"Good mail. It's so rare these days.

Think about it. Except for December, when the holiday cards come, how often throughout the year do you ever pull something out of your mailbox and say, "Wow, what a nice surprise! I wasn't expecting that."

Few people write letters anymore. Today's mailboxes usually are stuffed with bills, advertisements and attempts to make you sign up for another credit card you don't need.

So when I looked in my work mailbox during early August and found two letters in a heavy envelope from former Panthers kicker John Kasay, I was shocked. He had dropped the envelope off at the Observer a few days after the Panthers had made a stunning move - firing Kasay, the last player remaining from the original 1995 team, and hiring replacement Olindo Mare. It was several days before I found it, as I was out of the office most of that week on assignment."