Established in 2014, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of local and national politics, sports, lifestyles and Tampa Bay memories from a politically incorrect viewpoint.

Leading off: The Drew Street Canal

Back in the dark ages (the 1980s); a civic club (the Breakfast Sertoma Club) and WTAN Radio’s afternoon team of Ron Scott and Dennis Crandall perpetuated an urban hoax of turning western Drew Street into a canal. The germ of the idea came from the breakfast club and Scott and Crandall memorialized it in song. There was an uproar among those not in on the joke. The latest Drew Street stunt is, unfortunately, not a joke. Well-meaning folks want to narrow the already busy road down to two lanes. If you want to see what that would look like, transverse the parking lot that is Ft. Harrison Avenue in downtown Clearwater. Years ago, many of us pleaded that downgrading Ft. Harrison to two lanes would strangle the busy road. Too few listened and now we have a north-south parking lot. Drew Street could be next if our city council does not act to stop this boondoggle.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Busy week:

Breaking political news from the 5:05 Newsletter: Following President Biden’s visit to Texas last week, residents woke up the morning after to find general election ballot boxes had been placed along the southern border wall that divides parts of the U.S. from Mexico.

Republicans have to be frustrated; Trump is soundly defeating Nikki Haley in the primaries, meanwhile, national polls show a possible Trump-Biden contest a tossup while Haley trounces Biden in every poll taken.

Related: one of the exercises in our annual physical is being given three words and then asked to repeat them 5-10 minutes later. We wonder if Joe was given that test last week, and if he could get even one of the three.

With Mitch McConnell’s long overdue announcement he is stepping down as Senate minority leader, former Governor Rick Scott’s name has surfaced as a potential successor, but insiders say that won’t happen.

This weekend, we again set our clocks ahead to mark Daylight Savings Time. If you enjoy this exercise as much as we do, send your US Rep a note telling them to get off the dime and pass legislation the Senate passed some years back to make DST permanent.

Related thought: The great thing about two year terms for U.S. Representatives is that we could dump all 535 in one fell swoop – and we probably should.

Biz note: The Dow Jones Industrials rather quietly shuffled some companies last month. Jet Blue and Walgreens left the index, replaced by Amazon and Uber. The index dates back to 1896. The last of the original Dow 30, General Electric, left the index in 2018.

Number of the week: 1500. The number of drug stores closed in the past two years by CVS and Walgreens (several in the bay area) – a combination of more and more “mail away” pharmacies and competition for non-drug items from Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart.

Ten years ago this week (3/9/14) the very first issue of Tampa Bay Rants and Raves pollutes the internet.

Sports, media and other notes:

A sure sign spring break is here – it took our friend TL nearly three hours to drive the 79 miles from Venice to Clearwater a couple weekends back.

Idle thought: political cartoonist Mike Luckovich must live in some parallel universe where being out of touch with reality is the norm.

We think there is some sort of rule that any media platform, large or small, must mention this name, so here we go – Taylor Swift.

Here’s a name to keep an eye on, Hagen Smith. The U of Arkansas left hander last week struck out 17 of 18 batters he faced against #7 ranked Oregon State.

Do you remember – Tastee-Freez? The Dairy Queen-like chain was founded in 1950 in Joliet, IL and once had over 1800 stores in 33 states, including Florida. Today it has shrunk to eight stores in four states.

…one last thing: Ghosts of Honolulu

Actor Mark Harmon has spread his wings into authorship with the best seller Ghosts of Honolulu, co-written with NCIS technical advisor Leon Carroll, Jr. The book centers on the spy vs. spy days preceding December 7, 1941, plus the aftermath of the attack and war. The central character is an agent of the forerunner of the NCIS, Japanese-American Douglas Wada, who tracks wrongdoers both in Hawaii and Japan. For the World War II history buff, it’s a good read. Our only nitpick is too many characters. You almost want a scorecard as a bookmark as you fly through its some 250 pages.

NEXT: 10 misspent years; Pope Francis; NL predictions

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