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.

A wake up call for all of Florida

Quote of the week: (with every condo association it’s) “a bunch of volunteers that don’t have any experience making decisions on the integrity, the structural integrity of these buildings.” This, of course, comes in the wake, of the Champlain Towers collapse in south Florida. There will be massive over reactions by everyone from state and local governments to insurance companies to local HOAs. The last is not necessarily a bad thing. Far too many HOAs are run loosey goosey by a bunch of volunteers who have no idea of what it takes to run an organization often with a budget of millions or more. At the very least, the state should require every condo HOA to retain a professional property management organization to guide them through the bewildering issues of building integrity, liabilities and smarter budgeting, just to name a few.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

USF President Steve Currall’s surprising retirement after just two years ends a very short presidency (compared to Presidents Castor and Genshaft) which, unfortunately, will be highlighted by an ill-advised attempt to shut down the university’s College of Education.

The well-meaning, but often clueless American Civil Liberties Union has filed a suit intended to overturn a law capping contributions to ballot initiatives claiming it stymies the public’s ability to amend Florida’s bloated constitution. No, the law prevents special interest groups from trying to buy constitutional amendments.

This did not come from the 5:05 Newsletter – well sort of - President Joe Biden announced that his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin were a success. In a related story Hunter Biden is now on the board of directors of Rosneft Oil.

Now, we’ve seen it all. Tough law and order man, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in a rap video!

We’re trying hard to follow this string of logic – Ben and Jerry’s very expensive ice cream will no longer be available on the West Bank because they will not sell in war-won land. Could they please tell us where in the world, including their home state of Vermont is there not war-won land?

The Saigon Bay Vietnamese Restaurant is scheduled to reopen in a new location in Temple Terrace next month. It was burned down in the senseless rioting in Tampa over a year ago. Our community can only offer condolences to the family operating the restaurant for the damages and loss of business related to an event 1600 miles away.

This previous item from TBR&R bears repeating: a great many bad things in the world can be avoided by simply obeying our laws.

Sports, media and lighter stuff:

Breaking Olympic News from the 5:05 Newsletter: After several members of the U.S. women's soccer team took a knee during our National Anthem, the team lost to Sweden in the Olympics by a score of 3-0. The team then revealed they are boycotting scoring any goals until racism is defeated. A spokeswoman for the team said, ‘We could have beaten Sweden but we decided as a team that no goals will be scored until complete equality has been achieved in America. Also, we demand a hefty raise.’

Only in D.C. – Nationals versus Padres game suspended due to gunfire outside the stadium.

In a bow to the raging “political correctness” that has infected our nation; the Cleveland Indians will henceforth be known as the Cleveland Guardians – the winner of the “what lame name can you come up with for a storied franchise contest?”

Number of the Week: 78. That’s the number of pitches it took Greg Maddux to throw a complete game victory over the Cubs 24 years ago this week. That’s less than nine pitches an inning!

Even though there appears to be enough Raisin Bran and oatmeal raisin cookies to go around, bakers are reporting a shortage of raisins in the U.S. They feel it will be remedied by summer’s end. By the way, if you’ve never enjoyed the Pennsylvania Dutch delight that is a raisin filled cookie, get the recipe. They take a while to bake, but are well worth the trouble.

You’ve lived in the bay area a long time if you ever dined at the Hawaiian Village Restaurant in Tampa.

Elton and the other superstars of the ‘70s

This month, we review the top ten male hit makers of the 1970s. The decade belonged to Elton John with number one hits like Crocodile Rock, Bennie and the Jets, Philadelphia Freedom, Island Girl, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (with Kiki Dee), along with the top Yuletide song of the 70s – Step Into Christmas. The other top male singers of the decade were post-Beatle Paul McCartney, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, for the third decade in a row - Elvis, John Denver , Marvin Gaye, Rod Stewart (who had the decade’s biggest male solo – Tonight’s The Night) and the 70s king of the ballad– Barry Manilow. Just missing were Glen Campbell (Rhinestone Cowboy) and B.J. Thomas (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head) – some great artists who produced some great songs. Next month: Olivia and the other girl greats of the 70s.

UP NEXT: Chick-fil-A; What is health; Skirting the law

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