Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

Department of Pet Peeves is one of five I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

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

If there is overlap between and among those departments, it doesn’t matter.  I am in charge of all things – like Donald Trump, though I add quickly, not in all ways like Trump – so overlap is of no concern.

Regarding the Department of Pet Peeves, it has not been open for some time, so it is now time to chronicle some peeves in this, a relatively long post.

“SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED:”  Those are tough words for all of us who have had to put something together – a swing set for our kids, furniture for our patio, etc.

If it was up to me, I would make companies that issue “some assembly required” equipment, to meet personally with those assigned to the assembly task.

Perhaps then the instructions would be revised to make more sense, plus this critical addition:  When screws or bolts are needed for the assembly, provide more than the supposed exact amount to do the job.

All of us have faced challenges when we lost a screw or bolt and, thus, were one short.

The solution:  Those who pack boxes should always all five more of each screw or bolt you will use.

Sounds good, right?

RELATIVELY NEW WEATHER TERMS:  I could have opened several of “my” other departments for this – the Department of “Just Saying” or the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know, but I’ll leave it to Pet Peeves this time.

Who invented the terms “atmospheric river” and “bomb cyclone?”  Probably bored weather forecasters.

Here is what the terms mean, thanks to Mr. Google:

Atmospheric river:  The steady rain currently pummeling most of California – call it an “atmosphere river” — is expected to flood roads and lower elevations in the state.   Accompanying heavy snowfall in the Sierra Mountain Range could bury some lower-elevation mountain roads, as well.

“Atmospheric rivers” are to blame.  These regions of humid air flow come from the tropics into colder climates as strong winds and condense when they encounter mountains.  The warm air rises and cools over elevated land, forming clouds that dump rain and snow onto the earth below.  

“Atmospheric rivers are literally rivers in the sky, the rivers of water vapor that transport massive amounts of water in the atmosphere,” according to Popular Mechanics magazine.

Bomb cyclone:  Also known as bombogenesis (never heard that word before), bomb cyclone is a fast-developing storm that occurs when atmospheric pressure drops at least 24 millibars over a 24-hour period, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“A bomb cyclone occurs when atmospheric pressure at the center of the cyclone drops rapidly.  To qualify, the pressure needs to drop about 1 [millibar], or more, every hour over a 24-hour period.”

There, now you know, though I still don’t know what a “millibar” is.

For me, I prefer using the terms “rain” and “wind.”  Add modifiers – high, low, lots of either, etc. if you need to do so — but, still, use the old words.

Finally, to this, I add words from a Washington Post story this morning defining the two terms, plus a new one, the “Fujiwhara effect.”  Which means that this pet peeves post achieves another objective – education.

“While it may seem that meteorologists are pulling new descriptors out of their hats each week, terms like ‘bomb cyclone, ‘atmospheric river’ and ‘Fujiwhara effect have been around for a while and are rooted in science.

“The Fujiwhara effect is named for Japanese meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwhara, who was the director of the Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan from 1941 to 1947.  Usage of the phrase dates back more than 70 years in scientific literature.

“The term ‘bomb cyclone”’ has been around for more than 40 years, since it was introduced by Frederick Sanders and John Gyakum in 1980.

“Bomb cyclones are mid-latitude cyclones — not hurricanes — that undergo explosive intensification within a 24-hour period.

“Even the term ‘atmospheric river’ is more than 30 years old, as coined in 1992 by Newell et al., though originally it was called a tropospheric river.  They were initially described as narrow but long filaments of water vapor that persist for many days.  Now we call them rivers in the sky and appreciate the important role they play in transporting water to almost all corners of the world.”

Back to pet peeves.

SLOW PLAY IN GOLF:  Several professional golfers on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour have gone on record advocating against slow play.

Two of them are Lexi Thompson and Nelly Korda.

They have a point.  Some professional rounds, they say, take almost six hours.

Slow play on the professional golf tours has been an issue for me for years.  Yet, there is an official golf rule which says that, when players reach the point of their next shot and pull a club, they have 40 seconds to play.  If, by chance, their ball is in a tough spot – near a tree, for instance – they are given a bit of extra time.

But is the 40-second rule ever enforced?  No.

Thus, my pet peeve.

Unless warnings, if not penalties, are imposed, slow play will never stop.

For me, obviously, not a pro golfer, I play at The Palms in La Quinta, California, in the winter.  There, players are given three hours and forty minutes to play 18 holes.

Easy if you set your mind to it.