Founded in 2014, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves (TBRR) is a weekly chronicle of politics, sports, lifestyle and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint. Some of this content should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind (from Maya Angelou)

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.

Leading off: Our best guesses for 2026

We are proud to report that last year we had at least 50% of our 2025 predictions correct – for the first time ever. Shall we strive for 60% this year? Here goes:

Barring a major upset, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds will become the first Black Governor in Florida history.

The Democrats will retake control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.

We try this one every year – peace in the Ukraine.

The Dow Jones will eclipse the 50,500 mark by year’s end.

Come the first Sunday in November, we will still be performing the irrational task of “falling back.”

The Trop will not be ready for opening day.

It seems at least one restaurant on South Missouri Avenue goes dark each year (Burger King, Marco’s, Denny’s etc.). We predict the trend will continue in 2026.

We lost out on our friend’s prediction of a 30 pound loss last year (he did well, but not that well). Nonetheless, we are comfortable with his somewhat odd 18.5 pound prediction this year.

Another late night talk show will get the ax.

And, as always, one hopeful prediction that we know won’t happen (See 5:05 Newsletter – Pulitzer Prize from last year). Ford Motor Company will announce they are reviving the two-seater Thunderbird and some stupid guy from Clearwater will be the first in line at either Ferman or Flammer Ford.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

A legend of Clearwater Beach passed away just before the turn of the New Year. Jay Keyes was the manager of the original Hilton Hotel and later owned the very popular Bank 1890s Restaurant.

The year 2025 ended with a win for pro-life advocates when a U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a restrictive Clearwater ordinance involving an abortion clinic on Highland Avenue in the city.

Florida’s new license plate law is ridiculous. As long as the numbers can be read, there is no problem. The recognition problem is the dozens and dozens of specialty tags from everything like Guy Harvey to Jumbo Shrimp, the later being discontinued recently because of decreased sales.

A bit of a milestone as the calendar flips to 2026. Our first baby boomers turn 80 this year

Reflecting on the year just past, briefly in the calm after President Trump’s election, we thought we might run out of material, but Democrats, sports cheats, local government functionaries and Trump himself came to our rescue.

After a 20-year absence, Whataburger returns to Pinellas County next month with a location on Ulmerton Road in Largo. A very unhealthy yum!

Speaking of which, from TBRR eight years ago this week: We have now completed another round of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and New Years – or as we like to refer to it, The Festival of Carbs.

Jim Beam will pause production at one of its Kentucky distilleries in 2026. At press time, we had not yet received a comment from the 5:05 Newsletter.

From that prestigious publication’s “everything is relative department” - Eternity is hard to conceive of until your Wi-Fi goes out for an extended period of time.

Fifty years ago baseball changed forever with free agency. It made players multi-millionaires and did away with any sense of loyalty fans had to their home teams.

Sports and random notes:

If someone wants to know how football should sound on the radio, just play them a tape of Gene Deckerhoff. The longtime voice of both the Bucs and the FSU Seminoles is retiring at the end of the 2025-26 season.

Now comes that dreaded NFL Black Monday.

As our favorite newspaper, The Atlanta Journal Constitution goes all digital, some long time weekly columns are being eliminated. This is hard to understand as the space taken up digitally by a column is a mere fraction of the same cost on newsprint.

The stumbling Cracker Barrel chain has quietly removed black eye peas from their New Year’s menu offerings. What’s next bagels and lox?

We think this qualifies as a Dad joke: Did you hear about the mathematician who’s afraid of negative numbers? He’ll stop at nothing to avoid them.

Idle reflection: it was New Year’s Eve and only two emails in our queue. Life is good!

You’ve lived in Florida a long time if you remember when the Pop Tarts Bowl in Orlando was called the Tangerine Bowl. Founded in 1947, it is the nation’s 7^th oldest bowl game.

One last thing: The Real Thing

Remember traveling up Alternate 19 towards Tarpon Springs and noticing a Coke bottling plant on the left? You probably thought it would be a neat place to visit, or in your wildest dreams, to own. What you didn’t know was it was the last independent Coke bottling operation in Florida. The plant was a symbol of one of the biggest blunders the once invincible Coca Cola Bottling Company ever made – attempting to consolidate local, community bottlers into mega conglomerates with very little of the local touch like the Aide family had in northern Pinellas and Pasco Counties before they sold out to Coke in 2001. Although the general public remembers New Coke as the company’s biggest gaffe, “delocalizing” the Coke brand and other missteps had a more telling effect on “The Real Thing,” the title of Constance L. Hays’ 2004 book. It’s an interesting read for students of business or those of us, who when ordering a Coke in a diner, are told “we have Pepsi,” say, “ice water, please”.

UP NEXT: Drop Property Taxes? Tale of two cities; Five Alive

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