Charlotte Article

[phjim]

The Charlotte Observer has an aritlc: "Buffett fan gets one gift, gives another"
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 056.htm?1c

[nycparrothead]

Work won't let me get to the site we need, but someone go to www.bugmenot.com and see if they've got a username and password for this newspaper so we can read it without registering.....

[AfricanFriend32]

Here's the Password from bugmenot.com:
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Pass: 123456

Hope this helps, Y'all

[nycparrothead]

Here's the Password from bugmenot.com:
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[Margaritas_And_Senoritas]

great story

[land_shark3]

Work won't let me get to the site we need, but someone go to www.bugmenot.com and see if they've got a username and password for this newspaper so we can read it without registering.....

Wow! I never knew about that page! Thanks!

[land_shark3]

Buffett fan gets one gift, gives another

TOMMY TOMLINSON

Keith Houston didn't get to meet Jimmy Buffett. But he had a blast anyway.

And he ended up with a souvenir that not many people in the world can match -- at least for now.

I wrote about Keith on Wednesday. He's a former paramedic who lives with his family in Marietta, S.C., north of Greenville. Three years ago he had a seizure on the job. Doctors found a brain tumor and gave him six months to live.

But Keith and his wife, Julie, found out about Dr. Henry Friedman's experimental program at Duke University's Brain Tumor Center. So far, the treatment -- injecting special antibodies into the tumor -- has worked. Keith is cancer-free for now. But his illness is still considered terminal.

Keith is a huge Jimmy Buffett fan and had tickets to Buffett's show Wednesday night at the Charlotte Coliseum. So Julie e-mailed around a few days before the show, trying to find a way for Keith to meet his favorite singer.

The e-mail found its way to me. I made a couple of calls and ended up talking to a very nice woman from Buffett's management company who, in her very nice way, said no.

She had the Houstons' cell-phone number. I published where they were sitting. But none of Buffett's people stopped by Wednesday night.

Keith is disappointed about that.

But here's a coincidence for you.

There is a company called ACI International that is in the footwear business. Next week they'll be introducing a line of shoes called Soles of the Tropics. They're endorsed by Jimmy Buffett.

ACI International has two U.S. offices. One is in Los Angeles. The other one happens to be in Matthews. Scott Coble of the Matthews office saw the story in the paper.

He got in touch with the Houstons, and they met him outside the Coliseum's Crown Club before the show.

When they did, he gave them a flip-flop signed by Jimmy Buffett.

"That was pretty cool," Keith said Thursday.

And then there was the show -- songs about rum drinks, fans in goofy hats, women in bikinis dancing onstage, a slice of sun on a February night.

Buffett played "Come Monday" and "Son of a Son of a Sailor," and of course he played "Margaritaville," and Keith soaked it in.

"I had a real good time. My wife and kids loved it, too," he said. "It was a great experience."

Scott Coble was one of several people who called me after Wednesday's story came out, trying to help in one way or another. But one woman called with a different question.

Her son also has a brain tumor and is trying to get an appointment with Dr. Friedman at Duke. She wondered if she could get in touch with Keith about the brain-tumor program.

He said sure.

So Keith didn't get to talk to Jimmy Buffett. But somebody who needs help will get to talk to Keith.

Gifts arrive in all kinds of ways.