This week’s dining tip (see back story in the Jan. 1 TBRR): a different style of dining. Hop on board the Starlight Majesty for surprisingly good food, music and, at this time of year, a chance to view Christmas lights from the water on Island Estates and down Belleair way.

Is Clearwater ready for a strong mayor?

Talk has started surfacing (again) about Clearwater perhaps moving to a strong mayor form of government. Some of the talk is occasioned by the pending retirement of long time City Manager Bill Horne in the next couple years. With almost twenty years at the helm, Horne certainly brought stability to the post where the average stay is somewhere less than five years. The only two larger cities in the bay area, St. Pete and Tampa, both have strong mayors but population size is not the overriding factor. Some incredibly small cities in Florida have strong mayors and larger cities like Cape Coral, Ft. Lauderdale and Gainesville have council-manager systems like Clearwater. There has not been any blindingly obvious reason for change, but a couple weak managers after Horne could tip the equation.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Apologies for the late edition, we are just back from the frozen tundra that is the Finger Lakes region of New York after celebrating one of those significant birthdays (the ones ending in a 0) for our beloved sister. Glad to be back in the warmth just as she is happy to have her surprise company from underfoot!

2. From a post of a Facebook friend: The obscure we see eventually; the completely apparent takes longer…

3. Don’t you tire of seeing people whip into handicapped spots who can walk better than you? We need to tighten up the requirements for such permits – perhaps with photo IDs; stiffen the penalties for abusers and then let everyone with a legit placard park for free anywhere.

4. You may not know Alton Miller, William Pitt or Marvin Simon, but you surely know Glenn Miller, Brad Pitt and Neil Simon – just three famous folks known by their middle name.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you ate at the A&W Restaurant on Gulf to Bay Blvd. The chain was absorbed by the group that owns KFC and Taco Bell, but is again a stand-alone corporation, so perhaps Clearwater will see a return of the classic drive-in.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Yes, we were in the media business for a couple decades, and yes we are a bit naïve, but what has been revealed in the last six months or so re: O’Reilly, Lauer and Rose et al is astounding.

7. There’s been some push back in Gainesville to the hiring of Dan Mullen as the new head coach. Perhaps it would have been nice to have hired the mercurial Chip Kelly – a somewhat proven commodity. But the wailing about not getting UCF’s Scott Frost is ridiculous. Let’s see how he does against a schedule that doesn’t include Austin Peay, Cincinnati and UConn before we judge him ready for prime time. We think Mullen will do just fine.

8. This was one of the weirdest ways to find out your head coach is leaving – FSU’s Jimbo Fisher’s Christmas tree was dumped on the curb for trash pick-up. A lot of folks call the Noles hiring of Willie Taggart a step backward. Don’t think a couple nice years at USF (but Charlie Strong’s was better) and one so-so year at Oregon makes him quite ready for one of the Top 10 programs in the county..

9. A couple weeks ago Serena Williams and her fiancé were married in NOLA with famous people and their 11-week old daughter in attendance. Call us old-fashioned, but shouldn’t people like Williams, who tons of young people look up to, perhaps get married then start a family?

10. From the merry elves at the 5:05 Newsletter: Starbucks unveiled its holiday cups, which had illustrations that customers can color in themselves. It is perfect for people who are too busy to make their own coffee at home, yet still have enough time to color in a coffee cup.

What event would be #1 on your bucket list?

Our Rants and Raves focus group (now composed of five old, cranky people) considered this question and came up with the following (1) Home plate box seats at a New York Yankee game. (2) Another Big Apple event – the Christmas season with Rockettes, the store fronts and the Rockefeller Plaza tree. (3) A Bruno Mars concert. (4) The annual consumer electronics show held in Vegas in January and (5) An annual party thrown by conservative pundit George Will to celebrate the opening of the baseball season. And yours?

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: E Tickets, perfume and welcome to the SEC, Jimbo