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You might already know this, but this is for those on this thread who don’t.... WHY DID JERRY BROWN GET THE MONICKER — Mr. Moonbeam ?

Well, as governor in the 70’s , Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state — a proposal similar to one that would indeed eventually be adopted by the state.

In 1978 in a Rolling Stone interview Linda Ronstadt called her then boyfriend, Jerry Brown, her “Little Moonbeam”.

After this an out-of-state columnist, Mike Royko, then at the Chicago Sun-Times, nicknamed Brown “Governor Moonbeam” because of the latter idea.

The name stuck.

See here :

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/weekinreview/07mckinley.html

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know about Linda's 'little moonbeam'.

But I sure remember Mike Royko! He was always a breath of fresh air in the Op-Ed section. Mike was one of the writers who turned me toward Conservatism. And his calling JB 'Governor Moonbeam' was so deadly accurate that it stuck to him like glue.