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. 

I like oxymorons!

There, I said it.

With so much time on my hands in retirement, I often think of oxymorons. Go figure.

So, what is an oxymoron?

The dictionary defines the word this way: “A figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in ‘cruel kindness’ or ‘to make haste slowly.’”

Those two are good examples, ones I did not have in my repertoire.

The word “oxymoron” is itself oxymoronic, which is to say contradictory.

The dictionary says the word is derived from two ancient Greek words oxys, which means “sharp,” and moronos, which means “dull” or “stupid.” Take this sentence, for example:

“This was a minor crisis and the only choice was to drop the product line.”

Two oxymorons. Minor crisis. Only choice.

Here are some of my favorites oxymorons:

• Jumbo shrimp: This is one that is often used to define the term oxymoron.
• Political courage: This is one of my favorites.
• Legislative leadership: I cite this based on my many years of working with Oregon Legislature in Salem.
• Ethical lobbyist: And I cite this, having been lobbyist, albeit an ethical one, for about 40 years.
• Military intelligence: This also is one often used to define the term oxymoron.
• Government ethics: This one comes to mind if, for no other reason, than that I current serve on the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
• Traffic engineer: This one comes to mind as I try, mightily, to ply the crazy street “plan” in Salem, Oregon.
• Civil war: Impossible.
• Old news: Possible, I guess.
• Working vacation: Sounds impossible, but I took several.
• Crash landing: Again, impossible.
• Dull roar: Say what?
• Guest host: Never thought about this one until now.
• Larger half: Heard this many times.
• One-man band: Think about it!
• Random order: And about this one, too!
• Student teacher: I used to have many of these in my youth, though never thought of them as oxymorons.

Enough already! Okay. But, I intend to keep looking for and/or using oxymorons. I don’t have much else to do other than writing this blog and playing golf. Plus, tt’s just fun.