Oprah for president? As long as we’re being ridiculous:

We guess television maven Donald Trump opened the door for anybody and anyone to run for the White House. Recently, left wingers began to salivate over Oprah Winfrey, but why stop there? How about Ellen DeGeneres – wouldn’t it be classy to have a president wearing tennis shoes? Or any of the talking heads at the various awards programs – the folks who think the 38^th parallel is a geometry term. The list goes on – why not Morning Joe or Colbert or maybe just a governing body of the participants on The View? Suddenly, Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein or Alfred E. Newman seem to be solid choices.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Last year, we were quick to take a bank (Wells Fargo) to task for their shady dealings (TBRR August 13 and Sept. 10). On the other side of the ledger, we cannot say enough good things about how Debra Jones and her staff at Regions Bank helped us out when our account was breached through no fault of their own – kudos!

2. Retail notes: South Tampa Sam’s Club is closing – part of about five dozen shutterings nationwide. “Odd”, “dysfunctional” and simply “I don’t like it” are among the prevailing reviews of Island Estates’ new Publix.

3. The debate rages on as to who will benefit from the new tax plan and who won’t. All we know is until it does indeed include a post card on which to file your taxes and the IRS, as we know it, is abolished, it cannot be a total success.

4. Factoid: Clearwater is the 16^th largest city in Florida. At the 2000 census, it was 10^th. For the record, Tampa is the third largest, St. Pete fifth and Largo follows after Clearwater at 28^th.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember Clearwater Lumber, Hamerick Lumber and Pinellas Lumber companies. Now about the only independent yard left is Nall Lumber being run by the third generation of that long time Clearwater family.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. A recent article on the late Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder Paul O’Neill revealed him as strikingly similar to another famed orchestra founder in terms of passion for his work, plus a larger than average dose of inflexibility and paranoia. The other orchestra founder from eighty years ago was Glenn Miller. His story is portrayed nicely in George Simon’s book – The Glenn Miller Orchestra.

7. It’s Girl Scout cookie time – if you’ve sworn off the Thin Mints to help shed a few pounds, there is a program where you can buy the cookies and have them donated to a member of our armed services – neat (and healthy) idea.

8. Our granddaughter’s BFA (best animal friend) Nicholas, a dolphin at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, is now 6 for 7 in picking the national college football champion with Bama’s win. Each year he’s given two toy footballs representing the contenders and this year picked the Tide over the Dawgs.

9. Watching the breakup of the Marlins, there are two prime trade chips left – outfielder Christian Yelich and catcher J.T. Realmuto. Yelich is very good but the combined defensive/offensive skills of a catcher like Realmuto come along once in a blue moon. He is the more valuable asset.

10. A semi-sports note from our friends at the 5:05 Newsletter: China increased the penalty for disrespecting the National Anthem from 15-days to 3-years in prison… in case you were thinking of taking a knee on your next visit there.

Bucs 2018 – Forget about a winning season

The Bucs with a last minute miracle pulled out a win on the last play of the season to finish a disappointing 5-11 for 2017. A peek at next year’s schedule reveals that 8 of their 16 games will be against 2017 playoff teams plus a tough road game in Dallas and a match up with 2017’s most improved team – the San Francisco 49ers. Even with the awful Browns and Bears on their schedule, it’s hard to forecast a significant improvement from this year’s 5-11.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: Clearwater election, fancy wheels and Laugh-In