Craig Pittman, Florida Phoenix

Dear Gov. DeSantis,

Congratulations! You’ve achieved something rare in our deeply divided country. You’ve once again united a lot of people from disparate backgrounds and beliefs.

Of course, you’ve united them against you and one of your agencies — but that’s a price you’re apparently willing to pay, over and over, and I salute you for it. ...

TALLAHASSSEE — If you’re one of the 900 new people who move to Florida every day, you may not know this crucial secret of Florida government. I’m a Florida native, so let me clue you in. Lean in close and I’ll whisper it in your ear. Are you ready?

The Florida Legislature contains more cuckoos than a Swiss clock factory.

Now that you’re aware of this fact, how are you holding up? How’s your blood pressure? Can you handle the truth? ...

I’ve spent some time this month cruising through Florida’s remaining rural oases, places where there’s still some green space amid all the asphalt. I’ve seen citrus groves and stands of timber, canopy roads and cattle pastures.

When the madding crowd is driving you, well, mad, such places are a balm to the soul. And the folks I’ve talked to who live there would prefer them to stay that way.

Yet if some development-mad Florida legislators have their way, these will all go on the endangered list. ...

This weekend I was driving through Central Florida on U.S. 301, so I just HAD to stop at the Orange Shop in Citra. It was as if my car was pulled into their parking lot by one of those giant magnets that Wile E. Coyote always used for his harebrained schemes.

The Orange Shop has been selling citrus in Citra since 1936, aided by a series of pun-filled billboards that say things like “Make Us Your Main Squeeze.” It used to have a lot more competition for us drive-by customers but most of those other citrus stands have disappeared, along with the groves that supplied them.

While the clerk was ringing up my bag of fruit, I told her I sympathized with her over the latest bit of bad news. President Convicted Felon had announced he was proceeding with his latest harebrained scheme of imposing stiff tariffs on our allies, Canada and Mexico. Canada was talking about hitting back with its own tariffs on, among other things, Florida orange juice. ...

There’s a tradition among Florida developers of naming their projects after any natural attributes obliterated by the development. That’s why you see subdivisions with such monikers as “Cypress Woods,” “Panther Trace,” and “The Canopy.” My personal favorite, found in Naples, is “Wilderness Country Club.”

That’s why I’ve been trying to figure out what the Canadian developers from Cabot should call the Hernando County golf course development they plan to build on what’s currently a thriving part of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

The Burrows, for all the imperiled gopher tortoises to be destroyed? Maybe The Rookery, in honor of the sandhill cranes? Or how about The Habitat, for the black bears? ...