… in his office all day and thought of ways how to change this.

One day, the governor of Alabama called. It was a social call, and they talked for a while about family and stuff. Then the Florida governor mentioned his frustration with the whole Florida-Man situation, to which the governor of Alabama replied: “Oh, I wish I could help with that.”. Suddenly, the governor of Florida got an idea. “You could help me,” he said, “by doing something so ridiculous, so outrageous that people would make fun of you guys for a while.”. The governor of Alabama thought about the proposal a bit, but accepted it. “I could do that. And I have an idea, but it will take some time.”

The governor of Florida hung up after thanking his colleague repeatedly. Finally, he thought to himself finally some peace.

The idea was indeed outrageous and ridiculous. After months of construction work and millions of tax money spent, a bridge was constructed. It was a beautiful piece of architecture, a true monument of its time….in the middle of a cornfield. No water. No roads. Just a cornfield. The media blew up and the internet was flooded with jokes about Alabama. The plan worked very well. The governor of Florida was so happy. Tourism started to go up again and life was great again.

After a month or so however, the jokes about Alabama died down pretty quickly. People resumed joking about Florida again. The governor of Florida called his colleague in Alabama, confused and angry. “What the hell? Why are people not making fun of you guys anymore!? We had a deal”

With a sigh the governor of Alabama replied “Look, we did what we could. But it’s not our fault Floridians keep coming to the bridge to go fishing!”