First thing on our mind:

The worst thing about getting old is not the aches and pains, the diminishing of your sight and hearing, but losing so many longtime friends.

Leading off: It all started in a 5000 watt station

Many bay area residents were dismayed to learn of what could be the demise of Home Shopping Network (HSN) and its parent QVC. To quote Ted Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore, HSN really did begin at the 5000-watt bay area daytime station WDCL (1470). Bud Paxson, the owner of the very low-rated station, turned to selling merchandise he had acquired mostly by barter and the rest is history. Paxson and his partner, Roy Spears, became multi-millionaires and eventually sold out to QVC who moved most of the operations to West Chester, PA. It cast adrift many local residents who worked for HSN for years but, in many cases, became quite affluent in the process.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

He was a rare Clearwater native, the head of a legacy company that served our city for over 100 years and had deep roots in civic activities. Carroll Nall, Jr. passed away last week at age 94. His service to his community and infectious humor will be sorely missed.

This happens every few years with the county’s biggest healthcare provider (BayCare) feuding with one of the country’s biggest insurance companies (United Healthcare). It’s one of those things where nobody wins and patients stress out over medical care. Having wisely dumped United Healthcare a few years back, we watch from the sidelines, but feel for our fellow Pinellas residents.  

If you’re like us, you received a self-congratulatory email newsletter from Senator Ashley Moody a week or so back. At least she did not use our tax dollars to mail it like so many other Florida politicians.

Hillsborough County is getting squeezed with major asks from the Rays, Lightning and their spring training tenants, the Yankees. It’s going to be interesting to watch these developments.

We won’t trouble you with yet another rant on how ridiculous the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s yearly additions are. But Phil Collins and Sade were decent choices - still no Neil and Paul (see One Last Thing).

Related to last week’s piece on marijuana vs. alcohol usage being the “New

Sober” comes an editorial from the New York Times, not exactly a conservative voice, suggesting it is time for America to admit it has a marijuana problem.

Idle thought: Shouldn’t there be some sort of term limit on “public officials” saying after 15 or 20 years, you need to go get a job in the real world for five years prior to seeking election again? You’ve got to believe it would give our “public officials” a better perspective in their law making.

New on the market fifty years ago was Mattel’s Slime which entered the Toys Hall of Fame last year. Twenty five years ago, one of the hot new products was the Xbox, surprisingly not yet in the Toys Hall of Fame.

Born 100 years ago this week (April 28) in Monroeville, AL was To Kill a Mockingbird novelist Harper Lee.

Sports and random notes:

Media history from the 5:05 Newsletter: I remember that when I was growing up there were only four TV stations, and at any given moment at least two of them were showing men playing the accordion in black and white.

Side note to our lead article, the call letters WDCL originally stood for Dunedin, Clearwater and Largo and it was variously licensed over the years to Dunedin, Clearwater and even Tarpon Springs. Its frequency (1470) is now a Spanish language station out of Tampa.

So where does Billy Donovan go next? The two-time NCAA champ at Florida stepped down as the Chicago Bulls coach last week. His name was part of the rumor mill at UNC.

Congratulations Braves and Phils fans. MLB again prevented you from watching the opening game of the heated rivalry between the two NL East teams by placing it on Apple TV.

As we move to the one-month mark in the season, the top five payroll spenders in MLB are LA, Mets, Yanks, Phils and Blue Jays. The Rays are 28^th, trailed only by Miami and Cleveland.

Honest, it’s true, the Chicago White Sox, the team that gave you 1979’s Disco Demolition Night, have scheduled a Pope Leo hat (miter) giveaway on August 11^th.

Seen on a bumper sticker: “Sorry for driving the speed limit.” Some of us have warrants.”

We’re going to share this as long as you promise to patronize the Girl Scouts during their cookie season; Publix’ Fudge Mint cookies are a dead ringer for the Girl Scout Thin Mint and about half the price. Side note: virtually all of Publix’ cookies are made by Keebler.

One last thing: If we were king…

Roger Maris, Dale Murphy, Curt Schilling and Dewayne Staats would be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Ditto Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Church of Scientology would pack their bags and go back where they came from.

A few people on the “old Clearwater” site would stop whining about how our great city isn’t what it was in the 50s. No city is what it was in the 50s, but that said…

Robby’s Pancake House would return to Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.

Just up the street, Young’s BBQ would make a comeback.

Ditto Siple’s on Druid Road.

We could still spend our teenage summers crewing on the Rainbow party boat with our first Florida next door neighbor, Capt. Fred Price.

Ford would bring back the two-seater Thunderbird.

Freddie Freeman would return to Atlanta.

We would have just turned 30 rather than 80 – and we wouldn’t have tangled up our feet and gone splat in our neighborhood Publix on our 80^th birthday.

Finally, a lot of really great people like Lewis Grizzard, Ed Armstrong, Carroll Nall, Bob Henderson, Skip, Pete and Don, Bill Horne, Doug Storrs, Harry Lytle, Frank Reid, Scott Dilworth and dozens more would still be with us.

NEXT UP: Buckhorn returns; Owl Diner; Cola Wars

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Tampa Bay Rants and Raves (TBRR) is a weekly chronicle of politics, sports, lifestyle and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint. Caution, some of this content should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind:

After a couple of near 1000 word missives the past two weeks, we owe you a “slim fast” edition this week – shooting for 800 or less.

Leading off: Not the best news for Clearwater

Early indications are that the two open seats on the Clearwater city council might be bought and paid for well in advance of the election. Two candidates with deep pocket connections have announced for the seats. They are 26-year-old Sam Wilson, a protégé of U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Bianca Latvala, wife of County Commissioner Chris Latvala. Both Luna and Latvala can make it rain money, thus scaring off perhaps better qualified candidates. This happened some years back saddling Clearwater with a so-so Mayor instead of a much better qualified potential candidate who realized he couldn’t win against the avalanche of money a congressman could raise for his protégé. We hope we’re wrong, but in our mind, this race is over.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Add Scientology critic Mark Bunker to the list of candidates in this August’s City Council race. Bunker will seek to regain a seat on the council after losing to Ryan Cotton two years ago. This time Bunker is trying for an open seat.

Clearwater’s long time Lincoln dealership on Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. has been purchased by Tasca and moved adjacent to its Buick dealership on US 19 in Palm Harbor. The Lincoln dealership dates back to the 50s when it was known as Carlisle-Porter Lincoln-Mercury.

So at this precise hour, is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed?

With the deadline now past, the IRS reports that tax refunds were up 24% over a year ago. Benefiting most from the tax changes are folks in the middle income brackets – good news.

Atlanta writer Tom Greene posed this question in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a few weeks back: “Americans now use marijuana more than alcohol; is this new sobriety?” Out west they call it California Sober. Chilling.

Country thunder comes to Clearwater’s bayfront next month joining other star attractions like the big yellow duck that showed up some months back.

Number of the week: 4 million – the number of annual visitors at Philly’s Rocky statue – double the number of visitors at the city’s historic Liberty Bell.

With Lent behind us, our decluttering project (TBRR 2/22/26)) went very well. We cleared out over an item a day. The majority went to charity and a few items to the dumpster. We’re going to do it again next Lent – or sooner.

Born 100 years ago this week (April 21) in London was Britain’s revered Queen Elizabeth II.

Sports and random notes:

Someone we’d like to meet: Former Atlanta Braves second baseman and 1991 World Series hero, Mark Lemke.

In many ways, he was a twin to Lemke, scrappy infielder and manager Phil Garner passed away last week at age 76.

The Clearwater Lawn Bowls Club, a fixture in the city for over 100 years on North Fort Harrison Avenue, closed earlier this month. At one time, it was the largest such club in the United States with daily reports on the radio and international tournaments.

Another Dad joke, compliments of our friend TL: What is better than a counting horse? A spelling bee.

Topping the charts fifty years ago was The Jackson Five with ABC. Ten years earlier, in 1966, it was the Righteous Brothers on top with You’re My Soul and Inspiration.

One last thing: Airline profitability (5:05 version)

Normally, our items “borrowed” from the 5:05 Newsletter are two or three sentences, but the following long form was too good not to “borrow.”

In a bid to become more profitable, airlines are rumored to be eliminating flight attendants on all flights and instituting a new “Self-Serve Skies” initiative whereby your seat assignment will also include your passenger job description. For instance, passengers in Row 18 would be responsible for mid-flight trash pickup, while Row 12 would be tasked with operating the beverage cart. Passengers in Row 4 will be responsible making sure the overhead bins are completely closed while passengers in the Exit Rows must pass a 15-minute “YouTube Certification” on emergency slide deployment before takeoff. Furthermore, passengers will be required to pay a new $15 “Buoyancy Fee” if they want to have seat cushions that can be used as flotation devices in case of a water landing and a $20 fee to have the drop-down oxygen mask above their seat deployed in case of sudden decompression.

For those seeking a premium experience, "Job-Priority Boarding" is available for a $75 fee, allowing travelers to choose their labor and avoid being assigned to bathroom cleanup.

UP NEXT: HSN; Harper Lee; If we ruled the world

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