TOP OF THE WEEK:

 Florida’s top law enforcement officials are urging the state not to return to the good old really bad days of pill mills. And our state sheriffs, including Pinellas County’s Bob Gualtieri, say that based on other state’s experiences, that’s exactly what lies ahead for our state if the initiative on medical pot passes this fall. Gualtieri cites Oregon where just nine doctors “certified” 28,000 patients as needing medical pot. Conservative estimates place those nine physician’s take on those certifications at more than five and a half million dollars. And you thought peddling pills was big biz! Just as we have put a bunch of these pill mills out of business in the last few years (although sadly, a couple have managed to reopen their doors in the last month or two) now we are on the brink of creating a whole new growth industry for unscrupulous physicians in our state.

 THIS WEEK’S TEN:

 1. Have a happy 50^th reunion this weekend CHS Class of ’64. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2. 1964 gave birth to both a phenomena and an icon – Beatlemania and the classic Ford Mustang.

3. One more reunion item – perhaps the biggest draw of all high school reunions is hoping to find that the guy/girl who dumped you in high school is now bald/fat or both.

4. In a related note, Largo High is hosting a “Final Homecoming” for alumni Monday and Tuesday evenings this week at the school which will be torn down this summer to make way for a new facility. No truth to the rumor that the above mentioned CHS Class of ’64 will assist with the decorations as they did 50 years ago during football season.

5. Our Rants and Raves focus group (which consists of three old, cranky people) suggests a cash register that automatically shuts off at ten items for those in Publix’ ten item aisle who cannot seem to be able to count. One stronger suggestion from the group is a trap door that opens on the 11th item. Margin of error: 50 per cent or so.

6.  Clearwater city manager Bill Horne says he has no immediate plans to retire. Horne has helmed the city since 2000 which makes him Clearwater’s longest serving city manager since when – the beginning of time?

7. A recent poll of major league players says the most overrated players in the game are Bryce Harper, Yasiel Puig and ARod. Wait; can you be overrated if you’re not even playing? So we’ll subtract ARod and add Troy Tulowitzki – decent when he’s on the field but very fragile, having missed 210 games over the past four seasons.

8. Factoid: Clearwater Lake is not in Clearwater but just outside Umatilla in east central Florida.

9. If you’re a personnel guy in the Houston Texans’ front office you better pray nightly that Johnny Manziel turns out to be no better than an average NFL quarterback and that Jadeveon Clowney doesn’t revert to his lackadaisical college ways.

10. You’ve lived in Pinellas County quite a while if you remember when an “A” date was a first run blockbuster movie at St. Pete’s Center Theater followed by a late night snack at Wolfie’s.

IN CLOSING:

Couldn’t the people who designed the Obamacare website have gotten some “real” people to look over their shoulder and say “this might work for a techie but how about the guy/gal who make their living in some other field?” You often wonder what in the world folks are thinking when they design sites that are used by you and me – Joe/Jane Average. Another case in point is renewing your auto tag in Pinellas County. Used to be a fairly simple on line process but now you need to enter your life history including (love this one) the last five digits in your Social Security number to get a new yellow sticker for your car. Governor Scott is pushing to lower the renewal fee twenty five bucks. They ought to give us an additional twenty five to enter all the unnecessary junk Pinellas County asks for.