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.

Why doesn’t Jeopardy just say “take over, Ken”?

The list of Jeopardy “guest hosts” just gets more ridiculous. There are people completely out of their element like Aaron Rodgers and Dr. Oz, polarizing people like Katie Couric, Joe Buck and Anderson Cooper. Frankly, the only guest host who has come close to Ken Jennings’ excellence has been the show’s Executive Producer Mike Richards, thrust into the role because of a scheduling conflict for Jennings. No one, outside of Alex Trebek, is more ingrained in Jeopardy than the all-time show champ. The rest, save Richards and recent guest host Buzzy Cohen, are all outsiders, many of them candidly shopping for their next gig. Hey folks, it’s been fun, but if you wish to see Jeopardy continue to prosper, hand the helm over to Ken Jennings.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Quote of the week: The Biden administration recently gave a bit of simple advice to businesses that are unable to find workers: Offer them more money. A piece of advice offered by a clueless guy who’s never had to make a payroll as reported by a clueless AP reporter named Josh Boak, who likewise, has never written a paycheck.

Let’s see, American pipeline shut down by Biden administration; Russian pipeline gets a thumbs up and nearly a third of large metro area gas stations in Atlanta and elsewhere still without gas. What is wrong with this picture?

Biden, Gaetz, Manfred, the list goes on. Why do people who should know better do such stupid stuff?

Perhaps folks should walk a few miles in Israel’s shoes or sandals before they rush to condemn our Mideast ally.

Hurricane season officially starts this week. Are we the only ones skeptical of pre-season hurricane forecasts made in Colorado?

Tragic – there is no other way to describe the loss of 12 stingrays at Zoo Tampa. We have sanctuaries like this to protect, not harm animals. We pray officials at the Tampa facility will quickly get to the cause of this dreadful loss.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Factoid: If you’ve been having trouble finding your dog or cat’s favorite food, it’s not the manufacturing process. It’s a shortage of cans for the end product.

And from The 5:05 Newsletter: In response to Georgia's new voting law, Google announced that they are removing the entire state of Georgia from Google Maps. A Google search for directions to Atlanta now reads, "Location not found. Would you like to travel to a Google-approved destination such as Seattle, Minneapolis, or Beijing?"

We know the official start of summer is a few weeks away, but it’s not too soon to add a few summertime goodies to your playlist. Here are five: the great Friday afternoon song Weekend by Wet Willie; the one that kind of started this whole summertime thing Surfin’ U.S.A. by the Beach Boys; Malibu’s Summer Love; Tarpon Springs’ native Bertie Higgins’ Key Largo and a Carolina Beach music classic Ocean Boulevard by the Band of Oz. Happy Summer!

Duke, Kent, Lark, Merit, Tareyton, Belair, Carlton, Chesterfield, Raleigh and Hit Parade – ten cigarette brands from the 50s and 60s that have pretty much faded into oblivion. Some had very catchy ad campaigns during that time – especially Tareyton’s “I’d rather fight than switch” featuring Tareyton smokers with a black eye. And one, Hit Parade, was inspired by the name of the TV show its parent company sponsored.

The restaurant industry lost a household name and innovator with the passing of Bob Heilman, Jr. last week. Taking over the reins of the renowned Beachcomber from his father, Bob maintained the high standards of the Beachcomber and spun off the distinctively different Bobby’s Bistro and Wine Bar. Bob Heilman Jr. was 64.

These young ladies sold tons of records in the 60s

Continuing our year-long look at the artists who produced the records we bought as kids, we feature the Top Ten female artists of the sixties. The leader of the pack had a record on the charts every year from 1959 to 1970 with the exception of 1968 – Brenda Lee; number two on the list, Connie Francis had the same claim from 1957 to 1967. Brenda had two number one hits (I’m Sorry and I Want to be Wanted) and Connie three (Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool, My Heart Has a Mind of its Own and Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You). The other top selling female artists of the 60s were Dionne Warwick (with 18 charted hits from Bacharach-David alone), Aretha Franklin, British import Petula Clark (Downtown), Motown’s Mary Wells, Nancy Sinatra, Lesley Gore (It’s My Party), Etta James and another of the wave of British artists of the 60s – Dusty Springfield (Wishin’ and Hopin’). Next month, we’ll look at the top groups of the sixties which included four British acts.

NEXT WEEK: Channel 8 & NBC; Travelin’ Man; Filling huge shoes

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