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.

We conclude the year with some of our 2021 favorites

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Again this year Politifact comes out with a “Lie of the Year.” We had just assumed the title had been retired in their honor. To paraphrase the great Mark Twain, “There are lies, there are damn lies and there is Politifact.”

(From January) We struggle to understand things like Sen. Marco Rubio’s getting a coronavirus vaccine shot is selfish while radical Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ vaccination is portrayed as “educational” even though she lives in a state where there is the greatest need in the country for vaccinations of nursing home residents. It all goes back to that “some animals are more equal than other animals” thing.

From late December, an excellent op-ed piece by Alex Sanchez, the CEO of the Florida Banker’s Association: “None of us have the time or the inclination to monitor the politicians — state, local or federally elected ones. The media is supposed to be the watchdog. But to do its job, we need a media that is a watchdog, not a lap dog playing favorites with candidates and political parties.” To which we say, Amen.

(From February) Suggested sign for the White House Briefing Room: “We don’t have the time or the CRAYONS to explain this to you.”

(Also in February) Florida’s Minister of Marijuana, Nikki Fried, has decided she wants to run for Governor (there’s a shock). She is already in attack mode, righteously demanding an update on the incident at the Oldsmar’s water treatment facility. We’ll wager that a month ago, Ms. Fried didn’t know where Oldsmar was.

Yes, we know they are suing or threatening to sue everybody in sight, but if you were a state or local official responsible for buying new voting equipment, would you buy from Dominion Voting Systems?

More on voting from Ramesh Ponnuru writing in Bloomberg, “Biden said that 17 states had passed 28 laws making it harder to vote. The same source behind those numbers also reports that 14 states have passed 28 laws making it easier to vote. Four states appear on both lists, which suggests that the legislation is more complicated than Biden’s talk of a ‘21st-century Jim Crow assault’ on voters would allow.”

Amazon employees at a large Alabama facility are being urged to unionize even though they earn at least twice the minimum wage, and get health, vision and dental care without paying hundreds of dollars in monthly union dues. If the union can sell that, we tip our cap. (Update – they couldn’t.)

(From May) 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 an equally clueless AP reporter named Josh Boak who, likewise, has never written a paycheck.

Idle thought: With all these special interest days, weeks and months, shouldn’t there be at least a day a year for normal people?

Despite nice answers like “The timing wasn’t right” and “I want to stay with my current community,” you have to know the reason fully three of the original five Clearwater City Manager finalists dropped out of contention is they realized what a negative impact the Church of Scientology has on our city.

(From June) A couple news items from the past few weeks that make you shake your head: (1) How did Brooksville manage to inadvertently sell the town’s water tower? (2) What genius plotted the Tierra Verde bridge demolition that killed hundreds of protected game fish?

(From August) We’re a bit slow, so help us understands this. Florida is one of several states being sued to resume unemployment benefits while virtually every business in the bay area is advertising in some way or another for help.

(Also in August) From the Belleair Road sign guy: Get your shot, moron!”

(And this) Quote of the week: Protection of access to basic health care means your autonomy as a human being is fully respected by the law – Senator Elizabeth Warren attempting to justify the use of tax dollars to fund abortions. By what stretch is the termination of a human life “basic health care”?

How self-serving of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to point out that shooting deaths in Tampa are up from when she was Police Chief. Ma’am, if anything, you are more responsible as Mayor for the increase in deadly crimes than you were as Police Chief.

Looking back 30 years ago this year (1991) – it was a bad year for airlines with industry giants Pan Am, Eastern and the somewhat smaller Chicago-based Midway Airlines shutting down. Ten years later, TWA called it quits after operating 71 years.

News item: Governor Ron DeSantis makes it official; he’s running for re-election in 2022. Let the attack articles begin.

Idle thought – the Democratic Party is identified as Blue and the Republican Party as Red. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Lighter stuff:

This final holiday reminder from The 5:05 Newsletter: Never drink and wrap Christmas presents. Also, if anyone gets a television remote control from me for Christmas, I'm going to need that back.

Speaking of the best publication in the Tampa Bay area, with the pandemic winding down, the editor-in-chief of the 5:05 Newsletter announced another hiatus in June. You almost want to ask China to reopen that lab.

(From late last December) the end of an era next week – greyhound racing at Derby Lane concludes on December 31. The track had operated for 95 years. At its height, greyhound racing was featured year round rotating between tracks in Sarasota and Tampa as well as Derby Lane.

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.”

Sunshine, Clearwater and Countryside – the three indoor malls our city has seen. Sunshine is gone; Clearwater Mall became a sprawling outdoor mall anchored by a Costco and Target. Now Countryside is being taken over by its lenders, its future in doubt.

You’ve lived in Pinellas County a long time if you owned one of the virtually indestructible Blue Boy power mowers proudly made by P & E Machinery on Clearwater-Largo Road.

Baseball note from April - enjoy this season. More and more experts are predicting a work stoppage for the 2022 season as millionaires argue with billionaires over money while we fans are left out in the cold.

Call us old fashioned, but the Mustang should not be an electric car. The Mustang, by the way, is the most popular car of the last century.

(April) As we get ready for baseball season and a reported crackdown on foreign substances, we share one of our favorite quips from the late, great pitcher and raconteur Don Sutton, who was often accused of putting a foreign substance on the ball. His reply was everything he put on the ball was proudly made in America.

(April provided a lot of material) Thanks to the 5:05 Newsletter for this masterpiece: “ Major League Baseball is moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta this year because of Georgia's new voting law. So if you go to the ballpark this year and they ask you to show them a ticket call it ‘Fan Suppression’ and set something on fire.”

The All-Star game, stolen from Atlanta, has been moved to Colorado – a solid “blue” state. Surprised? The only surprise would have been moving the game to states like Florida, Missouri, Ohio or Texas, all of whom have two major league stadiums, but Rob Manfred’s boy, Joe Biden, was an overwhelming loser in all four states. (And yes, give us another 10-20 years or so, and we’ll get over Manfred’s theft of the game from Atlanta plus the Sam Holbrook “outfield fly” call).

You’ve lived in Clearwater a long time if you still refer to the intersection of Cleveland and MLK as “Five Points.”

(From September) Watching the tributes to Pirate great Roberto Clemente reminds us again that the number 21 should join 42 as a number retired across baseball. Clemente was one of baseball’s greatest players, a pioneer for Latin players and quite possibly its greatest humanitarian.

If we can willy-nilly move a significant day like Memorial Day (celebrated on May 30 for over 100 years) to the last Monday in May, then we certainly can move Halloween to the last Friday of October so kids don’t show up at school the next day dead tired or all sugared up.

Pardon the Interruption celebrated its 20^th anniversary in 2021. Its relevancy ended about a half a decade ago.

So Jon Gruden is being removed from the Buc’s Ring of Honor. Does that also mean we take down all the banners from the Buc’s 2002 Super Bowl win?

Topping the charts on the last week of 1971 was Melanie Safka’s Brand New Key, followed by Sly and the Family Stone’s Family Affair just down from number one and at number three was Don McLean’s American Pie about to go to number one for four weeks – the longest record (8 minutes 33 seconds) to ever reach number one.

This week marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of one of the most versatile entertainers of his generation – musician, composer, television host, comedian and writer Steve Allen. Steve was the original host of the long running Tonight Show.

Media news from the former 5:05 Newsletter: Longtime NBC fabulist Brian Williams announced his retirement. Before leaving, Williams thanked himself for his service.

Item of the year: Idle thought: remember when we looked to our elders, religious leaders and teachers for advice? Nowadays, people put way too much credence in the opinions of people whose greatest qualifications are being able to dribble a basketball or utter words, written by others, in front of a camera.

Our last song together

(Our 2021 look back at the passing of some people who made a difference in our community. The title of this segment was inspired by the poignant Neil Sedaka song captured so well by the late Glenn Yarbrough).

He was a no-nonsense prosecutor who served our area well for nearly thirty years, but he also had a wicked sense of humor as we witnessed years ago at a roast for one of his key staff members. Bernie McCabe died in early January at age 73. He will be dearly missed by our community.

We bought our first new car from Dwayne Hawkins’ Crown Pontiac 49 years ago because his employees said such great things about him and his dealership was so customer friendly. Mr. Hawkins, who was the patriarch of the Crown dealerships, died in January at age 85.

He touched thousands of lives in both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Father Eric Hunter, who first came to Clearwater’s Light of Christ Church from his native Scotland and went on to be a guiding light in four other parishes for nearly fifty years, passed away in January at age 76. His last pastorate was at St. Brenden’s Catholic Church on Island Estates.

(From February) The bay area lost two leaders in their respective fields. First, jazz icon Chick Corea passed away at age 79. And one of the area’s first orthodontists and the owner of the Sea Captain motel on Clearwater Beach, Dr. Don Eifert passed away at age 91 – a very interesting man.

When our daughter married a very nice young man over a decade ago, our extended family became that much better. One of the truly pleasant members of that family, Uncle David Mullis, passed away in February.

He was the face of what was then a local power company, Florida Power. Executive and civic leader Andrew Hines died in February at age 98.

(From March) The Crimson Tide lost one of its most rabid supporters. Bob Furney was a superb educator at Clearwater High, armed with an incredible wit. In addition, he was a medical miracle fighting off severe lung and kidney problems with an iron will.

It is easier to name the local radio stations Tedd Webb did not work at than those who did employ the colorful personality. Best known as Jack Harris’ sidekick on WFLA radio, Webb died in late March at age 72.

Clearwater native Joseph Hatchett died in April at age 88. The noted jurist was the first Black member of the Florida Supreme Court.

The restaurant industry lost a household name and innovator with the passing of Bob Heilman, Jr. in May. 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.

May also saw the passing of legendary Channel 13 weather man Roy Leep. Roy was with WTVT for 40 years. He was, in short, the weather source for the Tampa Bay area. Roy Leep was 88.

Dr. Bill Johnston passed away in June at age 90. After practicing dentistry in Clearwater for over three decades, he retired and devoted himself to the free dental clinic at the Homeless Emergency Project for almost three decades – a true servant to his fellow man.

Billy Fuccillo, he of the “Huge” auto commercials for his car dealerships, died in Sarasota in June at age 64. Fuccillo quietly helped so many individuals in the bay area and beyond who were in times of need.

You may not have been an FSU fan, but you had to respect the job Bobby Bowden did in turning an average at best football program into a two-time national champion. In a career spanning 1959-2009, Bowden had only two losing seasons and a total of 377 wins.

Legendary Bishop Barry (now St. Pete Catholic) baseball star Bill Freehan passed away in August. The 79-year-old played his entire career with the Detroit Tigers and, with his teammate Mickey Lolich, holds the MLB record for most starts by a battery – 324 starts.

He was an Air Force vet, a practicing physician for three decades in Clearwater and a member of the team that formulated Gatorade at the University of Florida. Dr. Jim Free passed away in October at age 87.

We met the gentleman a couple times over the years and, like many others, never knew his real first name. To everybody, he was Hinks. Hillsborough County developer and philanthropist Mandell “Hinks” Shimberg passed away in November at age 92.

One of the truly nice people in our community, Chuck Kilbride, passed away earlier this month. Chuck was in the airline industry for many years and later assisted people in job preparation and searches in addition to being very active in his church for decades. He was 87.

This segment is normally reserved for humans who made their mark in our area, but we must note the passing in November of Clearwater’s most famous resident, Winter the Dolphin, after an incredible 16 years of life.

We’ve always asked ourselves is it okay to be even closer to your sister than you were with your two wonderful parents? This week we observe the second anniversary of the passing of the woman we were blessed to have as a sister.

We meet a lot of people on life’s pathway. I cannot get to a handful of folks with more integrity and sense of purpose than former Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne who tragically died just before his retirement in August.

Finally, Five Rants, Five Raves

(Our year-end feature saluting five people or things for outstanding achievements and, likewise, five bozos for, well, being bozos.)

Rants:

MLB’s Rob Manfred – no explanation necessary.

St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman for his massive overreaction to a Super Bowl party that violated some COVID protocols. Rather than issue a fine to the leasee of the hangar who donated the space for a charity event, Kriseman tries to put him out of business by revoking his lease. Typical of a clueless politician that doesn’t appreciate what it takes to run a business.

Joe Biden for his utterly horrible handling of the crisis in Afghanistan and the incredible disrespect he exhibited upon the return of 13 servicemen who gave their lives in the waning days of the war.

Congress for blindly passing a $1.85 trillion “infrastructure bill” that included nonsense like “tree and road equity,” while increasing inflation and U.S. energy dependence.

The University of South Florida for trying to spend $25 million to build an on-campus football stadium for a program that has won seven games in the last three years.

Raves:

Florida’s teachers for navigating classroom challenges and the push and pull of politicians over the past year and a half.

Coach Bruce Arian’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers for giving our area its second Lombardi Trophy.

We thank the Trump administration for fast tracking effective vaccines to combat the COVID-19 virus.

Steady leadership was the hallmark of City Manager Bill Horne and City Attorney Pam Aiken during over fifty combined years of exemplary service to the City of Clearwater.

Tampa Bay’s best publication The 5:05 Newsletter makes this list for the second year in a row for “coming out of retirement” and helping us see the lighter side during the pandemic.

UP NEXT: 2022 Predictions; Best baseball deal of all time

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