I don’t know Jason Kottke’s depth of knowledge about being a pilot, but I’d be willing to give him some credit. His father was a pilot and operated a small cargo airline. Jason regularly few with his father in small craft.
Well, okay. I'm a pilot from a family of pilots, too. I am looking at a plane landing and taking off in a stiff head wind and finding nothing remarkable about it.
A Cub running with little fuel and cargo on a cold day at low altitude has a pretty low stall speed. Something like 40mph. It doesn't take an extraordinary wind to do a short take off roll.
Wind is a thing. Wind is real. Pilots know this.