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.

I learned a new word a couple days ago – contumacious!

So, I open one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit – the Department of Words Matter.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of “Just Saying,” the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know, and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

The new word for me is pronounced this way:  kon-too-mey-shuhs.

It is an adjective which means this:  Stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority; rebellious; defiant.

Here are ways the word can be used in a sentence:

• The contumacious student refused to comply with the teacher’s instructions, earning multiple disciplinary actions.
• The contumacious behavior of the defendant led to additional charges being brought against him/her..

Now, when I heard this new word, guess what and who I thought of?

Yes, Donald Trump.

He is nothing if not contumacious!

I will be adding this to my long list of words to describe Trump who, despite being contumacious, still wants to be president again.