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: The Pinellas transit board

Along party lines, the Pinellas County legislative delegation has voted to forward legislation to Tallahassee to lessen the size of the PSTA board from 15 to 11 members with four of those being Pinellas County Commission members. In addition, the two citizens who have been a critical part of the board (usually bus riders themselves) would be appointed by either the President of the Florida Senate or the Speaker of the House, who know as much about Pinellas County transportation as we know about Plant City strawberry farming. Even Sen. Ed Hooper, of the prevailing side, a guy who thinks before following the party line, says he doesn’t like PSTA appointments from afar. The move in the words of more than one critic is a solution in search of a problem. And having served on the PSTA board for over five years, we concur – don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Florida State goes down in history as the first undefeated Power 5 champion in the CFP era to not make the playoffs which is beyond ridiculous. Head Coach Mike Norvell said it best: “I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games.”

The “Green Conference” in Dubai presented a logistics problem – where to park all those private jets.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman is censured by his fellow congressmen for pulling a fire alarm while the house was in session. He can take comfort that, being a liberal, the story was buried inside the area’s liberal bi-weekly rather than garnering front page World War II headlines had he been a conservative.

Two linked headlines: Hard Rock launches in person sports gambling. Carolina Jaguars employee embezzles $22million due to what his attorney says is “a serious gambling addiction.”

This past week, Publix debuted their Christmas commercial – one of their best. For our household, it wouldn’t be Christmas without at least one revisit to their memorable first holiday commercial, “Last Train Home” from 1989, still available on YouTube.

Taylor Swift is Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” She joins other female people of the year, Wallis Simpson (the first), and most recently Kamala Harris and Greta Thunberg – not the most illustrious list. There have been multiple “People of the Year” recognitions, but only one three-time honoree – FDR.

Five years ago in TBR&R (12/16/18) Sad to see the former Country Harvest Restaurant razed. The Missouri Avenue institution was where you ate well and made new friends both with fellow diners and staff. It was a Sunday after church tradition for so many families.

Sports, media and other notes:

Ohtani signs with Dodgers for $700 million while it’s revealed he might not even be able to begin the season as a DH, much less pitch. If we’re one of the other 29 teams, we’re feeling really smart right now.

Gerry Fraley, who began his career at The Clearwater Sun, will enter the writer’s wing of the Hall of Fame during the induction weekend next July. Fraley, who died at age 64 in 2019, spent nearly two decades at The Dallas Morning News.

Congratulations to another, most deserving Hall of Famer - Jim Leyland.

Christmas note from the 5:05 Newsletter: Due to the extreme coal shortage, Santa will be giving out Justin Bieber CDs to all the bad kids this year.

This year, there was a chance that a tight end might win the Heisman for the first time in almost 75 years (Leon Hart, Notre Dame 1949) but that was dashed with an injury to Georgia’s outstanding Brock Bowers.

Baseball payroll data: $78 million was the Ray’s payroll this year. $70 million is what the Mets will pay players in 2024 who are no longer on their team.

$46,730 – that is the cost this year of the gifts in The 12 Days of Christmas. That’s up $1200 from last year – less than the overall inflation rate.

…and another thing: Treasured toys

Last month, the Toys Hall of Fame announced four inductees for 2023 bringing to 71 the number of items in the prestigious hall located in Rochester, NY. We say items because not all the inductees are strictly toys – like one of this year’s honorees – the baseball card. The hall has also honored the stick, a box and sand among others. In addition to the baseball card, 2023 saw the inclusion of the 1960’s NERF toys, 1957’s Fisher-Price Corn Popper which had nothing to do with popcorn, if you remember. Last, but certainly not least in this year’s group, was our daughter’s favorite Christmas present – the Cabbage Patch Doll which was launched in 1979, but became extremely difficult to obtain in the craze of 1983. To this day, we are indebted to our friend, Jim Stewart, for somehow finding one for under our six-year old’s tree.

NEXT WEEK: Gold card; Fishy business; Is this the airport?

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