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

Leading off: Flawed process bites city of Tampa

Ten months ago, the majority of Tampa residents were up in arms after Mayor Jane Castor bypassed the city’s Deputy Chief, and much more qualified, Butch Delgado and chose an old crony who, to be charitable, had a checkered past with the Department. Last week, that decision came back to bite the mayor and the city when, again, Chief Mary O’Connor violated the city’s Standard of Conduct by trying to talk a deputy sheriff out of a citation for an unlicensed vehicle. What compounded the issue was this was a Pinellas County deputy sheriff outside a community where the chief lived – in violation of the city charter requiring the police chief to live within the city of Tampa. Now Lady Jane promises a costly and time-consuming national search for a chief. The whole fiasco is a major embarrassment to the bay area’s largest city and could have been avoided the first time around.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Britany Griner is free. Unfortunately, former Marine Paul Whelan was not part of a swap for an incredibly evil Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. We would only ask that perhaps in exchange for her freedom, she will stand for our National Anthem before basketball games – something she refused to do before experiencing life in Russia.

At last, the airwaves are free of misleading political and Medicare ads.

Breaking holiday news from the 5:05 Newsletter: Model railroad strike averted in time for Christmas – Lionel avoids layoffs.

This holiday mail item: not only is it dangerous to send cash through the mail, but checks as well. In the past year plus, $500,000 worth of checks have been stolen from one metro Atlanta post office. The checks are then “washed” with the pay to and amount lines forged.

Holiday word of advice: it’s probably best not to sing Oh Christmas Tree around our friend TL.                                                       

30 year-old Disney attraction Splash Mountain falls victim to political correctness, closing early next year. That’s why folks flock to Disney parks – for political correctness.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Sadly, the site You Know You Grew Up in old Clearwater Florida has fallen victim to speech Nazis over the past several years – with things like a Robby’s Pancake charity breakfast and a memorial concert for the venerable Wallace Gause being flagged as commercial. We wonder if the site’s “moderators” even grew up in old Clearwater and ate at Robby’s or were taught by Wallace Gause.

So long to HLN – formerly known as Headline News. It was a marvel in its infancy – a place you could turn to 24/7 for news and sports updates. Then its parent CNN went all left wing and HLN went on a slow track to oblivion.

A case could have been made for Alabama getting the number four seed in the college football playoffs. Although the Tide had two losses, they were by a total of four points – both on the road. Number four seed and one loss Ohio State got waxed by three touchdowns at home.

One team with a losing record (Rice) and 19 schools with mediocre 6-6 records (including UF) will be playing in bowl games – hardly marks of excellence.

Bowl Games: Two of the three Florida bowl teams are favored in their games – UCF by 1.5 over Duke in the Military Bowl; FSU by 8 over Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl; the Gators are 9 point underdogs to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. And in our favorite bowl – the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, it’s San Jose State favored by 3.5 over Eastern Michigan.

Baseball factoid: Until his selection last week, former Ray Fred McGriff had the most home runs of any retired, non-PED player not in the Hall. Congrats to the Crime Dog.

This week marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of game show legend Bob Barker (12/12).

…and another thing: from our Focus Group

In honor of adding another, younger voice to our TBR&R Focus Group, we asked our wizened assemblage to name the best new material object of the past quarter century. First, let us start with the Neanderthal of our group, who named the iPod – a gift from his daughter some twenty years ago. He is now on his fifth or sixth outmoded unit which contains over 6500 songs. Others opted for the Smartphone, with one contributor also mentioning GPS and Google. Another similar vote described Smartphone as “an entire office desktop in your pocket.” Our newest member also went with the Smartphone, which is about the same age as her, saying, “I can’t imagine life now without the ability to look up any bit of information within seconds.” Ah, youth. One of our pragmatists voted for the Fit Bit noting how many former sedentary acquaintances got off the couch once they had one. Finally, a vote for fiber optics and all the revolutionary advances it has brought to the medical and telecommunications areas. Next time – some questions for historical figures.

UP NEXT: Christmas hits; 12 Days of Christmas; 2022 Predictions

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