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

First thing on our mind:

Congratulations to our baby girl’s Gators. Last Monday could have been dicey if her Mom’s Dukies had also advanced.

Leading off: Going subscription

We noticed another of our favorite websites which is supported by advertising adding so-called pay walls where you have to be a subscriber to read certain content. It got us thinking about TBRR and subscriptions. The website we mentioned is about $24.99 per year – a reasonable amount. But we started doing the math, and we really can’t afford to pay all of you $24.99 a year to read this drivel. So, we sincerely hope you will continue to not charge us for reading it.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

The city of Clearwater lost one of the nicest men to ever walk the face of the earth last week with the passing of retired Clearwater policeman Fred Casale. Fred was one of the original “Officer Friendlys” in Clearwater and to say kids loved him would be a vast understatement. After retirement, Fred spent three decades as a resource officer for St. Cecelia School.

Well, the Colorado State hurricane predictions for 2025 are out. Forgive us if we are skeptical about weather predictions made 1500 miles away from Florida’s west coast.

It appears St. Pete is looking at entering the same rabbit hole as Clearwater by studying a city run electric utility. Bad, bad idea.

Big Lots, with new corporate ownership, is reopening dozens of stores in the Southeast – only one in the bay area (Ruskin). One on Belcher Road is becoming an Ollie’s and another on Missouri Avenue had workmen removing fixtures this past week.

Optimistic President Trump tells Americans to buy stock. Democrats, including, we presume, Nancy Pelosi accuse him of insider trading.

Breaking news from the 5:05 Newsletter: DOGE going after people who still owe fines for not rewinding cassettes they returned to Blockbuster.

Five years ago (4/19/20) in TBRR, it was all about COVID: “Florida is beginning to see things stabilize; New York is still a hot mess. Places like South Dakota are asking what pandemic?”

Sports, media and other notes:

Our nomination for athlete of the year is fencer Stephanie Turner who took a knee rather than face a male fencer in a recent Maryland women’s competition.

The Denver Nuggets fire their head coach and general manager less than one week ahead of the playoffs - an odd move for a team that is guaranteed to make those playoffs. Stay tuned, there has to be more to this story.

After a thrilling NCAA tournament, the consensus #1 for the 2025-26 season is Purdue, followed by #2 Florida and #3 Houston. Duke is ranked #10 and the other Final Four participant Auburn is, surprisingly, not in the Top 25.

In a poll of his peers, Cleveland’s slugging third baseman Jose Ramirez is ranked as the most underrated player in baseball. Hard to disagree, if he played on either coast he’d be ranked with folks like Betts and Judge.

Number(s) of the week: $199 to $239. What one of the so-called torpedo bats, now all the rage, cost. Whatever happened to the Louisville Slugger?

Did you know: There is a DeSoto Club of aficionados of the Chrysler automobile nameplate that was last manufactured in 1961? There are currently about one thousand members nationwide.

This week, we mark the 58^th anniversary of our first date with our Saintly Wife. During her working years, we always noted the occasion with a single rose delivered to her office, prompting one jaded colleague to ask her “What did he do?”

One last thing: Trader Joe’s and hairballs

We’ve always wanted to, but never got around to, visiting a Trader Joe’s. So we thought we would do the next best thing and read the founder’s (Joe Coulombe’s) book, Becoming Trader Joe. Now we don’t have to visit as the stores come off, at least in the book, as some effete retail shop you would visit just before cotillion or some other sappy event. BUT, the book does make some strong points particularly about “hairballs” which Coulombe defines as tasks outside the norm of running a business. You must deal with capital needs, supply, HR and the like. Hairballs are when some state auditor knocks on your door and wants all your payroll records for the past three years or the EPA shows up and tells you the company that removed hazardous waste for you has gone bankrupt and now they want to pick your pocket. Fortunately, it seems President Trump and Governor DeSantis are working to eliminate such intrusions and let business people run their business and not deal with hairballs.    

NEXT WEEK: Focus Group; 1 source stories; Earth Day

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