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.

Here in La Quinta, California, I spend many of my days on the golf course.

A good life, one I look forward to every day.  After golf in the morning, I return to a good afternoon with my wife, who encourages my golf, and my dog, Callaway (yes, I named my golf clubs after him) who adores me no matter my golf score.

Then, on occasion, I write a blog post, as is the case this morning when I scratch and claw for a topic or topics.

So it was that I came across several quotes from newspapers and magazines I read on-line that caught my attention.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:  The newspaper wrote this:   “A number of Republican senators have raised concerns about some aspects of Judge Jackson’s record on criminal justice, including her record on sentencing and her work as an assistant federal public defender.”

Now, as we continue to watch Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

endure a Senate confirmation hearing, my focus went, inexplicably, to the word “have” in the sentence above.

The word should have been “has.”  I know it sounds bad, but, if you rely on accurate word choices in our language, English, the verb is supposed to agree with the subject.  The subject was singular – “a number.”  Therefore, the verb would be singular, as well — “has.”

There.  I told you that I have too much time on my hands in La Quinta.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:  Opinion columnist Ruth Marcus wrote a thoughtful piece on the confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson.

One of her sentences:

“But now we are reduced to this kind of smarm from the Republican National Committee, recycling Hawley. “

What I noted here was the use of the word “smarm.”

The dictionary says the word hearkens to Britain and means this:  “To behave in an ingratiating way in order to gain favor.”

With Marcus, this sounds just like Republican senators who reflect great discredit on themselves by distorting Judge Jackson’s record – engaging “in an ingratiating way to gain favor.”  And, what’s more, some of them want to run for president.

FROM GOLFWEEK MAGAZINE:   The magazine wrote last week about Greg Norman, the former professional golfer who has aligned himself with the Saudi regime to develop a new pro golf tour, which he hopes will compete against the PGA Tour.

“Since he is clearly bereft of shame,” the magazine writes about Norman, “let’s assume it was out of respect that Norman waited three days after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men for such crimes as ‘deviant beliefs’ to unveil a schedule for LIV Golf Invitational.”  (That’s the name of a tournament series Norman proposes.)

He announced that June 9-11 in London will see the first event in the LIV Golf Invitational.  The second tournament is planned for July 1-3 at Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge, whose members were simultaneously hit with a dues increase to upgrade facilities and news that they’ve been conscripted into a sports-washing exercise.

For my part, as an Oregonian, I cannot believe that Pumpkin Ridge agreed to host this event.

And, these postscripts:

• I refuse to watch the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson.  She appears to have a sterling record as a jurist and that no doubt will be on display again in the next couple days.  But it will be too much for me to watch Republican senators preen for the cameras.

• Speaking of the confirmation hearings, late night host Jimmy Kimmel had a great line last night when he suggested that Republican senators should have nightmares as they recognize that the future of the Supreme Court could be decided by two Black women – Judge Jackson and Vice President Kamala Harris (who would cast the deciding vote for Jackson in the Senate if the confirmation ends up tied).

• I continue to hope that pro golfer Phil Mickelson will find a way to redeem his reputation after he sided with the Saudi terrorists.  The most recent news is that Mickelson will not play in the Masters Tournament, a major he has won three times.  Thus, his “pause” will continue from golf to work on his reputation.

• I continue to try to recover from bouts of vertigo, but was interested to note yesterday that pro golfer Jason Day suffers from the same ailment.  Perhaps two golfers – one great one, Day…and one mediocre one, me – can recover lost balance.