We open with this week’s dining suggestion (see back tory in Jan. 1 TBRR). For a true New York-style deli with killer corned beef and roast beef sandwiches, the Lucky Dill on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor is hard to beat - so many tempting items on their large menu.

Speaking the King’s English

“You can't give good customer service if you don't hire appropriate employees. Hiring improperly and expecting great results nonetheless is like picking the wrong Olympic team and expecting to get the gold” – Forbes Magazine. It gets more and more frustrating trying to resolve a matter important to you and being confronted with someone you cannot understand. We have no issue with companies hiring some offshore help for back office operations but please give us someone who can speak understandable English on the phone to help solve our problem. Persons familiar with the problem advise you the next time you are confronted with such an issue to politely ask to be connected with a customer service rep in the U.S. Most often your request will be granted. If not, maybe it’s time to move on to another vendor.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. We’re not sure just what President Trump was supposed to do in response to the mess in Charlottesville that would have appeased the liberal media.

2. We’re just about a week away from the St. Pete primary and, to this observer, incumbent mayor Rick Kriseman looks like the leader at the turn.

3. Another terrific attraction closes down at Disneyworld. The Great Movie Ride entertained families for years. The montage of great films and great actors and actresses at the end of the ride was worth the cost of admission alone. Walt wouldn’t be happy.

4. News item: Major Mark Welch resigns from the Florida Highway Patrol after authoring a controversial ticket quota email. But we could see a law enforcement future for him in, say, Lawtey or Waldo.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember Carter’s Army Navy Store on Cleveland Street – the first place you could buy a Drew U t-shirt – the slang name for the SPJC campus on Drew Street when it opened in the mid-sixties. The real Drew University is in Madison, NJ.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. A little over a year ago (May 29, 2016 TBRR) we announced we were pulling the plug on ESPN’s tired Pardon the Interruption. The several reasons, including the fact it was pretty much a basketball only show, were outlined in last year’s piece. We dropped by last week and in the second week of pre-season NFL, the battle in the NL Central and a fierce AL fight for playoff spots, the lead story was … (wait for it) … LeBron and the Cavs. We’ll drop in again in 2018 if it’s still on the air.

7. What a great story in major league baseball last week. Chris Rowley wins his first start for the Toronto Blue Jays – the first West Point graduate to ever start a game in the majors – proving once again no matter how long you follow baseball, you will always see something new.

8. Factoid: Even though he batted strictly left-handed and threw lefty, Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly is ambidextrous.

9. Speaking of the Marlins, the biggest positive among baseball insiders is not who bought the franchise, but the fact that previous owner, Jeffrey Loria, is out of baseball.

10. Last week was your HB’s (Humble Blogger’s) 48^th anniversary. Long suffering wife made the comment that your HB might not remember the details of our wedding but probably could recall who won the late model feature at Sunshine Speedway that evening. Not so. The races were rained out that night.

Local media needs to unite on reporting standards

Bay News Nine anchor Veronica Cintron looked absolutely ridiculous last week as she pontificated on how her organization’s “standards” do not permit the release of youthful offender’s names in crime reporting. Earlier that day, you could read complete profiles of all the youth involved in the grand theft auto in the Bay News Nine’s “partner” St. Pete Times. We know the media is a dog eat dog enterprise with everybody looking for an exclusive, but in sensitive areas such as youth committing crimes, our local radio, TV and print journalists need to come together and establish a market-wide set of standards in this and other sensitive areas of reporting.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – IN SEARCH OF CINCINNATUS