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 have a cousin on the East Coast who often sends along interesting e-mails.

Such was the case this week when his e-mail asked whether I and other recipients were feeling old in 2024.

For me, the obvious answer is yes.

And, then, my cousin provided a few reasons for feeling old:
 

• The Beatles split 49 years ago.

• The movie ‘Wizard of Oz’ is 84 years old.
  
  
• Elvis died 46 years ago.  He’d be 88 today.
  
  
• Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video is 41 years old.
  
  
• Mickey Mantle retired 54 years ago.  [Don’t ask who Mickey Mantle is!]
  
  
• The movie ‘Saturday Night Fever’ is 48 years old.
  
  
• The Ed Sullivan show ended 52 years ago.
  
  
• The Corvette turned 70 years old this year.
  
  
• The Mustang is 59.

Does that help?

Probably not.