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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I currently run three departments – the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of “Just Saying.”

Now, due to my supreme management skills, I am adding a fourth.

It is the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

It is a department which allows me to pose questions for which I have no answer.  One reason is that, in retirement, I have a lot of time on my hands.  Other than golf, I have time think about dumb stuff, including when I drive long distances, such as south to California and north back to Oregon.

So, as the new department opens for the first time, here is a list of my most recent dumb questions with no answers.

• Why do big semi-trucks at rest areas leave the area, then stop so often on the side of ramps entering the freeway?

• Who drives big trucks for Amazon?  On the drives south and north along I-5, we see more Amazon trucks than any other brand.  Are these contracted rigs or Amazon employees doing the driving?

• How do train companies keep track of their cars around the country?  And, if technology is involved in that enterprise now, how was keeping track done before technology?

• How do train companies form long trains, as well as build double-decker chains?  [No doubt major train yards are involved, but the process for putting a long train together still escapes me, even in a major yard.]

• Or, this from golf.  Why do some folks criticize my putting style – using a “claw grip” – when even Hall of Fame player Phil Mickelson has adopted my approach?