This week’s dining tip (see back story in Jan. 1 TBRR): Summer’s gone but the incredible sunsets linger and there is no better place to view them while enjoying a good meal than from the porch of the Palm Pavilion on the north end of Clearwater Beach.

Southern statues now, Southern food next?

Not real sure where we stand on the “statue thing” except that we are wasting a lot of valuable time on it – either leave them up, move them or tear them down, but for the love of Pete, move on. Our worry is about where political correctness will next rear its ugly head. Food? Should we perhaps eliminate traditional Southern food like fried okra, black eyed peas, real Southern (i.e. without a bunch of tomato sauce) BBQ, grits and delights like banana pudding and peach cobbler lest they offend somebody? The late, great Lewis Grizzard would roll over in his grave – if he hasn’t already.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. By the way, if you don’t know who Lewis Grizzard is, you are functionally illiterate.

2. There is going to be some sort of wrist slap for Democratic State Rep. Daisy Baez of Dade County for not living in the District she was elected to rep. Seems pretty basic – live where you want to run – maybe even for a year or two – don’t you think Ms. Sink?

3. GEICO is taking a lot of heat for giving $20k to the families of the car thieves who rammed the insurance company’s client while they were running a red light at over 100 mph. They are just protecting their client – a necessity in Florida which very badly needs tort reform legislation – hard to do in a legislature full of lawyers.

4. For what it’s worth, we suffered a significant material loss during Hurricane Irma. GEICO was our insurance company. They made the claims process as painless as humanly possible.

5. Yet another GEICO item: The Florida Orchestra’s version of the insurance company’s “triangle player” commercial has gone viral. It’s a hoot.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Takeaway from Buc’s Week 5A: The Cardinals were another game we had penciled in as a win in our 8-8 season prediction. The rest of the season is not as dark as predicted by local doomsday pundits, but the ship needs some course correction.

7. The 5:05 Newsletter hits another one out of the park: Hillary Clinton’s new book “What Happened” topped the best-seller lists this week. Bill Clinton collected $12-million for his memoirs, while Hillary collected $8-million. That is $20-million for the memories of a couple who for years have repeated, under oath, that they could not remember anything.

8. Factoid: outdoing the Clintons (above), ex-Ray Carl Crawford made 21.9 million this year for not playing an inning of baseball. Nice work, if you can get it.

9. Riding at the top of the charts fifty years ago this week was the biggest selling single of the year, Lulu’s To Sir with Love. As mentioned previously (TBRR – April 23), it was the biggest female single hit of the sixties. Ironically, although Lulu was from the British Isles and had a TV show in the UK, her smash hit never cracked the charts in the UK.

10. Related to #1 above, if you wish to become enlightened, grab one of Lewis Grizzard’s books. We especially recommend I Haven’t Understood Anything Since 1962.

The post season so far

The Washington Nationals are the Buffalo Bills of major league baseball – maybe a change in the dugout was in order. Dusty Baker channels former Phils manager Charlie Manuel – good hitting coaches but bad tacticians who absolutely destroy pitching staffs. Conversely, we cannot be convinced that was the problem in Boston – it starts with dumping a third baseman who hit 31 homers and drove in 101 this year while the Bosox had a revolving door at the position. Speaking of changes, the Yankees need to sacrifice some offense and get a decent catcher. Gary Sanchez’ only position is designated hitter. He is arguably the worst catcher in baseball. Finally, Cubs had a bunch of career years and tons of lucky breaks in 2016 and deluded themselves and others into thinking they had several world championships in their future. They need help on the mound before 2018.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: MAYOR’S RACE, PANCAKES & PUBLIX