Buffett very cool

I'm not a "Parrothead," but there's something so cool about Jimmy Buffett that I couldn't help watching his Gulf Shores special Sunday night on the CMT cable channel.

And, judging by the number of people who attended the free concert and the purported rating the 90-minute program received, I guess I'm not the only way who finds Buffett, a barefoot, balding, T-shirt- and beach shorts-wearing, aging musician-singer "cool."

Strumming and crooning his  "Son of a Son of a Sailor," 'Come Monday" and "Margaritaville," Buffett was trying to tell the world it's OK to go to the Gulf Coast and spend tourism dollars to help save the area's economy.

Born in Mississippi and raised on the Alabama coast, Buffett achieved his goal of getting tourists back to the coast. Reportedly, parking lots were fuller than they had been in days, condominiums, restaurants and souvenir stores in Gulf Shores, a beach town of 5,000 residents, were packed, and Buffett gave plugs to towns all along the coast to help them recover from the damage done by the BP oil rig disaster.

The Gulf Coast needs all the help it can get, and Buffett did his share ... which is just another reason to say he's very "cool."