Telephone home invaders need to be punished – hard

The once vaunted “Do Not Call List” has become a joke. Telemarketers and worse call homes on that list with impunity. Some conscientious folks report violations to the Do Not Call hotline but, by most accounts, those folks are either overwhelmed or just don’t care. The newest spin by these phone creeps is using 727 and 813 area code numbers making you think it’s someone you know but don’t recognize the number. Bob Driver, the former Clearwater Sun columnist had a tongue in cheek piece on dealing with these miscreants (Beach Bee – March 16) – his best suggestion is answering the phone “IRS Office, this is agent Johnson”. Speaking of the IRS, perhaps it’s time for the feds to step in and, after say five or so violations and warnings, revoke phone service for the various companies and their officers/owners. Draconian? We don’t think so.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff

1. It was a good move by the Hillsborough County Commission to trash a proposed single district scheme being touted by Commission chair Sandy Murman. The plan was fraught with problems including an unwieldly nine-person commission.

2. She started at the Clearwater Chamber of Commerce and then led the Dunedin Chamber for 18 successful years. Lynn Wargo died early this month at age 57 – a tremendous loss to our community.

3. Alice Marie Johnson, a cocaine trafficker, was pardoned by President Trump after intervention by the famous for being famous Kim Kardashian. Ms. Johnson served 22 years in jail. That is probably a few days each or less for all the lives she and her fellow drug pushers ruined.

4. We agree with several posters on Twitter. The International House of Burgers name will be short lived. Why? Let’s see there’s IHOP, Perkins and little else. On the other side of the coin, there’s McDonald’s, Burger King, Checkers, Wendy’s, Hardee’s, Five Guys, Red Robin, In and Out plus a dozen more. Some restaurant experts say it’s just a summer thing and the IHOP brand will return when the weather turns cool.

5. From the trendsetting 5:05 Club Newsletter this gem: There is talk of legalizing marijuana in Utah. However, Mormons are worried that marijuana may be a gateway drug to coffee.

Sports, media and other stuff: 

6. The Rays may not have the best team in baseball but their broadcasters match up with any team. Dewayne Statts is destined for the broadcaster’s wing in the Hall of Fame and Andy Freed and Dave Wills are a terrific radio duo.

7. Factoid: Only ten out of every million adults in the U.S. have never seen The Tonight Show.

8. Summer begins this week and here are five great summer tunes to crank up on your music device – Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69 (a very good year); Johnny Rivers’ Summer Rain; The Beach Boys classic Kokomo; Beach Baby by First Class and arguably the ultimate summertime theme – Surf City by Jan and Dean.

9. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you shopped at Kash and Karry Supermarkets which became Sweetbay which was folded in Winn Dixie. Making the story even more confusing, the original Kash and Karry in Plant City was first named Big Barn!

10. In our season long series on the best player/pitcher of each franchise (see back story TBRR 3/25/17), some weeks are tougher than others. With the Indians our focus this week, you immediately think of pitching – Hall of Fame pitching like Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn. The nod goes to Feller who won 266 games for the Tribe despite missing three and a half years during World War II. The signature endorsement for Feller comes from the great Ted Williams who called him “the finest pitcher I ever faced”. On the player side, it’s a tight race between two Hall of Famers – Larry Doby and Jim Thome. Both were great but Thome’s numbers are just overwhelming.

One the eve of the Governor’s race, a good read

Floridians will be electing a new governor in a few short months. There’s no time like the present to reflect on those who have come before our current governor and his successor. For instance, did you know that we had a governor who ran on the Prohibitionist Party ticket or one who claimed that Pope Benedict XV was trying to take over Florida or one who ran for governor when he discovered he could live rent-free in the Governor’s Mansion? And they were all the same person – just one of many interesting things about our chief executives in Robert Buccellato’s Florida Governors Lasting Legacies. It’s a good primer for the primaries and November’s general election.

Up Next: Clearwater & the Phils; Return the Call; who wrote The Book of Love?