Tampa Bay Raves and Rants is a weekly airing of national and local politics, sports, lifestyles and nostalgia items from a very politically incorrect viewpoint. As always, beware - much of what is printed here should not be taken literally.

Hooray for Chick-fil-A

The latest from the Democratic whack jobs in New York is a move to prohibit the nation’s third largest restaurant chain from having locations on the New York State Thruway. A Rochester-area legislator, Harry Bronson, is leading the charge saying “We are going to offer them an opportunity for them to earn millions and millions of dollars,’ even though we know what the history is." Chick-fil-A’s history is that of a terrific corporate citizen across the United States and beyond. They have drawn fire from folks like Bronson for the fact they are pro-life, support groups like the Salvation Army and have a business plan based on Christian principles. Probably the best picture of how mainstream America looks at Chick-fil-A is to witness the wrap around traffic at their locations here in the bay area and across America. We doubt the radical fringe in New York will be successful in their drive to keep one of America’s best food chains off New York’s highways. And a postscript: apparently the folks who run Busch Gardens don’t find Chick-fil-A so heinous as they have just announced the chain is coming to the large Tampa amusement park.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

CBS News on Kabul attacks: 'Worst day of the Biden presidency' - more like the worst day in any presidency in the past two decades.

Mayoral candidate Ken Welch heads into St. Pete’s general election with a commanding lead. If Welch prevails in November, the city should be in good hands.

How self-serving of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to point out that shooting deaths in Tampa are up from when she was Police Chief. Ma’am, if anything, you are more responsible as Mayor for the increase in deadly crimes than you were as Police Chief.

More political news not attributed to the 5:05 Newsletter: President Biden made an honest mistake recently announcing that 350 million Americans have been vaccinated, which is 20 million more than the population of the United States. He was trying to remind everybody that he received 350 million votes for president. And that was just in Georgia.

More and more economists are predicting an end to the housing bubble where prices of homes have increased an average of over 16 percent in the past year.

Those of us who have lived the majority of our lives on the Gulf coast watch in awe as a marginal storm like Henri leads national newscasts as it approaches the northeast. The same storm headed for Florida gets barely a mention.

Idle thought: With all these special interest days, weeks and months, shouldn’t there be at least a day a year for normal people?

Sports, media and lighter stuff:

You would laugh until your sides split, but you never blushed at Jeanne Robertson’s humor. The charming comedian from Alamance County, NC passed away last week at age 77.

The entertainment world lost another stellar performer last week with the passing of Don Everly, one half of the hit-making Everly Brothers of the 50s and 60s. His brother Phil passed away seven years ago.

In an era where it is becoming increasingly rare, Yadier Molina has announced that he will play one final season in 2022 as a St. Louis Cardinal. He joins legends Bob Gibson and Stan Musial as career Cardinals. He will also, no doubt, join them in the Hall of Fame a few years down the road.

A last minute absence and lack of a substitute thrust Channel 13 meteorologist Dave Osterberg into the anchor’s role for the station’s noon news last week. You would have thought he had been doing it all his life, but he insists he won’t give up his day (or should we say morning) job.

Please no! Not another round of “guest hosts” on Jeopardy! Couldn’t we just select the runner-up from round one? We’re still in the Ken Jennings camp.

A survey by CHG Healthcare, the nation's largest privately held healthcare staffing company, found that only 9% of workers want to return to an office environment fulltime. Conversely, we know a few old timers who finally retired for good because they could no longer go to the office.

You’ve lived in the bay area (or anywhere else) for a long time if you remember when medicine cabinets had tiny slots to dispose of used single razor blades. And what ever happened to those blades? You found out when you remodeled your bathroom!

Olivia and the other 70s female hit makers

Let’s see, there was If Not for You, Let Me Be There, I Honestly Love You and Have You Never Been Mellow, in all a total of 23 hit records in the 1970s – three of them going to number one. It’s no doubt Olivia Newton-John was the number one female artist of the 1970s. And she was in good company with the by now solo Diana Ross, disco queen Donna Summer, Helen Reddy (I Am Woman), Linda Ronstadt, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon (You’re So Vain), Canada’s Anne Murray (Snowbird) and Roberta Flack. Just missing out on the top ten female artists were, surprisingly, Carole King and Cher. There’s no doubt the seventies had some great female artists. But the biggest female hit record of the 1970s came from a “one-hit wonder”, Pat Boone’s daughter Debby – You Light up My Life. Next month – the Bee Gees and the other super groups of the seventies.

NEXT UP: GOP so far; 4-W; Here come the Yanks

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