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 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.

While I had what I thought was a good run as a journalist, a state government manager, and a lobbyist, my thoughts on occasion in retirement sometimes go to jobs I could have had – or wish I had.

Two examples:

• I would like to have been one of the persons who decides on names of cars – the names, including the basic brand, and the letters, and names, and numbers under that basic brand.

• I would like to have been a golf commentator on TV.  Then, I could have said stuff like, “He has a lot of work left to do” or, “If he hit it harder, it would have gone farther.”
  
  

Back to car names.  Ever wonder how folks think up the names?  I have.

To do so, you have to figure out a combination of words, letters and numbers, all related to the bottom-line credentials of the vehicles, as well as to the basic question – will the names sell cars?

Note these current letters in car names that stand for something:

• SS – SuperSport
• GL – Base model symbol in most cases
• RL – Road Luxury
• TL – Touring Luxury
• MDX – Medium crossover vehicle
• RDX – Compact crossover vehicle
• R/T – Road and Track
• SL – Sport Light
• ST – Sport Touring
• LE or LTD – Limited Edition
• LS – Limited Series, Luxury Sport, or Luxury Sedan
• GT – Gran Turismo (Italian for grand touring)
• CE – Compact Edition
• CL – Comfort Luxe
• C – Convertible, Coupe, or Compact

Didn’t know much of that.

But, beyond that, what’s in a name?  Here is a summary of what I found using “Mr. Google:”

“Everyone forms a picture of luxury in their mind when they hear the word ‘Lexus.’  But does everyone instantly know the manufacturer behind a Fusion, Veloster, or Challenger?  Maybe not.  That’s why makers of luxury vehicles, such as Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, Acura, Mercedes, and Jaguar, use alpha-numeric names.  They want to keep the focus on the brand, not the model.

“The alpha-numeric designations help buyers and sellers identify luxury vehicle classifications.  For example, Mercedes-Benz uses the ‘G’ classification for its family of sport utility vehicles and crossovers. The  ‘G’  stands for Gelaendewagen, a German word that translates loosely to “all-terrain vehicle,” and doesn’t really trip off the tongue.”

So, it’s more than just thinking up cute numbers with numbers that roll off the tongue.  It’s marketing.

Now, on to the golf commentating business.

When it comes to those who call golf on TV, I know what I like and what I don’t like.

For example, lead NBC commentator Paul Azinger does what I consider to be a great job of analyzing golf, including swings and results.  Not just saying something like “good shot” or “bad shot.”

In his day, Johnny Miller was good, too, in part because players didn’t like when he criticized their swings or performance, though he always maintained he said what he said to relate to those watching.

As for Nick Faldo, who just retired from the commentating business to herd cattle on a ranch in Montana, not so much.  To me, he often got caught up in his own awkward sentences, though he also loved the job, which he illustrated when he cried as he completed his last segment a few weeks ago.

Think, too, of sentences uttered by commentators that have become part of golf history.

One of the most famous came from analyst Gary Koch.  When golf pro Tiger Woods made an incredible putt on the iconic 17^th island green at TPC Sawgrass, Koch said this:

“Better than most!”

I often have wondered Koch didn’t say, “Better than anyone else.”  Would have been more accurate.