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: A lesson in Florida history

This lesson is aimed primarily at a wing nut in Polk County, whom we venture to guess, doesn’t read our blog. This parent wants to change the name of Spessard L. Holland Elementary in Bartow, Holland’s hometown, charging he was a segregationist. This was the man who introduced the bill that became the 24^th Amendment eliminating the various roadblocks to voting like poll taxes that were aimed primarily at voters of color. Spessard Holland was the first Florida native to become Governor; he served in the U.S. Senate for 25 years and was a decorated veteran of World War I. Did he have flaws? Don’t we all? Drill down deep enough and you would have to erase names like Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln off schools. This Polk County parent is about as far off-base as you can possibly be.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

A Rave goes to the Clearwater city council for appointing interim city manager Jennifer Poirrier to the permanent post. She brings excellent qualifications to the post and will not have to be taught where Highland Avenue is as would an outsider.

A not so rosy review for the council’s weak-kneed decision cave to abortion providers demands for “protection” at their clinic on S. Highland Avenue. It’s not the abortion providers who need protection.

If you notice the taxes you pay are higher this year or your refund lower, part of the issue is the Biden IRS has taken away the deduction for charitable contributions for folks who take the standard deduction. They don’t want to credit us for contributing to those right wing religious organizations like your place of worship, the Salvation Army, Boy’s Town etc.

Seeing a picture last week of students protesting student loans at our alma mater made us wonder, “Shouldn’t you be in a classroom somewhere?”

Factoid: In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower left office at age 70 – the oldest President in U.S. history – a tidbit from retired Secret Service Agent Clint Hill’s very readable book, Five Presidents. Now two guys want to be President into their mid eighties.

Our friend TL wonders just how many car washes there are in Pinellas County. Don’t know, but with pollen season, they sure are busy!

This month’s luncheon: – It’s St. Patrick’s week and what better time to dine with some famous Irish people starting with the country’s first female President, Mary Robinson, the terrific Irish actress Maureen O’Hara and, of course, St. Patrick himself!

This week in 1903: (3/14/03): The first national bird reservation established in Sebastian, Florida.

Sports, media and other stuff:

Lots of milestones occurred last week, one sad, one bittersweet and one not so bad.

In your car, Dave Wills and Andy Freed were your constant companions during the Ray’s baseball season. Wills, a broadcast pro, passed away last week at age 58. He will be missed.

We are reminded that the last time Syracuse did not have a head basketball coach named Jim Boeheim, Gerald Ford was President. The hoops legend is second all-time in wins. Oh, remind us to tell you a funny story about Coach Boeheim and our sweet niece sometime.

Congratulations to one of our all-time favorite sports columnists, Mark Bradley, who just marked (no pun intended) 40 years at The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Football note from the 5:05 Newsletter (pat pending): Due to dismal television ratings, the NFL announced it will add a swimsuit, evening gown and congeniality competition to next year’s Pro Bowl.

The pat pending on the above 5:05 piece reminds us our name is copyrighted (see below). We thought it was unique when we dreamed it up, but there are half a dozen more. We don’t enforce the copyright; we just don’t understand why anybody else would want to be associated with this drivel.

In response to the permanence of the “ghost runner rule,” one fan suggests just loading the bases in the 10^th and moving the count to 3-2. Makes as much sense.

…and another thing: trying to understand USF

There was no presentation, no debate or discussion, just a slam dunk vote to allocate $22 million to a stadium design phase for a USF football team that has won eight games over the last four years, and, despite Florida’s great autumn weather and a state of the art NFL stadium, ranked 70^th in the country in attendance. It is just bewildering that the university, now on its sixth head coach since 2016, continues to throw good money after bad. A university that announced it could no longer afford a College of Education a few years back (until a revolt by the Tampa Bay community), really needs to get its headlights on as to what the priorities of a publicly funded university should be.

UP NEXT: Geriatric rotation; Focus group & food; Pete’s Pizza

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