We’ve mostly avoided chains in our weekly dining suggestions this year (see back story in Jan. 1 Rants), but the smallish First Watch chain delivers a local feel. We miss their lean machine and fruit crepe entrees recently dropped, but their menu still offers some unique and healthy options.

How does Wells Fargo stay in business?

Like the 1960s disc jockeys used to say “the hits just keep on coming”. With Wells Fargo, it’s the revelation of the month, cheating vets with illegal fees related to mortgages; overcharging their auto loan customers on insurance; opening investment accounts without their customer’s knowledge or permission. And previously unpublicized, when a local organization’s employees accessed the institution’s financial records, they got, instead, the personal account of the group’s CEO. How many strikes before you’re out? It seems like Wells Fargo has more than used up their allotment.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Today as we go to press, we salute Phil Mickelson, George H. W. Bush, Randy Johnson and our colleague Steve Zweig. All are left handed and today is National Lefthanders Day.

2. Are we the only one troubled by a shamelessly self-promotional piece in the mail from Charlie Crist? The one with the tiny six-point type proclaiming it was paid for at taxpayer expense?

3. An unlikely political source, baseball writer extraordinaire, Peter Gammons, reminds us that the advent of fake news was probably way back in 1948 with the famous DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN headline.

4. Idle thought: has it every bothered you that the planet-named streets in Clearwater’s Skycrest neighborhood (Mars, Venus, Jupiter etc.) are in the wrong order?

5. From those merry elves at the 5:05 Newsletter: Latinos say they are worried by the crackdown on immigration. One Latino posted this note on the White House website. “I’m terrified that Trump is going to deport my Latina mother-in-law who is here illegally and lives at 1801 3rd Street Los Angeles 90023 - blue house on the corner, she gets home at six.”

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Looking back in Clearwater history – specifically the northwest corner of Gulf to Bay and Duncan: Over the years it’s been Howard the Trader, Steak and Shake, Grandy’s, Krispy Kreme and now Thornton’s. Thanks to longtime friend Doug Hilkert for helping us remember Grandy’s.

7. Woodstock, that counter-culture lovefest, happened 48 years ago this week. As they say, if you remember Woodstock, you weren’t there – and, having much nicer things to do that weekend, we weren’t.

8. The fact that the Rays are hanging on in the wild card race speaks volumes to the mediocrity of the American League this year. In the National League, as of this writing, the Rays would be seven games out of the wild card race with four teams to leapfrog.

9. A bad week or so for sports fans with the passing of Don Baylor, Dutch Daulton and John Reaves – all made an indelible mark on their respective sports.

10. And you may not have heard of Joe Clark who also passed this last week at age 98. He was a three-time Purple Heart recipient as an advance scout during World War II and honored not only by his own government but the French government, as well, for his heroism in the European theater. A resident of Palm Harbor, Joe, along with his brother, my Dad, were my two biggest heroes.

Glen Campbell: a big part of the soundtrack of the sixties

The frustrating thing about a Glen Campbell concert was he could sing half the night and you still may not hear your favorite Campbell song – there were so many – 38 charted singles in all. Similar to the Bacharach-David/Warwick connection, Glen found a friend in Jimmy Webb (Wichita Lineman, Galveston, By the Time I Get to Phoenix and others). He had his own TV show, toured with the Beach Boys in the mid-sixties including a stop in Clearwater and in the early sixties was part of the Champs of Tequila fame. And before all the fame, was probably the most in demand studio guitarist in L.A. He was a giant of the industry.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – SPEAKING THE KING’S ENGLISH