The Buffett World community, and parrothead community as a whole, lost a dear friend this week. Long-time forum member Jay Stevens (username: 1more) lost a short battle with cancer Sunday night at the age of 46.

Jay never met a stranger. He always had a smile and a handshake for people he didn’t know as well as those he did. If you met Jay once you were a friend for life. His sense of humor was unmatched, and he never missed an opportunity to poke fun at himself. Jay loved his Redskins and Braves and was always trying to bring new people into the parrothead world. But above all he was a devoted husband to Amy (username: Tallship), whom he loved more than life itself.

A celebration of Jay’s life will be held this weekend and many of those attending will be in their Hawaiian shirts, grass skirts, and flip flops, just as Jay would have wanted.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tennessee 38105. Condolences may be registered at www.jtmorriss.com.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to Amy. And to Jay… sail on…

The Country Music Association (CMA) held their 44th annual awards show on Wednesday night and Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally won Musician of the Year for the third straight year. The award was doled out before the show.

Mac beat out Paul Frankin, Dann Huff, Brent Mason, and Randy Scruggs for the honor.

In an interview last month, Mac described how humbled he was to win the award twice and be nominated again:

“I know we’ve had this conversation before, but I was flattered and felt unworthy to be nominated the first time and now I’ve won two,” McAnally said.

“Once again, I’m awfully grateful to be thought about in any positive light by my peers,” McAnally said.

“Playing music is my favorite thing to do,” he said. “It’s certainly not a bad thing to get called to do some more.”

Congrats Mac!

The latest Margaritaville Cafe will open its door on Monday, November 22nd in downtown Nashville.

The $10 million restaurant, located at 322 Broadway, will open at 11 am for lunch after a 10 am ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring project principals and local community leaders.

“Buffett wants to make music a big part of the venue here, and the café is going to appeal to the young crowd, locals and visitors to our city,” said Mark Bloom, a principle in the project. “Besides the food and special drinks synonymous with Margaritaville, the music will be a special attraction.”

At street level there will be a restaurant, bar and three live-music stages. The second floor will house another bar, additional restaurant seating, and a “small concert hall with state-of-the-art lighting and sound system,” Bloom said.

Total seating capacity is 350, with about 200 in the concert hall upstairs.

Live music will be featured daily. The café will be open from 11 a.m.-3 a.m. seven days a week, Bloom said, and the entertainment will include “a nightly showcase of newcomers.”

Jimmy Buffett always plays a show at newly-opened Margaritavilles, but it can be as much as two months after it opens and is often times a surprise.

Jimmy Buffett was in attendance Friday night at the Heat-Magic game in Miami, Florida. At right is a photo of him taking a picture during the game.

Jimmy has been a season ticket holder for the Heat for several years. In 2001 he was ejected from a game for cursing at a referee. Read more about the incident.

The Heat defeated Orlando 96-70.

[Photo Marc Serota/Getty Images]

According to the National Journal, Florida Democrats are reaching out to Jimmy Buffett hoping he’ll help get out the vote in the state ahead of Tuesday’s election:

Florida Democratic sources tell National Journal that Sink’s campaign, panicked by what it considered an alarming advantage for Republicans in early vote totals so far, on Wednesday called Florida’s senior Senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, to seek his help in bringing Buffett into the mix. Nelson then called former Senate colleague, Bob Graham, to reach out to Buffett. Graham has been personal friends with Buffett since the early 1980s and it was Graham’s relationship with Buffett that brought him into state Democratic politics when Graham was governor. Graham called Buffett Thursday and asked him to do as many events as possible on Monday, election eve. Buffett said his schedule prevented that, but he is considering some involvement in get-out-the-vote efforts this weekend, Democratic sources said.

Earlier this month Jimmy played a fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink.