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

Hillsborough’s problem is the next level up

There’s a new survey out that blasts Hillsborough County School Superintendent Addison Davis. Among his faults, according to the survey of county employees, are lack of trust, lack of communication and too much dependence on the advice of leaders he brought with him from his previous post. Bottom line – this is not going to end well. By the time you read this, Davis could be yet the next superintendent to be out the door. Hillsborough is one of the ten largest school districts in the nation, but continues to flounder. When its top job comes open, it doesn’t attract premium candidates because of the school board’s widely known reputation for meddling which has led to high turnover at all levels and an astounding lack of fiscal responsibility with massive budget shortages. Perhaps replacing Davis, which the school board seems hell-bent to do, will help, but it will only be a band aid. The real problem lies in the continuing lack of steady guidance at the top policy making level – the school board. Until that culture is changed, Hillsborough students will continue to be short-changed.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

We know it’s early in the process, but none of the proposals for the revitalization of downtown Clearwater knock our socks off. With the large elephant in the room, firms known for transformational work did not bid on the Clearwater project.

Word of the week: “Abhorrent” – the trial judge in the George Floyd trial’s description of the actions of radical California Rep. Maxine Waters in Minneapolis during the trial.

Biden’s “border czar” Roberta Jacobson will step down this week. To call the Biden border strategy an abject failure would not be strong enough.

Republicans are concerned about five pending retirements of GOP Senators prior to the 2022 election. They have 21 total seats to defend (including the relatively safe Marco Rubio seat) and now are losing five incumbencies.

Number of the week: 25% - the number of adult Americans who do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccination - hard to understand.

Answer: KO. Question: what is the stock symbol for Coca-Cola? You would guess CC but that belongs to a company that you’ve probably never heard of – the Chemours Company – a fairly recent (2015) spin-off from DuPont.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Something we read, but forget where, “I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their lives.”

Quote of the week: "(Manfred) needs to go to Amazon, buy a spine online (and) explain why millions of Americans who support election integrity are racist," Louisiana Senator John Kennedy’s reaction to Rob Manfred’s stealing the All Star game from the Atlanta Braves.

Oddity – perhaps you’ve heard the news that ketchup packets are in short supply and are selling on E-Bay for as high as ten bucks for 50 packets. That’s a total of approximately 12 ounces. At Publix last week, you could buy 40 ounces of ketchup for $1.71.

Idle thought, as someone who has worn more than a few sets of headphones in two decades of radio, we get a kick out of seeing people of our advanced age wearing $100-$200 sets. At your age, your hearing range is so diminished the $15 set you can buy at the gym will more than serve your needs.

Biden the Younger’s book (Beautiful Things) is out and on some best seller lists. Curiously, it’s listed as non-fiction.

Remembering the 60s’ top male singers

Earlier this year (TBR&R 1/24/21), we highlighted the top male singers of the last several decades. In both the fifties and sixties, Elvis ruled. But who were the other top artists of say, the sixties? Besides Elvis, the top ten selling male artists of the decade when so many of us grew up were Ray Charles, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Vinton (Roses are Red), Chubby Checker (The Twist and virtually every other dance record of the early sixties), Brook Benton, Jackie Wilson (Higher and Higher), Roy Orbison (Pretty Woman) and Sam Cooke (Twistin’ the Night Away). Surprised by some of the names? So were we. A surprising omission is Johnny Rivers (Poor Side of Town, Memphis, Secret Agent Man plus 16 other records that charted in the sixties). Next month, the 60s female hit makers.

NEXT WEEK: Death of a newspaper; Want our business?; Sugar Ray

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