Homeowners associations and common sense

We hate to pick on our home state of Pennsylvania two weeks in a row (See RANTS October 25) but it appears they have taken over from Florida for doing the dumbest things. Seems there is a tiny neighborhood in Pennsylvania called Tarrytown where the powers that be have come down hard on a lady who has an 8 by 14 inch blue star banner in one of her bedroom windows. A blue star indicates a member of the family (in this case, her son) is serving his or her country in the military. Seems the small banner violates some guideline that all window treatments must be white or off white. So the Homeowners Association (HOA) Nazis have sprung into action saying the mother of the soldier must apply for a waiver. Don’t they understand that without people like the lady’s son, they would not have an HOA or the supposed right to meddle in other’s affairs?

Around Tampa Bay:

1. In case you missed it from last weekend – CHS 17 Largo 0 - first time that CHS grads have been able to brag for several, several years. While we’re at it, belated Happy 50^th anniversary to the CHS class of ’65 who held their reunion last weekend. Hopefully, a few of them made it to the game.

2. A tip of our cap to Blue Grace Logistics, a Riverview based company, whose employees, in an annual guys (dogs) versus gals (cats) competition garnered enough food to feed the real dogs and cats at the Tampa Humane Society for a full year. Well done dogs and cats. By the way, the gals (cats) were victorious this year.

3. Every 15 or 20 years, well-meaning Clearwater residents try to make something better out of Clearwater’s Bayfront. And every 15 to 20 years, not so well-meaning residents do their best to swat it down.

4. We are hesitant to plug businesses here, but when you find a really nice family restaurant like the Largo Family Restaurant on Missouri Avenue, you like to share it.

5. Speaking of restaurants, you’ve lived in Pinellas County a long time if you enjoyed Aunt Hattie’s and Uncle Ed’s restaurants – and the great things you could carry home from their commissary near the St. Pete-Clearwater Airport.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Yet another gem “borrowed” from the incomparable 5:05 Newsletter: House Republicans gave Hillary Clinton a free eight-hour TV commercial last week. I sometimes think Republican strategists exist only to make the French Army feel better about their record.

7. Decent start by the Lightning. Will this be the year for the bay area’s second Stanley Cup?

8. Jason Whitlock is the latest in the mass exodus from ESPN. Like Keith Olbermann, the former fill-in host on Pardon the Interruption, kept pushing the envelope to see how much it would take to get him fired (for the second time). Eventually, he succeeded but landed on his feet at Fox.

9. Our Rants and Raves focus group (comprised of three old, cranky people) doesn’t understand T-Mobile’s commercial about being able to call anywhere in the U.S. plus Canada and Mexico. They cannot imagine wanting to call anyone in Canada or Mexico.

10. Approximately 50 years ago this month, boy has his heart broken by the love of his life. Today, boy hopes that worked out as well for the former love of his life as it did for him.

In baseball, not always the manager getting the short end of the deal

First there is Dan Jennings who played the good soldier and went down to the dugout from his General Manager’s post and actually did a good job of skippering the injury-plagued Marlins. His reward? Being terminated last week. On to Toronto where Alex Anthopoulos, the consensus executive of the year in MLB, is rewarded for his brilliant trading deadline moves by being usurped by newly appointed club president Mark Shapiro. He understandably stepped down. There are reasons these two franchises win so seldom and they were on display last week.