St. Petersburg’s five cent bag

No this segment isn’t what you may think. It’s about St. Pete trying to become more like California all the time. The sharpies in south Pinellas have formulated a plan to charge five cents for every bag you carry out of a grocery store with four of those cents going to city government to spend wisely (see St. Petersburg – sewage treatment). They refer to the bags as “single use”. In most households, they are anything but. Additionally, virtually every store has a bin to recycle those bags. Sewage treatment aside, St. Pete has enough ills to be dealt with without some imprudent grocery bag scheme.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff

1. Now that election season is over and he can turn his attention to things other than appearing on campaign ads, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri wants to turn the county’s teaching force into an armed militia – ignoring the fact the state and the teachers themselves strongly oppose it.

2. Due to illness, your humble blogger is missing out on the Salvation Army bell ringing for the first time in about 30 years. But the three favorite women in our life, wife, daughter and granddaughter are pinch hitting. By the way, the Army is a little short of volunteers this year. You can volunteer for an hour or two by calling 727-725-9777. Thanks!

3. The first Christmas Stamp was not issued until 1962. The record-setting original run of 350 million stamps sold out quickly. Eventually one billion were printed in ’62. Cost of the stamp – four cents.

4. Wayne Stayskal whose excellent political cartoons graced the pages of the Tampa Tribune for two decades died last week at age 86.

5. You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if your Christmas season wasn’t complete without a trip to Rogers’ Christmas House in Brooksville.

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. Topping the charts forty years ago this week was the Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond duet You Don’t Bring Me Flowers. The song was one of those rare records that went to number 1 then slipped down the charts and later went back to the top. This classic was audio mixed by Clearwater High grad Ron Hitchcock.

7. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating once a year. Clearwater would get a lot more out of its downtown asset, the Capitol Theater, if it had some sort of marquee advertising coming attractions.

8. If Jimbo Fisher never does another thing at Texas A&M, he’ll be remembered for presiding over the greatest win in school history – the 74-72, seven overtime shootout with LSU.

9. Former UCF coach Scott Frost presided over a 4-8 season at Nebraska – the same record that got his predecessor fired. Meanwhile, UCF rolled to another 12-0 season, so we guess it was the team not the coach.

10. As a kid, we enjoyed watching two powerhouses - the Cleveland Browns (Jimmy Brown, Otto Graham and Lou Groza) and the Detroit Lions (Hopalong Cassidy, Leon Hart and Bobby Layne). Now we wonder if we will ever see the two teams become competitive again.

George H. W. Bush – a man for all seasons

It’s very difficult to find a man who, in the last century, did more for his country than George H.W. Bush. Starting with his experience as a World War II fighter pilot and moving through his assignments as a U.S. Representative, U.N. Ambassador, head of the CIA, Vice President and finally America’s highest elective office. When his nation called, for six decades George H.W. Bush answered that call with outstanding service. He will go down in history as probably one of our most underappreciated Presidents, but he was the right man at the right time. Patriot is a word we do not use lightly, but that one word best sums up the life of America’s 41^st President.

UP NEXT: Baseball Codes; Lincoln Logs; knowing when to leave

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