Dining tip #23 (see back story in Jan. 1 Rants) – After Keegan’s last week, we’re going to stay on the Gulf Beaches for one of our absolute favorites – Sweet Sage on North Redington Beach – open for breakfast and lunch. Be decadent and try one of their outrageous crepes or the Twice Stuffed Eggs Benedict.

The art of customer service

Over the past month, your humble blogger has had some minor surgery done and bought a new car. First, let us say the end results of both were good. It was the getting there that varied dramatically. That “getting there” is referred to as customer service. The auto dealership, and we have no problem mentioning them, was Dick Norris Buick GMC. There were a couple of minor blips in the car transaction and they were handled quickly and professionally. On the surgical side, changed and cancelled surgical dates and follow-ups, the inability to ever speak to a staffer “live” and just general screw-ups with insurance and other matters. We won’t mention the surgical practice because the surgeons are good but their front office performance is nothing short of awful. We guess the car business is more competitive than the surgical biz, but that is absolutely no excuse for shoddy treatment of patients (customers).

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. With the negative reaction to the Paris accords pullout by some folks labeled “corporate titans”, we call to mind a thought from O’Reilly and Feirstein’s book Old School: “don’t hector us about climate change while you fly around in private jets and have multiple houses with the carbon footprint the size of Kazakhstan”. Well said.

2. Don’t know about you, but last week we had the strongest urge to go to some railroad tracks in the bay area and wave a final farewell to the Ringling Brothers Circus train as it made its last journey to Sarasota. The loss of the circus is one of the great societal tragedies of the 21st Century.

3. With our first Florida summertime weekend and its boating tragedies and near tragedies behind us, we continue to be amazed you must be tested and licensed to operate a private motor vehicle but not a private vessel where the consequences of mistakes and negligence are compounded exponentially.

4. How things can change. Two weeks ago (RANTS – May 21) we rhetorically asked if there was a more disliked woman in the U.S. than Nancy Pelosi. Turns out there is. Cathy Griffith has been lambasted in diverse corners from the VFW to The View. She has expressed remorse – remorse in that she knows her career trajectory is now about the same as that of Bill Cosby and O.J. Simpson.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you went to either the Gulf-to-Bay or Thunderbird Drive-In Theaters.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Media types whose heads are blowing off about so-called back channel communications with Russia should read Gibbs and Duffy’s The President’s Club which reveals such communications have been commonplace since the mid-20^th Century.

7. NBC Nightly News, once dominate in the evening, is now behind ABC in total audience at 6:30. Its answer to its problems? Among other things, let’s attack Fox News. Go figure.

8. Last week, we noted the 100^th anniversary of JFK’s birth – the first President born in the 20^th Century. The last President born in the 19^th Century was his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower.

9. Idle thought: remember when you could recite the winners of the Indy 500 back ten years or so? Now, we had to look back 23 years to find a name we actually remember – Al Unser, Jr., whose dad and uncle were also winners when the race truly captured America.

10. Legend has it that Dr. James Naismith developed basketball as a winter sport to go between fall’s football and spring and summer’s baseball. Imagine what he would think to see the NBA finals being played in the first full week of June.

Why some guys love baseball

There is a website with the unlikely name of Rotisserie Duck that recently featured 71 compelling reasons why guys love baseball. If you’re too lazy to Google it, here is a sampling of a half dozen: The aroma of the bubble gum in a nickel pack of Topps baseball cards should be bottled as a women’s cologne - men could never resist; Talking baseball with the fan next to you in the stands has nothing to do with race, religion, politics, age or sexual identity; You clearly understand the stupidity of any baserunner who tried to go from 1B to 3B when Roberto Clemente was playing RF; “The Bender”, “The Hook”, “Uncle Charlie”, “The Yellow Hammer”, “The Yakker” & “The Deuce” all mean the same thing….baseball has a language of its own; Looking through a set of baseball cards from the 1950s gives you a wonderful history lesson that tells you the identities of Dusty, Duke, Red, Minnie, Puddin’ Head, Spook, Smoky, Suitcase, Pee Wee, Junior & Rube and finally, for those of us lucky enough to live in Florida - Sitting behind home plate in March watching the veterans shape up and the youngsters trying to impress, makes an adult feel like a kid again.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: A “WHAT IF” INVOLING THE RAYS, YANKS AND CUBS