This week’s dining tip (see back story Jan. 1 TBRR): they have burgers and other interesting stuff but the thing that sets Culver’s apart is their unique blending of their frozen custard with virtually everything that is sweet. Our personal guilty pleasure is picking up a pint of the Kit-Kat bar frozen custard. They are at the corner of Hercules and Gulf to-Bay occupying the space formally housing the revered Vinyl Museum.

The St. Pete election

In your HB’s (Humble Blogger’s) checkered political career, a very good friend who was a State Representative offered his support with this qualification “If you think it would help you more, I’ll support your opponent.” This half joking exchange came to mind when former President Obama offered up his help to St. Pete incumbent mayor Rick Kriseman just before last week’s election. It seemed to help. By most samplings, the incumbent mayor was trailing, but he pulled off a virtual tie in the primary balloting. If you listened to the speeches on election night, Kriseman seemed to have the momentum moving forward while Baker’s speech sounded a bit desperate. A lot of ballots were cast before the Obama endorsement. You have to believe some of those votes will change in November – advantage Kriseman.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Related to our lead item, we now await the former president’s choice in next year’s Treasure Island election.

2. Speaking of candidates, there is a lot of talk about Mike Pence’s chances down the road. Our current Veep should remember that only two vice-presidents have been elected to the presidency on their own in the past 180 years – Van Buren and Bush 41. And both failed to get re-elected.

3. Factoid: the person whose image appeared on Time Magazine’s cover more than anyone else? It was the late President Richard Nixon – 51 times.

4. Among the current list of non-fiction best sellers is a the tome Al Franken Giant of the Senate. Talk about an endless string of punchlines – half of which have the word munchkin in them.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you recognize the name – Virginia Seymour. She was the Indian Rocks Beach woman who won the contest to name the Sunshine Skyway which opened 63 years ago this week.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. So many feel good stories out of Texas and then you hear one like the Holiday Inn Express that forced a fleeing family to leave their two dogs in a hot car overnight because of their no pets policy. There are times when common sense and decency overrules “company policy”. This is one of them. Can’t help but wonder how many room nights that act cost the chain.

7. With advent of September, baseball rosters may be expanded. In a recent fan poll at the Major League Rumors website, fans by a 2-1 margin voted in favor of modifying September’s large rosters. Most logical solution is to allow as many players to be called up as team desires but to require a set 25 or 28-man roster for each game.

8. Idle thought: the pitcher was usually the best athlete on your Little League, High School and American Legion teams. How do they become such lousy hitters when they hit professional ball?

9. New definition of stone wall: trying to get help for a solvable problem from the Apple Company. We used to brush off the many anti-Apple sites on the web. Not so much anymore. They have become like the uncaring industrial trusts of the previous century.

10. From the crusading 5:05 Newsletter: A five-year-old girl who ran a lemonade stand in London was fined 195-pounds for not having the proper trading permit. This is why I tell all kids in my neighborhood to open all their lemonade stands offshore in the Cayman Islands.

Rays – wait till next year

As we mentioned last week (August 27 TBRR), the Rays needed to go at least 4-2 on their swing through Missouri to keep their post season hopes alive. They were close at 3-3 but the Fat Lady is clearing her throat. There are just too many teams to jump and too tough a schedule in September to make that happen. The biggest surprise of the week was the vote of confidence for Kevin Cash – three years, three losing records. That usually gets you fired unless your employers make the mistake of signing a rookie manager to a five year contract. Who knows? Maybe Cash will live to see his fifth year unless Rays’ management finally fesses up to a bad hire.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: RAYS AND MLB’S COMMISSIONER DELUSIONAL?