The news last week that WBZ Radio's Gary LaPierre spends eight weeks each winter in Florida did not seem too out of the ordinary. The man's been at 'BZ for 40 years and, like many of us when we become a bit long in the tooth, this newsman finds the cold air around Boston less attractive than the sunny climes down south.

But eight weeks seems a bit unusual, especially since, as regular listeners to the his top-rated morning newscasts, it seemed we have not missed Gary's voice all that often this season. This hard-working journalist has been right on top of all the common experiences we have shared recently - the heavy snowstorm in early December, the below-zero temps last week. And this guy, like us, gets up every morning before the birds, scrapes off his car and every day trudges through this miserable weather, just to keep us fully informed . Or so we believed.

So it was a bit of a surprise to learn last week, in a Boston Globe story, that ol' Gary isn't as tough as the rest of us: The Boston newsman was doing his morning program not from the studios on Soldiers Field Road, but from his condominium - in Florida.

The management at WBZ was shocked - shocked! - to learn that this little bit of subterfuge was at all newsworthy. After some awkward moments, they finally confessed that LaPierre does indeed fly south for large parts of the winter, and through the wonders of modern broadcast technology, he reads the news and conducts his interviews from the comfort of his condo. And he never told us about it.

Disclosure: Our columnist Clark Booth has been filing his weekly sports commentaries for the past two years from his retirement home in Florida, where he continues to follow Boston's sports teams via satellite TV.

The newsman uses all the same references he would use if he were still among us - things like "it's cold out there" and "traffic is a mess on the Expressway." Yet all the while ol' Gary's evidently keeping an eye on his watch, making ready for a post-broadcast tennis game, or maybe a dip in the pool.

Sure, it may seem a bit like sour grapes. But in fact, if owner CBS had bothered to acknowledge this special perk for the star morning anchor when it began a year or two ago, perhaps it wouldn't seem so bad. As it is, it's an outright deception, and we wonder why, if there's nothing unusual about the deal, the station chose to keep it a secret for so long.

Gary LaPierre has long been one of the region's authoritative news reporters. In recent years, he has offered listeners a regular nightly feature, "LaPierre on the Loose," in which he comments rather forcefully on various and sundry foibles of politicians and other presumed miscreants. Gary is known to freely dispense with a "dope- slap" to people whose behavior seems ill-advised or out of the ordinary.

Now we learn that Gary is "on the loose" 1500 miles away, and he was trying to keep it all a big secret.

Gee, what a great idea, continue to get paid for a job in Boston, while spending your time in Florida. Sounds like the life that the late Governor's Councillor Sonny McDonough used to live.

A politician from the old school, just like a journalist from the new school? What kind of a dope-slap does that scheme call for?

Just call him "Sunny" LaPierre.

-Ed Forry