This week’s dining tip (see back story in Jan. 1 Rants): They’re back and nicer than ever. Crabby Bill’s has reopened at the west end of the Clearwater Marina on Clearwater Beach. Stop by and see what’s new.

Okay 70 per cent of pro-pot Florida voters, you figure it out!

The exact number escapes us, but close to 70 per cent of Florida voters said yes to legalized medical pot last fall despite warnings from law enforcement and medical experts. Now, the Florida legislature is scrambling to figure out what to do to prevent the inevitable abuses of the law much like our Wild West approach to opioids for many years with “medical doctors” in downtown Clearwater and elsewhere having their parking lots jammed with out of state license plates seeking their “medical help”.  Already we are seeing signs like the one at the exit of the Belcher Road and Gulf to Bay Publix last week proclaiming “Legal Weed, $199, phone (some 866 number)”. The sign is just the vanguard of what is going to be one hot mess in the Sunshine State. Thanks, folks.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Tucked in a two inch column in last Sunday’s paper was a piece reporting the guilty verdict of former State Rep. Corrine Brown for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars designated for charities. Can’t help thinking that if the D behind her name had been an R, the story would have been front page with a World War II size headline.

2. There’s been some gnashing of teeth over a decline in the state’s arts funding – it’s still at nearly $25 million. The arts, unfortunately, have to compete against fire trucks, areas that flood and hungry people who need fed.

3. Medicare is 51 years old this year. The bill was signed into law by LBJ in Independence, Missouri. The recipient of the first Medicare card was the pride of Missouri – Harry Truman – a token of President Johnson’s esteem for our 33^rd President.

4. Just an idle thought: is there a more disliked woman in America than Nancy Pelosi?

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you attended a show at the Showboat Dinner Theater.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. A gem of a program hidden on the Smithsonian Channel is Aerial America, a show giving airborne views and fascinating commentary on our fifty states plus some significant landmarks. Give it a view during this summer of reruns.

7. A tip of our baseball cap to the Phillies for extending the contract of Pet Mackanin. His record with the Phils since taking over is about 40 games under .500 but you could pick any manager in the Hall of Fame and the results with a team undergoing such a major overhaul would not be any better.

8. Two teams that everyone wants to play right now but won’t in two months – the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays – both very talented teams severely crippled by injuries to key players.

9. Borrowing a thought from our Facebook friend George Miller – I need to lose 25 pounds to be fat. My, but that hits home!

10. Factoid unearthed by the most spectacular member of our Rants and Raves focus group: the top singing duo of all time is not Simon and Garfunkel (ranked 3^rd), the Everly Brothers (ranked 2^nd) but Hall and Oates. Rounding out the Top Five duos are the Righteous Brothers and surf era twosome Jan and Dean.

About those retired Yankee numbers:

Last week we mentioned Derek Jeter’s number 2 was the last single digit to be retired by the Yankees. To review: 1 – Billy Martin, 2 – Jeter; 3 – Ruth; 4 – Gehrig; 5 – DiMaggio; 6 – Torre; 7 – the Mick; 8 – two great catchers, Berra and Dickey and 9 – Maris – one of the two best players not in the Hall of Fame. But wait, there’s more: 10 – Rizzuto; 15 – Munson; 16 – Ford; 20 – Posada; 23 – Mattingly; 32 – Howard; 37 – Stengel; 42 - Rivera; 44 – Reggie; 46 – Pettitte; 49 – Guidry and 51- guitar playing Bernie Williams. Throughout the baseball season, we’ll look at some other storied franchises with bunches of retired numbers.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: A SMALL BLIP ON THE RADAR WITH MASSIVE IMPLICATIONS FOR CLEARWATER AND OTHER COASTAL COMMUNITIES