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.

This is one of four departments I run to manage as I – and only I – see fit.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of “Just Saying.”  So, you can see that I am busy!

So, inquiring minds want to know:

HOW DOES AMAZON IT DO WHAT IT DOES EVERY DAY?

I ask that question after another dazzling experience yesterday.

When I read the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago, I noted a story about a new book, “The Times:  How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism.”  By Adam Nagourney, it was a book about the New York Times.

The book interested me for two reasons:  First, I read The Times every day on-line, and, second, I have a background in journalism, though, of course, not at The Times.

So, my wife and I, who live in Salem, Oregon, ordered the book from Amazon, expecting it to arrive in a week or so best.

But, guess what?  It arrived in one day.

For inquiring minds, this raises several questions:

• How does Amazon have all the stuff people need in local warehouses, including the one in Salem, Oregon?

• Who makes the decision about what to order and place in those warehouses and how do that person, or that group, make such decisions?

• In those warehouses, how do local workers find the stuff people want – and find the item in short order?

• And, how do those workers have time to package stuff in appropriate-size boxes, with appropriate protections for the items?

• Who loads stuff onto to local trucks and how do the drivers find our house in time for a one-day delivery?

Well, part of the answer to these and other questions for inquiring minds, rests with Amazon scion Jeff Bezos, who making loads of money based on the process.

So, inquiring minds want to know.

WHY DO ROADSIDE REST AREAS AND TRUCKS LOOK SO UNCOMFORTABLE?

As I have driven north and south along I-5, when I pass roadside rest areas, I wonder why so many 18-wheelers start exiting the rest area, but stop on the shoulder before entering the highway?

Is there not enough room in the rest area?

Must be an explanation somewhere.

So, inquiring minds want to know.

WHERE IS “BALANCE” IN POLITICS?

The word “balance” is tough to define these days, especially in politics.

But, like a lot of stuff, you know it when you see it.

To me, balance means that those in political office have enough sense to work to strike a balance between (a) what they believe it will take to win their next election, clearly a priority for them, sometimes too much so, and (b) what it could take to work with other office-holders to find middle ground on tough national and international issues.

That’s balance.

So, inquiring minds wonder when balance will show up in politics.  If ever.