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: Something fishy about Florida

If you’ve lived in the bay area any length of time, you know one of the top tourist activities in our area is fishing. Folks will drop a line from one of our piers, a charter boat or one of a half dozen or so party boats. But what you might not know is how much fish is caught commercially for both our regional supermarkets, restaurants or for shipping across the nation. The unofficial “headquarters” for our commercial fleets are Madeira Beach and Tarpon Springs. Another phase of the fishing industry even lesser known is the enormous amount of aquarium fish bred locally and sent all over the country. Close to half of all the aquarium fish in the country come from Florida – particularly Hillsborough and Dade County. Fishing is a huge, but often overlooked, industry in Florida and the bay area.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Please excuse us if this week’s edition is reaching you late; we have been tending to our Netflix and SiriusXM accounts which have expired – approximately 20 times each over the past month.

Not so idle thought: if it was your kid or our kid and not Joe Biden’s kid, he would have been in jail a long time ago.

A few weeks of lower gas prices did not make for an economic turnaround. Record high interest rates remain, Hasbro is the latest company to lay off over a thousand employees and food prices continue to move upward.

In keeping with 2023’s “word of the year,” this is the genuine Tampa Bay Rants and Raves – accept no substitutions.

Something we don’t take for granted so much this time of year – the U.S. Postal Service.

Idle thought: An underrated gem in the bay area is the terrific Largo Central Park.

Five years ago in TBR&R (12/23/18) Best wishes to Channel 8’s Mark Douglas who retires after some forty years in “the biz”. If you were a bad guy, you didn’t want to see him at your front door. Otherwise, you knew you would get a fair interview.

Sports, media and other notes:

From the folks at the 5:05 Newsletter: Outdoor Christmas lights are being strung all around town. Clearwater is like communities everywhere, we too have many homeowners who cross the fine line, in terms of illumination, between “tasteful holiday yard display” and “municipal airport.” I particularly hate the flashing red and blue outdoor lights that always cause me to brake hard thinking the cops are chasing me.

A nit-pick about the holidays – receiving a greeting card from acquaintances with the same personal touch as a card from your insurance agent – pre-printed labels everywhere, not even a “how are you?” And then there are those page long single-spaced “holiday letters” detailing every ache, pain and trip outside the city limits in the preceding 12 months.

Very telling – the Washington Capitals’ and Wizards’ planned move to Virginia – just another sign of an even further deteriorating D.C.

We should know better, but we’ll take USF and the points in Thursday’s bowl game.

If you like NFL parity, this is your year. Going into this weekend, 30 teams (out of 32) are still in contention for the playoffs.

Baseball factoid: When a player reaches eight years of major league service, he receives a gold card which grants him free admission into any major league park for life. Told ya you should have practiced harder.

Not quite the same, but your humble blogger received a “gold card” for serving over five years on the PSTA board of directors. Free bus rides for life – not yet used.

…and one last thing: “Bob” in the Philippines

Yes, we know Cyber Monday set sales records but… if there is a problem with a locally purchased item, you can retrace your steps to a local store and speak with a human being. All too often, if an on-line item is broken in shipping, is the wrong item or size, the push button maze begins. Ever noticed that all of the options offered are not why you called? Finally, you’re connected to a human being, more often than not it’s “Bob” in the Philippines for whom English, at best, is a second language. The reason of course, is in the 1000 some call centers in the Philippines, the average worker makes two dollars an hour and that is the level of service you get. For your reference, a few U.S, companies that rely heavily on offshore CSRs are Aetna, Amazon, Citibank, Fanatics, Nike, Target.com, Verizon and Visa. Visit them at your own risk.

UP NEXT: Peter Pan; Santa Baby and that other song; Being Happy

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