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.

The Department of Pet Peeves is one of several departments I run with a free hand to operate as I see fit.

Call me a dictator.

Pet Peeves was the first department I created when I moved into retirement.  I had to have something to do other than think about golf rules and play golf.

So, the Department of Pet Peeves is now open…again.

I toyed on this day to write about several peeves, but decided to focus on only one:

KINK-FREE GARDEN HOSES?  The other day I almost bought a garden hose with a sign on it sign that said:  “This never kinks.”  Then, I remembered the last time when I had done this and came home to see a hose that kinked immediately and automatically.

This time, the hose I looked at actually carried another nonsense phrase on its wrapper:  “Never kinks!”

Sure.

My goal from now on is to buy only metal hoses because guess what?  They don’t kink!