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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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 hadn’t heard the word “lexophile” until a guy I play golf with in La Quinta, California sent it my way a couple weeks ago.

It came with a list of what, I guess, are called” lexophiles” as published a few weeks ago by the New York Times, which holds an annual competition to see who can come up with the best “lexophile.”

It’s tough to define the list that appears below, but it is enough to just say they are phrases that embody interesting words that go together well – and leave you laughing, if only at the ingenuity of the person who came up with the string.

Why do I focus on this? Well, first, it is true that I like words – better than numbers it should be said. Second, I don’t have a lot to do other than golf in the pandemic, so the list below is worth reading.

• You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish
• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
• I changed my iPod’s name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.
• England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
• Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.
• This girl today said she recognized me from the Vegetarians Club, but I’d swear I’ve never met herbivore.
• I know a guy who’s addicted to drinking brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
• A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
• When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.
• I got some batteries that were given out free of charge.
• A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.
• A will is a dead giveaway.
• With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
• Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
• Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off?  He’s all right now.
• A bicycle can’t stand alone; it’s just two tired.
• The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine last week is now fully recovered.
• He had a photographic memory, but it was never fully developed.
• When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
• Acupuncture is a jab well done. That’s the point of it.
• I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
• Did you hear about the crossed-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?
• When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
• When chemists die, they barium.
• I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can’t put it down.\
• I just can’t see myself wearing camouflage.

It may be a waste of time or an investment – depending on your point of view – but I may try to come up with my own example to fit the list above.