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

Leading off: The bridge to nowhere

Many communities and states have them – bridges built with no sound purpose in mind. Later this summer Clearwater will join that list when an $8 million pedestrian walkover is completed arching across U.S. 19 from Harn Blvd. to, well, nowhere. There’s really no destination on the east side which contains several apartment and condo complexes. Few of the residents of these fairly upscale neighborhoods seem happy about the additional people the walkover will bring to the edge of their communities. Meanwhile, just to the south of the project is a real problem that has been begging for answers for years – the very dangerous and heavily traveled Belleair Road. So far, despite the death of a school bus student just last year, people in that neighborhood are getting little more than lip service, but to their north, they will have a pretty bridge.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

Here we go again – gas pushing towards four dollars a gallon. That $2.14 when Trump left office doesn’t look so bad, does it?

If we really had a crystal ball, we would have predicted rising gas prices in our 10 predictions segment (TBR&R 1/1/23). We thought they would stabilize, but never underestimate the Biden energy strategy.

Great to have you visit Florida last week, Kamala. Come again when you have something rational to say.

The judge said our Governor had the right to fire pro-abortionist Andrew Warren. Now our local paper needs to let go.

Even the giants are not recession proof with Google cutting 12,000 jobs and Amazon 18,000 along with axing their popular Amazon Smile program that aided thousands of purchaser’s favorite charities.

Monthly lunch date: We continue our luncheon series with three really interesting people we actually have had lunch with: wellness guru and author Don Ardell, the great baseball ump Frank Pulli and radio talk show legend, Bruce Williams. We also dined with Jimmy Carter, but that was with about 300 of our closest friends and guys who kept talking into their lapels.

From the pretty much authentic 5:05 Newsletter: Did it ever cross your mind that if you pay $4.75 for a 16 oz. coffee at Starbucks that is $30 per gallon?

This week in 1887 (Feb. 2) the first Groundhog Day is celebrated in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Asking for a friend, when was the last time the Men’s Top 25 basketball poll did not include Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State or North Carolina?

It wasn’t post season college basketball without the voice of Billy Packer. The superb analyst passed away last week at age 82.

Reports out of Baltimore say the Ravens’ uber quarterback Lamar Jackson could be headed to a NFC South team with Carolina and Atlanta being mentioned. But why not Tampa Bay if Tom Brady doesn’t return? That and a new offensive coordinator might be just be what the Bucs need.

Having trouble figuring this out: a guy with a .316 batting average with 369 homers and 1406 RBIs (Todd Helton) falls short in the Hall of Fame vote while a guy with a .281 batting average, 316 homers and 1287 RRIs (Scott Rolen) makes it. No knock on Rolen (we had him on our unofficial ballot), but Helton’s numbers are clearly superior.elton’s numers H

John Lithgow as Frasier? He was the first choice for the role, but turned it down. From an excellent “inside baseball” book Directed by James Burrows written by the director of Cheers, Two and a Half Men, Frasier, Taxi, Friends and many more.

Idle question: if you’ve lived in Clearwater a long time, how old is the home in which you grew up? For us, it’s 64 years old – built for our folks by well-known builder Glenn Finkenbinder in 1959. We were so impressed by the workmanship; we bought one of his homes 17 years later. Mr. Finkenbinder passed away at age 96 four years ago.

…and another thing: Focus Group addendum

A regular reader and Great American weighed in on our Focus Group question of last week (a question you would ask of an historical figure). Our reader is not a member of our Focus Group, but contributes in so many ways to this blog. He is also a Civil War historian. Here’s his reply: I think I would ask Robert E. Lee, if given a second chance, would he have fought as much of an offensive war as he did or would it have been better to fight exclusively a defensive war and try to wear down the Union’s will to fight. Lee never lost a battle where he held the defensive position until Petersburg in 1865 (which technically was a 292-day siege and not a battle). In other words, “Win by not losing.”

NEXT UP: Fast Eddie; The French Chef; The fall of the AP

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