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

First thing on our mind:

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”. - American orator and politician Robert G. Ingersoll

Leading off: Words, words, words

Conservative columnist George Will recently penned a column on five frequently misused words. They were massive, something very large, but not used as degrees of change; next iconic, a word we use too often mainly about someone who has passed away (see our recent tribute to Brian Wilson); then there’s unique, as Will points out not that much is truly unique; also only, which is often followed by “one of” when the better word is few; finally vibe, which Will points out has been recently misused by The Wall Street Journal, National Review and others. As George Will points out, Shakespeare used close to 30,000 words in his writings without a single use of vibe. Immodestly, we don’t believe we have either, because we and Bill S. along with the WSJ and others don’t have the foggiest idea of what the word means.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

The longtime and often controversial voice of community radio station WMNF-FM, Rob Lorei, succumbed to cancer last week at age 70.

President Trump faces a certain backlash over his proposal to eliminate mail in ballots. He mistakenly thinks they are only favored by Democrats. Statistics here in the bay area strongly indicate otherwise.

We talked recently with one of the sharpest utility minds to ever work in municipal government and he told us emphatically that the Clearwater and St. Pete pursuits of a municipal electric company are pure folly.

Our friend TL reports that the monstrosity that is the Obama Presidential Center is $500 million over budget and is threatening to displace hundreds of Chicago residents.

Number of the week: 70. That’s the number of nations that have utilized the long-lived Lockheed C-130, the aircraft you see in the bay area sporting Coast Guard livery. The aircraft’s production line in Marietta, Ga. is the longest continuously running military aircraft production line in the world. This week marks the 71^st anniversary of the rugged aircraft’s maiden flight.

Biz note: AOL to jettison its dial up service next week. Did you know dial up service still existed?

From the staff of the 5:05 Newsletter: Do you remember, before the Internet, people thought that the cause of stupidity was the lack of access to information? That wasn’t it.

This week in 1966 (August 29), the Beatles perform their last ever concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Even though the group continued another four years, the strain of touring became too much.

Sports, media and other notes:

Clearwater’s Dean Young in his comic strip Blondie recently offered up this sage advice, “Sometimes you just need an emotional support cupcake.”

We tip our cap to Lee Corso as he does his final College Game Day this coming weekend ending a 30-season run.

The watch list came out recently for the Bednarik Award given to the best defensive player in college football. It got us wondering how many of those young players on the list even know who the 14-year two-way star of the Philadelphia Eagles was.

You may have missed it last week when Carlos Mendoza and Miguel Cairo exchanged lineup cards prior to the Mets-Nationals game. They were the first Venezuelan-born managers to do so.

Harry “Suitcase” Simpson earned his nickname back in the 1950s when he played for five teams (one twice) in his eight year career. Simpson can’t hold a candle (or Samsonite) to modern players Rich Hill who recently joined Edwin Jackson in playing for 14 different teams. In fairness to Simpson, there were only 16 teams when he played as opposed to 30 today.

Gator makes good. Former University of Florida hurler Hurston Waldrep has turned heads in major league baseball. Since being elevated to the bigs the first of August, Waldrep is 4-0 in four starts with a microscopic 0.72 ERA.

Topping the charts this week in 1975 was Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds’ Fallin’ in Love. The years earlier (1965) the Beatles’ Help was at #1.

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you ever enjoyed an evening at organist/humorist Lenny Dee‘s nightclub on the gulf beaches.

One last thing: The Top 136 Returns

There are college football polls and then there college football polls, but our favorite by far is The Athletic’s Top 136 (up from 134). It ranks every Division One team in the country including the two newest ones – Delaware (128) and Missouri State (131). Poor, hapless Kent State returns to the bottom of the rankings where they finished after a winless 2024 season. Florida teams fare not so well with Miami, ranked in the Top 10 in some polls at #13, closely followed by Florida at #15. Other state schools: FSU #49 (could be better), USF #59, UCF #82 (also should be better), Florida Atlantic (118) and Florida International (126). At the top end, the poll has Penn State followed by Clemson, Texas, Ohio State and Georgia. It’s hard to argue with that quintet. We’ll be updating the poll highlights as the season progresses.

NEXT UP: HOF hitters; Duplicated efforts; Seat belts in 1959

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