PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

This, remember, is one of two departments I run with full and complete authority to do so.  [The other is the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.]

No one tells me what to do in the Department of Pet Peeves and I remain free from any outside influence.

Therefore, here are my new pet peeves – and let me add that peeves I choose to include don’t have to involve significant issues for society…they must just arouse my instincts to cite them as peeves.

ON THE GOLF COURSE

One of the actions that always bugs me is when golfers ahead of me on the course fail to re-set the pin properly on the green. They leave it askew.

Which, of course, would affect me if I were to hit a hole-in-one — another one.

Too trifling to mention, you might say. Well, perhaps true, but remember that I am retired and don’t have much else to do other than to reflect on major peeves such as this.

ON THE TRAIL OF NEWS REPORTERS

As one who used to be a reporter for a daily newspaper, it bugs me when current reporters don’t seem to be interested in adding at least a little context to what they write or air.

They seem preoccupied with the controversy or the tension of the moment, forget the background or the landscape.

Not a new thought, I know, but one that continues to bug me, so I add it to this list of peeves.

ON THE TRAIL OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO DON’T HONOR THEIR WORD

I have written separate blogs about this, titling them something like – The Perils of Cutting a Deal with Public Officials and Expecting It To Be Honored.

In my past as a state lobbyist, the best example of this double-dealing occurred with respect to the proposal to tax hospitals and health insurers, then use the proceeds as state matching funds for additional federal Medicaid dollars.

When we negotiated this deal with legislators and the governor the first time in 2003, we fully expected it to be honored until we sat down to re-negotiate the next deal.

But, no.

The deal only lasted for a few months until the legislature and the governor found a way to renege on it. OF course, they called this a new “emergency.”

That failure occurred repeatedly and only one legislator – Senator Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose – displayed the honesty to announce that those who negotiated the deal would have to go back on it.

Some will say that a deal with legislators and a governor cannot last forever, especially if new “emergencies” arise. True. But action by such honorable legislators as Senator Johnson represents the best approach. When a deal has to be changed, announce the action and take responsibility for the change.

I relay this pet peeve now because the legislators, meeting in the short session, have just approved a new deal on hospital and insurer taxes – which, of course, prompts me to ask how long the new deal will be honored.

ON HGTV

First, this will show that I do not only watch the Golf Channel – I watch HGTV, as well.

My question about the House Hunters and other similar shows is why so many buyers talk about “entertainment” when they list what they want in a new abode. If they entertained as much as they say they do, that’s about all they’d so. Not just live in a house, but entertain perpetually in it.

Just saying and wondering.