This week’s dining tip (see back story in Jan. 1 TBRR): Been to a ballgame yet this season? No trip to a Ray’s game is complete without stopping for a burger and fries or the terrific onion rings at Ferg’s on Central Avenue.

Irma – where to start?

(Oh yeah, the promised Ray’s piece is delayed another week). We begin by admitting your HB (Humble Blogger) is a moron. We left the relative safety, as it turns out, of the bay area for Jacksonville of all places. Yes, we know you’re thinking “how did that turn out?” Not well. But other than a likely significant material loss (covered by insurance), we compose this piece safe and sound back in the bay area – with power since last Monday night. All in all, an incredible display of people looking out for each other, showing extreme patience in gas lines and taking time to thank our first responders for their extra hours and extraordinary service - a shining hour for our area and our state.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Three cheers for Attorney General Pam Bondi for calling out the pond scum who jumped at the chance to gouge their neighbors during last week’s weather crisis. You could hear the frustration in her voice in that she couldn’t prosecute a lot of them. Maybe our legislature might want to change a law or two.

2. Hmm...another red state, another hurricane, maybe the wack job from the U of Tampa has something – nah!

3. Being an equal opportunity offender, after taking Rick Baker to task last week, we must chide current Mayor Kriseman for his constant attempts to make a non-partisan race partisan. “Neither of the above” looks better and better in the St. Pete mayor’s race.

4. Idle thought: shouldn’t we expect better from Equifax?

5. Yet another gem from the 5:05 Newsletter: “KFC announced it is considering removing the Colonel Sanders logo from their outdoor signs; just in case the Confederate statue protesters are ever able to put two and two together”.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. You’ve lived in the bay are a long time if you ever shopped at an Ivey’s Department Store.

7. Factoid: The Miami Marlins are on a course to lose $70 million this year, yet they just sold for over a billion dollars. This is what happens when you have guys with a lot of money and only 30 such items (MLB franchises) in the world.

8. Watching a bunch of major league hitters unsuccessfully swat at R.A. Dickey’s knuckle ball last week reminds us of a comment by legendary hitting coach Charlie Lau, “There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works.”

9. We apologize for being a couple weeks late in noting the latest addition to Rock and Roll Heaven – Walter Becker, one-half of the terrific 70s band – Steely Dan.

10. You get a very clear idea in what direction ESPN is headed by looking at the incredibly poor judgement of anchor Jamele Hill last week. Take her remarks and substitute Barack Obama for Donald Trump and add a similar racist diatribe and that person is now doing weekend sports in Great Falls, Montana. That isn’t speculation – just see the case of MNF musical icon Hank Williams, Jr.

45 years ago – a television classic debuts

Very few television shows spun off from movies succeed. M*A*S*H, which debuted 45 years ago this week, was the resounding exception. Strong writing, good direction and an incredibly talented ensemble of characters made the show one of the biggest hits of the late seventies and early eighties. Even some major cast changes, the very strong Wayne Rogers and Larry Linville for not quite as strong Mike Farrell and David Ogden Stiers didn’t seem to hurt. And while McLean Stevenson was good as the medical misfits’ fearless leader, Harry Morgan often stole the show as Col. Sherman T. Potter. The new television season is here. Will there be a M*A*S*H among them? We hope so.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – RAYS FEATURE – MAYBE!