First thing on our mind:

The worst thing about getting old is not the aches and pains, the diminishing of your sight and hearing, but losing so many longtime friends.

Leading off: It all started in a 5000 watt station

Many bay area residents were dismayed to learn of what could be the demise of Home Shopping Network (HSN) and its parent QVC. To quote Ted Baxter from Mary Tyler Moore, HSN really did begin at the 5000-watt bay area daytime station WDCL (1470). Bud Paxson, the owner of the very low-rated station, turned to selling merchandise he had acquired mostly by barter and the rest is history. Paxson and his partner, Roy Spears, became multi-millionaires and eventually sold out to QVC who moved most of the operations to West Chester, PA. It cast adrift many local residents who worked for HSN for years but, in many cases, became quite affluent in the process.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

He was a rare Clearwater native, the head of a legacy company that served our city for over 100 years and had deep roots in civic activities. Carroll Nall, Jr. passed away last week at age 94. His service to his community and infectious humor will be sorely missed.

This happens every few years with the county’s biggest healthcare provider (BayCare) feuding with one of the country’s biggest insurance companies (United Healthcare). It’s one of those things where nobody wins and patients stress out over medical care. Having wisely dumped United Healthcare a few years back, we watch from the sidelines, but feel for our fellow Pinellas residents.  

If you’re like us, you received a self-congratulatory email newsletter from Senator Ashley Moody a week or so back. At least she did not use our tax dollars to mail it like so many other Florida politicians.

Hillsborough County is getting squeezed with major asks from the Rays, Lightning and their spring training tenants, the Yankees. It’s going to be interesting to watch these developments.

We won’t trouble you with yet another rant on how ridiculous the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s yearly additions are. But Phil Collins and Sade were decent choices - still no Neil and Paul (see One Last Thing).

Related to last week’s piece on marijuana vs. alcohol usage being the “New

Sober” comes an editorial from the New York Times, not exactly a conservative voice, suggesting it is time for America to admit it has a marijuana problem.

Idle thought: Shouldn’t there be some sort of term limit on “public officials” saying after 15 or 20 years, you need to go get a job in the real world for five years prior to seeking election again? You’ve got to believe it would give our “public officials” a better perspective in their law making.

New on the market fifty years ago was Mattel’s Slime which entered the Toys Hall of Fame last year. Twenty five years ago, one of the hot new products was the Xbox, surprisingly not yet in the Toys Hall of Fame.

Born 100 years ago this week (April 28) in Monroeville, AL was To Kill a Mockingbird novelist Harper Lee.

Sports and random notes:

Media history from the 5:05 Newsletter: I remember that when I was growing up there were only four TV stations, and at any given moment at least two of them were showing men playing the accordion in black and white.

Side note to our lead article, the call letters WDCL originally stood for Dunedin, Clearwater and Largo and it was variously licensed over the years to Dunedin, Clearwater and even Tarpon Springs. Its frequency (1470) is now a Spanish language station out of Tampa.

So where does Billy Donovan go next? The two-time NCAA champ at Florida stepped down as the Chicago Bulls coach last week. His name was part of the rumor mill at UNC.

Congratulations Braves and Phils fans. MLB again prevented you from watching the opening game of the heated rivalry between the two NL East teams by placing it on Apple TV.

As we move to the one-month mark in the season, the top five payroll spenders in MLB are LA, Mets, Yanks, Phils and Blue Jays. The Rays are 28^th, trailed only by Miami and Cleveland.

Honest, it’s true, the Chicago White Sox, the team that gave you 1979’s Disco Demolition Night, have scheduled a Pope Leo hat (miter) giveaway on August 11^th.

Seen on a bumper sticker: “Sorry for driving the speed limit.” Some of us have warrants.”

We’re going to share this as long as you promise to patronize the Girl Scouts during their cookie season; Publix’ Fudge Mint cookies are a dead ringer for the Girl Scout Thin Mint and about half the price. Side note: virtually all of Publix’ cookies are made by Keebler.

One last thing: If we were king…

Roger Maris, Dale Murphy, Curt Schilling and Dewayne Staats would be in the MLB Hall of Fame.

Ditto Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Church of Scientology would pack their bags and go back where they came from.

A few people on the “old Clearwater” site would stop whining about how our great city isn’t what it was in the 50s. No city is what it was in the 50s, but that said…

Robby’s Pancake House would return to Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.

Just up the street, Young’s BBQ would make a comeback.

Ditto Siple’s on Druid Road.

We could still spend our teenage summers crewing on the Rainbow party boat with our first Florida next door neighbor, Capt. Fred Price.

Ford would bring back the two-seater Thunderbird.

Freddie Freeman would return to Atlanta.

We would have just turned 30 rather than 80 – and we wouldn’t have tangled up our feet and gone splat in our neighborhood Publix on our 80^th birthday.

Finally, a lot of really great people like Lewis Grizzard, Ed Armstrong, Carroll Nall, Bob Henderson, Skip, Pete and Don, Bill Horne, Doug Storrs, Harry Lytle, Frank Reid, Scott Dilworth and dozens more would still be with us.

NEXT UP: Buckhorn returns; Owl Diner; Cola Wars

Sorry, time does not permit replies to comments.

042626/380