REMEMBERING THE "HE-COON" ON HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY

I really enjoyed this piece in the St. Petersburg Times today, and thought you might enjoy it as well. It's great to remember the late, great governor Lawton Chiles. Today would have been his 75th birthday had he not died in 1998.

Chiles was one of the nation's last great populists who was truly interested in serving ALL the people of our state, not just the monied and barons of business. While Steve Borsquet describes Chiles as "...headstrong and a little odd", I take one observation from 15 years in the radio business to heart: Creative people always tend to be slightly off level.

Just as we may not see another pontiff such as the recently departed John Paul II for a very long time, if ever, another Florida governor like Lawton Chiles may never walk among us again. And that's a terrible, terrible shame.