Lousy cable service – we can’t say we weren’t warned

We doubt it’s just us – eight or ten calls for assistance in the past six - eight weeks. Two telephone outages in the last 24 hours as this is written. Bright House since its acquisition by Charter Communications has gone from a serviceable system to a bloody disaster. We were told service levels would remain the same, we beg to differ. We were told rates would not go up. They have – approximately 15 per cent in our case. Charter, at the time of the acquisition, was ranked as the second worst cable company nationwide in terms of customer satisfaction. That was well-publicized, and they have lived up to that reputation. And saddest of all, for many parts of the bay area, there is no alternative and Charter knows that. The good news, long term, is these things have a way of working themselves out and some aspiring group will recognize how awful the service is and move in and take advantage.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. In the aftermath of the Republican Convention, not surprisingly, you wondered if the same event was being covered depending on which media outlet you viewed or read. So much time devoted to the Mrs. Trump – Mrs. Obama nonsense – particularly on left-leaning NBC. If you’re going to steal quotes, you’re going to steal them from Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, or Helen Keller – not Michele Obama, for goodness sake.

2. Speaking of NBC, the rumble you heard in the background of their convention coverage was award-winning convention commentators David Brinkley, Chet Huntley and John Chancellor rolling over in their graves.

3. We admire the guy and candidly we think he would have made a great president, but it was extreme bad form for Governor John Kasich not to attend his party’s convention in his own state. It puts him in the same category with pouty Jeb Bush and self-serving Ted Cruz.

4. Perhaps you read the piece recently saying legalized medical pot would be a boom to the Florida economy. We have no doubt the biggest growth industry will be in the legal field with accident victims looking for reparations and another branch of the law trying to keep stoned drivers out of jail.

5. Germaine to our concluding piece, you’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you remember Tampa’s post season Cigar Bowl (1947-54) – the first ever bowl game for the FSU Seminoles in 1950.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. While we would love to have a major league baseball game as close as the Kenyon or Dick Norris sites in Clearwater, having a Rays park there would make an even larger Frankenstein out of U.S. 19. Put us down for the Derby Lane site – a location many locals wanted 25 years ago before political deal making came up with the illogical Trop venue.

7. We bid so long to Jonathon Goldsmith, the actor who portrayed the “most interesting man in the world” for Dos Equis beer for the past decade. The character is being phased out as the company bows to differing tastes of millennials who, we guess, drink a lot of beer.

8. It continues to amaze us that only one top level women’s tennis player has been penalized for juicing.

9.The website Cheat Sheet lists their top six catchers of all time. In six through one order, Mike Piazza, Carlton Fisk, Bill Dickey, Pudge Rodriguez, Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench. It’s hard to argue with any of the six although few of us saw Dickey play. Five of the six are in the Hall of Fame and Pudge will be a first round pick when he is eligible next year.

10. Our Rants and Raves focus group (now comprised of four old, cranky people) were polled about their all-time favorite song. Their list – A House is not a Home, California Girls, Little Darlin’ and Misty. Not a bad foursome.

The watering down of American sports

First, forget about the good old days of two eight-team baseball leagues, six hockey franchises and the Syracuse Nationals basketball team. Those days are gone, but we continue to water down sports. The latest sign of the Apocalypse is the NCAA announcement that before any 5-7 football teams are considered, all 6-6 teams must be issued a bowl invite. How ridiculous. There was a day when teams finishing 7-3 would turn down a bowl bid judging themselves unworthy for such an honor. But that, of course, was when there were the Cotton, Gator, Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowls and maybe one or two others. Other exhibits include the NHL expanding to Las Vegas and the MLB flirting with expansion when several of their franchises including our Rays are on life support. But as long as we sports fans are willing to pay for mediocre performances, the bowls and major sports leagues will gladly accept our money.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – MAKING INSURANCE COVERAGE UNDERSTANDABLE