and go to work - or stay up late and write about the activities I ordinarily get precious little time enjoying.

And in today's edition, news of a new drug ring - ginseng poachers. As a kid in Kentucky, I remember wandering around in the woods looking for "-sang" from which my grandmother made some really tasty tea. Apparently, rising unemployment and a bad economy are leading poachers to dig and pilfer the root from private lands and out of season.

Incidentally, ginseng can be legally harvested in Ohio and resold - at around $400 a pound.

OK, that's serious money, but go do something else this weekend.

Get outside and take someone with you this weekend.