#131. What Good Local Journalism Is Supposed to Do | Ted Pease

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it is Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt podcast with my new best friend, Ted Pease.

Scott Hammond: Hi, Ted.

Ted Pease: Hi, Scott.

Scott Hammond: Do you go by Ed or Ted?

Ted Pease: Oh, no, Ted.

Scott Hammond: Ted 100%.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Yep.

Scott Hammond: Tell us, uh, w- who are you? What do you do?

Ted Pease: Who am I? What do I do? Well, um, I am here with my editor hat on. I'm the editor of Senior News at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Ted Pease: 1910 California Avenue in Eureka. Uh, it's really quite an extraordinary place, and this is quite an extraordinary paper. I, I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about it.

Scott Hammond: Nice. You mean, uh, this one?

Ted Pease: That very one.

Scott Hammond: This one. The newest edition. You know, newsprint, uh, we, we will get to into that, but, uh, do you know that I did this for 20 years?

Ted Pease: Did you?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I worked for a guy named Ron Pileggi at the Tri-City Weekly before.

Ted Pease: Oh, sure. That's right.

Scott Hammond: Before it was acquired by, uh-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … Media News-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … Times-Standard.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that was fun. I sold ads and, uh, did well-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and fed dying kids and made a, made a career of it.

Ted Pease: That's, that's a lot of ads, yeah.

Ted Pease: That's-

Scott Hammond: My beat was, uh, McKinleyville Arcata, so-

Ted Pease: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … it was back in the day. It was, it was-

Ted Pease: There was plenty of stuff to write about.

Scott Hammond: It was. It was pr- it was very lucrative to, to, uh, uh… The, the marketplace was good and, and vibrant back then, so. Uh, t-tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from. Where'd you grow up?

Ted Pease: Uh, I was born in, uh, New Hampshire.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: I grew up in New England.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, the other coast. I, I remember when I, we bought a house in Trinidad, and my, my dad came out to, my parents came out to visit, and, um, because they thought that was probably a bad idea, I'd gone insane, and, uh- 'Cause I was on the wrong coast.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And I took him out on the boat, and he said, "Well, it's not very Pacific, is it?" He's, he's a sailor in Maine and, and, uh, or he was, and, and I said, "Well, yeah, Dad, but we can use it for more than three months out of the year," so.

Scott Hammond: Good point.

Ted Pease: Yeah. So, um, so, uh, yeah, I'm a, I'm a transplant from the East Coast.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: We've been in Humboldt for to 20, nearly 30 years, coming up on 30 years, so.

Scott Hammond: Oh, boy.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Almost getting local.

Ted Pease: Nah, it'll be another four generations.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That's Ferndale, sorry.

Ted Pease: Oh.

Scott Hammond: Love, love you guys at Ferndale-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … but come on, man.

Ted Pease: Yeah, really.

Scott Hammond: Sorry. It doesn't, shouldn't take that long. You know, I, I've got an ongoing, uh, debate in my, uh, circle of friends, some of them. I have a good friend from Connecticut and several, my friend Ron Pileggi, who you might know from-

Ted Pease: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … publishing is, uh, from Philly. And, and the b-debate is this, the West Coast, we're kinda tender and mellow, and, "Hey, dude, I want a mocha," and- … drive a Prius. Don't honk at me. I'm tolerant of everything, and don't hurt my feelings, and, you know-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … please don't look at me sideways. And East Coast folks, like yourself, and maybe you wanna weigh in on this and maybe you don't, uh, a little bit more, uh-

Ted Pease: See which half of the country I can insult.

Scott Hammond: Right. Right. There you go.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: A little bit more direct-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … to the point, but, you know, I know where Ron stands when I'm talking to him.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: He doesn't have to mince words. "Hey, you know, you're, you're dressed funny today. Why? What's wrong with you?" And I'm going, "Okay."

Ted Pease: I'm not sure that's an East Coast trait.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: But-

Scott Hammond: But the directness.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: The, the cut-

Ted Pease: Well

Scott Hammond: … cut, cut the crap, play the hits.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And, um, uh, I've debated that with my friend Philip a little bit.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And so we're s- the jury's still out. Maybe there's a good balance.

Ted Pease: I'm sure my, I think my jury is probably out on that, so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Depends on the person.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That's true.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. When in, when in Trinidad, be-

Ted Pease: It's situational.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. When in Rome or Eureka, be one of those, or Humboldt. There you go.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: So I, I like the opening, uh, uh, question. My best opening question, may I read it? I rarely do this, but I, the, the-

Ted Pease: It's like-

Scott Hammond: AI really came through for you.

Ted Pease: Uh-oh. So I'm not being interviewed by you at all.

Scott Hammond: No, you're not.

Ted Pease: This is, this is some chatbot somewhere.

Scott Hammond: Some sort of robot.

Ted Pease: Okay, great.

Scott Hammond: Hey, you wait. Uh, you covered p-presidential politics, trained generations of journalists, studied at the national news bus- studied the national news business, and served as a Pulitzer Prize juror.

Ted Pease: True.

Scott Hammond: Is that true?

Ted Pease: True.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow. Uh, then after retiring, you ch- you chose a free monthly newspaper in Humboldt County, this one. Uh, why was the Senior News job, uh, why was Senior News the job you took 40 years to find?

Ted Pease: Good Lord. If, if this chatbot had been one of my students, I would've told him to cut to the chase, will ya?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: So don't make a speech first.

Scott Hammond: Like an East Coast guy.

Ted Pease: Yeah. That's right. Well, yeah, 'cause you're right. It just proved a point. Um, actually, um, my best newspaper job was when I was a cub reporter in Gloucester, Massachusetts in mid-'70s, 1976, 'cause that was true community journalism.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: That's what I thought it was all about. I mean, I wasn't interested in toppling presidents.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Um, on the very first day, I was at the Gloucester Daily Times, um, about a 12,000 circulation PM-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Ted Pease: … in Gloucester, which of course is a small town. It's a little like Humboldt in that.

Scott Hammond: How, how big is Gloucester?

Ted Pease: I have no idea. Um-

Scott Hammond: Like 25, 30 thou- whatever

Ted Pease: … yeah, yeah, it'd be smallish, you know.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Yeah, I don't think it's 50-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … even now.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, but, uh, on the first day that my stuff was in the Gloucester Daily Times, I had a photo and a story on the front page and three other stories inside.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: And I said, "God, this is great."

Scott Hammond: Rock s- rock star.

Ted Pease: $147.38 a week is great.

Scott Hammond: I'm killing it out here.

Ted Pease: He's killing it. If I get paid by the word, it's not gonna be eight cents anymore, so.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Ted Pease: No.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's gonna…

Ted Pease: But it w- I mean, that's, that was my sense of what, uh, journalism can and should've been-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … or should be-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … is, uh, the connection to people and telling stories about people.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Um, and in between, I, I went and I worked for the AP and a lot of other different places and, and I taught college and did all that. But when this thing came up, this is actually a funny story, but, but when this thing came up, um, Joyce Hayes, who was executive director of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center at the time, this was 10 years ago now, um, she said she was interested in having a community newspaper.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Ted Pease: Period. Full stop. And I said, "Okay, let's do that."

Scott Hammond: Wow!

Ted Pease: Um, I mean, it is a program of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, so, you know, like PACE and, and, and the nutrition programs-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … and all the other great stuff that that organization does. Um, so we're a program, and as my boss sometimes tells me, um, "This is a program, not a community newspaper," you know?

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: Uh, but it is a community newspaper.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: It connects, connects people to people, and that's what-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … good local journalism should do.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. You found, you found a good bunch of writers.

Scott Hammond: Julie Ful-

Ted Pease: Oh, it's a blast. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Julie Fulkerson's become my, my friend and my de facto, uh, pub producer.

Ted Pease: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: Just recommended that number of guests that have been on.

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah. There you go. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: All amazing.

Ted Pease: She, she knows everybody.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Right. Right.

Scott Hammond: It is, uh, it's every other buddy.

Ted Pease: Well, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which is a lot.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Still a lot of buddies.

Scott Hammond: It's a lot, a lot of buddies. So, so walk us out of high school, and where'd you go, where'd you go get your education?

Ted Pease: Um, as a– When I graduated from high school in Massachusetts, I, I ran away from home and went to the University of Washington in Seattle.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Uh, for about 20 minutes. Um- Uh, I wasn't quite ready to move on to the next level at the time.

Ted Pease: And, um, so I dropped out of school with a buddy. We went to work for a lumber mill for a little while to raise some money, and then we were gonna ride bicycles around the world.

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool. Of course.

Ted Pease: And, um, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like, as one does.

Ted Pease: 19 years old, don't know any better, right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And, and, uh, you know, if you start in Washington, you pretty much go straight uphill forever.

Scott Hammond: I mean At sea, from sea level, it's all-

Ted Pease: From sea level up to Stevens Pass is, like, 6,000 feet or something.

Scott Hammond: Oh my God.

Ted Pease: Um, but, but, uh, we got as far as Atlanta, and then we had a divorce, and that was the end of that.

Scott Hammond: That was it?

Ted Pease: But, you know, I was six, eight weeks of riding bicycles.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, and, um, and then I ran away some more, and I, I went to France and played la guitare américain in the Metro. And-

Scott Hammond: What's that?

Ted Pease: "Ze aunt Sara, my friends, merci bien." Busking-

Scott Hammond: Oh, cool

Ted Pease: … busking in Paris. And, uh-

Scott Hammond: That's pretty rad.

Ted Pease: Yeah. It was, yeah. I mean, it's-

Scott Hammond: In French or did you sing-

Ted Pease: Uh, well, both. Both.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Used to play

Scott Hammond: Neil Young.

Ted Pease: Play Neil Young with a French accent.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: But they have plenty of that.

Scott Hammond: How were the tips?

Ted Pease: Well, it was a movable feast.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. I gotcha.

Ted Pease: And eventually I went back to school, um, and I graduated from the University of New Hampshire. Um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Ted Pease: … I mean, my, my family lived in New England, and so I, I stopped running away from home, and I went back to New England.

Scott Hammond: Where's, where's that located?

Ted Pease: UNH is, uh, Durham.

Scott Hammond: It's in Durham.

Ted Pease: It's just inland from Portsmouth.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. I had a, um, stepmother from New Hampshire down in San Diego.

Ted Pease: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: Geraldine was an amazing person.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Granite State, we're all amazing.

Scott Hammond: Yes.

Ted Pease: There aren't many of us, but we're, we're amazing.

Scott Hammond: She drug my dad back for the color change, and he was-

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … blown away.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He was just a boy from Iowa, and he was, uh… In San Diego, turns out their color change is very minimal. It's pretty minimal here-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … in most ways, but-

Ted Pease: Right. Right

Scott Hammond: … um, yeah. No, what a, what a place. So, where'd you move? So you did grad school, then you went to Ohio?

Ted Pease: Uh, I, oh, well, let's see. From, from UNH, I worked in the newspaper business for a couple of years, then I went to Minnesota for a master's degree. And, uh, and I worked for AP there and a, and a magazine and, and AP took me to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: I know somebody from there.

Ted Pease: Are you talking about a certain president?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And his wife.

Ted Pease: And his wife. Uh, the certain president was governor at the time.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Ted Pease: And, uh, I, uh, I played basketball with him.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Ted Pease: Well, the, the governor's mansion, so-called The Little Rock, was just a house in the neighborhood down the street from my, my photo chief buddy, and we were walking home late one night, and here was this guy shooting ba- buckets.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Ted Pease: And I can tell you Bill Clinton can't jump.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. So.

Scott Hammond: That's

Ted Pease: Or he couldn't then. He might be able to now. I don't know.

Scott Hammond: Maybe he's really good now.

Ted Pease: He could jump now.

Scott Hammond: He might be able to dunk now.

Ted Pease: Yeah, he could.

Scott Hammond: It's hard to say.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Ted Pease: And then-

Scott Hammond: So you guys shot baskets with Bill and-

Ted Pease: Well, that was only once.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: And I'm sure he'll deny that.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: …

Ted Pease: I would.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And, and, uh, from there I went to Ohio. I taught at the University of Dayton for a couple of years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And I was told that I needed a green card, which was a PhD, and I got a PhD at Ohio University.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, and so anyway, it's-

Scott Hammond: Is that in Dayton as well?

Ted Pease: No, that's, uh, Athens, Ohio.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: It's in the lower right-hand corner. It's Appalachia, really.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: And, uh, it's got a very good journalism school. And let's see, then I went to Vermont. You don't want this whole travelogue, I mean.

Scott Hammond: A little bit.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Well, then to Ver-

Scott Hammond: You can end it when you want

Ted Pease: … then to Vermont, then to New York City, then to Utah, then… Actually, I finished my career in Utah, so that was quick, that part.

Scott Hammond: Whereabouts there?

Ted Pease: Utah State. Twenty-two years at the, I was the head of the journalism department there.

Scott Hammond: Is that U- the Utes?

Ted Pease: No.

Scott Hammond: Sorry.

Ted Pease: Those, that's the University of Utah.

Scott Hammond: Sorry.

Ted Pease: Utah State is eighty miles north of Salt Lake-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Ted Pease: … in a very nice valley, and, uh, it's a big school. It's a pretty good-sized school, but, um, and it's, it had I can't say this. Had a, at the time, a much better journalism department than, than either-

Scott Hammond: That's fair

Ted Pease: … the U or BYU.

Scott Hammond: Okay. Wow.

Ted Pease: But that, that's, that's biased.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: So.

Scott Hammond: Are there a lot of Mormons in Utah?

Ted Pease: There are a few Mormons in Utah.

Scott Hammond: There, there's still some there?

Ted Pease: Yeah. Well, people said, "So what's an Eastern liberal Democrat from New England doing in the land of Orr and Hatch?" And I said, "Missionary work."

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Of course.

Ted Pease: That's probably a line I shouldn't have used.

Scott Hammond: That's They would relate, though. I-

Ted Pease: Well, they thought it was funny. I used to give talks and, like, to newspaper publishers and stuff-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … in, in Utah, and they thought that was a funny line.

Scott Hammond: I like that one. That's a good one. So what got you to Humboldt then?

Ted Pease: Uh, like everybody… Well, there are two ways to get to Humboldt. One is by accident or vacation, and the other is if you go to HSU, right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And we, uh, uh, we'd been at a conference in, my wife and I, in San Francisco, and, um, one of her grad school colleagues had said, "If you ever have a chance, you should, you gotta go to Trinidad."

Scott Hammond: Yes, you do.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And being a- I'm not j- exactly geographically challenged, but I said, "Let's just drive up Route 1."

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that'll work.

Ted Pease: Which we did.

Scott Hammond: Which, which one?

Ted Pease: One, not 101. One.

Scott Hammond: Down in Leggett? Down that way?

Ted Pease: All the way down. All the way, all the way, I guess we came across then, whenever it's, whenever it comes back to 101, but-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Ted Pease: … it was a really long day, and we f- we fetched up finally, and I said, "Don't worry, honey. It's gonna be fine."

Scott Hammond: It's just north.

Ted Pease: "We'll, we'll check into a hotel. We'll get room service. It'll be great."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And then we drove into Eureka. We said, "Oh, I don't see, I don't see the Sheraton."

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I don't think there's any room service. There could be. Let me think about that. I don't… Yeah.

Ted Pease: But we did. We ended up in Trinidad and, and overnight, and we were gonna just spend one night, but she wanted to take a run in the morning, and we'd looked out at Pewotty that morning over the State Beach.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And it was one of those bright, pop you right in the eye-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Ted Pease: … days, and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … we said, "Holy moly. We need to come back and do more of this."

Scott Hammond: Magic place.

Ted Pease: That was 1997, and we've been-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Ted Pease: … doing it ever since.

Scott Hammond: How long you guys been married?

Ted Pease: 35 years on the 12th of October. Thanks for reminding me.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Good.

Scott Hammond: Coming around.

Ted Pease: It's coming right up. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yep. It'll be right around the corner.

Scott Hammond: Kids?

Ted Pease: Um, kids, mutual former kids. So-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Ted Pease: … it's good. We have deniability.

Scott Hammond: They're still kids.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're adult kids.

Ted Pease: They're in their 50s and 60s now.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: So, yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Grandparents then.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Ted Pease: Yeah, but they're all back in Ohio, so.

Scott Hammond: Huh. Did you… Back to Ohio real quick, did you ever know, um, so Cox Cable was, uh, h- the… Governor Cox-

Ted Pease: Governor Cox, yeah

Scott Hammond: … was a journalist, right?

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Was he from… I think he was from Dayton, if memory-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … recall.

Ted Pease: That's right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Um, so I worked for Cox Cable when I left the Tri-City newspaper, which we'll come back to, journalism print. Um, but he was quite a citizen. I think he was-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … he was pretty instrumental in Pulitzers, and I think he, uh, if I, if, if memory r- is right, which probably could partial, um, he was a pretty cool guy.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Well, he was before my time, so I can't tell you.

Scott Hammond: Quite a, quite a bit before, right?

Ted Pease: It was a different time for journalists and for publishers and so forth.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: They, they did see themselves as, uh, um, crusaders and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … uh, both for good and for ill.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: You know.

Scott Hammond: And Cox, the Cox company's still very much alive-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … in cable and whatnot, and they're-

Ted Pease: Sure

Scott Hammond: … they're an amazing c- uh, family to work for.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: They're a pretty, pretty good operator.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, well, so much for media. My, uh, my brother and sister live in, uh, Columbia, Missouri, f- home of, uh, University of-

Ted Pease: Sure

Scott Hammond: … Missouri J-school.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Big J-school.

Ted Pease: Big J-school.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Like, couple newspapers, couple TV stations-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … couple radio sta-

Ted Pease: Yeah, the student, the student newspaper is, like, the fifth largest in the state.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: So, you know.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: Or it was then.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Big doings.

Ted Pease: It was big, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow, okay. Cool. Uh, what do you like about living here?

Ted Pease: Oh, after this summer? The rest of the world's on fire or being flooded or both simultaneously.

Scott Hammond: Gosh.

Ted Pease: Yeah. This is a wonderful place to be.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: I love being here. Uh, it may be… I've lived so many places that I can't tell you if there's a huge contrast between being a New Englander and being a Humbolter.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Ted Pease: Um, I mean, you s- you say we're more laid back now. I guess I'm probably… I'm retired. I'm supposed to be laid back.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's part of your deal.

Ted Pease: Um, but-

Scott Hammond: You got the retirement shirt. I got the fisherman shirt

Ted Pease: … I got a fish shirt on, you know.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Ted Pease: And, and, um, but, you know, uh, what's not to like? I, I'm a, a boater.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: So I've got a boat in Hum- in Trinidad Harbor. Um, and, uh, we like trees, and we like water, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … we like dogs. You have to have a dog if you lived in Humboldt, I think.

Scott Hammond: Wanna go to the dog place real quick, the dog attack?

Ted Pease: Oh, sure.

Scott Hammond: Let's talk about that.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: My wife's a runner.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, pet lover. We just lost Zoe, a Corgi, after 17 years, family dog.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But she constantly is on the, on the watch, the prowl for loose dogs on trails.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: I understand that you had a-

Ted Pease: It's hard not to be

Scott Hammond: … incident.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. I mean, yeah, you've gotta watch that, for sure.

Scott Hammond: You were bit, is that correct?

Ted Pease: I was bitten. My dog was bitten. My wife was bitten. We were all-

Scott Hammond: Crazy

Ted Pease: … it was a family d- thing, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like, right in town?

Ted Pease: It was, um, it was March 15th, um, I wanna say four years ago now, something. And, uh, the sun finally came out, and so everybody in town was out drying their wings, right?

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: So, so we're walking the dog around from Edwards onto Ocean-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … right? Just past the B&B, so going inland again.

Scott Hammond: Right there.

Ted Pease: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: By the eatery there?

Ted Pease: No, the, yeah, the other way. That's-

Scott Hammond: Oh, the other way.

Ted Pease: Yeah, um, down the side street. And, and, uh, we saw a dog. It was down the, down Wagner, just down the way a bit. I said, "Oh, there's a dog." And my wife said, "That dog's not on a leash." And I said, "Yeah, but he's like a million miles away. He's down there." Um, and the next thing you know, the dog was on our dog, Stella.

Scott Hammond: Whoa.

Ted Pease: And Stella was on her back screaming, and this dog was, like-

Scott Hammond: Going nuts

Ted Pease: … it was a crazy thing, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: And, uh, of course, we're all trying to get the dog off, and thank God there are all these other people around 'cause there were good Samaritans everywhere.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: And thank God none of them got bit.

Ted Pease: Um, but, uh, somehow, uh, clever person that I am, I got my fourth finger and my right hand in, uh, in the dog's mouth, and some of it stayed there.

Scott Hammond: Bummer.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … took the first knuckle off.

Scott Hammond: Ouch.

Ted Pease: But I didn't know that. And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Ted Pease: …

Ted Pease: um, anyway, it was a, it was, yeah, it was pretty traumatic, and it has completely ch… I mean, I've been a dog owner all my life.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And, uh, we still are, and we always will be, but it does completely change the way you see the world out there.

Ted Pease: Uh.

Scott Hammond: I think so, yeah. I-

Ted Pease: And for , for a while, poor Trinidad, the little town of Trinidad with all these, all these people, everybody's got a dog, walk 'em all around, but everybody was armed to the teeth with, you know, bear spray and, and sticks-

Scott Hammond: Rocks

Ted Pease: … and I was it was a little frightening-

Scott Hammond: Baseball bat or…

Ted Pease: It was a little frightening to be in Trinidad right after that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Well, that's, I think after an assault like that, I mean-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … it, it's a funny thing, this dog thing. You know, they're the new kids, and I get it.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And we've had dogs, and we- b- best dog ever was Jake the dog, black lab.

Ted Pease: There we go. That's-

Scott Hammond: The problem is we had, our oldest son was Jake-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … as well.

Ted Pease: Oh.

Scott Hammond: So.

Ted Pease: You had to number them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Jake, come here. It's, uh, it got confusing. Uh, but it, it's, it's a, it's a tough topic because the minute I come out and say something anti-pet-

Ted Pease: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … or c- you know, put a damn leash on your dog, uh, now you're, now you're a hater.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: You know, and, uh, and maybe you've encountered some of that, so put your, put your l- dog on a damn leash Please.

Ted Pease: Right. Well, it's, it's-

Scott Hammond: Hon- honor, honor the humans, please

Ted Pease: … it's your responsibility to your dog.

Ted Pease: I mean-

Scott Hammond: And to your dog

Ted Pease: … your dog's gonna get whacked by a car or gonna-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … you know, you want your dog to get in a fight with some other dog? No, you don't.

Scott Hammond: No.

Ted Pease: So, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And you might meet our friend Sarah, who actually picks up a, a big stone when she runs.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And she's not afraid to chuck it.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: If your dog's not on a leash, she's gonna hit you.

Ted Pease: Well, if you've had one of these experiences, it is traumatic, and it stays with you for sure.

Scott Hammond: Well, it's a PTSD moment.

Ted Pease: Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Um, yeah, well, I wish I could chan- change that culture, but, uh, it's, it's so frequent that Joni will be running on anywhere, even Sue-meg.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And dogs are not allowed there.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: Except for maybe in your camp, I think.

Ted Pease: Right, right.

Scott Hammond: Um, and-

Ted Pease: But they're supposed to be leashed no matter what

Scott Hammond: … and scofflaws, man, just, "What? Oh, I just, uh, I don't know. My, my dog's fine."

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: But, but he ate a little kid's arm.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, what, what, you're not, it's not fine.

Ted Pease: It's not fine, no.

Scott Hammond: This is, "That's cool, man." No, it's not cool at all. Let me just be anti. Anyway, so, uh- …

Scott Hammond: please.

Ted Pease: Well, most people and most dogs are fine, but it's, uh, yeah, it doesn't take many to-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … for it to be a bad thing.

Ted Pease: Well, what came out of this in Trinidad is that, you know, there was a, a dog committee, an animal committee set up, and-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Ted Pease: … and they, so they're, I mean, there is a leash law in Trinidad, which is not true of all communities in this, in this county.

Ted Pease: Um, and, uh, um, I think there was a lot of consciousness raising.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Whether that extends into the trails on the, in the state park, I, you know, they don't, but, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they do not

Ted Pease: … no.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: No. But it's, uh, you know, it's, it's one, one dog at a time.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And laws are funny, you know. It's like, uh, your rights extend to, to a certain point, and, and me too.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: You know? Um-

Ted Pease: Right

Scott Hammond: … so that's, that's always a fun debate.

Scott Hammond: So, um, I was gonna ask some questions. So, so what originally made you believe journalism could make a difference?

Ted Pease: Well, I think it was that first job back at the Gloucester Daily Times back in the day because I, I could see it. Um, it was a small enough town, a small enough community that people knew each other, even me. I mean, I was only there for six months as a, a cub reporter. It was an internship. And, uh, but I'd, you know, I'd stop at this little local grocery on the way home to pick up a can of Campbell's soup, which is, was in my budget. And they pretty much, they pretty soon figured out that I worked for the paper, and they would tell me every, every time I stopped in what, what did we gotten wrong that day, you know?

Scott Hammond: Oh, really?

Ted Pease: Or, "You should go get that story, but no, that was not right, and, and that's our neighbor's kid, and you spelled the name wrong." You know. 'Cause I had real journalism like, "This was a school, uh, field trip, and you gotta list the names of all these kids?"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: My God. Um, and yes, of course, we're gonna get some of those wrong.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: But it was, you know, they cared about it, uh, and they cared about their newspaper, and they cared about the news in their community, and they listened to it and read it. And, uh, uh, I, I sort of miss those days, which is why this newspaper is fun-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … because, uh, it has a similar kind of investment from its readership.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … that I'm not sure if that's true of all newspapers. Uh, uh, I would not wanna be an owner of a newspaper or in the daily newspaper business-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Ted Pease: … and have to make a go of it. But, uh, but this, this, doing this work for the last 10 years really has r- has, uh, revived my faith in, in, uh-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … in good, you know, justice and the American way. I mean, it's, uh-

Scott Hammond: That's cool

Ted Pease: … it's fun. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So you have a lot of contributors. What's the, what's the, uh, circulation?

Ted Pease: We print 7,500-

Scott Hammond: That's a lot

Ted Pease: … a month.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Yeah. It gets inserted in the Time-Standard. It gets inserted, we pay to have it inserted in the Time-Standard and the Mad River Union.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: And then the rest of them are in piles around town.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, we have a few subscriptions because we're not based on subs- I mean, we'll take 'em. We'd like to-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … have subscribers. Um, for $36, call Debbie at, uh, 707-443-9747, and she will set you up for 36-

Scott Hammond: Let's do the call-out again. Who do we talk to?

Ted Pease: Talk to, talk to Debbie at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, and you can get your own subscription for $36.

Scott Hammond: That ain't a bad deal.

Ted Pease: It's a, well, it's, you know, it's, it's a monthly newspaper, so it's not-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Ted Pease: … not like you can overread it, but, uh-

Scott Hammond: That's true

Ted Pease: … um.

Scott Hammond: True. So you guys sell advertising too.

Ted Pease: We, we are very fortunate and blessed, uh, by the business community here that still supports print journalism.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: That's great

Ted Pease: … that's not true every place.

Scott Hammond: That's true.

Ted Pease: And, and in this newspaper, we pretty much break even. I mean, the great advantage for f- uh, for us is that we're embedded in this agency, and so it is a program of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, and it's something that they invest in. And God bless them. Uh, the board of directors of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center are absolutely committed to doing this work, and, uh, those are my best boosters.

Scott Hammond: I think it's neat to be part of that. Um, so let's talk about some of your accolades then.

Scott Hammond: You, um, you did a dissertation that was remarkable.

Scott Hammond: Um, you've worked at, with a number of, uh, campaigns. So, so Carter, do you wanna– Were you in his campaign?

Ted Pease: No. No. I've, I covered, I covered, Jimmy Carter came to Nashua, New Hampshire. Uh, that would've been the 1976 campaign.

Ted Pease: Um, is that right? And, uh, what I remember most about it is I couldn't hear him.

Ted Pease: Um, but I, I was the editor, the news editor of the, uh, of the New Hampshire, which was the, the d- uh, the student newspaper-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … three times a week. And so I went and covered the story, and we took pictures and did all that stuff. But I, what I remember most about that, um, was nothing that Jimmy Carter said, um, because I couldn't hear him. But I was standing in the press section under the bleachers right next to Sam Donaldson, and he did nothing but make fun of Jimmy Carter. And I, I was horrified, astonished.

Scott Hammond: Sam.

Ted Pease: So naive.

Scott Hammond: Come on, Sam.

Ted Pease: I was just a kid. Oh, my, you can't say that about the president. But anyway, it was, uh, um-

Scott Hammond: Oh, Sam

Ted Pease: … it was Sam. It was, that was fun. Um, and so that's as far as that goes. I mean, my only other presidential contact is, is Bill Clinton, as you said, but I never, I covered him as governor somewhat, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … but, uh, uh, but Uh, no, I never got that high in the, in the, in the feed-feeding chain.

Scott Hammond: I was reading some of the work w- as, uh, you've written about, um, minorities in newspaper, in the newspaper business-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … right?

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You wanna talk about that?

Ted Pease: Well, uh, yeah. When I was a kid, uh, my, my parents were good knee-jerk liberals from way back. My dad was a minister.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: Uh, my mother was a social worker. Dad was a teacher and a minister. He taught high school ethics and, and religion and so forth and, and, and headed church, and, uh, which I think jaded me on God a little bit, but that's, you know, get too, too, too familiar.

Scott Hammond: Pastor's kid. Pastor's kid, yeah.

Ted Pease: Yes, as the son of a preacher man.

Ted Pease: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: They wrote that song about you.

Ted Pease: Yeah, I know. It's amazing. It's really flattering.

Scott Hammond: Who was the gal that wrote… Who that sang that?

Ted Pease: Oh, she's… You're gonna have to get your callers to call in with that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Call, call in now. Son of a… Yeah, that was a great song.

Ted Pease: Well, I'm not sure I'd go there, but that's, um, but- … they, they did take me, um, you know, civil rights marching. This is the '60s and '70s.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, and, uh, I entered high school in 1969, so that was sort of the height of all that stuff.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: And we went, I re- I still remember quite clearly, uh, marching with a million people with Martin Luther King in Boston.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Ted Pease: … and, and my, my parents were do-gooders, and we had, we had all kinds of different people in our house all the time. Um, and, and, uh, that sort of stuck with me, and that's was sort of normal because, you know, just because you have a different background or a different skin color, they were still at our Christmas-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … table at dinner, you know.

Ted Pease: Um, so when I got into, into grad school, um, I'm carrying that good liberal luggage with me, and I got involved in the American Society of Newspaper Editors, um, as a, as a faculty, uh, associate, whatever they called it, and I got involved in their, in their, uh, diversity programs.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: And what newspaper editors in the 19… That would've been the late '80s, I guess, were saying was that, was the same thing that they said during the, the race riots and the, uh, the unrest in the '60s.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: Uh, and newspapers then said, "We were totally blindsided by the level of, uh, unhappiness in, in, among Black Americans," right? Because they had nobody of color in their, in their newsrooms.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Ted Pease: Right?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and that's exactly what they were saying, I mean, what the quote from the Kerner Commission report in 1960s was that newspaper editors said, quote, "We can't find qualified-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Ted Pease: … Black people."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and that's exactly what editors were saying in the 1980s and, and early '90s, and I said, "Well, that's just stupid."

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: And I got to Ohio University and, and, uh, there are a bunch of, uh, accommodators there. That is, "You got a bright idea? Let's see if we can figure out a way to do that."

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: And we said, "You know what? Let's figure out a way. If, if we brought people to campus, say, in the summer when we're not using the facilities anyway-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … um, could we train them up enough so that we could get them jobs?" So we created a thing called the Midwest Newspaper Workshop for Minorities at Ohio University, and that would've been started in, like, '87 or something like that. And the first year, we had a class of nine people.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: But the deal was that Gannett, um, the Gannett-

Scott Hammond: Huge

Ted Pease: … Foundation, um, helped underwrite this thing, and the deal was that Gannett Newspapers would agree to hire, assuming the people who got through the program satisfactorily from our perspective, and they would get the entire news head curriculum in 10 weeks in the summer.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: I mean, we, we killed them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: It killed me, but we killed them.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Ted Pease: And at the end, they were a– And they had internships and all that stuff, and at the end of it, if they were still okay and they're still alive, then Gannett Newspapers all over the Mid- that part of the Midwest hired them.

Scott Hammond: Big company.

Ted Pease: Well, they had a lot of newspapers-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … and they were committed to diversity.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: I mean, I realize you can't say DEI anymore, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … they were in, uh, committed to diversity-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … and, and equality and, and, and telling that story and having people in their newsrooms so that they would, did not miss that component of their population.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: We had one woman who went to, uh, Akron, for instance, the Akron Beacon Journal, uh, and Akron has a sizable minority popu- Black population-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … primarily at that time. And, uh, uh, six years later, she was part of a Pulitzer winning team-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Ted Pease: … um, for a series on minorities in, in Akron, Ohio.

Ted Pease: So-

Scott Hammond: That's cool

Ted Pease: … you know. That's, that's that, I'm sorry, son of a preacher man.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Am I doing missionary work?

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: I think so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Um, uh-

Scott Hammond: God bl- God bless you

Ted Pease: … let's find a thing and fix it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And that's what we do.

Scott Hammond: Love it.

Ted Pease: So.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, I love that. It's a, it's a great story. Um, if you're just joining us, my new best friend, Ted Pease, from the Senior News and lots of other stuff. Uh, do the shout-out real quick again. How do we get ahold of you-

Ted Pease: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … the paper, circulation, subscribe-

Ted Pease: That's easy. Um-

Scott Hammond: Advertise

Ted Pease: … I should use the current one if I'm gonna hold it up here to this camera here.

Scott Hammond: By the way, the colors are really good. Who prints this?

Ted Pease: Uh, this is Western Web in Samoa.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, sure.

Ted Pease: It's the same guys who do, do North Coast Journal.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Steve just died, right?

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Steve, yeah, Steve Jackson. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Did a lot of printing for us back in the day at the Tri-City-

Ted Pease: Sure

Scott Hammond: … when it was at Paradise Post.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: All right. Well, that's, that press out there is the one that Rob Arkley bought, right? For that paper-

Scott Hammond: Correct. Yeah

Ted Pease: … for the Report, uh, Humboldt Reporter.

Ted Pease: Sorry.

Scott Hammond: Eureka Reporter, yeah.

Ted Pease: Eureka Reporter. And-

Scott Hammond: Which was a fabulous little-

Ted Pease: It was a great paper

Scott Hammond: … looking. Oh.

Ted Pease: Short-lived, but it was a good little paper.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And, and, uh, and but the, the facility is terrific.

Ted Pease: And-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … so, yeah, we pay a little extra for the bright paper.

Scott Hammond: It looks great.

Ted Pease: And it's, and it looks good.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Um, the, this newspaper is, uh, it's all, uh, except for me-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … and, and Liam, my ad guy, and Marcella, my layout person, is, you know, that's it.

Scott Hammond: That's all you got.

Ted Pease: It's, it's all volunteer.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, and, and And what's fun about it is that this is also an excuse, as journalism is, is an excuse to call people and ask them things that are none of your business.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and in Humboldt, Humboldt County, everybody knows everybody else, and pretty soon there's a, an interesting group of people in any one of these newspapers.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Um, so-

Scott Hammond: Seven, yeah

Ted Pease: … the shout-out, if you wanna get one, all you have to do is go to a grocery store-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Ted Pease: … around the end, end of the month, and there are stacks, but they tend to go away. Um, and, or you could get one mailed to your, delivered to your house once a month for 36 bucks for a year.

Scott Hammond: Who do we call?

Ted Pease: If you call, call Debbie.

Scott Hammond: Debbie.

Ted Pease: Call Debbie at, at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center. That number would be 707-44, uh, 443-9747.

Scott Hammond: 9747.

Ted Pease: Or you could email me anytime.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Tpease, T-P-E-A-S-E, @humboldtsenior, one word, .org.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Ted Pease: And as long as we're shouting, I mean, what I really, the, the latest big-

Scott Hammond: Shout, shout out

Ted Pease: … big deal about this is that we finally got our website up and running. Liam, the ad guy, is also our, our web-

Scott Hammond: What's the website address?

Ted Pease: … webmaster. Uh, Humboldt, uh, humboldtseniornews@, uh, .org.

Ted Pease: That's it.

Scott Hammond: .org?

Ted Pease: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Cool.

Ted Pease: Just humboldtseniornews.org. And it's, there's an e-edition, and there's a, the website is cool, and it's, uh, anyway, we're just getting that, getting that amped up.

Scott Hammond: Nice. Uh, I just read, read this. I, I, I keep going back to my notes, so you're is- really doing your research

Ted Pease: Oh, we're back to the chatbot again, right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, we're, uh, yes, we are. Um, no, I, I love, I, I love, love your story. So there, there is a question that was really good in here, and I was gonna grab this, and I had it highlighted.

Scott Hammond: Um, what makes the Senior News pap- Senior News a newspaper rather than simply an organizational newsletter? I think you covered it, but maybe you wanna reiterate.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Well, it is, and that's one of the things that drives me, that makes my teeth hurt most when people say, "I like your newsletter."

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Ted Pease: Um, because the, to me, there's quite a, a large difference between a newsletter that is, is, uh, school lunch menus and, and, uh, uh, community gatherings. This Senior News, um, yes, we have one foot in the senior circle.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: The unofficial, uh, motto of Senior News is, "For Humboldters 50 and over."

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Ted Pease: "And everyone who knows one or who wants to be one someday."

Scott Hammond: Wait.

Ted Pease: So we, we, we have a fairly broad demographic.

Scott Hammond: I'm almost there.

Ted Pease: Target. Yeah, you're-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … I think you qualify.

Scott Hammond: Thanks.

Ted Pease: Um, because what, what the stories are and what the content is about, um, in addition to things of particular interest to people who are over 50, and yeah, we got stories about Medicare and about, about dementia and stuff like that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: But, um, you know, just because you get to be 50 or 60 or 70 doesn't mean you don't still ride horses-

Scott Hammond: Amen. Yeah

Ted Pease: … um, or, or go fishing or do bungee cord jumping or whatever crazy thing you do.

Scott Hammond: Hike and bike and paddle.

Ted Pease: Hike and bike.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Ted Pease: And you, and you have interest in a, in a wide variety of things.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And so what we do with each issue is j- just try to find those people.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Um, since I started doing it, we've, have focused each month on a, a topic just because it's organizationally easier to do it that way.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Ted Pease: Um, I mean, one good thing about newspapers is it's serendipity, right? I mean, you could have clogging next to, next to politics or whatever.

Scott Hammond: Anything, yeah.

Ted Pease: Anything. Um, this one has a theme. I mean, the, the current month is about artificial intelligence-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … which actually, somebody just called me the other day, "You guys are genius to, to do this topic, because right now, you know, A- AI is blowing up everywhere."

Scott Hammond: That's right. It's taking over.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Well, we knew that was gonna happen.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Elon gave me a call a couple months ago, so.

Scott Hammond: Right. He told you straight out.

Ted Pease: Yeah, "This is gonna be big." But, uh, uh, I mean, next month, the, the October issue is gonna be on music, Humboldt, music in Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Ted Pease: And it's already, we've had to bump for four f- four pages, and it's already gonna be full, and it's crazy.

Scott Hammond: Oh, I bet. Such a vibrant music scene.

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah. I mean, just, I mean, what happens if you ask people who are passionate about something?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: You said, "What about that?" They, it turns out they're passionate about it. They're gonna be interesting no matter what.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Ted Pease: So.

Scott Hammond: And you probably have a lot of musicians that are, Paul DeMarc is a really great writer.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He's, he played with a lot of, a lot of guys over the years.

Ted Pease: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Had him on the show. He's a great guy. Um, no, I like that, and it said, it said that you really enjoy photography, fishing, and life in Trinidad. How has that changed the way you look at your life in, in Humboldt?

Ted Pease: Well-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause it's the, it is the cool village, man.

Ted Pease: It… Oh, yeah. Well, living in Trinidad, that's, that's sort of a dream. It's almost a, Trinidad looks a lot like the, uh, the island in Maine where I spent all my summers as a kid.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Uh, except it's not an island, so, but it's got a harbor and it's got boats and it's got all that stuff.

Scott Hammond: What, what's it called?

Ted Pease: Swans Island.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Ted Pease: It's off of Mount Desert.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Way up by Ellsworth, Bar Harbor up there.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, and, uh, that's where, that's, my soul lives in that harbor.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: But I've got a, a nice second right here.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's okay.

Ted Pease: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And you got Humboldt County surrounding it.

Ted Pease: Yes. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And-

Scott Hammond: I always like to use my prop and-

Ted Pease: There's Humboldt County

Scott Hammond: … right over there.

Ted Pease: That's right.

Scott Hammond: Here's my pointer. I'm not even gonna turn it on.

Ted Pease: We see it.

Scott Hammond: It's just over there.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: It's over there in the corner.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, it's, it's magic. We, um, we often have a date night. Uh, we pull the van out and park right there at Tahoua Point-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … and Calen Rock and-

Scott Hammond: Right. Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … throw those van, that van open and it's 70, 75 'cause the water refraction, and-

Scott Hammond: Right

Ted Pease: … I get on my Speedo and I'm good to go.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Anyway.

Scott Hammond: We, we had a bunch of people there just last night.

Ted Pease: I was hoping you would just-

Scott Hammond: The sun was going down. I was right there yesterday. I was there yesterday

Ted Pease: I was hoping you'd say something about the Speedo 'cause I, I actually don't-

Scott Hammond: No. Well, that's, that's an image really I'm trying to block.

Ted Pease: Yeah, I see. We, we went right over that, which is probably the right thing. Um, hey, so let's, let's earn you one of these. Uh, does, do you like chocolate?

Scott Hammond: Who doesn't like chocolate?

Ted Pease: Um, my wife informs me that all females love chocolate.

Scott Hammond: See, I didn't say that.

Ted Pease: Do you, do you l- not like chocolate?

Scott Hammond: I, I love chocolate.

Ted Pease: Okay, there you go, and you're not female as far as I can tell, so.

Scott Hammond: I ha- never have been, quite yet.

Ted Pease: It's not exclusive to females.

Scott Hammond: No, no, that's true.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Uh, it goes really good with a lot of things.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: These guys have done pairings with, um- Uh, whiskey with wine with beer with, um, what's that other beer? Barley, barley wine.

Ted Pease: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Go figure.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Uh, which is a really interesting-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … drink. It's kinda… How would I know about this? I, I, I just read it. So, uh, for you, my friend, but not quite yet, let's start the, the quiz.

Ted Pease: What do, what do I have to do?

Scott Hammond: Well, you have to answer some questions.

Ted Pease: Okay.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that hurts my hearing aids.

Scott Hammond: You think-

Ted Pease: Brought to you, brought to you by Dick Fran- uh, Dick Taylor.

Scott Hammond: Dick, Dick Taylor, yeah. And you thought I was joking. Um, what's, what's been the best and worst day of your life?

Ted Pease: Days, uh… You know, this is gonna… Maybe I just block these things out. Um, I have, every day on a boat is the best day of my life.

Scott Hammond: Ah. You own a boat, I understand.

Ted Pease: I have a boat, and it's… until Sunday, it was moored in Trinidad. They made us get out for the season, but, um-

Scott Hammond: Where do you take it? Just out of the water?

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah, it's in the driveway now.

Scott Hammond: Ah.

Ted Pease: It looks really unhappy, but, um- And 'cause it's, it's collecting pine needles, which is wrong. Um, any day on the water is a good day.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: Um, uh, and to tell you the truth, because I'm a half full kinda guy, I'm not sure I can tell you the worst day.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Ted Pease: Like, I'm sure there've been a bunch, but I don't dwell on them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: That's no fun. If-

Scott Hammond: That's cool

Ted Pease: … if I were interviewing me, I'd say that's no f- that's not really much good. I really wanna hear some-

Scott Hammond: I don't know. I mean-

Ted Pease: … tearjerkers, but…

Scott Hammond: I, um, I think some people just are, are, are able to omit to a degree.

Ted Pease: Mm. Yeah. Well, that's, that's deniability, right?

Scott Hammond: Which is fine. I, I, I guess if you're reliving a bummer-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and there's no lesson to it, what are we… Why are you looking in the rearview mirror?

Ted Pease: Well, I, I guess I would say to that, that, that, uh, all the bad things that happened to me, I learned from them.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And now I have nothing but… Oh, God, now, now I'm Pollyanna. I have nothing but good.

Scott Hammond: Of what?

Ted Pease: I live with a woman I love, with a dog I love who's a little old, but, um-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … so those are all bad days when it comes to that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: You just lost one. Um, in a place I love-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … um, that's not burning or flooding.

Ted Pease: And-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: … and, you know, with the purest air on the-

Scott Hammond: In the world

Ted Pease: … continent, in the world, I don't know

Scott Hammond: It's actually true, right?

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: It's, this is the benchmark air-

Ted Pease: I think so

Scott Hammond: … sampling on Trinidad Head or somewhere.

Ted Pease: Yeah, it is right there. I, I guess-

Scott Hammond: You know, to your point, last night there was a crazy, um, torrent of rain in Medford, Oregon, where-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … we have kids and grandkids.

Ted Pease: Really?

Scott Hammond: Oh, dude, it, it, it came out of nowhere. It came over the hill, and it just slammed the, the Rogue Valley.

Ted Pease: Uh-huh. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And my daughter lives at the end of a cul-de-sac down in-

Ted Pease: Got flooding?

Scott Hammond: A bunch of flooding, yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: We had some friends that have a ranch with that much mud in the house, and-

Ted Pease: Oh. Oh, geez, that's bad

Scott Hammond: … it was a crazy-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … crazy flood show. And I'm going, I walked outside to get the mail in McKinleyville, and I'm going, "I see stars. What? How could? What?"

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So yeah, you're right. We, uh… And we're protected often by a bubble.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Remember the fires and the smoke a couple of years ago?

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: And, and there was a, like a weird inversion layer where you could look up at it, but the air quality was still okay in the bubble.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Right.

Scott Hammond: I-

Ted Pease: Well-

Scott Hammond: I don't know

Ted Pease: … I, I spend a lot of time looking at weather maps, uh, because I, 'cause of the, the boating thing.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Ted Pease: And, uh-

Scott Hammond: So is that an addiction or just a thing?

Ted Pease: It's a thing. Well, it's pretty addictive too, but, but the… I mean, windy.com is a great weather app. If you don't know it, windy.com is really easy.

Scott Hammond: I'll write that down.

Ted Pease: And it's free. Um, but it's also got this radar stuff, and you can s- and from our coast, I mean, sure, we get rain, we get fog and stuff like that, but the big stuff heads west of us, heads straight for Crescent, but especially Brookings.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Ted Pease: That's the one that, I mean, that would've gone into Medford like that.

Scott Hammond: Those are the big ones that go that way.

Ted Pease: Well, they just go, yeah. I mean, it's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … the banana belt up there.

Scott Hammond: Um, when I was a s- a college student in Arcata, I lived with Steve and Janet Cole, the founder of Yakima Racks.

Ted Pease: Oh, right, right.

Scott Hammond: He was in Arcata years ago.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And he got me up in the middle of the night, "Hey, let's go up to Little Trinidad Head where the, where the head, the little head is in the pier."

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And it was, you know, 1:00, 2:00 AM, and there was a southern, southern storm, and it was blowing in some really big waves-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … right into, you know, the, uh-

Ted Pease: The harbor, yep

Scott Hammond: … into the seascape. And there was a, I'll never forget, there was a really good-sized fishing vessel wedged between the boat-

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah

Scott Hammond: … and the head.

Ted Pease: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: And they had a big crane-

Ted Pease: Uh-huh

Scott Hammond: … in the middle of the night trying to get that, that dude out of there.

Ted Pease: Yeah. There've been, the, the… Those stories are, are before my time, but there are a bunch of stories about, you know, the, the time that all the, the entire fleet was on, on Launcher Beach and-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Ted Pease: … and, uh, Old Home Beach.

Scott Hammond: Or that one wave that hit the lighthouse that, on the head.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Well, think about that.

Scott Hammond: 60, 70, 80 foot, 90-foot wave.

Ted Pease: It's 96 feet in the air.

Scott Hammond: Crazy.

Ted Pease: And broke-

Scott Hammond: Is that correct? Is that the correct number?

Ted Pease: … broke, broke the window. I think that's right.

Scott Hammond: I think so.

Ted Pease: See, that, you see, it, that might be Pilot Rock. It went over Pilot Rock, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … there was, there was a wave that hit the, hit the-

Scott Hammond: Wow. Yeah, a lot of history-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … that, that whaling port. Hey, we digress.

Ted Pease: Oh, sorry. Yes.

Scott Hammond: Question number two. Gotta earn this, man. There's some more questions.

Ted Pease: I can't remember what the question was, but okay.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You, best and worst day.

Ted Pease: I, I think I dodged it, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wait, you did, you d- Is that a journalist thing?

Ted Pease: Of course.

Scott Hammond: I don't know. Depends. Uh, what's life given for you? What, what gives you, what fills up your cup, and what drains it?

Scott Hammond: Um, can't say fishing. Can't s- I already used that one.

Scott Hammond: Um-

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Well, um, these days, uh, I am so grateful to be living here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and, and that includes back the East Coast. I miss, I miss Maine, and I miss my, all my siblings are still in Maine.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Ted Pease: My, my parents are gone now, but I've, I have three siblings, and they're all in Maine. And, uh, that's the most beautiful coast in the world, but only three months out of the year. Um, and- …

Ted Pease: and, uh, um, I'm so grateful to be here. It's b- they're flooding now in, in Connecticut.

Ted Pease: It's-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Ted Pease: … it's, you know, they-

Scott Hammond: It's already raining

Ted Pease: … had tornadoes in, in Pennsylvania. I mean, it's been one of those weird summers.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Ted Pease: So it's, it's hard not to be grateful to be here hiding behind the, the redwood curtain.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Uh, both for reasons of, and I know we're not talking politics, but for sociological, for meteorological and, and political sociological reasons.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Um, uh, I, I would like to attribute that to j-just a good judgment, but it was sure It was sheer luck that, that brought me, that washed me up here, so-

Scott Hammond: Maybe providence

Ted Pease: It was providence.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Okay. Uh, and so-

Scott Hammond: That's a really neutral religious term.

Ted Pease: Well, we're back-

Scott Hammond: Fairly like-

Ted Pease: Back to the son of the preacher man, right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: So, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It was, it was a God thing if there was, if there is one.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Okay, cool. Uh, what's your best lesson you've ever learned from a defeat or a failure?

Ted Pease: Well, tomorrow's another day. Sorry, I'm Pollyanna again.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, I, I've been fortunate that I've always been able to get, pick up again.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: That's good

Ted Pease: … and you learn a lot of lessons about don't do that one again.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Right? Um.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Uh, I've done a lot of stupid things in my life, but I've managed not to kill myself in a car or in a boat or-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Ted Pease: … any other way.

Scott Hammond: Or get arrested.

Ted Pease: Or anybody else.

Scott Hammond: Go to jail.

Ted Pease: Yeah, that's right. I managed to avoid all that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's good.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's… That would be good advice for-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Stay out of jail, kids. You heard it here first.

Ted Pease: Yes. Right.

Scott Hammond: Don't kill yourself in a car.

Ted Pease: Let me write that down. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Try the seatbelt. It, it works good.

Ted Pease: That's good.

Scott Hammond: I like that. So here's, here's a good one. I love this one. If you had one day in history, not yours, an- could be yours-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … one day to relive that you could be live on the scene, on the set of history, where would you… What, what day would you pick?

Ted Pease: Um, geez, I don't know. The, uh… I'll tell, I'll tell you one I… Uh, we all just relived 9/11.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: However you do it, I mean, 25 years ago.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: But I do remember that, and I used to commute through the World Trade Center from New Jersey into New York when I was working in New York.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Um, by the time… When 9/11 came around, uh, we were living in Utah, and so I was far from the crowd, but, but I knew what that scene must've been like when those planes hit that building. I'm sorry, that was not even the question. But, but, um, 'cause I'm just seeing that, that… Is that Times Square? I don't know what that is over there.

Scott Hammond: That is Times Square, yeah.

Ted Pease: So I'm just thinking, it's a…

Ted Pease: I mean, uh, 9/11's been on my mind recently.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And, and, uh, what a God-awful thing that was-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … and continues to be-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … um, for a lot of people. What was the question again? That wasn't it.

Scott Hammond: That was… I wish… If you, if you could come back in time and-

Ted Pease: Oh

Scott Hammond: … relive a day.

Ted Pease: You know, I was thinking, um-

Scott Hammond: That might be the one not to relive

Ted Pease: … that's, well, that was it, is that-

Scott Hammond: In some ways

Ted Pease: … uh, the, the flip part of not doing that.

Ted Pease: Um, the, uh, we did, we did an issue, um, each month, of course, it's sort of timely, and of course when you do July you can't miss the Fourth of July.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Ted Pease: Right? Um, but the Fourth of July, uh, this Fourth of July issue, I'm looking through here, I know it's in here somewhere.

Ted Pease: Um, we ran on the f- on the cover… Yeah, there you go.

Scott Hammond: There it is.

Ted Pease: It was our 250th anniversary, right, of the Declaration.

Scott Hammond: It's a nice color, man, and paper.

Ted Pease: It's beautiful, isn't it? Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … and, but this thing, this, these guys standing around signing this thing, I'm sure it didn't look like that.

Scott Hammond: Nah.

Ted Pease: Right?

Scott Hammond: Probably not.

Ted Pease: Um, I mean, this is John Turnbull. Turnbull was the artist, and he wasn't even there, so you know it didn't look like that.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Ted Pease: But wouldn't that be cool to sort of have been a fly on the wall for, for an event like that? I mean, were those guys really thinking about life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness and, and, and-

Scott Hammond: And how they got there, yeah

Ted Pease: … all, you know, 'cause they weren't exactly eastern liberal Democrats.

Scott Hammond: No, no.

Ted Pease: Uh, Thomas Jefferson, slave owner, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … you know, all of Madison, all the rest of those guys. Um, so what was the thought process?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And how did they manage to get to that? And did they have any idea what they had created?

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … and, you know, I mean, I'm not a big, you know, flag-waving kinda guy, although this is a pretty good flag and a pretty good country. I'm in favor of it. Um-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Ted Pease: … but that was quite an extraordinary thing that they did.

Ted Pease: Um, I mean-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That'd be a good call. I- that's fly on the wall.

Scott Hammond: They, um-

Ted Pease: There are a lot of things to watch, but that would be… Uh, just recently I said, "You know, I mean, you look at that picture," which actually that came out a little muddy, but still. Uh, but see that fly up there. That would be sort of interesting.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. That's-

Ted Pease: I got an inter- a funny call. I got a c- a couple of people said, "Hey, my ancestor isn't in here."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Ted Pease: And he was there. He was a Founding Father.

Ted Pease: Um-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Ted Pease: … and then I found, found him. He was actually in there, so.

Scott Hammond: In that picture?

Ted Pease: Yeah. He's, he's in there.

Scott Hammond: You can see he's a painting.

Ted Pease: He's back in there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. He's, he's tucked, he's tucked away.

Scott Hammond: He's tucked in. No, I, I, I was listening to PBS the other day, and they were saying, you know, they, they all called it the Great Experiment, and they-

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Right

Scott Hammond: … some of these guys didn't give it, you know, a few decades.

Ted Pease: No.

Scott Hammond: They, they, they go, "Ah, I don't know."

Ted Pease: No, it's a good way to get rid of a king.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Great. Let's do that, and then we're gonna do our own business.

Ted Pease: But-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … lo and behold, all these years later.

Scott Hammond: Quite an experiment.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: That, yeah.

Ted Pease: And that, for me, you know, uh, you know, the First Amendment is the, is, you know, that's the world's best sentence. It's got 45 words in it.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: "Congress shall make no law respecting…" And, you know, I mean, that gets me all sort of weepy when I think about it.

Scott Hammond: It's a good one.

Ted Pease: And, uh, it's under attack as usual, and that's how it always is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Per the usual.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. No, good, good. Hey, uh, what's your biggest win that you ever had? Biggest victory in your life?

Ted Pease: Well, hey, I'm still here. I'm sitting here talking to you. That's gotta be up there in the-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Ted Pease: … top, top 10. Um-

Scott Hammond: Upright that you're breathing.

Ted Pease: I'm breathing. I'm semi-vertical. Uh, well, I mean, uh, I'm about to celebrate 45 years of official married bliss with, with a wonderful woman who-

Scott Hammond: Atta boy

Ted Pease: … and that was a pretty good one. Um-

Scott Hammond: That's a good one

Ted Pease: … so there's a shout-out to Brenda Cooper, who is, uh-

Scott Hammond: Hi, Brenda

Ted Pease: …

Ted Pease: uh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: You married way up it sounds like.

Ted Pease: I think, I think, yeah. She's-

Scott Hammond: How'd you guys meet again? University?

Ted Pease: Uh, actually I was teaching, yeah, I was teaching at the University of Dayton, and she was a grad student, not mine.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and she was a research-

Scott Hammond: Wait, wait, a disclaimer

Ted Pease: … not mine.

Scott Hammond: Distance-

Ted Pease: Quick, quick disclaimer. Yeah. Um, but, uh, uh, uh, and I, neither one of us was particularly looking, but one thing led to another.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: We did get our dissertations together back to back within 24 hours of each other, so.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Ted Pease: Sitting there talk… I'm going faster.

Scott Hammond: Right. The race is on.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Forty-five years. Yeah, Joni and I were just married 45 in-

Ted Pease: No, she was, 35 years married, but-

Scott Hammond: Oh, 35. Okay

Ted Pease: … yeah, there were a few years of sin-

Scott Hammond: 45 together

Ted Pease: … sin before that. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha. Well, hey, if you're just joining us, it's- My new best friend, Ted Pease, who's just won himself- … a fleur de sel. Let me t- just knock my bag over. Uh, 73% Baileys chocolate. Uh, it's dark. It's got cacao, cane sugar, and it's got some fleur de sel in it, so sel, man. Enjoy.

Ted Pease: And you're not talking, you're not talking fish, but-

Scott Hammond: No, not that soul.

Ted Pease: Good one. It's with a U. Okay.

Scott Hammond: The other sel.

Ted Pease: Okay. Good. Well, thanks very much.

Scott Hammond: It's French. It's a French word.

Ted Pease: I can't wait. I'll probably eat it on the way home.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no, you should. No, sp- but he promises to save it, I mean.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yes.

Ted Pease: Right. That's a good point.

Scott Hammond: She'll never know.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: This doesn't come out till Monday. You can chew it down and-

Ted Pease: She wouldn't know, yeah

Scott Hammond: … then she's gonna watch it and go, "Hey, where's that chocolate bar?"

Ted Pease: Right. Now you're my best friend.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay, see how that works?

Ted Pease: See how that works, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Goes both ways.

Ted Pease: I, I can be bribed.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It's… Yeah, me too. So when you, uh, when you pass to the sweet by and by, 'cause we could talk as a pastor's son would, um, when, when you go away to the other side, when you die, what, what would you, what would you like to be remembered for? Um, thought about celebration of life, the tombstone inscription. What… You, you take that.

Ted Pease: I, I wish I could do the quote from the old city editor of the old, uh, New-York Tribune, who has this long thing about how, you know, women adore him and men admire him and, and, you know, people-

Scott Hammond: Important people

Ted Pease: … look up to him and stuff like that.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Ted Pease: And then when he dies, um, people remember him, uh, for a day or two or something. I forget the dates.

Scott Hammond: 15 seconds of fame.

Ted Pease: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, maybe that's why we write it down, so somebody somewhere in archive will say, "Who's this Ted Pease guy?" Um, but will I be remembered? I just… I mean, the best thing I could say is that, is that people s- people find me a decent human being and a, and a, a good friend who is willing to, you know, uh, deliver.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Amen. I love that.

Ted Pease: Not just deliver fish, which I also do, but that's a different-

Scott Hammond: I was gonna say, with that boat, you must, uh, get a few fish, uh, some lingcod once in a while.

Ted Pease: Had a good-

Scott Hammond: Good season. Yeah. Is it s- mostly, like, rockfish and lingcod?

Ted Pease: Uh, well that's sort of default, right?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Yeah. Um, it took me 10 trips to get one halibut this year.

Scott Hammond: Wow!

Ted Pease: It was not a good halibut year.

Scott Hammond: Just for the halibut.

Ted Pease: Just for the halibut.

Scott Hammond: Just for a halibut.

Ted Pease: Well, halibut fishing, have you been fishing, halibut fishing?

Scott Hammond: No.

Ted Pease: No. You go out there, you sit in one place. In theory, if your anchor holds, you sit in one place for, like, four and a half hours.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: Take a nap, clean the boat, read a book.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Ted Pease: And then you go home again. And that's how-

Scott Hammond: That's-

Ted Pease: That's how it happened nine out of 10 times.

Scott Hammond: That's how the experience goes.

Ted Pease: I'm going fishing. It's, it's… Which leads me to one of my best, my favorite stories about, uh, Walter Cronkite, 'cause they were still, we still have a theme. Walter Cronkite, of course, was the, the, the famous CBS anchor.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And toward the end of his career, um, uh, Dan Rather was sitting in for him a lot and, uh, say, well, uh, you know, Uncle Walter's on, on assignment.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Well, it turns out that Uncle Walter, who's also an avid sailor-

Scott Hammond: Ah

Ted Pease: … had, had a 45-foot ketch, and they cruised the, the main coast, and the name of the ketch was Assignment.

Scott Hammond: Oh. He's on Assignment.

Ted Pease: So I was, I was out, and my… I'm just gonna change the name of my boat from Toad to Office.

Scott Hammond: Toad.

Ted Pease: So he's at the office. He's at-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, he's at the office

Ted Pease: … looking for halibut.

Scott Hammond: He's in a meeting.

Ted Pease: He's in a meeting.

Scott Hammond: How big is a toad?

Ted Pease: Toad's… Oh, it's a 20-foot striper. It's just a little-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Ted Pease: … yeah. It's, uh, it's perfect size for this, and, uh, I like to fish by myself, not in a crowd, 'cause it's a-

Scott Hammond: So do you know that one guy in Trinidad?

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah, I know him. Sure.

Scott Hammond: Mayor Terry? Everybody knows Terry. Big Terry?

Ted Pease: Oh, yeah, yeah, I know Terry.

Scott Hammond: White mustache.

Ted Pease: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Love Terry.

Ted Pease: Well, see, the interesting thing about boat people is that we know each other by our boats.

Scott Hammond: Ah, okay.

Ted Pease: Right.

Scott Hammond: He may or may not be a boat dude. I'm not sure.

Ted Pease: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: He's a retired engineer.

Ted Pease: Oh, I don't know if I know Terry in that case.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Ted Pease: Um, but you know, I mean, people yell at me in Murphy's up there and they say, "Hey, Toad."

Scott Hammond: Is that right?

Ted Pease: They don't know what my name is. They haven't-

Scott Hammond: By the way-

Ted Pease: Which is probably just as well.

Scott Hammond: I wanna highlight Murphy's market in Trinidad, man.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Best deli.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They have donuts.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Um, quite a good wine selection. Not, not that I bought much there, but-

Ted Pease: Mm

Scott Hammond: … what a… I mean, the, the-

Ted Pease: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the food there is excellent.

Ted Pease: Well, you know, I mean-

Scott Hammond: People are fun there.

Ted Pease: Here, I'm gonna… I'll tie it back again. Murphy's is to grocerying what, what community journalism… I mean, that's what a, a grocery should be-

Scott Hammond: Fun

Ted Pease: … right, is, is friendly and small enough and also large enough. Uh, a good journal- a good newspaper is also connects a community.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: And that's what, that's what Murphy's is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, and they have five or six, seven newspapers all the time.

Ted Pease: Yeah, I know. Mine are always stuck in the back.

Scott Hammond: I didn't know the Sunday Times was six bucks.

Ted Pease: I know. Tell me about it.

Scott Hammond: Going, "What?"

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: I mean, the Chronicle's four bucks. Back to obits real quick. Uh, when I was at speaking school down in the N- I was with the NSA.

Ted Pease: Uh-huh. Oh, I should tell you a speaking joke too. You go ahead, do that.

Scott Hammond: Okay, I wanna hear your speaking joke.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, there was a, a fella who was, uh, retired, I don't know what he, John was, maybe CIA or invest- something investigative. Anyway, he collected obits-

Ted Pease: Sure

Scott Hammond: … from the Chronicle-

Ted Pease: Sure

Scott Hammond: … and all over the world.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And he had a few on hand, and he read those things. And I mean, some people go really fun with those.

Ted Pease: Oh, they're… Some of the, uh, some really great literature for a very good reason is so that they put pretty good writers on, you know, say, you know, Walter Cronkite's gonna die-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … and you know we're gonna have-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … need an obit.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: They put a decent writer on him.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Ted Pease: And they're really good stuff. There, there are whole associations of obit writers out there. I mean, there's-

Scott Hammond: Really?

Ted Pease: … an association of everything, but yeah.

Scott Hammond: I love it. Yeah. My mother became an auctioneer when she truly just worked at an auction.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: San Diego. It was quite funny. Uh, but that, that was on, not on purpose, but also very funny. Tell me your speaking joke.

Ted Pease: Uh, well, it's not… It's a radio joke. So here we are, we're talking on the radio, and these things make me sound decent. I don't know, uh, uh, I don't know how-

Scott Hammond: It's funny, yeah. Right

Ted Pease: … we've got a nice filter on this. I don't know what that is.

Scott Hammond: Best-

Ted Pease: But-

Scott Hammond: Best sound in the county.

Ted Pease: I w- I believe it because it makes me sound decent, which-

Scott Hammond: You wanna sing real quick or anything?

Ted Pease: Uh- I'll get back to you on that. I was working for the AP, uh, and I got tired of… The Associated Press is, is like a sweatshop, right?

Ted Pease: 'Cause they-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … just grind stuff out, and you gotta turn a story every 15 minutes and so forth.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh.

Ted Pease: And I ran into this guy, he was the, the news manager, the news director at KARK, which was the A- AM news ra- radio station in Arkansas.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Um, and he said, "Well, come on in. You know, may- maybe we'll put you on the air." So he had me come in, and he, he said, "Well, write, like, five minutes of copy, and then we'll put you in front of a mic and you could read it." Okay. And so I did that, and I was writing radio copy for AP, so it wasn't really that hard.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Ted Pease: Um, and, uh, so I did that, and then he sat down and he made us both listen to it together, which if you made me to do this, I would probably not… I would probably leave. That would be painful.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It'd be, it'd hurt too much.

Ted Pease: Do you, do you watch your own programs? I don't know. Um, and, and at the end of it, he just sat there, and Chuck, he's sitting, and he's got his butt up on, on the desk, and he's swinging his leg, and he's looking in the middle distance, and he says, "Well, you can write." That was the end of my radio career.

Scott Hammond: That was-

Ted Pease: So, I should've told you this before you put me on the air.

Scott Hammond: The, the other joke is you have a great face for radio.

Ted Pease: I've, yeah, well, that's the-

Scott Hammond: It's a great face

Ted Pease: … that was, it goes without saying, so-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … well, I qualify there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: So that'd be great.

Scott Hammond: The other funny joke, it's a dad joke, is, uh, "Can you, can you sing 'Over the Hill and Far Away' please?"

Ted Pease: I'll, I'll be right back.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, be- Or the o- the even more fun one, and it gets worse, is, uh, "What did you do with that money I gave you?" And you say, "What money?" And, you know, "The money for singing lessons."

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: With that, I'm gonna sing the-

Ted Pease: It was, it was a bad investment

Scott Hammond: … with that, I'm gonna sing the State Farm, uh, jingle written by Barry Manilow. Like a good neighbor. I've never done this on the air. State Farm is there.

Ted Pease: You got your tag on and everything.

Ted Pease: We're-

Scott Hammond: Uh, you know, I, I, I don't know. I'm not even trying to market much, but maybe a little.

Ted Pease: Should, should I hold h-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Ted Pease: … as long as we're doing commercials.

Scott Hammond: Let's do the shout-out one more time. How do we get ahold of y- all y'all? Website, phone numbers, the whole nine.

Ted Pease: Subscribe to this f- this newspaper. It's a free newspaper, but you can pay for it if you'd like to, um, and have it mailed to your own house at, um, uh, if you call, call Debbie at the desk at the Humboldt Senior Resource Center. Um, that's, uh, 707-443-9747, and for 36 bucks, they'll bring it to your house once a month.

Scott Hammond: Awesome, and if you wanna advert-

Ted Pease: Straight from my kitchen table 'cause that's where it gets built.

Scott Hammond: Oh, really? Okay.

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Is it all on a laptop?

Ted Pease: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Do you guys, um, so if we wanna get ahold of you to advertise, run a big full page in color?

Ted Pease: Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a good idea.

Ted Pease: Do two. Um-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah.

Ted Pease: … and dump truck. Um, the, if you get the copy of the paper, all the contact stuff's on page two.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: Right there in the masthead. My email address is tpease, T-P-E-A-S-E, @humsenior.org.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Ted Pease: And I'll, I'll hook you up.

Scott Hammond: Still ink in the veins then.

Ted Pease: Ink's on the f- Yeah, I'm also the, the, uh, circulation department, by the way, so it's on my hands as well.

Scott Hammond: You have to go to Costco and get the toilet paper and all the, all the stuff.

Ted Pease: Yeah, we have, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Love it, man. I'm so glad there's print, print newspaper. Print is still alive and Humboldt.

Scott Hammond: So cool.

Ted Pease: Well, I'm so grateful that there are so many people who are interested in participating by giving us, giving us their words-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Ted Pease: … and, and not getting too mad at me for sanding 'em.

Scott Hammond: So we could get ahold of you and go, "Hey, I got, I think I got a cool article."

Ted Pease: Got a story on anything, you know?

Scott Hammond: Senior adjacent or not.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Ted Pease: Yeah. As, as I say, it's for people who are over 50 and anyone who wants to be one someday.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Ted Pease: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And that includes all of us. Well, Ted, thanks for being here.

Ted Pease: Thanks so much for having me.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate it a lot. Yeah. And hey, uh, hey, everybody, uh, we'll be back in a week or so, and, uh, please like us, subscribe to us, send us, uh, gold bullion. We, uh, we'll take your jag. We'll cash it in for something.

Ted Pease: We're a nonprofit, so you can send it to us as well.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's true. Okay.

Ted Pease: That's right.

Scott Hammond: Oh, so you, you do that same, so Write a review.

Ted Pease: All, all contributions gratefully accepted.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we'll catch you again next week. 100% Humboldt with your host Scott Hammond and my new best friend Ted. Thanks, Ted.

Ted Pease: Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.